Break on through to the other side

In a world filled with walls of division, RAW thinks we should tear ours down.

Today marks the joining of what was the 37 Central Sq. hallway and the 39 Central Sq. office space. Together, they make up the first floor of the new & improved RAW Space.

But how to tear down the wall...what better way to do that than with brute force...and sledgehammers?

Step 1: you need to mark your targets, preparing a focal point.

($1.2 million was our goal for the capital campaign... $1.3 million is what we actually raised)

Step 2: Double-check you're destroying the right wall, then find a friend to do it with you.

(Kit Jenkins, Executive Director and Mary Flannery, Founder & Artistic Director)

Step 3: Swing away!

Step 4: Pass the sledgehammer to someone else and let them take a whack at the wall!
(Susan Sakash & Alex Rogers Pittman, Associate Directors of Development)

(Marcia Felth, Foundations & Corporations Specialist, and Andy Devlin, Office Manager)

Step 5: Have fun taking silly pictures

Step 6: Let the real professionals get to work

...and now for something completely different

All of the work was focused on 39 Central Sq. last week, but today we started transforming the hallway of 37 Central Sq. in order to prep for the wall between the two space to be demolished.

Before anything else could happen, the drop ceiling in the hallway needed to be taken down.

Back on the 39 Central Sq. side, we got a bit of a surprise. While taking down the drywall from the back of the space, we discovered there was a concrete wall behind it.

Hmmm... but what was behind the mystery wall. MYSTERY STAIRS!

These were metal stairs from the original building. There must've been some other renovations where a staircase was taken out from the 2nd, 3rd & 4th floors of the building.

Mystery stairway to heaven?

Rugs & ceiling, begone!

Day two of building renovations continued the stripping of the 39 Central Sq. space. The rugs were taken up and the drop ceiling was taken down. Things are moving right along...

Goodbye rug!

Goodbye ceiling!

Breaking ground

It's here! It's here! Today is the day renovations began!

Seems so long ago that the Capital Campaign was started, and now here we are... breaking ground on the ground-floor.

Step 1 was to take down the drywall in the 39 Central Sq. side of the first floor, disconnect the electricity and start bundling those wires so they're out of the way.

Lots of wall-cutting & insulation taking-down going on around the space. It was great to talk to the RAW students after they'd looked through the windows and saw all the changes taking place. The air was filled with electricity, optimism, and dust.

It's crazy what can be done in a day!

before

after

Building Prep

Tomorrow marks the start of the building renovations of RAW's first floor, so we spent today clearing out the space & getting it ready. As you can see, there's a lot to move but the Administrative team is on the case!

Between Andy (Office Manager), Shelby (Office Assistant) & Jen (Team SNI) we were able to get it all out AND have time to snap some accomplishment photos with Kit (Executive Director)!

Welcome!

Welcome to the "RAW Renovations" blog!

On Thursday, January 17th, Raw Art Works (RAW) began renovations to the first floor of our building. It's been a busy few years preparing for this transformation, and we've finally broken ground.

We may not look too pretty during our chrysalis phase, but each day we become a little less raw, and a little more RAW!!!

Thank you for checking in & for more information on RAW, please visit us at http://www.rawart.org/.


Best Regards,

Jesse
Office Assistant, RAW student & filmmaker
Raw Art Works