Royal Academy Schools receive £10m donation
Melanie May | 25 February 2019 | News
The Royal Academy Schools has received its biggest ever donation – a gift of £10m from Julia and Hans Rausing.
The donation is the most significant gift in the 250-year history of the RA Schools, and will fund a restoration and renewal project to ensure the institution’s future. The renewal project will begin in 2021.
Designed by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA, who recently completed the Royal Academy’s redevelopment with Julian Harrap, it will create a campus with increased space for studios, including a new suite of workshops in Burlington Gardens. The historic Sydney Smirke studios, Cast Corridor and Life Room, built in 1870, will be restored to maximise space and light. There will also be a new suite of technical workshops to support all technologies, a new RA Schools Library, the architecture studio will be renewed and the layout improved for access for students and tutors.
In recognition of the gift, the new RA Schools buildings will be called The Julia and Hans Rausing Campus.
Julia and Hans Rausing said:
“The RA Schools have produced some of the world’s most famous artists since their inception 250 years ago. It was founded to develop the brightest young artists based on merit. The RA Schools remain free and independent today and our gift allows for the restoration of the fabric of the building and its survival for future generations of artists.”
Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy of Arts said:
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“One of the founding purposes of the Royal Academy was to provide a school of art to train the next generation of artists. 250 years later, the Royal Academy Schools is one of the best in the world. This major gift from Julia and Hans Rausing will ensure its success for the next 250 years.”
In December 2018, Julia and Hans Rausing gave another donation of £2.5m, the closing gift to the Royal Academy’s recent transformational redevelopment. In acknowledgment of this gift, the new public route linking Burlington House to Burlington Gardens was renamed The Julia and Hans Rausing Hall. Their total donation is £12.5m.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.