Raku Gallery

Despite the fact that the only souvenir I took away from my visit here were the scars from the potted barrel cactus cleverly positioned at the front entrance — I think they reach out and impale your calves with needles, if you don’t buy anything — Raku is a place where I can dump a ton of money if I had no need for food, shelter, and gas money for the drive from Jerome back to whatever ghastly hole I had emerged from — a hole that is made that much worse without the benefit of being adorned by pieces purchased at this gallery.
The stuff here ranges from hanging art in various media — giclee, acrylic, flower petals — to home furnishings in bronze, jewelry, blown glass, pieces of furniture and so on. All pieces are made by local artists, and the lady behind the counter is more than happy to explain the process of the more outstanding works of art. We found several wall hanging prints and pieces we loved, but alas — they lacked the necessary decimal point between the digits that would’ve made the purchase more palatable for us ($ 975 or $ 97.5 makes all the difference).
The downstairs portion of the gallery contains — shall we say — objets d’art that your arthritic Aunt Agnes might adore — prints of cute little mice and otherwise nasty rodents you’d like to poison in real life and not objectify by putting them in bowties and hanging their likeness on the wall. Further towards the back is the glass studio, where the friendly, in-​resident glass guy will give you a detailed «blow-​by-​blow» (pun intended) of the blown-​glass art process. It was a nice, warm stop on a cooler Arizona day, but in the summer the heat might liquify eyebrows. The *basement* also contains bargain-​priced pieces and a restroom.
A perfectly nice stop before jamming back into our fuel-​economy cars for the long drive back to our pitiful homes decorated with wagon wheel coffee tables and trimmed with rope.

Jerome is an art gallery paradise if you enjoy smallish venues with local artists showing their wares. It is a welcome respite from the gaudiness of Sedona.
Among all of these, Raku Gallery has the rotating collection that best matches my taste. When the owners/​artist in residence are present, their enthusiasm for the creative life spills into their discussions with every browser, and is infectious.
I purchased several small things there, mostly glass object d’art. Functional and beautiful. Every time I lift them to my lips, I appreciate their uniqueness, beauty and strength.
The most permanent part of their collection is the rear glass wall with a stunning view of the Verde Valley. That is well worth the walk around the shop, although buying something is very appreciated.
Don’t miss it.

We always stop here when we are in Sedona to see if they still have whatever Art we managed to pass on the year before. Fantastic views on two levels of interesting local and global art. NOT kid-​safe in my opinion, I’M nervous waking in there.
We also get some EXCELLENT restaurant recommendations while entertaining Marcia and Carrie. Try it, they know where the best crab cakes are and local hideaways. ONE of them knows the BEST restaurants, ONE knows when they are open and their hours… speak to only ONE of them at your own risk:) good luck.

Wide assortment of art, plus a fantastic view of red rocks, mountains and valley!

This was a wonderful gallery! I purchased some earrings, and really enjoyed looking at the quality art and craft there.

The wife & I spent about 4 hours walking around Jerome looking at all (OK 93%) of the shops & galleries and this IMO was the best by far, the top floor has some of the more pricey items but also has the BEST view in town.
Downstairs has some more modestly prices items, great pottery.
It was mentioned to us while browsing that they have glass blowing demonstrations in the back from 12 – 5 «ish», we went and it was very interesting, Tracy the artist was very informative and seamed to enjoy doing the demonstrations, I would highly recommend going.

This gallery stood far above almost any other we stopped in in Jerome in terms of the quality of their art selection and the presentation thereof.
We didn’t buy anything because it was a bit rich for our tourist budget, but we saw a few things that we definitely could see looking great in a future home.
I liked the two-​story space and did not feel «snubbed» (even though I’m definitely not remotely wealthy) like a previous reviewer. At all.

On my most recent trip back to the A-​Z, I thought it would be rather pleasant to go around to galleries and art stores with my folks, real bonding time, rather than Holiday yelling time. I had ulterior motives however — I’m scoping out sites to perhaps show my own work. So for an afternoon, we drove up to Jerome to do just that. Now, I certainly wasn’t expecting hoity toity spaces like galleries in Chelsea, so my expectations were already low. Keep that in mind.
Raku Gallery was a nice surprise. It was a breath of fresh air, actually. I was so completely sick and tired of seeing Southwestern art ala howling coyotes, Kokopelli doohickeys, reproductions of Native American ceramic vessels, wind chimes and sleeping cowboys. Ick. Raku had a few desert lizard pieces, but for the most part it was modern and very sleek considering the environment. 2 floors of art goodness and an eclectic taste at that, from furniture to wall art to jewelry to glass sculptures. And if you have a little extra time, you can go and sift through Seconds behind the gallery on your way to see the glass blowing demos by the owner hosted about every 30 minutes as requested. A beautiful, open space mirrors the gorgeous open view of the Verde Valley.
As far as snubbing is concerned, perhaps the opinion of their gallery’s importance is self-​inflated, but with good reason. It’s the best one in Jerome. Both owners took a look at my work and although in a round about way they said «no», it was a modestly polite «no» with great explanation. They paid me the time at least, which most galleries wouldn’t I’d imagine. Chelsea would just laugh.

I was not wearing a velvety black pantsuit, painfully obvious chunks of jewelry, blonde frosted grey hair in a ponytail, or cosmetically-​enhanced body parts aged 40 or above.
Therefore, I got about-​faced.
My party entered this «gallery» studded with «unique» «raku» and «art» — casually but smartly dressed — on a mission to find our friend’s mother that perfect piece of jewelry as a gift. Despite wearing jeans and having a bag whose name was not Gucci, Coach, or Louis Vuitton, I (and everyone who I was with) could have afforded any piece of (overpriced) jewelry in their case.
But as soon as we entered, the employee on the floor sized us right up — in a very obvious way — and literally snapped back around to focus on eyeing the aforementioned velvety frosty greys with (presumed) larger credit lines and (apparently) greater value as humans.
Bitch about-​faced us. And avoided all eye contact and greetings as we made a loop through the store, just to see if she would finally acknowledge us.
Get the eff over yourselves. You exist in Jerome — not Florence, Italy. You are «artists» — I guess, not MacArthur Fellows.
You have a highly inflated sense of self-​worth, lost business over horrendous customer service, and gained one very honestly scathing review.
Congratulations!