Qualla: Institute of Contemporary Arts

Institute of Contemporary Arts: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Somewhere in the administrative offices of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, preserved behind glass, is a bloodstain on the wall with a handwritten note beside it: 'this is Norman's blood.' Norman Rosenthal, then director of exhibitions, had been assaulted by a group of squatters who had occupied the upper floors of the building in the 1970s — a period when the ICA was known, gently put, for anarchic administration. The bloodstain stayed. In a building that has housed everything from Picasso retrospectives to the world's first cybercafe to queer techno raves, preserving a bloodstain as institutional memory seems entirely in keeping.

Institute of Contemporary Arts: Founded in Opposition

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The ICA was established in 1946 by Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, and a group of artists, writers, and critics who had grown frustrated with the conservatism of the Royal Academy. Their explicit model was the Leeds Arts Club of 1903 — a multi-disciplinary space for avant-garde deb...

Institute of Contemporary Arts: Where British Culture Changed

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The list of what first happened at the ICA reads like a counter-history of British culture. The Independent Group — artists and critics who gathered there between 1952 and 1963 — effectively launched British Pop Art. Richard Hamilton curated 'Man, Machine and Motion' in 1955; his...

Institute of Contemporary Arts: Turbulence and Survival

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The ICA's history is not one of smooth institutional progress. For a period in the 1990s, the electrical goods company Toshiba paid to have its logo on every piece of ICA publicity, effectively renaming the institution 'ICA/Toshiba.' A financial crisis in the late 2000s, followin...

Institute of Contemporary Arts: A Palace Annex for the Unacceptable

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nash House sits inside Carlton House Terrace, a stucco-fronted Regency block designed by John Nash, steps from The Mall, within sight of Buckingham Palace, and next to the Duke of York Steps. The setting is magnificent and improbable — one of London's grandest addresses housing a...