Royal Academy of Arts
Founded in 1768 and still artist-led, the RA mixes blockbuster shows with the world’s longest-running open-submission exhibition (the Summer Exhibition). Expect a compact permanent collection—including Michelangelo’s ‘Taddei Tondo’—plus changing contemporary programmes and architecture displays. Wayfinding is simple: central courtyard → main galleries → smaller side rooms → shop/café. Plan 90–120 minutes; allow extra in summer when every wall blooms with new work.
Opening Hours
What's not to miss inside?
Summer Exhibition
The world’s longest-running open call (since 1769)Thousands of works—from students to Royal Academicians—hung frame-to-frame in joyful chaos.
📍 Main galleries, June–August
The Taddei Tondo
The only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in the UKA tender, unfinished roundel—chisel marks still alive across Christ, the Infant St John and Mary.
📍 Collection Gallery (check daily location)
Collection Highlights
Academy history in portraits and prize piecesReynolds to Hockney—self-images of an institution that’s always argued with itself.
📍 Burlington House, collection room
Architecture Studio
The RA is also an architecture schoolModels, materials and city-scale questions shown plainly enough to argue with.
📍 Dedicated project space
Inspire your Friends
- The Summer Exhibition has run every year since 1769—even through wars—making it the world’s longest continuous open-submission show.
- Michelangelo’s ‘Taddei Tondo’ is the only marble by the artist in the UK; its unfinished surface preserves his working process.
- The RA Schools, a three-year postgraduate programme, is the oldest art school in Britain and historically offered free tuition to its students.
