Education & Classes in Racine

Steve Shapson has always taken a do-it-yourself approach to his food, having cultivated wild mushrooms and started his own home-brewing store. One day, a customer entered this brewing facility in search of a thermometer, and Steve quickly discovered the man had something other than brewing in mind. As the customer explained his newfound passion for amateur cheese making, Steve enthusiastically dove into the concept, inviting the fellow foodie to his store to help him discover the process. Since then, he's become The Cheesemaker, striving to pass on hard-earned knowledge that he maintains can't be found in conventional cheese-making guidebooks.

Steve teaches techniques for making hard and soft cheeses, butter, yogurt, and kefir in onsite workshops that last either just a few hours or a full weekend. During hands-on workshops, he explains both proper and improper techniques, often citing mistakes he's made in the past as examples and telling cautionary tales about arranging rival cheeses next to each other on a serving platter. To supply his workshops and fill out his take-home cheese-making kits, Steve gathers a range of cultures and inoculants necessary for developing different cheeses, as well as basic-to-advanced gear such as curd knives, strainers, and warming vats.

A passion for music isn't the only prerequisite for joining Kenosha Conservatory of Music's staff of teachers; each instructor must also have a minimum of 10 years' experience or at least a bachelor's degree in order to conduct lessons](http://www.kenoshaconservatoryofmusic.com/lessons.htm). During those lessons, students learn proper technique in guitar, bass, drums, piano, keyboards, violin, flute, or voice. Once they've tackled the basics, they can also join one of the school's duets, trios, or ensembles or enroll in Rock Band classes that group musicians together to work on mastering songs and performing them live.

A vibrant array of paintings adorns the brick and white walls of Arte Wine and Painting Studio. Instructors don paint-flecked berets and saddle up to easels before embarking on step-by-step lessons in drawing fruit bowls or tracing hand turkeys. The studio often plays host to girls’ nights, birthday parties, and date nights, and welcomes students of all artistic abilities to enjoy wine and snacks throughout the session.

The CFI-certified flight instructors at Racine Sport Flyers conduct all their lessons in the cockpit of a 2010 Flight Design CTLS, a carbon-fiber light sport aircraft. Using its Dynon glass avionics panel, Garmin GPS, XM satellite radio, and dynamic map and terrain displays, they guide fly-along students through the steps necessary to become certified sport pilots and private pilots. Instructors also train students to FAA standards through ground school—which covers topics such as aerodynamics, aircraft systems, and navigation—and instill the basics through sessions in a multimonitor flight simulator.

Nationally exhibited mixed-media artists Willo Sernovitz and Debra Ember Cheney man the artistic fires at SoulShine Arts. Inside their studio, they sculpt colorful molten glass into lighting, jewelry, and vases—sold in an attached gallery and retail space—and teach students of all skill levels to do the same during glassblowing classes. When not shaping glass, they blend natural materials and primitive techniques to craft metal artwork, functional knives, and tools. Willo and Debra also rent out space in their fully equipped glass-art studio to experienced artists and baby sunbeams learning how to glint.

Cofounded by Dawn and Joe Mader, an accomplished artist and a trained musician, respectively, Studio 915 welcomes all levels of artists into its charming, historical space with a range of classes and workshops. During sessions, experienced instructors dispense wisdom on topics such as drawing, painting, and alphabet-soup short stories, and students leave with finished works. Masterpieces from 20 local artists and craftsmen adorn the studio's hardwood floors, creamy drywall, and exposed brick, forming an inspiring hangout for culture-lovers and stonemasons. Organized events take place in the gallery space throughout the year.