RAWARTISTS
RAW:natural born artists is an independent arts organization, for artists, by artists. We're an international community made up of creative individuals across the globe. Our mission is to provide independent artists within the first 10 years of their career with the tools, resources and exposure needed to inspire and cultivate creativity. We welcome all genres of art including independent film, fashion, music, visual art, performing art, hairstylists, makeup artists and more. We encourage the creative success of the many visionaries and storytellers of our generation. RAW currently operates in nearly 60 cities across the United States, Australia, Canada and, now London!
HOW DOES RAW WORK?
Our RAW Directors hand-pick and spotlight local artistic talent in film, fashion, music, visual art, hair & makeup artistry, and performance art. With artists from all genres in each showcase, RAW events come together to form an amazing one-night circus of creativity. These showcases occur once a month in each city location. Our RAW season runs from February-October and comes to an extravagant end with our indie arts awards show RAWards in Hollywood (Read more on RAWards below). What can you expect when attending a RAW Showcase? You'll experience an independent film (usually a short, webisode or music video), a fashion show from an up-and-coming local designer, a musical performance, an art gallery featuring several independent visual artists and photographers, and performance art (comedy/dance/fire dancers, you name it...). You'll get a little taste of everything. Combine all this creativity with drinks, fun, and good company! To partake in the experience, RSVP and purchase a ticket to any of our 60 monthly, city showcases by clicking on the city tab at the top of the homepage!
ONLINE COMMUNITY
www.RAWartists.org is designed to showcase our RAW artists online. RAWartists.org hosts a plethora of online profiles -- exclusive to our hand-picked RAW artists. RAWartists.org is open to the public to view, however, the site profiles and perks are reserved for only selected RAW artists. RAW artists can connect with other RAW artists, post videos and music, promote upcoming projects, and track their success. We also host what we call our RAWk Wall, where art gets down to business. This portion of the site consists of exclusive art-to-business opportunities for our RAW artists to partake in.
RAWards
RAW's Annual Indie Awards Show At the end of season (October), we host our annual RAWards Show. During a two month-process, we ask the community, a panel of judges and the nation-at-large to vote for their top five favorite artists of the year in film, fashion, music, art, photography, performing art, accessories, hair and makeup. RAW takes that popular vote and narrows down nominees in each city location. We then ask the community to place a live vote (complete with a ballot) at a special City Semi-Final nominee showcase in November. One winner from every city, in every category is chosen by the community (e.g. RAW:Denver, Fashion Designer of the Year). One winner from every city in every category goes on to be judged by the RAW panel of industry professionals in each field. The scores are based on criteria in skill, creativty, wow factor and professionalism. The winners are announced online in December, and honored with their awards at our annual RAWards Show in Hollywood, CA (mid-January). The winners receive big career-boosting prizes like distribution, store placement, studio time, gallery placement and consultations with industry executives and professionals. It's truly an awesome event with performances and highlights from the RAW season.
THE HISTORY
In 2003, a small-town girl graduated high school and moved to the big city of Los Angeles, CA. Her only wish was to pursue her life-long dream of becoming a fashion designer. Not wasting any time, she started her own clothing line. She soon realized that she was just one small fish in a very big pond. She sold her pieces at swapmeets on the weekends while going to school full-time, working part-time and interning in the fashion district.
After a while she thought ... "there's got to be a better way to get my work out there."
Surrounded by new friends and talented people in art, music, performance and film that were facing the same plight -- she decided to take matters into her own hands.
In 2005, Heidi Luerra threw her first multi-faceted showcase in Los Angeles. After much interest from the over 750 attendees that came to the event, she found her calling -- to create a platform for the many people who are talented, yet go unnoticed.
In 2009, equipped with a mission of bringing tools and resources to artists who were fighting the good fight on their own, RAW was born. After the first RAW event, a local web developer, Matthew Klahorst approached Heidi about combining these art events with an online showcase for artists. From this collaboration came the next evolution of RAW -- promoting artists both online and offline.
In 2011, they decided to take the concept beyond Southern California. RAW now hosts monthly showcases that spotlight indie talent in film, fashion, music, art, hair & makeup artistry, performing art and photography in 54 cities across the U.S and counting. In July 2012, RAW made its first international debut in Australia! In 2013, RAW launched in Canada and the UK and has plans to continue growing.