RA250 UK: 250 years of art and artists
Art galleries and museums across the country are joining us to celebrate 250 years of making, debating and exhibiting art at the Royal Academy. Discover the RA where you are.
Celebrations for our 250th anniversary aren't limited to London. Arts institutions across the country are joining us to take a look back at our history, and celebrate the artists and architects who have shaped the RA – and many other galleries and museums in the UK.
Highlights of RA250 UK
Although the Royal Academy's home is in the heart of London, our Royal Academicians have come from far and wide. Their homes, studios, works of art, exhibition spaces and educational experiences can be found across the British Isles and beyond.
Museums and galleries across the country will be shining a spotlight on their local Royal Academicians, from Barbara Rae at the Royal Scottish Academy to Sean Scully in Liverpool and Newcastle and Christopher Le Brun at Southampton City Art Gallery. You'll also find exhibitions on past RAs like Thomas Gainsborough or Annie Swynnerton, the first woman elected to join the Royal Academy, plus many more displays and events exploring different aspects of the RA past and present.
Twelve in-conversation events with Royal Academicians, held in 12 different locations across 12 months.
Created in collaboration with the Art Fund, this one-off series of events will include:
Gilbert & George RA speaking at The New Art Gallery, Walsall on 19 September 2018
Cathie Pilkington RA at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, on 15 November 2018
Chantal Joffe RA and art historian Dorothy Price in conversation at the Manchester Art Gallery on 25 November 2019
Cathie Pilkington RA at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich on 7 February 2019
Jock McFadyen RA at the Pier Art Centre, Orkney
Alison Wilding RA at the Leeds Art Gallery
Christopher Le Brun PRA at the Munnings Museum, Essex
More information coming soon.
Sonia Boyce, Bob and Roberta Smith and Cornelia Parker all met Artistic Director Tim Marlow to discuss their chosen object of obsession: a work of art by another artist that means something particularly special to them. Organised in collaboration with The Space, each event was held at a different art gallery and live-streamed to online audiences around the world.
Lead support
Art UK
Art UK, the online home for every public art collection in the UK, has updated its website to allow you to search almost 26,000 works listed by Royal Academicians through the ages.
Visit Art UK and enter "Royal Academician" or the name of your chosen RA into the search bar to see where their work is located across the country.
RA250 overseas
2 March – 3 June 2018
When the RA was established in 1768, it counted among its founder members artists from across Europe – and one from America. Born in Pennsylvania, Benjamin West went on to become the second President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and later, the first Honorary Academician of the newly established Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
This exhibition explores West’s important role in the establishment of both Academies, through more than 60 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, manuscripts, and books.
RA250 overseas
The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and the British School at Rome are holding a conference titled The Roman Art World in the 18th Century and the Birth of the Art Academy in Britain. Exploring Italian influences on the formation of the British academic art world, the conference opens in Rome on the exact 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy's foundation, 10 December 2018.