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The Royal Ulster Academy (RUA) has existed in one form or another since 1879. It started life then, as The Belfast Ramblers' Sketching Club drawn from the staff of Marcus Ward & Co who held their first show in Ward's Library on Botanic Avenue in 1881. [1] In 1890, it became The Belfast Art Society; later, in 1930, its name was changed to "The Ulster Academy of Arts" and Sir John Lavery was elected its first President; finally, in 1950, King George VI conferred the title The Royal Ulster Academy of Arts upon the institution. [2]
The academy has as a primary mission "to promote and support the visual arts in Northern Ireland." [3] Members includes artists, sculptors, printmakers, architects as well as invited other interested parties.
There are five distinct categories of members: Academicians: Senior Academicians: Associate Academicians: Honorary Academicians. [4]
After many years of falling standards at the Annual exhibition Anne Crookshank, Curator of Art at the Ulster Museum, pruned the show down to just thirty-seven works for the 1958 show. [5] By 1970 the organisation was floundering, and no student or avant-garde artist would have been interested in showing with them. When Patric Stevenson took the President's role in 1970 he personally oversaw the stabilisation of its finances and preservation of its records. Standards began to improve after T P Flanagan took the reins in 1978 as he held considerable influence over his students at the Belfast College of Art, in encouraging participation from younger and more adventurous artists. Others such as Raymond Piper, Neil Shawcross, and later Joe McWilliams and Bob Sloan did similarly. During David Evan's Presidency from 1983 to 1993 the Academy's Annual show was held at Queen's University, Belfast before returning to the Ulster Museum under Rowel Friers. [6]
Today the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts (RUA) is a flourishing artists' organization. Many of Ireland's most distinguished artists are exhibiting members of the Academy.
Its Annual Exhibition is the largest, open art exhibition in Northern Ireland, attracting many hundreds of artist entrants from Ireland and elsewhere.
Presidents of the Academy have included Sir John Lavery R.A, Morris Harding, William Conor, Mercy Hunter, T.P. Flanagan, Joe McWilliams and Rita Duffy. Academicians have included Basil Blackshaw, Victor Sloan, T.P. Flanagan, Graham Gingles, Jean Duncan, Neil Shawcross and Jack Pakenham.
Basil Joseph BlackshawHRUA, HRHA was a Northern Irish artist specialising in animal paintings, portraits and landscapes and an Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy.
Colin Middleton was a Northern Irish landscape artist, figure painter, and surrealist. Middleton's prolific output in an eclectic variety of modernist styles is characterised by an intense inner vision, augmented by his lifelong interest in documenting the lives of ordinary people. He has been described as ‘Ireland's greatest surrealist.’
Neil Shawcross, RHA, HRUA is an artist born in Kearsley, Lancashire, England, and resident in Northern Ireland since 1962. Primarily a portrait painter, his subjects have included Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, novelist Francis Stuart, former Lord Mayor of Belfast David Cook, footballer Derek Dougan and fellow artists Colin Middleton and Terry Frost. He also paints the figure and still life, taking a self-consciously childlike approach to composition and colour. His work also includes printmaking, and he has designed stained glass for the Ulster Museum and St. Colman's Church, Lambeg, County Antrim. He lives in Hillsborough, County Down.
Raymond PiperHRUA HRHA MUniv was British a botanist and an artist.
Deborah Brown was a Northern Irish sculptor. She is well known in Ireland for her pioneering exploration of the medium of fibre glass in the 1960s and established herself as one of the country's leading sculptors, achieving extensive international acclaim.
Carolyn MulhollandHRHA, HRUA is an Irish sculptor.
Mercy HunterHRUA PPRUA ARCA MBE was a Northern Irish artist, calligrapher and teacher. Hunter was a founding member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists, where she was later to become president and she was also a past president of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.
Kathleen Mabel Bridle ARUA was a British artist and teacher. She influenced Northern Irish artists such as William Scott and T.P. Flanagan.
George Charles MorrisonHRUA was an Irish first-class cricketer, teacher, and landscape artist. He was a founding member of the Ulster Watercolour Society in 1976, and was tutor to the Civil Service Art Club, with whom he also exhibited.
Olive HenryHRUA was a Northern Irish artist known for her painting, photography and stained glass design. She was a founding member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists and is believed to have been the only female stained glass artist working in Northern Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century.
Terence Philip FlanaganPPRUA HRUA RHA MBE was a landscape painter and teacher from Northern Ireland.
Dennis Henry Osborne HRUA was a British artist and teacher who worked mainly in oil and watercolour. Osborne exhibited widely in Canada, Ireland and the UK. He was a follower of the Euston Road School and the Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. He was a Honorary Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.
Jean Osborne was an artist from Northern Ireland who worked primarily in oils and watercolours.
William Crawford MitchellARCA, ARUA was an Ulster artist who specialized in lino-cuts and wood engraving.
Romeo ToogoodARCAHRUA was an Ulster artist and teacher who specialized in landscape painting.
Sheelagh Flanagan was a Northern Irish actress, costume designer, artist's agent, gallery owner and peace activist.
Cherith McKinstry was an Irish painter and sculptor.
William Robert Gordon HRUA was an influential Northern Irish landscape and portrait painter, and an educator. He was a founding member of the Ulster Arts Club and the Ulster Literary Theatre.
Bob SloanHRUA, ARBS is a Northern Irish sculptor, painter, performance and installation artist. He is an Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts where he has won numerous silver and gold medals at their annual shows. Sloan has exhibited internationally, and is known primarily for his sculptural works. Amongst his professional achievements he acted as a Director of the Sculptors Society of Ireland between 1988 and 1991. In the 1970s Sloan set-up an art foundry in his studeoSloan has influenced several generations of young artists in his role as educator.
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