On Saturday 26th October a community clay tile mural was unveiled at the Old School. The event start with a parade by the Raglan Pipe Band. Old School Arts Chairperson, Rodger Gallagher then described how the clay tile mural came to be created.
Rodger started by describing how the Community Clay shed was a Creative facility for people all ages and that it was started by Clare Wimmer in 2001.
He said, “At that time a very old second-hand kiln was installed and it was worked hard for the next 10 years.
In 2012 it became clear that the old kiln wouldn’t last much longer and fundraising began for a new one.
The mural project began in February 2012 as part of the fund-raising for the new kiln.
The project involved Raglan people and visitors to Raglan who each made a small donation and created their own tile. Over 600 tiles were created either as terra-cotta tiles or painted ones.
The fund-raising was successful and with the addition of a generous donation for the St Lazarus Trust we were able to buy and install the new larger kiln last year. Thank you very much to the St Lazarus Trust for making the new kiln a reality.
Many volunteers have helped with this project. Annette designed and executed the tile mural, Rae helped all the time and gave a huge artistic input, and Judith provided hands on and publicity. The art school members gave a great deal of help. Jacqueline backed all of this up with her time helping with information distribution.
Andreas helped with time and timber. Without it we would not have a mural. Tony Sly donated all the clay towards the mural. Raglan Super Value, Thomson timber, and Bunnings all gave donations towards the completion of the mural. And the Pipe Band had started the music for the night and that would be followed by Chris Thompson on guitar and Travis on banjo.
Looking forward the vision for the clay shed beyond 2013 is to continue the good work with the kids after school workshops and to continue promoting clay workshops for teenagers and adults.
The Old School Arts Centre has adopted a goal of replacing the current shed as with all of the activity it is bursting at all seams. The 5 year vision is what we call the Clay Shed Plus. the plus indicates that the building needs to be more than just a bigger clay shed. At this very early stage we are fundraising for the core finance needed.”
Susanne, Annette, Merren and Rae then unveiled the mural. Annette said that Susanne was a start for all of her work and presented her with a tiara.
The gathering moved inside the Old School to continue celebrating the 130th birthday of the Old School building. Wayne Morris and Roydon Hartstone shared their memories of the Old School. Happy Birthday Old School was then sung and then a specially commissioned Old School birthday cake was cut and shared.