The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
Contents
History
1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General of Canada, John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, was its first patron. The painter Lucius O'Brien was its first president.
The objects of the Academy as stated in the 1881 publication of the organization's constitution were three-fold:
First - the institution of a National Gallery at the seat of Government;
Second - the holding of Exhibitions in the principal cities of the Dominion;
Third - the establishment of Schools of Art and Design.
In the same publication, two levels of membership were described: Academicians and Associates. No more than forty individuals could be Academicians at one time, while the number of Associates was not limited. All Academicians were required to give an example of their work to the collection of the National Gallery. They were also permitted to show more pieces in Academy-sponsored exhibitions than Associates.
The inaugural exhibition was held in Ottawa and the first Academicians were inducted, including the first woman Academician, Charlotte Schreiber. Through the next 10 years, the Academy held annual exhibitions, often in cooperation with regional artists' societies. Exhibitions in Toronto were a joint project of the Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists, while those held in Montreal were held in partnership with the Art Association of Montreal. Exhibitions were also held in St. John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Additional academicians and associates were added each year until the membership had more than doubled by 1890. Members were drawn from all areas of the country and included anglophones and francophones. Men continued to out-number women and those female members were identified as painters not as designers or architects.
As Academicians joined, they donated an example of their work to the National Gallery of Canada, building the collection of the as-yet unincorporated institution. A temporary home was found for the collection in a building next to the Supreme Court of Canada and the first curator, John W.H. Watts, RCA was appointed to begin organizing exhibitions.
1891 to present
Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was elected as an associate, became a full member and later became president of the Academy.
In 1906, artist George Agnew Reid was elected president of the Academy. He held this position until 1909.
The centennial year of the Academy was honoured by a 35 cent, 3 colour postage stamp. The stamp features an image of the original centre block of the Parliament Buildings and the text "Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 1880–1980", with the name "Thomas Fuller", a member of the Academy and the Dominion Architect of Canada who had designed the original building.
Members
The Academy is composed of members from across Canada representing over twenty visual arts disciplines. This list is not inclusive. See also Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Academy membership in 1907
Academicians
Associates
Inducted in 1971
Alfred Pellan , artist
Inducted in 1973
Armand Tatossian, painter
Inducted in 1974
John Max, photographer
Inducted in 1976
Richard Gorman, painter
Ruth Gowdy McKinley, first potter elected to Academy
Peter H. Kolisnyk, sculptor
Inducted in 1990
Suezan Aikins, printmaker
Inducted in 2004
Scott Plear, painting
Gregory Henriquez, architect
Orland Larson, goldsmith
Inducted in 2005
Aiko Suzuki, textile and visual artist.
Inducted in 2008
Catherine Farish, printmaking
Susan Collett, ceramics
Inducted in 2009
AA Bronson
Sara Diamond
Marius Dubois
Christian Eckart
Faye Heavyshield
Garry Neill Kennedy
Rita McKeough
Mary Scott
John Will
Justin Wonnacott
Inducted in 2012
Andre Bergeron
Sandra Bromley
Tara Bryan
Ginette Caron
Sean Caulfield
Naomi London
Sarah Maloney
Jean Pierre Morin
Nadia Myre
Anna Torma
Eva Lapka, ceramics
Inducted in 2013
Clarence Dick
Christos Dikeakos,
Charles Elliott
Lynda Gammon
Rusdi Genest
Chief Tony Hunt
David MacWilliam
Les Manning
Barbara Paterson
Susan G. Scott
Andrew Wright
Inducted in 2014
Diane Bisson
Marc Boutin
Luben Boykov
Karen Cantine
Donna Clare
Cora Cluett
Gene Dub, architect
Frédéric Metz
Louie Palu, photographer
Claude Provencher
Russell Yuristy
Inducted in 2015
Claude Cormier, landscape architecture
Jacques Fournier, bookbinding
Libby Hague, printmaking
Tanya Harnett, interdisciplinary
Wesley Harris, metalsmithing
Peter Jacobs, landscape architecture
Lew Yung-Chien, photography
Amy Loewan, installation, mixed media
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, interdisciplinary
Marie-Christiane Mathieu, interdisciplinary
Alexandra McCurdy, ceramics
Nancy Petry, mixed media
Alan Stein, book design
John Taylor, photography
Inducted in 2016
Shuvinai Ashoona, drawing
David Blatherwick, painting
Ricardo L. Castro, photography, architecture
Alan R. Collyer, architecture
Rosalie Favell, photography
Les Graff, painting
Andrew Gruft, architecture
James Hart, sculpture
Helen Kerr, industrial design
Alain LeBrun, illustration, graphic design
Marian Penner Bancroft, photography, video art
Frank Shebageget, sculpture, installation
Allyson Simmie, jewellery design
Brendan Lee Satish Tang, sculpture
Peter von Tiesenhausen, sculpture, installation
Ian Wallace, photography, painting
Elizabeth Zvonar, collage, sculpture
Inducted in 2017
Yael Brotman, printmaking
Diana Dean, painting, sculpture
Keith L. Graham, architecture
Barrie Jones, photography
Royden Mills, sculpture
Craig Richards, photography
Jean-Daniel Rohrer, painting
Marie Saint Pierre, fashion design
Inductees for 2018
David T. Alexander, painting
Noel Best, architecture
Anne Carrier, architecture
Pierre Coupey, painting
Shayne Dark, sculpture
Lucy Hogg, painting
Katherine Knight, photography
Gary Pearson, painting and drawing
Udo Schliemann, design
Barrie Jones, visual artist (photo, video, sculpture)
Others
Rebecca Belmore (born 1960), performance and installation work
Sheila Butler (born 1938), visual artist
Luc Courchesne (born 1952) (inducted 2010 by way of the RCA Nomination process), interactive art
George Harding Cuthbertson (1929–2017), yacht designer
Douglas Patrick George (1943–2025), visual artist
William Kurelek (1927–1977), artist
Robert Pilot (1898–1967), artist, muralist
Leslie Reid (born 1947), inducted 1977, painter and printmaker
John A. Schweitzer (born 1952), collagist
Philip Surrey (1910–1990), painter
George Campbell Tinning (1910–1996), painter
Gentile Tondino (1923–2001), painter