The Royal Academy has announced plans to expand its Collection Gallery in Burlington Gardens into an ambitious and elegant double-height space. This project will significantly enhance the RA’s free offer for visitors by allowing a greater selection of works from the RA’s rich collection to be displayed. The RA has received generous support from an anonymous donor to realise this project. It is designed by David Chipperfield Architects, who completed the RA’s transformative redevelopment in 2018 and the RA Schools restoration and renewal project in 2024, together with Julian Harrap Architects.
Burlington Gardens was originally designed by Sir James Pennethorne for the University of London and opened in 1870. The RA Collection Gallery project will restore, in a modern interpretation of its original design, Pennethorne’s double-height examination hall in the west wing of the building. The project will create a striking 12-metre-high gallery with a mezzanine on the first floor, ensuring accessibility at both levels. The design allows for greater freedom in how the gallery can be used, opening up the opportunity to share new inspiring narratives from the RA Collection, whilst creating an inviting space to welcome visitors.
The current Collection Gallery will close to the public from 10th October. The whole of 6 Burlington Gardens will close to the public from 27th October and will reopen in early 2027. Burlington House, accessible from Piccadilly, will remain open as usual and the RA’s 2026 exhibition programme will be unaffected.
Simon Wallis OBE, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts said:
‘The RA has an important and growing permanent collection. This project will create a stunning David Chipperfield Architects designed double-height gallery, restoring the building with reference to its original design and further enhancing our offer to visitors. We are extremely grateful to our anonymous donor for their support on this very special project.’
The RA Collection Gallery Project is the third and final phase of the RA’s Masterplan Programme.
Previous stages include the RA250 Project (completed in 2018) and the RA Schools Restoration and
Renewal Project (completed in 2024). As an independent charity that does not receive revenue
funding from the government, we continue to fundraise for associated costs, our endowment, and
revenue support.
About
At the founding of the Royal Academy in December 1768, the commitment to build a collection of
works was born. It was decreed that no-one was to be regarded a member of the Academy until they
had, “deposited in the Royal Academy, to remain there, a Picture, Bas relief or other Specimen of
[their] Abilities”. These so-called ‘Diploma Works’ form the core of the Academy’s permanent
Collection; a unique group of paintings, sculptures, models, drawings, prints and more recently timebased–media presented by artists and architects upon their election. The Collection continues to
grow, ever reflecting the range and diversity of art made in Britain. Distinct from the Diploma Works,
the Collection also grew from the Academy’s mission to train the next generations of artists. Fine
examples of classical and renaissance art were gradually amassed for study and emulation. The
most striking example is perhaps Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, the only carving by the artist in the
UK.
Now numbering over 40,000 works, the Collection is a treasure trove: spanning over five centuries
of art and architecture, and showcasing the history of the Academy and the evolution of a distinctive
British School of artists from the eighteenth century to the present day. It was awarded Designation
status by Arts Council England in 2011, recognising its importance as a vital resource which
represents Britain’s cultural heritage, and the development of artistic practice.
The Collection includes paintings by founder members such as Joshua Reynolds PRA and Thomas
Gainsborough RA, landscapes by JMW Turner RA and John Constable RA in the nineteenth century,
to those by David Hockney RA and Hurvin Anderson RA in the twentieth and twenty-first. Sculptors
from John Flaxman RA to Lynn Chadwick RA, Elizabeth Frink RA and Yinka Shonibare RA are joined
by architects including Sir John Soane RA, Sir Edwin Lutyens PRA, Dame Zaha Hadid RA and
Farshid Moussavi RA.
All images Visualisation of the Royal Academy’s new double-height Collection Gallery. Courtesy David Chipperfield Architects
