Royal Hibernian Academy

File:Academy House, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin (1824).jpg

The RHA was founded as the result of 30 Irish artists petitioning the government for a charter of incorporation. According to the letters patent of 5 August 1823, The Royal Hibernian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture was established, which included a National School of Art.{{cite book | title = An Historical Guide to the City of Dublin | url = https://archive.org/details/anhistoricalgui02wriggoog | page = [https://archive.org/details/anhistoricalgui02wriggoog/page/n311 239] | last = Wright | first = George Newenham | author-link = George Newenham Wright | year=1825 | publisher = Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy}} The first elected president was the landscape painter, William Ashford. In 1824 architect Francis Johnston was made president. He had provided headquarters for the RHA at Academy House in Lower Abbey Street at his own expense.{{cite book | title = The Liffey in Dublin | isbn = 0-7171-2423-1 | page = 468 | last = de Courcy | first = J.W. | year=1996 | publisher = Gill & Macmillan}} The first exhibitions took place in May 1825 and were held annually from then on. To encourage interest in the arts, works displayed at the RHA were distributed by lot as prizes among subscribers. Works by Frederick William Burton, Daniel Maclise, J. M. W. Turner and David Wilkie, among others, were presented in this way.{{cite book | title = The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture | isbn = 978-0-631-22817-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/blackwellcompani00mcco/page/205 205] | last = McCormack | first = W.J. | year = 2001 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/blackwellcompani00mcco/page/205 }} The exhibitions and school prospered and by the end of the 19th century the RHA was the leading Irish institution involved in promoting visual arts.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Academy House was destroyed by fire in 1916 during the Easter Rising, as was most of the RHA's collection.{{cite web |title=Exhibitions: 27th of April Last |url=https://rhagallery.ie/events/exhibitions/27th-of-april-last/ |publisher=RHA |access-date=8 October 2024 |language=en-EN}} Over 500 pieces of art, including from artists Jack Butler Yeats, Madeline Green and John Lavery, were lost.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} The RHA was would not have its own exhibition premises for another 69 years, but continued with its established annual exhibitions.

In 1943, the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) was founded as a direct challenge to the RHA's exhibition policies, which it saw as reactionary and hindering the development of modernism in Ireland.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} This later changed, with one of the founders of the IELA, Louis le Brocquy, becoming a member of the Honorary Council of the RHA. The RHA's current mission statement explicitly values both contemporary and traditional art forms.

In the 1970s the RHA constructed a new building in Ely Place in Dublin. This building replaced the gallery's previous premises, a Victorian house that had been home to Oliver St. John Gogarty. This was demolished and the property developer, Matt Gallagher, agreed to build a modern gallery on the site for the RHA. After the sudden death of Gallagher in January 1974, it emerged that he had left no provision in his will for the completion of the gallery. The building lay unfinished for a number of years before it was completed.{{Cite book|last=McDonald|first=Frank|author-link=Frank McDonald (journalist)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60079186|title=The Destruction of Dublin|date=1985|publisher=Gill and Macmillan|isbn=0-7171-1386-8|location=Dublin|pages=221–222|oclc=60079186}} The building was closed between 2007 and 2009 for renovations.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/renovated-rha-building-a-real-work-of-art-1.906502|title=Renovated RHA building a real work of art|last=McDonald|first=Frank|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=29 October 2019}} This building houses six galleries; here the Academy mounts the annual exhibition. In addition, the Academy curates frequent exhibitions and frequently is responsible for major retrospectives of the work of Irish artists. The Academy has a large collection of Irish art, but this is not on display.

In 2009 the RHA refounded its school, the RHA drawing school. In Ely Place, it has a large drawing studio and 6 studios which are available to artists through open submissions. Other studios are also administered by the school, such as the Tony O'Malley residency in Kilkenny. It runs TUD-accredited courses (since 2018) in Painting and drawing techniques delivered by a faculty made up of Academy members and other artists. Current tutors are Colin Martin RHA (principal), Mick O'Dea PPRHA, Una Sealy RHA, Blaise Smith RHA, Geraldine O'Neill RHA, Sahoko Blake, Conor Walton, Raphael Hynes and Sean Molloy among others. It also holds workshops with international tutors and self-directed life-drawing sessions.

The Academy is funded by: the Arts Council, through revenue from its annual exhibition, and from benefactors, patrons and friends of the Academy.

The RHA has held an annual exhibition – an open submission art show – since 1826. It is "the largest in Ireland and the longest-running".{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/sales-dip-at-rha-s-annual-exhibition-1.3638938|title=Sales dip at RHA's annual exhibition|last=Coyle|first=Dominic|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=29 October 2019}}

FUTURES (originally EuroJet Futures) is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring selected emerging artists from Ireland. It began in 2001 and has had three series – each with annual exhibitions. Additionally, each series has had an 'anthology' presenting all of the artists from that series together.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rhagallery.ie/exhibitions/the-anthology-exhibition/|title=The Anthology Exhibition|date=2 December 2013|website=RHA|language=en-US|access-date=29 October 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.rhagallery.ie/exhibitions/futures-anthology/|title=FUTURES Anthology|date=6 May 2015|website=RHA|language=en-US|access-date=29 October 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/high-anxiety-and-the-fine-art-of-falling-apart-1.3709866|title=High anxiety and the fine art of falling apart|last=Dunne|first=Aidan|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=29 October 2019}}

The Academy recognises members, who may use "RHA", associate members "ARHA", and Honorary Council members "HRHA".{{cite web |title=Members |publisher=Royal Hibernian Academy|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805101402/https://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/ |archive-date=2021-08-05|url=https://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-art-organizations/royal-hibernian-academy.htm|title=Royal Hibernian Academy of Art (RHA), Ireland|website=www.visual-arts-cork.com}}

• Irish art

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |first=Norman |last=MacLeod of MacLeod |author-link=Norman MacLeod of MacLeod |title=Report upon the affairs and past management of the Royal Hibernian Academy

|date=28 May 1858 |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=Session 1857–58, Vol. XLVI, No.294 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1248031-1001 }}

• {{cite book |title=Memorial and Statement of Treasurer of Royal Hibernian Academy to Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, September 1865; Report from Eyre Crowe on Royal Hibernian Academy's Schools of Art

|date=10 August 1866 |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=Session 1866, Vol. LV, p.221 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1249146-1001 }}

• {{cite book |author=Royal Commission on Science and Art Department in Ireland |title=Vol.1: Report

|date=1869 |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=Session 1868–69, Vol. XXIV, p.1 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1249551-1001 }}

• {{cite book |author=Royal Commission on Science and Art Department in Ireland |title=Vol.2: Minutes of evidence, Appendix, &c.

|date=1869 |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=Session 1868–69, Vol. XXIV, p.43 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1249552-1001 }}

• {{cite book |author=Committee of Enquiry into the Work carried on by the Royal Hibernian Academy and Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin |title=Cd.3256: Report with minutes of evidence, appendices, and index

|date=1906 |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=Session 1906, Vol. XXXI, p.799 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1255013-1001 |location=Dublin |publisher=HMSO}}

• {{official website}}
• Current RHA members and membership procedures [http://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/ Members]

{{Museums and Galleries in Ireland}}

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Category:Art museums and galleries in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Learned societies of Ireland

Category:Museums in Dublin (city)

Category:Academies of arts

Category:1823 in art

Category:1823 establishments in Ireland

Category:Organizations established in 1823