Home :: Create Uptown Racine

Arched Window Each day thousands pass the classic old buildings that sit unused or under-used on the streets of Uptown Racine. Most of the buildings feature airy retail/work space on the first floor and loft apartments above. With some care and attention, they offer perfect work/live opportunities for artists. These are the building blocks of the new Uptown Racine Arts District. Many are for sale, or will be soon. And Racine wants to help artists buy and rehab them through its innovative Artists Relocation Program. READ MORE

Pencil Racine is a great place for art. It's a great place to make art, sell art, buy art, be in the arts, and just enjoy art. For a city its size, Racine has an incredible array of arts groups, galleries, schools, museums, working artists, and art fairs. The Uptown Racine Arts District will be a natural and welcome addition to this already lively scene. READ MORE

he Uptown Racine Arts District officially kicked off with a neighborhood festival on June 14, 2008. The family-friendly festival in Uptown Racine featured arts projects for kids, food, music, and the creation of two huge, outdoor mosaic murals. The murals were created by a group of Racine volunteers and other local artists under the direction of nationally-recognized mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar.
Material for the murals was donated by local businesses and individuals and includes tile, glass, dishes, metal, mirrors, and other found objects.
The murals were created over the course of a week on the sides of two buildings in the 1300 block of Washington Ave. Two local carpenters, Zagar's wife Julia and a noted muralist from Minneapolis assisted Isaiah in the preliminary work on the murals. Day by day local citizens, students, neighborhood residents and experienced artists labored to produce two murals in half the time it normally takes, said Zagar.
Festival goers were entertained by Racine singer/songrwriter Mark Paffrath and local favorites Melvin Barker and the Blues Cruise. Clowns Cuddles and Billy Boy painted faces and did balloon tricks. Spectrum School of the Art guided young artists with a variety of arts and crafts projects.
Bargain beer and the state's best brats rounded off a beautiful day, celebrating the rebirth of Uptown Racine.

Map of Racine Racine is on a mission to create a vibrant arts district in its historic Uptown neighborhood that will expand the city's reputation as a destination for collectors and art tourists. And the city is offering a helping hand to artists who want to move here, make art here, and help create the Uptown Racine Arts District.

Home Explorers Racine, Wisconsin, is a classic Midwestern city with a diverse population of 80,000 people that value family, hard work, education, the arts, and the Green Bay Packers, although not necessarily in that order. Racine is located in the southeast corner of the state on the pristine shores of Lake Michigan. Ninety minutes to the south is Chicago. Thirty minutes to the north is Milwaukee. And ten minutes to the west is postcard-perfect farmland, quaint little towns and dozens of small recreational lakes that make up Racine County. READ MORE

In the 1930s, architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the new corporate offices and research buildings for the Johnson Wax Company (now named S.C. Johnson). These were the first of several magnificent buildings and homes Wright designed in the Racine community. All of Wright's structures remain lovingly cared for and visiting Racine to see and tour them has become a pilgrimage for his many fans. READ MORE

Racine, Wis., is not yet the Hamptons of the Midwest, it's not for lack of effort. This formerly gritty industrial city roughly 70 miles north of Chicago and 30 miles south of Milwaukee on the shores of Lake Michigan has been trying for much of the last decade to reinvent itself as an artist's colony and tourist destination. READ MORE

n some ways, Uptown Racine may be the Downtown Racine of 15 or 20 years ago: dimmed by economic forces that had passed it by; and largely unloved. But about a decade ago, attention and efforts were focused on lifting Downtown's fortunes, and today it is a vastly different place. Uptown may be at that same starting line today. But in this case, the methodology for trying to reverse its decline will be different and can be described in one word: artists. READ MORE

he building at 328 Main Street in Racine, Wis., started life as a dry goods store in 1854. A newspaper named The Times-Call took it over at the turn of the 20th century. In the 1930s, it became a high-end fur shop, with a facade reflecting its elegance, and later it did a stint as a church. Now, crammed to its soaring ceilings with art and filled with the exuberant personality of Emile Mathis, a collector and dealer, it has found its calling as the Mathis Gallery Frame, with works ranging from original graphic pieces by Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg to Whistler lithographs to objects of African worship. READ MORE

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