Raglan Arts Weekend

Raglan Arts Weekend, aka RAW, is a self-guided tour, with visitors using the Arts Trail maps to help them plan their own routes. You can start at the Old School Arts Centre where you can pick up a brochure, view an artwork from each participating artist and plan the rest of your day or weekend. As well as the Preview Exhibition, there are 300mm×300mm artworks available for a fraction of the usual price. These pieces are donated by the artists to help support the event and are priced at just $200 each.

RAW studios are open Saturday 21 October to Monday 23 October 2023. All studios are open 10am until 5pm. Some studios are closed on Monday so please refer to the Raglan Arts Guide for details, or see individual artist listings for 2023.

Raglan’s 13th open studio event, RAW continues to evolve to keep it fresh and fun for all involved. This year includes the launch of an ‘Emerging Artists Exhibition’ at the town hall, which will see around 15 new and upcoming talented artists push their boundaries, showcase artworks and be available to discuss their art explorations. This will be the first large group exhibition for RAW in the last few years, and will be managed by Caleb Osborne, an emerging artist himself and affiliated with the Waikato Society of Arts. “Within the arts sector, there are barriers emerging artists can face when building business capability and portfolio exposure, such as availability of exhibition spaces,
exhibition and commission costs and prior experience,” Caleb says. “We hope to help new artists navigate these challenges and ultimately celebrate their artistic journeys and courage.”

Also new this year, courtesy of a generous donation from Bayleys Raglan, is an ‘Artist-Connect’ bus, a RAW artist-only tour of some of the studio highlights just ahead of the weekend itself, and a ticketed opening cocktail event at Rock-It to kickstart the RAW weekend festivities.