Established | 1844 |
---|---|
Location | Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol, England |
Coordinates | 51°27′29″N2°36′30″W / 51.45810°N 2.60840°W |
Director | Alison Bevan |
President | Fiona Robinson |
Website | Royal West of England Academy |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Royal West of England Academy |
Designated | 4 March 1977 |
Reference no. | 1282156 |
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade II* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition programme that celebrates the best of historic and contemporary British art.
Elected Royal West of England Academicians use the post-nominal RWA.
The Royal West of England Academy was the first art gallery to be established in Bristol, and is one of the longest-running regional galleries and art schools in the UK. Its foundation was initiated by the extraordinary Ellen Sharples, who secured funding from benefactors including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Prince Albert, and the building was ultimately financed by a bequest of £2,000 from her will in 1849. [1] [2] [3]
At first, the core of the Academy was a well-known group of artists in Bristol, known as the Bristol Society of Artists, who were mostly landscape painters, and many, such as William James Müller, Francis Danby, James Baker Pyne and John Syer were well known. [3] In 1844, when the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts was founded, the Bristol Society of Artists was incorporated into it. At this time the president and committee was predominantly its patrons, rather than its artists. In 1913 King George V granted the academy its Royal title, [4] with the reigning monarch as its Patron, [5] and by 1914 a major extension to the front of the building, including the dome and Walter Crane lunettes, was completed. [6] [7]
During World War II the academy building was taken over by various organisations including the Bristol Aeroplane Company and the U.S. Army. [5] Immediately after the war ended the council applied for the release of the galleries but was informed that they would be occupied by the Inland Revenue until further notice. It was not until 1950 that the building was returned to its original function, after the intervention of the then prime minister, Clement Attlee. [8] [5] During the 1950s the Royal West of England Academy Schools became the West of England College of Art. [3] This moved to the Bower Ashton campus in 1966, where it was then absorbed by the University of the West of England (School of Visual Studies), now the Department of Creative Industries, UWE, Bristol.
The current president is the artist Fiona Robinson PRWA and Director (Chief Exec) is Alison Bevan BEM.
Among the paintings in the permanent collection are works by artists from the Newlyn, St Ives and Bloomsbury Schools and paintings by Elizabeth Blackadder, Bernard Dunstan, Mary Fedden, Matthew Hale, David Inshaw, Derek Balmer, Anne Redpath, George Swaish and Carel Weight. [9]
The building is a grade II* listed building constructed in 1857 as the city's first public art gallery, also encompassing an art school. It opened in 1858. The interiors are by Charles Underwood and facade by JR Hirst, altered in 1912 by SS Reay and H Dare Bryan. [10] The first floor is in 3 sections, the outer ones articulated by paired Corinthian pilasters flanking large shell head niches with statues of Flaxman and Reynolds. A large carving of 3 female figures - the three graces - crowns the parapet. The interior includes coloured marble and a replica of the Parthenon Frieze. [11]
As a Royal Academy of Art, the RWA is governed by professional artists, with a membership of around 150 Academicians who are elected by their peers. [12]
Post-nominal | Membership Type | Abbreviation | Maximum No. Allowed |
---|---|---|---|
RWA | Royal West of England Academician | RWA Academician | 150 |
PRWA | President of the Royal West of England Academy | President of the RWA | 1 |
PPRWA | Past President of the Royal West of England Academy | Past President of the RWA | |
VPRWA | Vice-President of the Royal West of England Academy | Vice-President of the RWA | 1 |
HonRWA | Honorary Royal West of England Academician | Honorary RWA Academician |
President | Served |
---|---|
John Scandrett Harford (1785 – 1866) | 1844 – 1859 |
Philip William Skinner Miles (1816 – 1881) | 1859 – 1881 |
Samuel Lang | 1881 – 1884 |
Col. Henry Bourchier Osborne Savile (1819 – 1917) (Sheriff of Bristol 1883) | 1884 – 1887 |
Daniel H Cave | 1887 – 1897 |
Alderman Francis James Fry (1835 – 1918) (Sheriff of Bristol 1886) | 1897 – 1898 |
William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke (1830 – 1911) | 1898 – 1911 |
Janet Stancomb-Wills (1854 – 1932) | 1911 – 1932 |
Yda Richardson | 1932 – 1936 |
Paul Ayshford Methuen, 4th Baron Methuen (1886 – 1974) | 1936 – 1971 |
Donald Ewart Milner (1898 – 1993) | 1971 – 1974 |
Bernard Dunstan (1920 – 2017) | 1974 – 1984 |
Mary Fedden (1915 – 2012) | 1984 – 1989 |
Leonard Manasseh (1916 – 2017) | 1989 – 1995 |
Peter Thursby (1930 – 2011) | 1995 – 2000 |
Derek Balmer (1934 – ) | 2000 – 2010 |
Simon Quadrat (1946 – ) | 2010 – 2011 |
Janette Kerr (1959 – ) | 2011 – 2016 |
Stewart Geddes (1961 – ) | 2016 – 2019 |
Fiona Robinson (1949 – ) | 2019 – |
Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken and experimental digital media work supported by online resources. Festivals are hosted by the gallery.
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art.
Frank Cadogan Cowper was an English painter and illustrator of portraits, historical and literary scenes, also described as "The Last Pre-Raphaelite".
Jean Rees (1914–2004) was a British artist.
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
Eileen Cooper is a British artist, known primarily as a painter and printmaker.
Mary Fedden, was a British artist.
Barrington Tabb was an English painter. He was a Royal West of England Academy (RWA) member. Tabb was born in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England, and lived his whole life in and around Bristol.
William Holt Yates Titcomb was an English artist. He was a figurative oil painter, particularly known for his depictions of the Cornish fisherfolk.
Bernard Dunstan was a British artist, teacher, and author, best known for his studies of figures in interiors and landscapes. At the time of his death, he was the longest serving Royal Academician.
Vincent Michael Brown is an English artist and portrait painter, composer and musician, and co-founder of Browns' Arts Centre, an art school and studio located at The Clock Tower Association in Warmley, Bristol.
June Berry is a British artist, originally from Melbourne in Derbyshire.
Karl Keki Singporewala RWA is a Parsi-born British artist, architect and elected Royal Academician of Art at the Royal West of England Academy., born 1983 in Crawley, West Sussex. Studied architecture at Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University, post graduate architecture at University of Brighton and then a further post graduate at the Bartlett, University College London. He is an annual visiting critic for the BA (Hons) Interior Architecture degree at Arts University Bournemouth.
Diana Maxwell Armfield is a British artist. She is known for landscapes, and has also painted portraits, literary subjects and still lifes. She has a particular interest in flower paintings, and is considered to owe much to the Sickert tradition. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Armfield was elected as a Royal Academician in 1991.
Janette Kerr is a British painter of land and seascapes.
Derek Balmer is a British artist and photographer, Past President of the Royal West of England Academy (2001–10) and Pro-Chancellor of the University of the West of England (2001–10) to Chancellor Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West of England in 2001.
Anthony Whishaw is an English artist and member of the Royal Academy. He is also a member of The London Group.
He was married to the sculptor Jean Gibson until her death in 1991.
Peter Leonard Folkes was an English painter.
Mary Morton was a British sculptor.