The new and transformed campus will be revealed to the public as part of the Academy’s 250th anniversary year.
Opening to the public on the 19th May 2018, the Royal Academy’s transformed campus has been designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA and supported by the National Lottery.
This redevelopment of the Royal Academy of Arts will open up and reveal more of the elements that have made the venue what it is today, sharing historic treasures from its Collection, the work of its Royal Academicians and the Royal Academy Schools, alongside its world-class exhibitions programme.
The transformed campus will open with the exhibition Tacita Dean: LANDSCAPE which will open the new Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries in Burlington Gardens. from the 19th May until the 12th August 2018.
Meanwhile, the new Royal Academy Collection Gallery will present The Making of an Artist: The Great Tradition highlighting works from the RA Collection, including the ‘Taddei Tondo’ by Michelangelo and the RA’s almost full-size sixteenth century copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, along with paintings by Reynolds, Kauffman, Thornhill, Constable, Gainsborough and Turner.
Other new galleries include The Dorfman Architecture Court which will convey the history of teaching architecture, The Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery will stage site-specific installations by Royal Academicians and the The Vaults which will exhibit The Making of an Artist: Learning to Draw a formidable selection of plaster casts from the early years of the RA Schools displayed together with works on paper from the RA’s teaching collection.
One of the outcomes of the redevelopment is the link between the Burlington House and Burlington Gardens, uniting the two-acre campus and adding an extra 70% more space than the RA’s original Burlington House footprint, enabling the RA to expand its exhibition programme and to create new and free displays of art and architecture across the campus for visitors year-round.
Tim Marlow, Artistic Director, Royal Academy of Arts, said: “In 2018 the new Royal Academy will become the most animated cultural campus in central London, running all the way through from Piccadilly to Mayfair. The redevelopment gives us amazing flexibility and capacity to be much more ambitious with our public programming, our exhibitions, learning and debate.”