One of the most exciting events on the College
calendar – and indeed London’s annual art and
design calendar – is undoubtedly the graduate show.
The culmination of all our students’ hard work, it is,
in essence, a series of exhibitions at the end of the
summer term featuring the output of our final-year
MA, MPhil and PhD students. But SHOW RCA is so
much more than a graduation event.
Vogue has described it as “a great place to discover
big names of the future”, while according to The
Times, SHOW RCA “offers the chance for people to
see the cream of young artists”. For members of the
public interested in discovering new directions in art
and design, SHOW RCA is a unique chance to view
– and buy – the work of some of the UK’s brightest
talent and to meet the individuals who created it to
learn more about their inspirations and ambitions. For
the RCA itself, it is an opportunity to communicate
the collective vision, identity and achievement of each
department, while at the same time offering us the
chance to evaluate our achievements under the critical
gaze of the professional art, design, manufacturing and
business worlds.
Most importantly of all, however, SHOW RCA is
an opportunity for RCA students to make what
is for many their first real mark as a professional
practitioner; to show the many thousands of people
who pass through our doors what they’re made of; to
present their work to the worlds of art and design. It is
where heads of industry and the arts are able to meet
potential employees, and for prospective clients to
commission new work.
SHOW RCA allows everyone – from schoolchild to art
critic, dealer to industrialist – to take a look inside
and be inspired by the RCA. And it is the creativity,
innovation and imagination of our students, supported
by the passion of the College itself, that have made
this happen.
At the RCA we take great pride in the talent we are
privileged to be able to nurture and the calibre of
work these talented students produce. ‘Visionary’
is a word that’s been frequently applied to the work
displayed in SHOW RCA and we like to think that a
visionary approach is reflected in every aspect of the
planning and implementation of the exhibitions.
In 2007, for example, with the generous sponsorship
of the Conran Foundation, the RCA staged a special
show in Kensington Gardens, directly opposite the
College. It was called ‘The Great Exhibition 2007’ in
honour of the original art and design showcase of
the same name which was held in Hyde Park in 1851,
and which led directly to the establishment of South
Kensington’s notable museums and educational
institutions, including the RCA. Featuring concurrent
exhibitions throughout the College galleries and a
specially erected tent in the park – close to the site of
the original Great Exhibition itself – for the first time
in living memory fine art and applied art postgraduate
students were able to exhibit with those from design,
architecture, humanities, communications, fashion
and textiles. It was a resounding success, and proof
positive that the RCA ‘ideas factory’ remains at the
forefront of postgraduate education; a place where,
as Sir Terence Conran noted while announcing his
support for the project, “design and art meet and do
marvellous things together”. In 2008, SHOW RCA
once again attracted tens of thousands of visitors
and generated miles of column inches in newspapers
and magazines. A truly spectacular event, we think of
SHOW RCA as the College’s calling card to the world.
Do, if you haven’t already, come and visit this year.