Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

The 100th Anniversary

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[1] 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.[1]

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 Montreal Artists Association. Exhibitions were also held in St. John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

The third objective—to encourage the teaching of art and design in Canada—was found to be more challenging to address with the limited financial resources available to them.[2]

Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was elected as an associate, became a full member and later became president of the Academy.

The centennial year of the Academy was honoured by a 35 cent, 3 colour postage stamp.[5] 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 [6] who had designed the original building.

Academicians

Associates

• Armand Tatossian, painter[23]

• John Max, photographer[24]

• Richard Gorman, painter[7]
• Ruth Gowdy McKinley, first potter elected to Academy

• Suezan Aikins, printmaker

• Scott Plear, painting

2002 RCA Inductees List

• Catherine Farish, printmaking
• Susan Collett, ceramics

• AA Bronson
• Sara Diamond
• Marius Dubois
• Christian Eckart
• Faye Heavyshield
• Garry Neill Kennedy
• Rita McKeough
• Mary Scott
• John Will
• Justin Wonnacott

• Andre Bergeron[31]
• Sandra Bromley[31]
• Tara Bryan[31]
• Ginette Caron[31]
• Sean Caulfield[31]
• Naomi London[31]
• Sarah Maloney[31]
• Jean Pierre Morin[31]
• Nadia Myre[31]
• Anna Torma[31]
• Eva Lapka, ceramics[32]

• Clarence Dick[31]
• Christos Dikeakos,[31]
• Charles Elliott[31]
• Lynda Gammon[31]
• Rusdi Genest[31]
• Chief Tony Hunt[31]
• David MacWilliam[31]
• Les Manning[31]
• Barbara Paterson[31]
• Susan G. Scott[31]
• Andrew Wright[31]

• Diane Bisson[33]
• Marc Boutin[33]
• Luben Boykov[33]
• Karen Cantine[33]
• Donna Clare[33]
• Cora Cluett[33]
• Gene Dub, architect[33]
• Frédéric Metz[33]
• Louie Palu, photographer[33]
• Claude Provencher[33]
• Russell Yuristy[33]

• Claude Cormier, landscape architecture[34]
• Jacques Fournier, bookbinding[34]
• Libby Hague, printmaking[34]
• Tanya Harnett, interdisciplinary[34]
• Wesley Harris, metalsmithing[34]
• Peter Jacobs, landscape architecture[34]
• Lew Yung-Chien, photography[34]
• Amy Loewan, installation, mixed media[34]
• Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, interdisciplinary[34]
• Marie-Christiane Mathieu, interdisciplinary[34]
• Alexandra McCurdy, ceramics[34]
• Nancy Petry, mixed media[34]
• Alan Stein, book design[34]
• John Taylor, photography[34]

• Shuvinai Ashoona, drawing[34]
• David Blatherwick, painting[34]
• Ricardo L. Castro, photography, architecture[34]
• Alan R. Collyer, architecture[34]
• Rosalie Favell, photography[34]
• Les Graff, painting[34]
• Andrew Gruft, architecture[34]
• James Hart, sculpture[34]
• Helen Kerr, industrial design[34]
• Alain LeBrun, illustration, graphic design[34]
• Marian Penner Bancroft, photography, video art[34]
• Frank Shebageget, sculpture, installation[34]
• Allyson Simmie, jewellery design[34]
• Brendan Lee Satish Tang, sculpture[34]
• Peter von Tiesenhausen, sculpture, installation[34]
• Ian Wallace, photography, painting[34]
• Elizabeth Zvonar, collage, sculpture[34]

• Yael Brotman, printmaking[34]
• Diana Dean, painting, sculpture[34]
• Keith L. Graham, architecture[34]
• Barrie Jones, photography[34]
• Royden Mills, sculpture[34]
• Craig Richards, photography[34]
• Jean-Daniel Rohrer, painting[34]
• Marie Saint Pierre, fashion design[34]

• David T. Alexander, painting[35]
• Noel Best, architecture[35]
• Anne Carrier, architecture[35]
• Pierre Coupey, painting[35]
• Shayne Dark, sculpture[35]
• Lucy Hogg, painting[35]
• Katherine Knight, photography[35]
• Gary Pearson, painting and drawing[35]
• Udo Schliemann, design[35]

• 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[36]
• George Harding Cuthbertson (1929–2017), yacht designer[37]
• William Kurelek (1927–1977), artist[7]
• Robert Pilot (1898–1967), artist, muralist[38]
• Leslie Reid (born 1947), inducted 1977, painter and printmaker[39]
• John A. Schweitzer (born 1952), collagist
• Philip Surrey (1910–1990), painter
• George Campbell Tinning (1910–1996), painter
• Gentile Tondino (1923–2001), painter