Qualla: Royal Scottish Academy

Royal Scottish Academy: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Thirteen artists met in a back room above Stewart's Rooms on Waterloo Bridge in Edinburgh on 27 May 1826 to make a declaration of independence. They were tired of the Royal Institution, which they considered too elitist, too dominated by patrons rather than working artists. So they walked out and founded their own body: the Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. Eleven painters, one architect, one sculptor, and George Watson as their first president. Within twelve years they had a royal charter and a new name - the Royal Scottish Academy - and within ninety years they had taken over the very building their rivals once occupied at the foot of The Mound.

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Image: Katie Chan | CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Scottish Academy: Two Temples on The Mound

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0. The story of the RSA is bound up with two buildings that share a slope of artificial land in central Edinburgh. The Mound itself is the long earthen causeway built from spoil dumped during construction of the New Town in the late eighteenth century, creating a bridge between the ...

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Image: Suicasmo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Royal Scottish Academy: From Tenants to Owners

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexander Ignatius Roche, Public domain. When the RSA broke away from the Royal Institution in 1826, the new body had no building of its own. For decades it rented exhibition space. One of its central aims was to found a national gallery for Scotland, which it achieved in 1859 when Playfair's National Gallery opened. Th...

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Image: Alexander Ignatius Roche | Public domain

Royal Scottish Academy: Academicians and the Diploma Work

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Macnee, Public domain. The RSA is run by artists, for artists. Its membership consists of Academicians (RSA) and Associates (ARSA), elected by their peers from across painting, sculpture, architecture and printmaking. Honorary Academicians (HRSA), elected from outside Scotland, complete the body - curr...

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Image: Daniel Macnee | Public domain

Royal Scottish Academy: The Guthrie and the Granton Vault

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Mebanana at English Wikipedia., Public domain. The RSA gives the Guthrie Award annually to Scottish-based artists - it has done since 1920, longer than the Turner Prize has existed. Other awards include the Keith Award, the Latimer Award, and architecture prizes specific to Scottish practice. The Academy's historic collection...

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Image: The original uploader was Mebanana at English Wikipedia. | Public domain