Raw Art Works opens new exhibit May 10

Lynn-It’s a grand opening, an art exhibit, a film screening and dance performance all rolled into a single event at Raw Art Works, where the latest creations by budding local artists will be unveiled May 10.The exhibit at the RAW studio at 37 Central Square in the city’s downtown has been dubbed “MySpace, OurSpace, RealSpace,” and will be open to the public from 6-9:30 p.m.Performances and the graduating senior ceremony will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. RAW encourages visitors to arrive early. Film screenings of work by students in RAW’s Real to Reel Film School will be shown at 7:45 p.m. The annual lineup of videos tends to draw an audience so the screening room fills up quickly.The evening concludes with spoken work, freestyle beat boxing and dance performances by RAW artists as part of the larger community celebration, which gets under way in Central Square every third Thursday of the month.Desiree, one of the young artists in Women 2 Be and the Real 2 Reel Film School who asked that her last name be withheld, described her contribution to the show.”My piece is about trust. In front of the box I built there is a curtain with questions that people will have to answer in order to enter into my space. As a teenage girl, it’s very important to find good people who you can tell things to and know they will keep it safe,” she said.Situated in the main gallery at RAW, the new exhibit features over 50 structures which, like Desiree’s work, are built from found wood scraps to create three-dimensional, electrified houses containing self-portraits of the artists, and the answers to questions about how they construct the personal spaces in their lives.Nora de la Rosa, a RAW staff member, was enthusiastic about the show. “We’re not only working with the concept of the MySpace Web site, and its impact on our young people, but also asking our artists to go beyond this tool and create their own blanks, vision, and space that show their reality at RAW,” she said.The gallery will be transformed into a neighborhood and guests will be invited to open the doors of each student’s home and peek inside. The neighborhood will also contain a replica of RAW, created collaboratively by the kids, with each group making a room depicting their time at the studio.Having recently completed RAW’s Believing is Building capital campaign, RAW’s young artists say they are excited to finally have their own space, not just a studio spread over rented lofts.As Jen, one of the artists whose work will be on exhibit put it, “I want people to see what we can do here at RAW. If they come, they will be amazed and shocked by the art in the show.”Jen also asked that her last name be withheld.For more information about RAW or the show, call (781) 593-5515 or send an email to [email protected].