Talk about your stylish event in Nashville! I loved the energy that filled the room the entire night at Mercy Lounge and one of the coolest, most stylish crowds I’ve ever seen assembled under one roof. Models, dancers, visual artists, musicians, make-up artists, hairstylists, and filmmakers all assembled together to create what was an electric, fun-filled night!
The winners in each of the categories were as follows:
Music- Bree
http://www.rawartists.org/breerocks
Film- Chase Kuertz
http://www.rawartists.org/chasekuertz
Fashion- Brigid Ko
http://www.rawartists.org/brigidoesterling
Accessories- Take Flight Crafties
http://www.rawartists.org/takeflightcrafties
Visual Art- Jon Buko
http://www.rawartists.org/bukaloop
Hairstylist- Monica Spendlove
http://www.rawartists.org/monicaspendlove
Make up- Good Sister/ Bad Sister Glam Squad
http://www.rawartists.org/glamsquad
Performing Artist- Shannon Million
http://www.rawartists.org/wwwshannonmillioncom
Photographer- Miss Ernie
http://www.rawartists.org/missernie
RAW:natural born artists is an independent arts organization, for artists, by artists.
A community made up of creative individuals across the nation.
Their 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.
RAW welcomes all genres of art including independent film, fashion, music, visual art, performing art, hairstylists, makeup artists and more.
They encourage the creative success of the many visionaries and storytellers of our generation.
RAW currently operates in 54 cities across the United States & Australia and counting …
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 (54 showcases a month). 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 ($10/ticket) to any of our 54 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, creativity, 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. By July 2012, RAW will be in 54 U.S. cities and Australia. RAW will launch in China and Europe in 2013.
One year ago, RAW:natural born artists, took on the — some would say, crazy — endeavor of spreading its mission nationwide. After a lot of hard work, overwhelming support from friends and fellow artists everywhere, our team can now look back and say we did it. RAW is now in over 50 cities across the United States (and Brisbane, Australia)!
This short film documents the 3.5 week road trip three RAW directors took across the United States to meet artists of all types in order to spread a movement they believed in so greatly. Artist by artist, RAWcross America celebrates the struggles and successes of the independent artist and the journey we all take to get there.
RAWcross AMERICA
4 wheels, 10,000 miles … and a whole lot of creativity!
Special thanks to Magic Software, Nic Harcourt, Downtown Independent Theater, DTLA ARTWALK, and the many other directors, artists, videographers and supporters who made all of this possible.
Narrated by Nic Harcourt
Edited by Charles Thi
Filmed by Charles Thi, Vincent Martinez, Takao Baba Thai Chau, Teddy Walcholz, Eyal Filkovsky, Lisa Stanley, Alec Pezzano, Daemon Watson, Brad Dugdale, Ced Robles
Music by Button Willow Locomotive, Elaine Faye, Gorgeous Got a Gun
Featuring The RAW Team and RAWartists nationwide
Submission Process for Artist, unable to locate the link to forward art work.
Sorry, this was an article about the event this site attended and covered. You would need to reach out to RAWAwards to find out how to submit.