{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Infobox museum | name = Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts | native_name = An tAcadamh Ibeirneach Ríoga<ref>{{Cite ISB|year=2023|type=prv|num=1|title=The Royal Hibernian Academy (Amendment Of Charter) Act 2023|date=20 December 2023}}</ref> | native_name_lang = ga | logo = | logo_upright = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | image = Royal Hibernian Academy building in Ely Place, Dublin, Ireland.jpg | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | map_type = Ireland Central Dublin | map_relief = | map_size = | map_caption = | coordinates = {{coord|53.337076|N|6.2568907|W|type:landmark_region:IE|display=inline,title}} | former_name = | established = {{Start date and age|1823|8|5|df=y}} | dissolved = <!-- {{End date|df=y|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | location = 15 Ely Place, Dublin, Ireland | type = Art gallery, Art studios | accreditation = | key_holdings = | collections = | collection_size = | visitors = | founder = | director = Patrick T. Murphy | president = Dr Abigail O’Brien | ceo = | chairperson = | curator = | architect = | historian = | owner = | public_transit = {{rint|dublin|luas}} St Stephen's Green | parking = | network = | website = {{URL|rhagallery.ie}} | embedded = }} The '''Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts''' ('''RHA''') is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823.<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=207|isbn=}}</ref> Like many other Irish institutions, such as the Royal Irish Academy, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became independent as the Irish Free State in December 1922.
==History== thumb|Academy House, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin (1824), mostly destroyed in 1916 The RHA was founded as the result of 30 Irish artists petitioning the government for a charter of incorporation. This having followed exhibitions held by the Dublin Society in 1816, 1817 and 1819 at its premises in Hawkins Street until the premises was sold and the artists were left without a dedicated exhibition space.<ref>{{cite web |title=Societies of Artists previous to the Royal Hibernian Academy - Irish Artists |url=https://www.libraryireland.com/irishartists/societies-artists.php |website=www.libraryireland.com |access-date=6 March 2026}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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 a 1916 fire after being struck by British artillery during the Easter Rising, as was most of the RHA's collection.<ref name="1916-exhibition">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Dubbe |first1=Aidan |title=Royal Hibernian Academy: a struggle across centuries |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/royal-hibernian-academy-a-struggle-across-centuries-1.3735704 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en |access-date=25 September 2025}}</ref> Over 500 pieces of art, including from artists Jack Butler Yeats, Madeline Green and John Lavery, were lost.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shortall |first1=Eithne |title=Culture caught in the crossfire |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/culture-caught-in-the-crossfire-mxcvl255278 |newspaper=The Sunday Times |language=en |access-date=11 July 2025}}</ref> The RHA was would not have its own exhibition premises for another 69 years, but continued with its established annual exhibitions.<ref name="1916-exhibition"/>
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.<ref name="kennedy">{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=S. B. |title=Irish art & modernism : 1880-1950 |date=1991 |publisher=Belfast : Published for The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin by The Institute of Irish Studies at The Queen's University |isbn=978-0-85389-490-2 |pages=115-146 |url=https://archive.org/details/irishartmodernis0000kenn/page/114/}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=McDonald|first=Frank|author-link=Frank McDonald (journalist)|title=The Destruction of Dublin|date=1985|publisher=Gill and Macmillan|isbn=0-7171-1386-8|location=Dublin|pages=221–222|oclc=60079186}}</ref> The building was closed between 2007 and 2009 for renovations.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.
== Selected exhibitions == The RHA has held an annual exhibition – an open submission art show – since 1826. It is "the largest in Ireland and the longest-running".<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
==Membership== The Academy recognises members, who may use "RHA", associate members "ARHA", and Honorary Council members "HRHA".<ref>{{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/}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
==See also== * Irish art
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{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}}
== External links == * {{official website}} * Current RHA members and membership procedures [http://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/ Members] {{Museums and Galleries in Ireland}} {{authority control}}
Category:Royal Hibernian Academy 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 Category:Art museums and galleries in Dublin (city)