On 10 December the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) celebrates its 250th anniversary. The Academy was founded by King George III in 1768, making it the oldest arts institution in Britain.
In May this year the RA opened its newly expanded campus. The project involved connecting Burlington House, their historic Piccadilly home, with 6 Burlington Gardens, a former academic building located immediately to the north. As well as connecting the two buildings, spaces were reconfigured to significantly expand the institution’s cultural programme.
The project includes a new public route through the two buildings, the reinstatement, in a contemporary form, of a semi-circular lecture theatre and the restoration of the former Senate Room to serve as a cafeteria. The historic laboratory rooms were re-aligned as an enfilade of day-lit gallery spaces.
Image © Simon Menges