The Racine Art Museum (RAM) grew out of the Charles A. Wustum Museum, which was founded in 1941 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (fewer than 5% of the nation’s museums receive this), the Racine Art Museum opened in 2003 and offers 46,000 square feet of galleries, sculptures,
The building’s white acrylic facade is flooded by colored lights each evening and serves as a modernist architectural focal point for Racine’s Main Street (Highway 32, right by the ends of Highways 20 and 38.)
The Wustum Museum section of the RAM features regional and local artists while carrying on the tradition of hosting the museum’s arts education and community outreach programs, which are the largest of their kind in Wisconsin.
The Racine Art Museum offers one of the largest collections of contemporary crafts of any North American museum, including large collections of contemporary teapots, baskets and artist-made jewelry. The permanent collection features more than 4,000 artworks from internationally recognized artists. The museum’s Ceramics collection numbers over 600 objects that include internationally known ceramic sculptors; their largely sculptural Glass collection contains works from artists Harvey Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Joel Philip Meyers, Dan Dailey, Steven Hodder and Judy Jensen. The museum’s collection of Metals includes one of the largest groupings of contemporary jewelry of any museum. The RAM’s wood collection consists of vessels and furniture, with one of the highlights being a Wendell Castle desk that was in Objects USA.
Handmade Books: The museum owns a large number of handmade books, both hand-printed letterpress examples and larger editioned offset lithography works; it is one of the largest collections of its kind in a Midwestern art museum.
You’ll find the Racine Art Museum right along Main Street in downtown Racine, right near other State Trunk Tour points of interest and attractions like Monument Square, the Kewpee, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Johnson Wax Research Tower and Golden Rondelle, the Racine Zoo, Wind Point Lighthouse, and more. It’s right along Highway 32; Highway 20‘s eastern end is one block south, Highway 38‘s southern end is two blocks north, and Highway 11 is about two miles south.
Racine Art Museum (RAM) Hours:
Closed Monday
Tuesday – Saturday
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, Noon – 5:00 pm
RAM’s Wustum Hours
Closed Sunday and Monday
Tuesday – Saturday
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Address:
441 Main Street (Highway 32)
Racine, WI 53403
(262) 638-8300
Website
