• Call – Color Feel, Theme of the Month
• Response – OBSERVATIONS Gathering
• By – Mimi Peterson

In collaboration – Vintage and Modern Books, Art Root’s Writer-in-Residence Program, Vital Art Project and Mimi Peterson – devised the inaugural OBSERVATIONS Gathering held December 6, 2024, at V & M Books, 415 6th Street, Racine, WI. It had been imagined that the event should be a gathering of artists, writers, and visitors, who, while surrounded by Arts and Crafts historic ambiance, with books to touch and buy, artwork to view, would enjoin spirited conversation, alive with new ideas and nostalgic memories. The book store, as place, created an interpretive framework for parallel stories as told by creative guests and myself, WIR 17. Our stories brought past WIR voices into conversations. The talk evolved as “object stories”, and like an “object of art”, took on meaningful value. The OBSERVATIONS Gathering was an opportunity to embody intersections of time and place in ways that the arts – things of value – define in unique ways.

The bookstore had been silent until “object stories” activated the space with animated voices, laughter. People in attendance were intellectually involved and became implicit to the stories by virtue of their presence. V & M’s personality suggests untapped growth potential as a center of inquiry and creativity,

We must develop opportunities, along with a reputation for innovation, in order to sustain the practice of creatives, an essential part of education and culture. By identifying solutions together, we will realize collective success, inspire community engagement and dialogue making Racine a platform for Arts and Humanities and social interaction as we honor heritage, build bridges across diversity and cross into the 2025 future.

Thank you, One and All, You inspired Me.

… Guests, Nick Ramsey, WIR Coordinator, Heather and Adam Booth, Vintage and Modern Books, Proprietors, Erik R. Peterson, Vital Art Project, Art Director, ArtRoot, Enabler….

The Gathering lived up to my expectations.

Mimi Peterson

more OBSERVATIONS coming