Austin, Texas · Est. 2014

Art Is How a City Remembers Itself

We are Raasin in the Sun — a nonprofit that turns overlooked spaces into places where every person in Austin can see themselves reflected. Through murals, placemaking, and community, we make belonging visible.

Our Mission

Turning Spaces Into Places of Belonging

Raasin in the Sun is a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas, that transforms everyday spaces into places where everyone feels they belong. We work with artists, neighbors, and local partners to bring color, creativity, and genuine connection to our city — one wall, one neighborhood, one community at a time.

Our Vision

A City ThaT Shows Its Spirit

We imagine an Austin where every place reflects the people who made it — bright, welcoming, and alive with creativity. By amplifying diverse voices and sharing art across communities, we're building a city that shines with unity, memory, and pride. Because when a place shows its spirit, everyone who belongs to it stands a little taller.

Our Founder

Raasin McIntosh | Founder & CEO

Inspired to Shine Light

In 2012, Raasin McIntosh —Track and Field Olympian and collegiate athlete — traveled to West Africa to compete and came home changed. It wasn't the competition that moved her. It was the children she met there: full of light, full of energy, thriving. She came home with a decision and turned it into an organization. Raasin in the Sun was born from a simple conviction — that she wanted to spend her life helping people shine their own light. From restoring the home of Wilhelmina Delco, Austin's first African American elected to public office, to co-leading the $112M Block 16 & 18 cultural corridor, RITS has always made beauty with communities, not for them.

Today Raasin serves as Founder of RITS and Vice President of Urban Activation at the Downtown Austin Alliance, working at the intersection of creative placemaking, public art, and community equity. She holds a BA in Communications from UT Austin, an MA in International Communications from Texas Southern University, and completed a two-year program with the Mural Arts Institute Philadelphia. She is also on a mission to make Austin net-zero — because in her view, beautifying communities and building a sustainable city have always been the same goal.

What We Do

Five Ways We Show Up for Austin

Every RITS program is built around the same core belief — that art belongs to everyone, and that community is something you build on purpose. These are the five pillars that make that real.

DAWN

Our public mural program places large-scale, story-driven art in the heart of Austin's neighborhoods — commissioned from local artists and shaped by the communities they live in.

RISE

We transform underused, overlooked, and forgotten spaces into vibrant gathering places — through creative placemaking that centers equity, belonging, and the people who already call those spaces home.

SHINE

Our arts education programs bring creative practice into schools and youth-facing spaces — giving young Austinites the tools to tell their own stories and see themselves as artists, not just audiences.

RENEW

Public art deserves to last. RENEW is our commitment to the ongoing care, restoration, and preservation of murals across Austin — because a faded wall is a story that's starting to disappear.

RAY

Our living mural map connects Austinites and visitors to public art across the city — making it easier to discover the works, the walls, and the stories that make Austin a place worth paying attention to.