With the Raglan Old School building coming up for its 150th anniversary, work is underway on renovating the Theatre Room at the Old School Arts Centre. Earlier this year conservation work was undertaken on the timber panelling in the Theatre Room. This was followed by installation of underfloor insulation. The project has been overseen by Raglan Arts Council committee member, Ken Soanes. The current stage of the work is stripping paint off the bottom part of the matched lining interior wall panelling to reveal the glow of the kauri that was underneath many layers of paint.
Over the last few weeks, Chris Mitchell and James Carey have been working on this, first stripping off the paint, then scraping and sanding the boards. When the sanding has been completed later this month, the timber will be coated with a protective coat of Danish Oil. The Raglan Community Arts Council expects to undertake further decorating work in the Theatre Room progressively.
Arts Council Chair, Rodger Gallagher, said, “When the Arts Council stopped the Council from knocking down the Old School in 1988, we took over a derelict building. Over the last twenty five years many different people have worked on conservation, renovation, adaption plus expansion projects. The completion of this lastest step in that journey is a salute to what our community has achieved over the last twenty five years. Thank you to the users of the Old School for putting up with the renovation work. And a big thank you to the Donny Trust and the Town Hall committee for their financial contributions towards the maintenance work.”