Stories

Our Collections team have recently taken custody of a gift from Percy Portsmouth RSA, one of the most influential sculptors working in Scotland in the earlier part of the 20^th Century.

Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our Academicians to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. This month, we're talking to Mary Bourne RSA about collaboration, commissions and the importance of supporting emerging artists.

Now in its 39th year, the RSA Schools Art Award champions the extraordinary talent of Scotland’s young artists. This year, we received over 1,000 submissions from students across the country. From the Highlands and Islands to the Scottish Borders, each one showcased imagination, originality and technical skill.

We’re catching up with Hazlehead Academy, who received the £1,000 Brodies Inspirational Art & Design Department Award in 2024.

Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our Academicians to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. This month, we're talking to Jane Hyslop RSA about Midlothian, Virginia Woolf, and being a John Kinross Scholar in the pre-internet world.

Our touring exhibition William Gillies: Modernism and Nation recently opened at Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in North Uist, and it brought to mind some other works in our Collection that were inspired by beauty of the Western Isles.

The Friends of the Royal Scottish Academy was established in 1986. Thirty-nine years on, we’re reflecting on the vital role they continue to play in supporting the RSA.

Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our Academicians to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. This month, we're talking to Christopher Platt RSA about his architectural education, being inspired by fellow architects, and the future of architecture.   

Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our Academicians to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. This month, we're talking to Norman McBeath RSA about portraiture, photopoetry, and the process of making photogravures.

Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our Academicians to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. Today, we’re speaking to Helen Flockhart RSA about the Garden of Eden, studying in Poland, and New Contemporaries. 

 

We’re sitting down with our Academicians to discuss their practices, influences and upcoming projects. Today, we’re speaking to Robbie Bushe RSA about childhood memories, the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Painting Award and Frontiers. 

Modernism and Nation: William Gillies and his Contemporaries opened at the Pier Arts Centre in June, and as it says on the tin, the exhibition includes a selection of works by Gillies’ friends and associates – including William Crozier ARSA.

A celebration of student creativity in Scotland, the RSA Schools Art Award has been running since 1986, and this year’s exhibition of winning entries is now live.

Each month, we’re sitting down with an artist to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. Today, we’re speaking to Jo Ganter RSA about music, working in series and John Kinross Scholarships.

It is a requirement of everyone who is elected to the Royal Scottish Academy to deposit an example of their current practice into our Diploma Collection. Today we're taking a look at some of those works, and some anomalies. 

A major new exhibition exploring the life and work of Adam Bruce Thomson RSA has recently opened at the City Art Centre, and includes five works from RSA Collections.

Our Collections department have been busy building important links with further education providers to help provide experience for those considering a career in the heritage sector.

John Maclauchlan Milne RSA (1885-1957), the man often labelled as the fifth, or missing, Scottish Colourist, was until the beginning of this year represented in our Collections only by his Diploma painting - Sands of Morar. Now, with the support of author Maurice Millar, we have accessioned a number of artworks, images and items belonging to Maclauchlan Milne, giving us a much more rounded picture of the artist.

Each month, we’re sitting down with an artist to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects. Today, we’re speaking to Edward Summerton RSA about Art Angel, collaborative experiences and a big wobbly thumb. 

 

This May, the National Gallery in London will begin a year of celebrations to mark their bicentenary. As they celebrate their past and look forward to the future, we thought we’d take a look at a few connections from the RSA Collection.

We’re taking a look at stamps and aerogrammes that have either been designed by, or feature, Academicians and their work.

With applications now open for the 2024 Schools Art Award, we thought we’d take a look back to 2023 and share some of the wonderful works from students across Scotland.

We are pleased to present a new series of interviews featuring our Academicians. Each month, we’ll be sitting down with an artist to discuss their practice, influences and upcoming projects.

To celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 7 March, we’re sharing some information on recent additions to the RSA Library.

 

This is the final article celebrating our Academy Awards and features the Alastair Salvesen Art Scholarship and the RSA John Kinross Travel Scholarship.

This is the second of three articles celebrating our Academy Awards and begins with the Chalmers Bursary.

With Awards Season now in full swing, we thought we'd share some of the background stories behind our own “Academy Awards”.

As a new year beckons, many of us will be filling in key dates in our new 2024 calendars. So, we thought there would be no better opportunity to share a special group of prints from the Collections, the Peacock Calendar Suite of 1976.

As the countdown to Christmas begins, we thought we’d illustrate The Twelve Days of Christmas with works from RSA Collections.

In Residence exhibitor and 2023 RSA Morton Award winner Aqsa Arif discusses her practice, influences and upcoming projects.

Henry Kondracki RSA speaks to Gallery Manager Flora La Thangue about his practice, influences and what it means to be a painter today.

Each year, the RSA Friends are invited to attend an international holiday with a focus on touring art galleries and museums. In May, they headed to Oslo, one of Europe’s most vibrant capitals.

First nominated for election as an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy (ARSA) in the early 1930s.

In April we mark the 50th anniversary of the death, and in September the 125th anniversary of the birth, of Sir William George Gillies RA RSA RGI RSW.

2022 marks the 168th anniversary of the death of our shortest-ever-serving Honorary Member, Professor Edward Forbes.

Fruits of research appear in new book on one of our past Members as exhibition prepares to showcase his work.

June 24 2022 marks 99 years since architect Peter Womersley ARSA (1923-93) was born.

 

Early pioneer of photography and stalwart of the RSA, read more about the life of this fascinating man. 

Sir Stanley Cursiter RSA's (1887-1976) contribution to Scotland's art landscape can not be overstated.

1947 saw the opening of The King's Pictures, an exhibtition of works from the collections of King George VI. 

The 31st of March 2022 marks 165 years since the birth of Sir John James Burnet FRSE FRIBA RSA RA.

As 1878 dawned the Academy was in a strong position with our first fifty years behind us. On 16 February however we were hit by one of the most tragic and unresolved events in our history.

2021 has already seen us celebrate the centenary of the births of two of our women members; Joan Eardley RSA (1921-63) and Ann Henderson RSA (1921-1976). This year however also marks the bi-centenary of two siblings from the Paton family of Dunfermline.

 

An enquiry sheds light on a lesser known Associate Member.

Inspired by the 'Bright Shadows: Scottish Art in the 1920s' collection display at the City Art Centre, curator and art historian Alice Strang explores the women artists who were 'proposed and seconded' for election to the Academy during that decade. 

 

 

It is with the deepest regret and sadness that I note the passing of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder on 23rd August 2021, just a month short of her 90th birthday.

As part of national celebrations to mark the Centenary (on 18 May) of the birth in 1921 of Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley RSA, Robin H Rodger, from the RSA’s collections team considers her position with specific regard to the Royal Scottish Academy.

It is with greatest sorrow that the Royal Scottish Academy note the death of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh today the 9th April 2021.

To mark the resignation towards the end of last year of sculptor William Brotherston RSA as the Academy’s Librarian, and of the subsequent election of Dr Fiona Dean RSA as the first woman holder of the post, Robin H. Rodger has been considering the Academy’s poetic heritage through the works of some of its Members.