The dream of the “HOOPS” creator comes true with the portrait project exhibited at the Racine Art Museum | WUWM 89.7 FM

From 2019, HOOPS Portrait Project provided a platform to hoop earrings lovers.

Milwaukee artist Nicole Acosta started the project with several photos and accompanying stories. As she traveled to different cities taking more photos, she became a hit among hoop earring wearers globally. It was even adapted into a play.

On August 28, Acosta’s growing project HOOPS will open at the Racine Museum of Art’s Charles A. Wustum Art Museum.

I joined Nicole Acosta on a Monday afternoon at the Racine Art Museum as she planned the rooms where “HOOPS” would be exhibited.

Acosta says 2024 was supposed to be a year of rest for her, but HEAVEN continues to take on a new life.

She explains what HEAVEN is about.

“The HOOPS project is a culmination of the photos and stories I’ve collected over the past five years, traveling around the country and doing these sessions in these cities. I am putting out an open call, and people must obey the open call. ”, explains Acosta. “I choose my subjects based on their HOOPS stories.”

Acosta says she’ll usually give people three suggestions: What do hoop earrings mean to you? Where is your favorite place to wear hoop earrings? What is your favorite memory with your hoop earrings?”

Once Acosta collects people’s stories and photos, they go into shows like the one opening at Racine.

HEAVEN debuted in 2019—Acosta says the following year, the pandemic helped propel it forward because it was a time when people were paying attention to identity. And with this project, they heard from people they wouldn’t have otherwise.

“People on the outside who don’t understand what hoop earrings are or the symbolism they hold, kind of disable their own perspectives and stigmas around hoop earrings. So yeah, it’s been quite a journey so far,” she says. .

Equity Innovation Fund grant from United Way of Racine County helped bring HEAVEN show at the Racine Art Museum.

It created the opportunity for additional programming, such as a table read of excerpts from the play HOOPS and a community conversation.

Tricia Blasko, the museum’s director of education, highlights the impact on the community. “We’re bringing in second-graders, fifth-graders, eighth-graders, you know, just different members of the Racine County community,” Blasko says. “And being able to share Nicole’s story, but then the narrative of all the topics is, I think it’s just a great opportunity for us to have this educational moment that we wouldn’t necessarily always have.”

Lena Vigna, the museum’s director of exhibitions, says HEAVEN it makes people think and talk about the meaning of what people wear.

“I talk a lot about what people wear and why they wear it. You know, what are the histories because there are personal histories, social histories, economic histories, you know, all that stuff,” Vigna says.

HEAVEN creator, Acosta says it’s an honor for people to share their stories with her.

She always learns something new about why people wear hoops. As one of her subjects who suffers from alopecia.

“As she got older, it was hard for her because her confidence seemed to diminish with her hair loss. But one day, she said I can’t be like this anymore, so I’m going to start. to accept this and start being very vocal. So she has a big platform that she uses to talk about female pattern hair loss and alopecia, and she says she wears big, huge hoops as a way to express her confidence. says Acosta.

Acosta says she dreamed that one of her portraits would end up in a museum collection. This is now a reality; The Racine Art Museum acquired an unprecedented HEAVEN portrait that will hang on the walls, even after the show is over.