RACINE - This city has Hurricane Ike to thank for sending forth the first artist to join the Uptown Artist Relocation Program.

The program aims to make vacant or underused Uptown properties available to professional artists as places to live, work and show their art. The effort is modeled in part on how Paducah, Ky., transformed a dismal, crime-ridden area into an art district.

Here in Racine, metal sculptor and painter Nic Noblique has committed to becoming Uptown's first resident artist in the program. The recent Galveston, Texas, resident will buy 1526 Washington Ave. from the City of Racine, he and city officials said.

Noblique is now living in Racine while he waits for the building renovation to run its course.

When Hurricane Ike hit Galveston in September, Noblique said Thursday, "Basically, it took our shop, our gallery, our home, everything."

As an Appleton native, Noblique, 32, his wife and two children headed this way.

He said they also went online looking for artist relocation programs, then visited programs in Denton, Texas; Paducah, Ky.; Peoria, Ill.; and Racine.

"Racine was just amazing," Noblique said. He said they found helpful officials here and liked the Downtown galleries, Racine Art Museum and the lake. They also found a building at 1526 Washington Ave. that was just what the artist was looking for.

That spacious structure was the first one the city acquired under the relocation program. It was in atrocious shape and may not be habitable until spring, said city Commercial Corridor Specialist Kristin Niemiec.

The three-story building, with about 4,000 square feet per floor, was originally going to be split down the middle and sold to two artists.

But Noblique and his family want the whole thing, which the city will sell to them for about $400,000. The city will sell it on a land contract, Niemiec said, so if something were to go awry, ownership would revert to the city.

Should they need to borrow money, Johnson Bank has agreed to be the Uptown program's lender.

Noblique said the family will live on the top floor and have a gallery at street level. He will have his sculpture studio on the first floor, below street level, and hold classes on the first two floors.

City Development Director Brian O'Connell said Noblique, who has sold his work around the country, "fits very well with our program."

Niemiec said the city has also commissioned Noblique to create a metal sculpture for a small triangular piece of ground at the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and 13th Street. The sculpture will serve as a signpost to people coming from the north that they are entering the art district.

According to Noblique, his arrival could be the start of a larger artist immigration to Racine. "If we move in there, we will have some artists that will follow us," Noblique predicted.

"There's a ton of artists in Texas that are just dying to get an opportunity like this."

For more information:

http://nobliquestudios.com

http://www.createuptownracine.com