Visit Royal Academy of Arts in London

The Royal Academy of Arts is located on the famous Piccadilly Street, London England. If your summer vacation includes traveling abroad and you enjoy art at its finest, plan to visit The Royal Academy of Arts.

History of the Royal Academy
Competition between two architects, Sir Joseph Palmer and James Paine, and rivalry with the Society of Artists led to the creation of the Royal Academy in 1768 with the help of King George III. Currently the Royal Academy of Arts is led by a group of approximately eighty practicing painters, sculptors, engravers, printmakers, draftsmen and architects. Each of these individuals must be professionally active. The Royal Academy requires that there must be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects, 8 printmakers and 46 painters to satisfy the requirement of 80 academicians.

Privately Supported
The Royal Academy of Arts does not receive financial help from the British government but promotes the appreciation of visual arts by exhibitions for public viewing that are comparable to National Gallery and Tate Gallery exhibitions. Private individuals contribute through Friends of the Royal Academy as well as other support opportunities. The Royal Academy of Arts is a registered charity and has approximately 85,000 friends.

First Exhibitions
The earliest exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts were held in Pall Mall. In 1780 exhibitions were placed in Somerset House; in 1836 the government granted the east wing of the National Gallery to the Royal Academy; and in 1869 the Royal Academy of Arts moved to Burlington House, the present building that was purchased by the Crown in 1854. The structure contains 12 galleries that resemble a hollow square.

Annual Exhibition
An annual summer exhibition is open to all artists with the purpose of financing the training of young artists in Royal Academy schools. This annual exhibition has occurred every year (summer) since 1769 and attracts around 10,000 exhibitions. Each artist can exhibit no more than eight works that have not been previously shown in London. Many artists sell their works at this exhibition with the Royal Academy receiving a small percentage. The summer exhibition opens the first Monday in May and closes the first Monday in August.

Royal Academy Art School
The only three-year post graduate course in Britain is offered at the Royal Academy to sixty students studying drawing, painting, and printmaking.

By Betsy Cobb Wise