Friends of the RA
Get closer to art and artists
Friends of the RA
There's never been a better time to become a Friend of the Royal Academy. Join us in our 250th anniversary year to enjoy the very best of the new RA's expanded campus and artistic programme, and help us to continue our work as an independent home for art, education and debate.
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All Friends get
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New for Friends in 2018
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Explore the new RA
We’ve just unveiled the new RA and invite all our Friends to come and explore the newly transformed spaces and facilities, including:
• New galleries to exhibit treasures from the RA Collection and works by Royal Academicians past and present.
• More space for displays from the RA Schools students and architecture installations.
• New social and dining areas, including a café and cocktail bar in the historic Dorfman Senate Rooms. -
Exclusive views of new exhibitions
Our world-class exhibitions programme continues throughout 2018. Our inaugural exhibition Tacita Dean: LANDSCAPE is now on in the new Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries, with the 250th Summer Exhibition and The Great Spectacle coming soon.
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Expanded events programme
Our new 260-seat Lecture Theatre builds on the RA’s heritage of rigorous and lively debate, hosting an expanded programme of talks, lectures and workshops. Friends receive priority booking for all events.
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Exclusive Friends offers
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10% discount in the RA Shop
Exclusive 10% savings when you shop in-store or online at the RA Shop*.
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All-day access to the Keeper's House
A café, restaurant, bar and garden for Friends to enjoy in the heart of Mayfair.
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Free quarterly magazine
Learn more about our exhibitions, artists and history with the RA Magazine, published quarterly and delivered straight to your door.
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I do not think there is a more pleasurable or fulfilling thing to be than a Friend of the Royal Academy. I am passionate about the RA and think it stands for all the very best in British cultural life.
Stephen Fry
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Membership benefits
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Priority and free entry
Friends continue to receive free entry to exhibitions, with a family guest. Our exclusive private views invite Friends to visit exhibitions ahead of opening and away from the crowds.
Please note, you must show a membership card along with a valid ID (such as a driving licence, bank or credit card) at the gallery entrance. We’ll check your ID in order to ensure Friends have the best experience possible. Membership is non-transferable.
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Priority booking and news
Stay in the know about the latest at the RA with our weekly Friends enews, alerting Friends to upcoming events, exhibitions and ticket releases.
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Exclusive events for Friends
Discover, learn and experience with Friends talks, workshops and special events.
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RA250 memberships
Be part of our anniversary – and support the next 250 years of art and artists
To celebrate our 250th birthday this year, we are offering limited edition memberships – giving you the opportunity to get closer to the new Royal Academy of Arts and our expanded programme.
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As a Friend, you could help us even more – at no extra cost to you
Thank you for supporting the RA through your Friends membership. As an independent organisation, we rely on the generosity of our Friends and visitors to continue our programme of exhibitions, education and debate.
The government’s Gift Aid scheme allows us to reclaim 25p for every £1 of your membership. All we need is your consent - no extra payments! Simply make your declaration to support the RA even more.
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Over 40 years of Friends
We asked our Friends what the RA means to them
In 2017, the number of Friends passed the 100,000 mark. To celebrate this, and the scheme’s 40th anniversary, we asked members what being a Friend has meant to them.
Rebecca Hunter, friend for one year
Rebecca’s first impression of the RA, from a visit with her aunt a few years ago, is still fresh in her mind. “I was blown away by the architecture: you walk into the courtyard, and you realise it’s not just an incredible place to enjoy artwork but it’s also an incredible building as well.” She had always meant to return, and so after graduating and moving to London for work she signed up as a Friend in May. “I’d probably describe myself as a culture vulture. So I love anything where I can learn and develop and experience different things.”
For someone who is fairly new to London, the RA and in particular the Keeper’s House have been welcome hideaways from the hustle and bustle. “I love the garden – when you’re in Soho you can escape the tourists and go for a drink. I always bring my family here when they come up from Cheshire because it feels really secret.” The highlights of her first few months as a Friend have included the David Hockney RA show, a chocolate and wine tasting evening, and enjoying art with a glass of champagne in hand at the Summer Exhibition Friends Preview evening. “It’s not often you get to do that in a gallery.”
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40 years of Friends
We asked our Friends what the RA means to them
This year, the number of Friends passed the 100,000 mark. To celebrate this, and the scheme’s 40th anniversary, we asked members what being a Friend has meant to them.
Lynne Nesbit, Friend for 40 years
“There was a bit about me that really enjoyed sailing through the doors past the queues,” says Lynne, recalling what it felt like to be one of the first ever Friends. “And then sinking into those leather sofas in the Friends Room and just feeling part of something very gracious and uplifting. But there was a sense of commitment as well – I wasn’t just popping in.” Lynne has been a Friend for the 40 years that the scheme has been running, and, although she regrets the demise of the Friends Room sofas, she has been to “almost every exhibition”. These include many that, as a great lover of the Impressionists, she might never have chosen to see if she hadn’t been able to “waltz in” – the Anish Kapoor show and most recently Abstract Expressionism.
But while in some ways the RA has been her “London club”, it’s much more than that. “The Academy elevates one’s consciousness, because you’re taken out of your mundane world into something that is higher. And that is something that everybody needs.” She feels so strongly that she has left a gift to the RA in her will. “It’s so important to make sure that this great institution carries on, because it’s an academy. Being a Friend, I know I’m also supporting living artists.”
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40 years of Friends
We asked our Friends what the RA means to them
This year, the number of Friends passed the 100,000 mark. To celebrate this, and the scheme’s 40th anniversary, we asked members what being a Friend has meant to them.
Dee Oteng, Friend for 7 years
One of Dee’s memorable moments at the RA was when she went to the Summer Exhibition. “I was looking at a painting and the person behind me shouted ‘It’s mine!‘” And it was the artist, who was crying because he was so overwhelmed that his piece had been selected. He was an engineer by profession who had been made redundant and his wife was supporting him while he lived his dream of being an artist. I felt so happy for him. If mine was selected I’d probably cry as well.”
Although Dee has a degree in art history and philosophy, the RA for her is about such experiences, as well as getting up close with the artwork itself. Being a Friend allows her to see exhibitions with fewer people around, to experience the works in a more intimate way. She also visits shows at least once by herself to absorb them without anyone asking her questions. After that, she’ll often take her friend Becky, an art teacher. “We have the same kind of pace around a show. I learn from her, she learns from me.” She rates Sensation as her favourite show, but still looks back on 2009, when she first became a Friend, as a golden year. “I saw the Summer Exhibition, then Anish Kapoor, then Van Gogh. I visited every single show about four times.”
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40 years of Friends
We asked our Friends what the RA means to them
This year, the number of Friends passed the 100,000 mark. To celebrate this, and the scheme’s 40th anniversary, we asked members what being a Friend has meant to them.
Fionagh Green, Friend for ten years
For Fionagh Green, an early experience of learning to paint was formative in a journey to becoming an art lover and eventually a Friend of the RA: “I had lessons from the watercolourist Michael Chaplin, but I think I told him I was his worst ever pupil and he didn’t argue! I think in a way that made me appreciate good art.”
Now, as a long-time Friend of the RA, Green finds the Academy an oasis: “I used to come up to London for work and would visit the RA. There was the beauty of the building and the art was challenging, and the tea was good too.”
For Fionagh, as well as the memories of good times, such as dancing to the Kaiser Chiefs at the Summer Exhibition Preview Party, her time as a Friend is about the feeling of being lost in the moment in front of a picture. It is also the intimacy of an artist-run institution that appeals. She remembers sitting on the floor listening to a talk by Yinka Shonibare RA and being struck by his enthusiasm and the experience of meeting him in person. “The RA’s really good at opening your eyes to different things. I always thought that I was more a Pre-Raphaelite than a Hans Hofmann, but I’m not so sure now.”
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40 years of Friends
We asked our Friends what the RA means to them
This year, the number of Friends passed the 100,000 mark. To celebrate this, and the scheme’s 40th anniversary, we asked members what being a Friend has meant to them.
Jason Leech, Friend for 12 years
Jason Leech’s affection for the Royal Academy was sparked during sixth-form visits while studying his General Studies course. But he’d been coming since he was 13. “And at some point I decided that the RA was no longer a passing acquaintance, because I was spending so much time here.”
“It is a friendship in every single sense, and we’ve been together for more than ten years,” he says. “The RA actually tells a story and brings the audience into the exhibition, explaining why it has chosen to show what you’ve chosen to see.” One of the most important functions of the Academy, he thinks, is how its educational work reaches out to people no matter their origins, echoing his own ideals. For Jason, however, the most distinctive part of the RA’s programme, and something he never misses, is the Summer Exhibition. “It’s contemporary, of the present, and created by the institution itself. I think that is unique, and enchanting.”
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What's it like being a Friend of the RA?
Hear from some of our Friends
Find out what it’s like to be a Friend of the Royal Academy in this short video.
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As a Friend of the RA, you help us:
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Maintain our independence
The Royal Academy is a self-supporting charity, which receives no revenue funding from the government. We rely on money from Friends like you to be able to continue our work and remain a centre for visual arts in Britain and the world.
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Conserve the nation’s artistic heritage
The RA Collection tells the story of British art and artists from the 18th Century to the present day. Highlights include major works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Millais, Leighton, Waterhouse, Sargent, Spencer and Hockney. Our Library is the oldest institutional Fine Arts library in the United Kingdom, with a significant collection of books, prints, drawings and photographs.
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Nurture the next generation of great artists
The RA Schools have trained some of Britain’s most famous artists and are regarded throughout the world as a centre of artistic excellence. The Schools gives students the platform to develop their ideas, and the foundation to become a professional artist.
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Thank you to our RA250 Friend and RA250 Supporter members
We are extremely grateful to the generous individuals who have contributed to the future success of the new RA by purchasing a limited edition RA250 Friend or RA250 Supporter membership. We are equally indebted to all the Friends of the RA for their continued support.
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Contact us
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Online: email friends@royalacademy.org.uk or use the online form
By phone: 020 7300 8090
Lines are open 10am – 5pm, seven days a week.In person: Visit the Friends Desk in the main reception of Burlington House
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By post:
Friends of the RA
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House, Piccadilly
London, W1J 0BDTo find out more about your membership, communications and benefits, visit our Friends FAQs page.
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Need a replacement card?
If you have lost your Friends of the RA card, use the online form to request a new card.Gift Aid enquiries
020 7300 5816To book wheelchairs and disabled parking
020 7300 8090
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