Architecture Room at this Year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

ARCHITECTURE ROOM AT THIS YEAR’S ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION

APRIL 2022

Níall McLaughlin and artist Rana Begum will co-curate the architecture room at this year’s Royal

Academy Summer Exhibition. Celebrated British sculptor Alison Wilding RA will co-ordinate the 254th exhibtion.

This year Wilding will explore the theme of Climate. “The theme of Summer Exhibition 2022 is

CLIMATE in all its manifestations. Whether it presents as crisis or opportunity, nightmare or

memories, or simply our everyday experience of weather, - CLIMATE is a huge all-embracing and

urgent subject.”

The Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show which has

taken place every year without interruption since 1769. The members of the Summer Exhibition

Committee serve in rotation, ensuring that every year the exhibition has a distinctive character, with

each Royal Academician responsible for a particular gallery space. Works from all over the world are

judged democratically on merit and the final selection is made during the eight-day hang within the

galleries.

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PROGRESS

MARCH 2017

Below are some from the Natural History Museum site showing the scaffold ‘tunnel’ going up at the Museum. This is the framework required to lift, manipulate, and move the blue whale skull into position in a few weeks.

Though the main hall has had a sperm whale in it before, this was only around 15m long. In contrast, the blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, is about 30m long once assembled.

Unfortunately, due to the various extensions and alterations to the Museum over time, the skull can only come in via the front doors. And – much like a very large, very heavy, very valuable sofa – it’s a case of squeezing it in at strange angles.