Raglan Summer Arts School is an invitation to discover, refresh or reignite the creative talents that might be long forgotten or only just discovered.
The intensive four-day programme delivers the finely-honed talents of singer-songwriters David Parker and Ben Collier, painter Doug Ford, weaver Ruth Port, ceramic artist Sarah Bing and author Wanda Barker.
Under their tutelage, budding creatives can choose to turn their melody into song, a lump of clay into a sculpture, their daydreams into a novel, weave a wonder from flax or create their own masterpiece in paint.
Running from January, Thursday 21–Sunday 24, 2021, coordinators Heather Cunningham and Brian Thurogood are excited about the line-up of talented tutors for the inaugural programme.
“It’s an awesome opportunity for people to immerse themselves in a genre; it’s not just theoretical it will definitely be a hands-on experience,” Heather says.
Born out of lockdown musings, the pair believe people are seizing opportunities in their own backyard like never before.
“What better place to come and have a creative break than Raglan,” Heather says.
The programme is designed in a way that people can still experience Raglan life, with time to get in a surf lesson, take an arts-inspired shopping tour or just chill out at the beach.
But you better get in quick, they say, as class sizes are limited to 8-12 students and they are expecting an influx of enquiries.
Already with their eye to the 2022 Raglan Summer Arts School, Heather and Brian hope to grow the school to offer more classes, such as furniture upcycling, fabric and textile art, sketching and more.
“We see this as a beginning and something that is going to be a regular feature on the Raglan summer calendar,” Heather says.
If the art school is a success, the pair also plan to contribute to other local projects.
“This is not just about us; we hope to support and help as local community art initiatives develop in the future,” Brian says.
Janine Jackson
Raglan Summer Art School enrolment enquiries to admin@raglansummerarts.co.nz, contact Heather on 027 472 6822 or check out raglansummerarts.co.nz.
