- City:
- Racine, WI
- Site Type:
- Education and Health, Schools
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Artist:
- Santos Zingale
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
“The Mitchell School library in Racine, Wisconsin had a series of 5 mural panels done by Santos Zingale under the WPA. These murals are currently in storage. They were removed in the 1950s when the school library was remodeled. They lie in darkness, waiting to be restored!”
This school had a fire several years ago. The murals were damaged and sent to an art restorer in Chicago.
As of September, 2021, the murals appear to have been lost or stolen. According to a representative of the Racine Unified School District, there is no record of what happened to the murals.
Source notes
https://www.wpamurals.org/wisconsin.htm
https://racinecountyeye.com/mitchell-school-murals-chicago-art-expert/
Site originally submitted by Larry Haas on March 5, 2012.
At this Location:
Contribute to this Site
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.
Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site4 comments on “Mitchell Middle School Murals – Racine WI”
Join the Conversation
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Allan Yousten
Gabriel Milner
Kay Jelinek
Doug Chaussee
After a fire destroyed part of the Mitchell school, the mural was removed from the school basement and sent to a firm in Chicago to be restored. They had been neglected since they were taken down in the 1950’s.
Thank you for this information! If you have a source for this, please send its info, along with the details you’ve provided, to [email protected]
I had read awhile back there was water damage on them. I’ve been trying to trace them down as I had Santos Zingale for painting at UW-Madison and would like to know they are still around.
In 2015, the mural was rolled onto a large cardboard Sonotube and placed in the old Wind Point School which was closed and being used for storage. In 2018 Racine Unified sold that building to a developer who was having the building razed. The contents of the school were sold off at a public sale. The tube with the mural was not sold as the contractor wanted the valuable tube. About a month after the sale and as demolition was beginning, I noticed that the tube was gone and the canvas was piled on a trash heap set to go in the dumpster. When I pulled it from the pile I realized it was the Zingale mural and brought it to my workshop for safekeeping. Calls to Unified were fruitless as I was told that they had it in storage until they decide what to do with it. The administration at Unified has now changed and there was a genuine interest in getting the mural restored and put on display. It has now been returned to them.