The Raw Arts Festival held in London in 2005 was ‘London's largest and best International exhibition of self-taught art mounted to date’. The Festival was dedicated to exhibiting artworks by non-mainstream artists e.g. Outsider, Folk, Raw or Self-taught etc.

1. The Raw Arts Festival

2. What was the Raw Arts Festival?
• It was dedicated to exhibiting artworks by
non-mainstream artists e.g. Outsider, Folk,
Raw or Self-taught etc. For five years, the
festival exhibited a wide variety of nonmainstream art, such as works created by
homeless people, adults with autism and well
established Outsider/Raw artists etc.

3. The growth of the festival...
• The first Raw Arts Festival (RAF) was held in
London in August 2004.
• This festival gained a lot of publicity and
support.
• This made the second festival easier to book.

4. The London RAF’s
• The first RAF exhibited 65
artists/organisations from 9 different
countries
• The second RAF exhibited 95
artists/organisations from 12 different
countries
• Both floors of the massive Candid Arts Trust
space were completely full.
• The private views for both events were
extremely well attended

5. New York Arts Magazine
• I worked with the NY Arts magazine to coorganise RAF 2006 in Spain and RAF 2007 in
New York.
• By this time, the festival had received publicity
worldwide…

6. In total…
…I created and directed five RAF’s:
•RAF 2004 was held at the Candid Arts Trust, London, UK
•RAF 2005 was held at the Candid Arts Trust, London, UK
•RAF 2006 was held at Color Elefante, Valencia, Spain
•RAF 2007 was held at the Carrozzini von Buhler Gallery,
New York, USA
•RAF 2008 was held at the Infusion Gallery, Los Angeles,
USA

7. The statistics prove…
• The second RAF was ‘London's largest and
best International exhibition of self-taught
art mounted to date’.
• This was widely quoted in the press.
• The RAF is one of the only non-mainstream
festivals to be truly international
• I am not aware of any other non-mainstream
festival that has had the same impact.

8. Widespread international acclaim
• The RAF succeeded in gaining a vast quantity of
publicity from publications world-wide including:
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Art Fairs International
The Independent
Los Angeles Times
Metro
Raw Vision
The Times
Yahoo news
And many others...

9. The RAF provided...
• non-mainstream artists an opportunity to be
recognised as uniquely talented creative
individuals with an extraordinary gift
• a safe haven for vulnerable people to be
themselves & meet others with similar values
• opportunities for artists and organisations to
do some interesting outreach work etc
• artists opportunities for recognition

10. Pictures from London 04 and 05

17. RAF London 2004 and 2005

21. And an art car!

22. Publicity from
2004 and 05

25. Candid Arts Trust
• The galleries are behind Angel tube station in Central
London.
• They have a great atmosphere, excellent location and
easy access.
• Nearby market, galleries on street etc provide
excellent opportunities/publicity etc

26. Candid Arts Trust - continued
• A massive 6,500 square feet of exhibition
space is available
• There are 20 artists studios in the building
• Banqueting facilities, conference and
screening rooms and rehearsal spaces
• Relaxed cafe next door
• Access to Candid’s mailing list etc

27. 2004 poster

28. Image for 2005
poster

29. Images from RAF 2006 and 2007

30. A You-tube video
• I have recently put online a video of the Raw
Arts Festival private view held in New York
2007 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
0WifbkZpJn4
• This video was taken by SeniorPinky

31. The end
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