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Royal Scottish Academy (RSA)

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Royal Scottish Academy (RSA)

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The Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture has a proud tradition of promoting contemporary art in Scotland through engaging and diverse exhibitions and fantastic scholarship, award & residency opportunities.

25/08/2026

Growing up in the post-war years, Joyce W. Cairns was affected by the unspoken impact conflict had on her own family. Her father rarely discussed his service during the Second World War and her mother lived with severe illness brought about by wartime trauma.

Following her mother’s death, Joyce gained access to her father's military archive, objects that would become the starting point for her first war paintings. At the same time, she continued to paint personal works that placed her family within the familiar surroundings of Fittie. Paintings such as this one, They Said the War Was Partly to Blame, confront painful memories of childhood and the lasting effects of conflict on family life.

📅 Explore Joyce W. Cairns: A Personal Odyssey in the gallery until Wednesday 2 September: bit.ly/4h25gBr

24/08/2026

We’re welcoming Amanda Levete to Edinburgh next month for the 2026 RSA Metzstein Discourse, and tickets are now on sale!

Amanda founded AL_A in 2009. She’s a winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize and has led AL_A on major cultural projects, including the Exhibition Road Quarter at the V&A Museum in London and the renovation of the Paisley Museum. At the Metzstein Discourse, she’ll reflect on architecture's role in shaping civic life, cultural identity and belonging in Scotland.

📅 Wednesday 30 September: bit.ly/4g5VpK6
📍 Edinburgh Futures Institute

21/08/2026

Joyce W. Cairns first exhibited at the RSA in 1971 with Dreaming of Auchronie and Berry Hill. This ambitious oil painting presents a surreal dreamscape in which the farmhouse at Auchronie, where she briefly lived with her then boyfriend, appears nestled within the chest of the central figure. In the same year, Joyce won the RSA Carnegie Travelling Scholarship, and she used the £150 award to travel all over Italy, hitch-hiking and travelling by train.

💭 You can view Dreaming of Auchronie and Berry Hill in the gallery now when you explore our current exhibiton, Joyce W. Cairns: A Personal Odyssey: bit.ly/4h25gBr

20/08/2026

Edinburgh may have been hit by the August rain, but you can still soak up the sun with our Summer print selection☀️
→John Houston RSA, Sunset over Fife
→David Mach HRSA, Passage
→John Mackechnie RSA, Luskentyre

Explore on the Academicians’ Gallery website: https://bit.ly/3UpbH8g

19/08/2026

From graffiti and sculpture to photography and painting, our recent artwork installation at NYX Hotel Edinburgh showcases the range of artists and artwork we work with through RSA Consultancy!

We worked with NYX to source artwork for their new hotel, working closely with Garuda Design to complement their distinctive interiors. On view you’ll find work by Daryl Terri Cooney and Ruby Lord, two artists we first met through New Contemporaries in 2020 and 2023, alongside London-based graffiti artist .EPOD. Ptolemy Elrington brings his inventive wall-based sculptures made from repurposed hubcaps, while works by Carl Moore, David Gilliver, Jason Keeley and Richard Heeps add colour throughout.

We can bring specialist knowledge to each project, helping clients find works that meet their brief, budget and space. For NYX, this meant working alongside their interior designers to build an art collection that feels cohesive with the hotel’s character.

🌟Learn more about Consultancy: bit.ly/3xD9MBQ
📸Images 1,3,5 and 6: Mike Caldwell

18/08/2026

When Joyce W. Cairns moved to the historic fishing village of Footdee (known locally as Fittie), terraced cottages, communal greens and the village’s distinctive fishing sheds became the stage for her paintings. Grounded in contemporary life, these works are filled with ships, cats, gulls, empty bottles and domestic clutter, all set against the backdrop of Aberdeen’s oil boom.

→Waiting for the Fleet, 2000
→Martini Rosso, 2003
→Gull, Fish and Squall, 2010

17/08/2026

Introducing the £10,000 RSA Elizabeth Lornie Moving Image Award 🎥

We’re delighted to be launching a new award today to support artists working in moving image in Scotland! Funded by the Elizabeth Lornie Charitable Trust, the award honours Elizabeth Lornie, who was born in Leith and was known for her generosity and lifelong passion for photography and cine film.

The award will support one artist to research, develop and produce a new body of moving-image work that will be exhibited at the Academy and entered into the RSA Collection: bit.ly/4gCeeVe

📅Deadline: Sunday 11 October
📸Zoe Irvine & Pernille Spence, film still

15/08/2026

There’s still time to explore the 2026 RSA Schools Art Award online exhibition! We received submissions from schools all over Scotland, and would like to wish a huge congratulations to the winners in the Brodies LLP Special Education Schools Awards:
✨ Cora Stubbs | 1st place, St Crispins School
✨ Jamie Rankin | 2nd place, Ogilvie School Campus
✨ Charlize Lafferty | 3rd place, Buchanan High School

→ Explore the winning works on our website until 31 August: bit.ly/4uLc9KA

13/08/2026

‘She made me feel that becoming an artist mattered, and that I mattered within it.’

Joyce Cairns has spent decades making paintings inspired by the world around her, from Footdee and Aberdeen to her relationships and memories. But her contribution to Scottish art extends beyond her own practice. As a teacher at Gray’s School of Art and the first woman President of the RSA, Joyce has had a huge influence on generations of artists.

In his text for the A Personal Odyssey catalogue, Robbie Bushe reflects on his first memories of Joyce and her generosity: ‘That instinct has never left her. Joyce takes people seriously. Students, young artists, colleagues. She commits to their development with both personal warmth and professional clarity. That level of attention is rare, and it has shaped generations.’

🎨Joyce W. Cairns: A Personal Odyssey is on view until 2 September

12/08/2026

Etching is a printmaking technique that uses acid and chemicals to create lines on a metal printing plate. To create an artwork, the plate is covered with ink and wiped before being passed through a press. The ink held in the lines and grooves transfers onto the paper, creating the final print.

Want to learn more? Join us for Archiving Architecture with Bronwen Sleigh RSA. In this unique masterclass, you’ll create printed works in response to Scotland’s architecture. This is a great opportunity to explore the RSA Collection, learn about Bronwen’s techniques and create your own artworks!

🗓️Friday 21 – Sunday 23 August: bit.ly/4hpUIMF
📍Edinburgh Printmakers

Address

The Mound
Edinburgh
EH22EL

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+441316246556

Website

http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/

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