RACINE - Finding new items for exhibits hasn't exactly been a problem lately for the Racine Art Museum.

In fact, the 46,000-square-foot museum took in more than 500 new works in 2007, and staff have been gradually putting them out for the public to see.

The museum at 441 N. Main St. has collected works from about 30 states, and choosing among them is a nice problem to have, said RAM Executive Director Bruce Pepich.

In part two of RAM's "New, Novel and Never Shown Before 2008" collection, the museum is displaying sculptures, paintings, crafts and other works meant to provoke thought from visitors and show them what's it like for people who collect and live with art pieces.

"It reminds people in the community that the new building is attracting more attention and continuing to bring collectors in from outside the region," Pepich said Sunday as he sat on a bench next to cases displaying oddly-themed tea pots.

"A lot of people who come into the museum here are used to going to classical art museums and you don't see a lot of this material right out in front. And so for us to show them painters and sculptors whose work they might recognize, and show it alongside some craft artists, it helps open paths of understanding."

Many of the pieces on display were meant to be edgy and to get people thinking off center about the world around them, Pepich said.

A large, dramatic clay sculpture of a horse, seemingly galloping out of a wall at the museum with its front legs encircled by metal handcuffs, was done by Beth Cavener. Pepich said Cavener used the figure to express frustration at human tendencies toward cruelty and a lack of

understanding.

Phillip Maberry used colorful swirls and lines of red, orange, blue, yellow, green and pink to create a sculptural vase on a pedestal that depicts former B-52 artist Cindy Wilson. The vase's handles jut out in different directions like they've been teased or held in place with hair spray. The striking vase, made in 1989, was gifted to the museum by Robert and Myrna Zuckerman.

Five years ago, the museum received nearly 300 teapots from the collection of St. Louis artist Donna Moog, and that has spurred another round of teapot giving from artists like Ralph Bacerra, Anne Kraus and Richard Shaw.

In this collection, the spouts, handles and lids are often cleverly hidden. One teapot incorporates a Mary Jane shoe and a suitcase, with the suitcase's handle acting as the teapot's handle and the spout located between the shoe's upper and sole. Another teapot discusses UFOs, and still another, a porcelain work with intricate painting and a 24-karat gold lustre, displays a Venetian homunculus. It was made by Russian-born artist Irina Zaytecva.

Pepich said teapot collections on display at the RAM are popular with visitors because most people have some kind of association with them.

"A grandmother who used to have a teapot that she would bring out for special occasions, or maybe when they would stay over for sleepovers at their aunt's and they would have tea and cookies," he said. "People have strong emotional connotations to these."

The current "New, Novel and Never Shown Before" exhibit is the museum's third acquisition show in less than two years. Many of the contributors to last year's flood of gifts are people who have donated art before to RAM, including Dale and Doug Anderson, Karen Johnson Boyd and Jacqueline and David Charak. Some others are new friends of the museum.

Pepich said the amount of gifted works that are not accepted for display at RAM is about 3 percent, but sometimes those works are still taken in to be traded or sold to raise funds.

"We don't accept everything that's offered to us. We have a wish list that we work off, where we step back from the collection and say, 'Where are the holds that need to be filled to kind of complete the representation?' Is there a period that is missing?' "

While there is some concern about the current economic slump hurting auction activity, Pepich said many of the craft artists who give to RAM are more concerned about their work being displayed to educate the public about different art forms.

"I always try to explain to people that artists don't create their art in a vacuum," Pepich said. "They're looking at the world around them and, while they are looking at other artists' work, they're also looking at pop culture, at what's going on in politics and the way people live, and it starts to show up as a record of the time they lived in."

"New, Novel and Never Shown Before 2008, Part II"

Through Dec. 7

Racine Art Museum

441 N. Main St.

(262) 638-8300

http://www.ramart.org