Music at the Museum | Timeless - SOLD OUT!
Featuring pianist, Dr. Antoine Karam
Sat, Dec 21 | 6:30-8:30 pm
Grand Lobby & Galleries
Limited seating available!
6 pm | Doors Open
6:30-7:50 pm | Music Program, galleries [brief 10 minute intermission]
7:50-8:30 pm | Festive Desserts + Holiday Drinks with Dr. Karam, grand lobby
Join us for a truly magical holiday experience tying together the timeless nature of music, art, and innovation with a spectacular concert in Da Vinci: The Genius featuring the Secrets of the Mona Lisa.
Renowned classical pianist and medical doctor, Dr. Antoine Karam is flying from his home in Beirut to play a concert in the galleries of the Peoria Riverfront Museum. He began his career in piano forty years ago as a child prodigy, playing national concerts. Now, Dr. Karam will play one exclusive concert for Peoria, featuring some of the most technically challenging piano compositions ever written by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Scriabin and Franz Liszt, among others.
$30 Members | $36 Public
FREE with General Admission
Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum and make the most of your visit with tours and storytimes themed around current exhibition The World's Largest Dinosaurs , presented by the Gilmore Foundation.
Earn passport points on each activity. Learn more about the Peoria Riverfront Museums Achievement Passport and how your family can win a trip to New York City today!
Dino-Mite Storytimes | 11 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. every Thursday and Saturday
A gallery guide will take you into The World's Largest Dinosaurs, presented by the Gilmore Foundation for a short storytime under the amazing, true to life models of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the earth. After the story, explore the world of Sauropods, the titans of the dinosaur world! Earn 10 achievement passport points per storytime
Dig Deep Dino Tours | 1 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Four special tours through The World's Largest Dinosaurs, presented by the Gilmore Foundation! Completely all four Dig Deep Dino Tours and receive a FREE ticket to our Dino Family Trivia event on August 2, 2025. All Deep Dive Dino Tours are worth 100 achievement passport points.
Tours:
Dino Diet- Learn about what the Sauropods ate to sustain their massive bodies
Dino Giants- Learn why these amazing animals grew to their huge size.
Dino Differences- Learn about the differences between dinosaurs, and what makes a sauropod so special among so many amazing species
Dino Detectives- Ever wonder about how these pieces of history were found? Put on your detective hat and learn more about the Paleontology profession!
Sponsored by Visionary Society and Family Fun Club
Saturday, August 16, 2025 | Reception at 5:30 p.m., Program begins at 6:30 p.m.
Experience silent film as never before in the first-ever partnership between the Peoria Riverfront Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, featuring new restorations from MoMA’s renowned collection.
The Peoria Riverfront Museum is proud to present a digitally restored version of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1925 Lady Windermere’s Fan with live musical accompaniment featuring the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. This special performance offers an extraordinary evening combining the art of film with a live musical score that elevates the cinema into a truly immersive experience.
Saturday, August 16, 2025
5:30 p.m. - Welcome reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
6:30 p.m. – Performance begins in the Giant Screen Theater
Tickets $50 for members, $65 for non-members
Lady Windermere's Fan. 1925. USA. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Screenplay by Julien Josephson, based on the play by Oscar Wilde. With Ronald Colman, May McAvoy, Bert Lytell, Irene Rich. Restored by The Museum of Modern Art, with the financial support of Matthew and Natalie Bernstein. Accompanied by a new score compiled, synchronized, and edited by Gillian B. Anderson, based on a cue sheet issued by the Tax-Free Music Co. compiled by Michael Hoffman for the original release. 94 minutes.
This film program is organized by Dave Kehr, Curator of Film, Sean Egan, Senior Producer, Film Exhibitions and Projects, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Live musical accompaniment featuring the Peoria Symphony Orchestra
Presented by Flo and Sid Banwart
In partnership with the Fine Arts Society of Peoria
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 | Lecture begins at 6:30 p.m.
Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum as we partner with the Fine Arts Society of Peoria to bring graphic novel expert Dr. Randy Duncan to the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
Dr. Duncan will be discussing with us the significance of the graphic novel as an art form, with an approach focused principally on American comic books, with the acknowledgement of the international talents that have come to influence them. Comic books are a significant American art form, which has found itself as a chief pillar in American pop culture, leading to media empires like Marvel Studios, and a profound literary and artistic impact on America's national identity.
Tickets
Adult - $10
Child - $5
Senior (60) - $10
Free for Peoria Riverfront Museum members and Fine Arts Society of Peoria members!
Get tickets HERE
Dr. Randy Duncan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Henderson State University and former Director of the Center for Comics Studies. He has co-authored two widely used textbooks, and co-edited three others. In 2012, Duncan received the Inkpot Award for Achievement in Comics Arts.
Sponsored by Visionary Society, Friends of Art, Illinois Arts Council
Presented by Commerce Bank
May 15, 2025 - September 25, 2024 | Thursday Nights | Doors Open at 6 p.m., Performance at 7 p.m.
Join us on the Peoria Riverfront Museum's Sun Plaza for a summer music series featuring local and regional jazz artists, inspired by Preston Jackson's Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story . This series event will take place select Thursdays from May 15, 2025 to September 25, 2025, featuring artists from the Chicago area as well as regional and local musicians. Get down and boogie with us!
Cash bar available. Food available for purchase from WRap City, founded by Branden "Chef B-Doe" Jackson. Menu items will include wraps, mac n' cheese and more!
Ticket prices
Members- $10
Non-Members- $15
Student- $7
Visionary Society-$7
Ticket price includes admission to Preston Jackson's Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story.
Schedule of events
August 28, 2025 | Lenard Simpson Quartet
Get tickets HERE
Lenard Simpson is a saxophonist, composer and educator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lenard was mostly self-taught through high school, but his natural ability and musicianship earned him accolades such as membership in the esteemed Grammy Camp Jazz Session, and an outstanding soloist award at the Mingus Jazz Competition in New York City. Lenard has had the opportunity to play and travel with artists such as pianist and composer-Billy Childs, Kurt Elling, Marquis Hill, and Clayton Cameron. Lenard received a B.M in Jazz performance at Northern Illinois University. While studying at NIU, Lenard was awarded first place in Chicago’s esteemed Luminarts Jazz Competition. Upon graduation, Lenard moved to Chicago and soon became one of the city’s top call saxophonists playing sideman to legendary local drummers, George Fludas and Charles Heath. Lenard’s trio has appeared at premier clubs and jazz festivals throughout the Chicago and Milwaukee area. Lenard recently graduated from the Thelonious Monk Institute Fellowship, which has since been renamed to the Herbie Hancock Institute where he was selected by a panel of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, James Newton and Ambrose Akinmusire.
September 25, 2025 | Preston Jackson and Friends | Season Finale!
Get tickets HERE
American painter, sculptor, educator, and musician, Preston Jackson is bringing some of the best of Peoria's jazz scene to the grand finale of Rhumboogie on the Plaza. We’re ending our Rhumboogie 2025 series by highlighting the inspiration of the entire series: Preston Jackson’s Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story. Joined by some of the most experienced musicians in the area, Preston Jackson and Friends performing at the Peoria Riverfront Museum is always a delight. See Preston himself, Judy Page, Mike Nellas, Manny Lopez II, Manny Lopez III and John Miller in the final sendoff of summer, right here at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
Rhumboogie on the Plaza is presented by Commerce Bank
Sponsored by Linda Beth and Ed Sutkowski, Visionary Society, Friends of Bronzeville to Harlem and Friends of Performance
Saturday, August 30, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. | FREE with General Admission
Join art collectors Jim and Beth Arient, as well as their son Matt, as they take you behind the scenes, sharing their story on how they began collecting folk art, and the relationships that they made with artists across the years. One such relationship was with Howard Finster, who painted a portrait of Jim and Beth early on in his career. Finster's works are currently on display at the museum in current exhibition Friends of Folk: Freedom and Expression.
The Arients, as well as curator for the Center for American Decoys, Zac Zetterberg, will then take you on a tour of Friends of Folk: Freedom and Expression.
For all little artists, there will be a craft in the lobby prior to the tour, so that they can stretch their creativity.
Schedule:
Folk Art Craft | 12 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Talk and Tour | 2:30 p.m.
Reserve your tickets HERE
Sponsored by Visionary Society, Folk Art and Decoy Club, Illinois Arts Council
