Racine Art Museum announces inaugural multi-arts festival; In/Between debuts September 18–27, 2026

This summer, Racine Art Museum (RAM) previews the lineup for In/Between, a new festival of visual and performing arts, running September 18–27, 2026. Set within a scenic harbor town along the shores of Lake Michigan, this mostly free public biennial activates local landscapes and cultural sites through exhibitions, interventions, and participatory projects, encouraging audiences to experience Racine County in new ways.

In/Between centers the field of craft while blurring boundaries between traditional and contemporary work. The festival’s name reflects both place and practice: its position within the Milwaukee–Chicago corridor, artists working across disciplines and media, and the spaces “in and between” the city’s familiar and hidden corners. 

The inaugural lineup features local, national, and international artists and collaborators, highlighted by three bold, site-responsive works. Amanda Browder leads with a monumental, community-created textile installation that weaves the exterior of RAM; Eric Rieger (aka HOTTEA) unveils a suspended fiber installation that transforms its surroundings into a field of color; and Look-Up Aerial Arts presents the U.S. premiere of Éolia, a gravity-defying sway pole performance that brings motion and balance into an unexpected realm. Together, these projects extend across building, ground, and sky—inviting audiences to experience the festival through various expressions of color, material, and movement.

The festival comprises six interconnected series: exhibitions, performances, talks and demonstrations, wellness programs, workshops, and social events. Guests can enjoy large-scale installations, pop-up activations, hands-on making experiences, community gatherings, and more throughout the festival’s run.

“We are thrilled to introduce this multi-arts celebration, which draws on the inventiveness and layered histories of this community,” said RAM Executive Director Robb Woulfe. “Our debut season brings pioneering artists into dialogue with today’s makers to explore place, material, connection, and shared experience. We invite residents and visitors to discover, participate in, and celebrate the creativity that shapes this region.”

 Drawing on the region’s legacy of making, innovation, and industrial heritage, the festival reframes everyday settings as spaces for art and discovery, including parks, pathways, waterfronts, and historic landmarks. Ongoing initiatives—including Quilts on Barns, Wall Poems of Racine, and tours along the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail and through the Racine Heritage Museum—further connect the festival to local landscapes, architecture, and stories. 

 While most festival events are free, selected programs are ticketed. Activities take place across the museum’s two campuses—RAM and RAM’s Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts (Wustum)—along with other partner sites and public spaces throughout Racine County.

 More information on featured projects and exhibitions follows. The full In/Between lineup will be announced in August.

Featured Projects

Amanda Browder: Zig and Zag

September 18–27

RAM — Building Facade

441 Main Street, Racine

A community-sourced textile installation that transforms the museum exterior into a large-scale, collaborative surface of shared fabric and labor. Inside, a companion exhibition—Amanda Browder: Civic Sparkle—extends the experience. Amanda Browder is a Brooklyn-based artist utilizing donated and repurposed materials and collective participation to reimagine architectural surfaces through expansive color interventions and sustainable reuse.

HOTTEA (Title Forthcoming)

September 18–27

Wustum — Gardens

2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine

A site-specific installation where suspended strands of painted canvas transform the garden into an immersive field of color. Minneapolis-based artist Eric Rieger, known as HOTTEA, creates atmospheric installations that use suspended material to reshape spatial perception through chromatic density, rhythm, and environmental change.

Éolia by Look-Up Aerial Arts

September 25–27, Times to be announced

Wustum — Lawn

2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine

Sway pole-based performances activating public space through choreographed suspension, fabric movement, and shifting spatial form. Look-Up Aerial Arts is a Quebec-based company whose practice foregrounds aerial craft, using rigging, balance, and embodied motion to construct temporary architectures in the air.

Featured Exhibitions

Dan Devening: Fenestra Falsa

September 18, 19, 25, 26 (12–5 p.m.); September 24 (5–8 p.m.)

OS Projects

601 Sixth Street, Racine

Recent paintings and works on paper that explore the collision of digital seduction and painterly nuance. Dan Devening is a Chicago-based artist whose work heightens color, activates surface, and plays with spatial perception, creating compositions that invite sustained attention and suggest the rewards of close looking over passive consumption.

Handcrafted: RAM Community Art Show (featuring Rosy Petri)

Open throughout In/Between

Wustum — Galleries

2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine

A community-driven multi-media exhibition celebrating the importance of the handmade. The exhibition features a large quilt created by Milwaukee-based artist Rosy Petri in collaboration with community members, reflecting her practice of shared authorship and intergenerational exchange.

Handmade Up North: Jewelry & Small Metals

Open throughout In/Between

RAM — Galleries

441 Main Street, Racine

Contemporary Midwest art jewelry and small metals rooted in regional material culture and identity. Drawing from a wide range of styles and media, included works reference Wisconsin’s abundant nature and wildlife, urban and rural landscapes, importance as an agricultural hub, and distinctive Midwestern sense of community.

Michael Velliquette: Intuitive Patterns

Open throughout In/Between

RAM — Windows on Fifth Gallery

441 Main Street, Racine

A suspended Tyvek installation exploring pattern, light, color, and perception through intricate hand-cut compositions. Madison-based Michael Velliquette draws on the history of papercutting to create designs inspired by geometric motifs, intuitive abstraction, hex-protection symbols, and visual references to portals and windows. 

RAM Showcase: African Adornment

Open throughout In/Between

RAM — Galleries

441 Main Street, Racine

A showcasing of historical West African adornment furthering the conversations in Tanya Crane: Embodied Histories. Included works tell the complex story of adornment used as currency within trade networks.

RAM Showcase: Cynthia Toops

Open throughout In/Between

Wustum — Galleries

2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine

Intricate polymer micromosaics composed of small hand-cut fragments that build into richly detailed compositions on display alongside other jewelry from the artist. Cynthia Toops is a Seattle-based artist whose meticulous technique draws from historical examples such as Huichol Indian

Stitched Stories: Narrative Quilts and Textiles

Open throughout In/Between

Wustum — Galleries

2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine

Exploring storytelling through fiber-based practice, this exhibition explores the multitude of ways in which textiles can be used to convey meaning, transport viewers to real or imagined worlds, or tell personal narratives. Featuring works by Shari Urquhart, Ann Fahl, Leah Evans, Renie Breskin Adams, and others.

Tanya Crane: Embodied Histories—Exploring the Legacy of African Jewelry

Open throughout In/Between

RAM — Galleries

441 Main Street, Racine

An exhibition engaging historical West African adornment in conversation with contemporary jewelry and sculptural forms. Tanya Crane is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator whose work examines material histories and cultural transmission, using pattern, surface, and form to explore identity, exchange, and the resonance of adornment across time.

Wood You Believe It?: Painted Wood from RAM’s Collection

Opens on September 23

RAM — Galleries

441 Main Street, Racine

Traditional and experimental approaches to transforming wood with paint, bringing together furniture, art jewelry, sculpture, and wall hanging works. Whether turning, sculpting, carving, or constructing, included artists stretch the boundaries of how we understand this familiar yet versatile material.

Supporting Activities

Frank Lloyd Wright Trail in Racine

Across Racine County

Tracing Racine’s place in the Midwest design landscape, this Wright-centered trail connects landmark sites across the city. From the Hardy House to SC Johnson’s campus, the route reveals where architecture, industry, and everyday life meet along Lake Michigan.

Gallery and Studio Tours

Across Racine County

Self-guided tours through local galleries and artist studios, including Art Metals Studio, Artist Gallery, Hot Shop Glass, Northern Lights Gallery & Boutique, Photographic Design Gallery & Framing, Spectrum School of the Arts and Gallery, Stitched Quilt Shop, Unraveled Creative Studio, and more.

Quilts on Barns

Across Racine County

Spanning rural roads and lakeshore landscapes, this county-wide project extends quilting into the built environment. Painted quilt blocks mark sites of collaboration, connecting communities through pattern, place, and story.

Racine Heritage Museum Walking Tours

Downtown Racine

Through storytelling and dialogue, tours led by local guides invite visitors to engage with Racine’s layered history along downtown streets and the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Wall Poems of Racine

Across City of Racine

An ArtRoot project with the University of Wisconsin–Parkside and community partners, Wall Poems pairs excerpts by Racine poets with designs by UW students celebrating local voices through public art.

Further information about In/Between can be found at ramart.org.

Support for In/Between is provided by Travel Wisconsin, Visit Racine County, and We Energies Foundation. Additional program funding is provided by the Racine Community Foundation.

Amanda Browder, Power Plant Beloit