Royal Academy Of Arts

Turner Prize-nominee Yinka Shonibare RA discusses his interdisciplinary art practice – critiquing the establishment, money and power in the art world and emerging art markets. He speaks to critic and author Louisa Buck, as part of the RA's Festival of Ideas. Look out for details of the next Festival of Ideas, coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

In a lecture at the RA's first Festival of Ideas, author and historian David Cannadine reveals how Sir Winston Churchill’s passion for art went beyond that of a private hobby, forming an essential part of his public persona. Look out for details of the next Festival of Ideas, coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

The legendary British portrait photographer David Bailey joins RA Artistic Director Tim Marlow to share how he fell in love with Picasso, life in fashion and the arts – “it’s terrible” – and his approach to models and portraiture. Come to the next Festival of Ideas live in the RA's Benjamin West Lecture Theatre – line-up coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

Working-class artists continue to be underrepresented in the arts. How has this inequality shaped the practice of contemporary artists? Has it helped or hindered their creativity? Oscar- and Grammy-winning film director Asif Kapadia, award-winning crime novelist Dreda Say Mitchell, and the artist Bob and Roberta Smith RA, as they reflect on their own experiences of class and its influence on their work. Chaired by the writer and broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake, the panel will also look at what needs to change and how. Come to the next Festival of Ideas live in the RA's Benjamin West Lecture Theatre – line-up coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

Thriller writer Nicci Gerrard talks about how everyday creativity can keep a person connected to the world around them. In conversation with academic Hannah Zeilig, Gerrard discusses how the arts can keep people well, aid recovery and support longer lives, better lived. Come to the next Festival of Ideas live in the RA's Benjamin West Lecture Theatre – line-up coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

In an hour of family comedy at the Festival of Ideas, Andy Stanton, the author of the Mr. Gum! books, talks to young fans about his characters, from Old Granny to Alan Taylor, and how he became a writer. Come to the next Festival of Ideas live in the RA's Benjamin West Lecture Theatre – line-up coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

One of the most respected dance artists working in the UK today, Akram Khan joins writer and broadcaster Sarah Crompton at the RA’s Festival of Ideas, opening up on his influences, his work with the “godfather of visual art”, the challenges of creative collaboration, and the process of ageing as a dancer. Come to the next Festival of Ideas live in the RA's Benjamin West Lecture Theatre – line-up coming soon: https://roy.ac/FOI2019

Sophie Ward is the winner of the RA and Pin Drop short story award: hear Ward's story, 'Sunbed', read aloud to a live audience by actress Gwendoline Christie. The RA and Pin Drop’s short story award offers a unique platform for emerging and established writers to showcase their short stories. The judging panel includes Pin Drop co-founders Elizabeth Day and Simon Oldfield, and the RA’s Artistic Director, Tim Marlow.

Part 3/3 of our 'Does identity matter?' series Join Mary Duggan as she shares her experience of setting up two successful practices – Duggan Morris Architects and Mary Duggan Architects. Dugan reflects on lessons learned, and the role identity has played in creating her own distinct profile, focus and skillset. This event was organised in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture.

Part 2/3 of our 'Does identity matter?' series: Join Shumi Bose, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Central Saint Martins, UAL, as she chairs a panel of experts examining how a city's architectural landscape can influence its identity – from unmissable "icons" that define our skyline to the more technical, but no less important, influences of height restrictions. Speakers: - Adam Greenfield (writer and urbanist; author of Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life) - Mustafa Chehabeddine (Design Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox) - Emily Gee (London Planning Director, Historic England) - Morag Myerscough (designer/artist fascinated by how colour, pattern and words can change urban environments and people’s perceptions of spaces into places) - Shumi Bose (Chair) Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Central Saint Martins, UAL; curator at the RIBA This event was organised in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture.

Part 1/3 of our 'Does identity matter?' series: Evening Standard architecture critic Rob Bevan chairs a panel of experts exploring how a city’s identity can be pulled apart through various architectural and spatial interventions – looking at examples ranging from Tel Aviv's Shapira and Neve Sha'anan neighbourhoods to the former Ford factory in Dagenham. Speakers: - Verity Jane Keefe (visual artist, working predominantly within the public realm) - Dr Clare Melhuish (Director, UCL Urban Laboratory; an anthropologist specialising in architecture and the built environment) - Maya Ober (founding editor, Depatriarchise Design, a practice-led research platform that examines the complicity of design in the reproduction of oppressive systems; scientific assistant, Institute of Industrial Design, HGK FHNW Basel) - Rhiannon Williams (poet, MA Narrative Environments, Central St Martins) - Rob Bevan (chair) – architecture critic at the Evening Standard, has written widely on identity, destruction and the city This e

Catch up on this talk by Dr Nathan Waddell as he reveals the story of the controversial artist, writer and critic Wyndham Lewis, his relationship to T. S. Eliot and why his 1938 portrait of the littérateur was rejected by the Summer Exhibition.

Catch up on this event from the Benjamin West Lecture Theatre: Antony Gormley RA and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, debate the rich and intriguing relationship between theology and contemporary visual art.

100 years after women won the right to vote, Historic England and the RA present a panel discussion on the heritage value of places that have been targeted by protestors. How much historic value is there in sites that have witnessed political and social protest, and should this be recorded, shared and looked after? Speakers include: Prof Krista Cowman – Professor of History and Director of Research, University of Lincoln; author of Women in British politics, c. 1689-1979 Emily Gee – London Planning Director, Historic England Stewy – artist, author of life size stencils of psycho-geographically placed British icons, such as Mary on the Green Rachel Cooke (chair) – journalist and author of Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties (2013)

Panel discussion and part of "The Successful Artist?" programme. Is commercial success evidence of artistic achievement? Does fame or visibility equate to success? Who decides who is successful – the public, institutions, critics, peers or the artist themselves? What is the role of education for artistic achievement? How much of these factors can be determined by the artist? Join artist Yinka Shonibare MBE RA, Head of the RA Schools, Eliza Bonham Carter, and the Director of Ikon Gallery Jonathan Watkins to discuss who and what defines an artist’s success today.

For 250 years, the Summer Exhibition has provided thousands of artists with a crucial form of competition, inspiration and publicity. In anticipation of "The Great Spectacle", curators Professor Mark Hallett and Dr Sarah Turner select key works from the annual event, revealing its remarkable history and influence on British art.

In association with our Invisible Landscapes project in the new Architecture Studio, Anna Puigjaner of Barcelona-based architecture practice MAIO explores the impact that smart technologies like Alexa and sharing economy platforms like Airbnb and Deliveroo are having on our domestic spaces.

Catch up with this talk by acclaimed photographer and artist Miles Aldridge, discussing his career and new project at the 2018 London Original Print Fair.

Catch up with this talk from Dr Erin Griffey, exploring Queen Henrietta Maria's assertive, sophisticated and fashionable influence on one of England's most infamous art collections. Henrietta's influence on art at the Stuart court has traditionally been downplayed as a portrait subject, but she also played an active role in the court masque, the luxury trade and the visual arts and was a patron and a director of display in her palaces.

Catch up with this event exploring how the projects submitted for the Royal Academy’s Urban Jigsaw competition have developed over the last two years. In 2015, the Royal Academy ran a competition calling for architects to come up with creative uses for London’s brownfield sites. We asked for ideas that were innovative, imaginative, research driven and, ultimately, capable of realising the potential of these missing pieces of London’s urban jigsaw. The resulting projects offered new infrastructure, housing, community projects, creative studios, and proposed a new typology for courthouses and the administration of justice. This event invites back three of the finalists, Alma-nac, Atelier Kite, and Chetwoods Architects, to discuss their ideas and their relevance to the capital two years on.