Royal Academy of Arts: 250th Anniversary

Lord Luce Excerpts

Wednesday 12th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Luce (CB)]

My Lords, it is really most refreshing to take part in a debate where it is almost impossible to disagree with any of the other speakers. I am very glad to follow the noble Lord, Lord Jones, and listen to him talk about his love of the arts and all the exhibitions he has witnessed. I agree entirely with him that we are talking about a national centre of excellence. In particular I must thank my noble friend Lord Cormack, for that is what he is, for leading this debate of celebration. We are not celebrating a great deal nowadays, but it is a celebration of a remarkable 250 years of history of a great art centre.

I ought to declare an interest as an emeritus trustee. The merits of being an emeritus trustee, of course, is that I have the privilege of being associated with the Royal Academy but with no responsibility whatever. That is a very enjoyable thing to have, and a great luxury. For a moment I want to join my noble friend Lord Cormack, and others, in standing back and just looking at this extraordinary achievement in this national gallery. It is something to celebrate at a time when we as a country are very divided and introspective. This is a really positive achievement to celebrate. As I said, it is a truly national centre of excellence—one that can be enjoyed by all 100,000 friends from all over the country. Throughout those 250 years, it has had the support of monarchs from King George III to Queen Elizabeth II, with the founding principle of promoting the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of visual arts and architecture. It is a national focus for those things. As my noble friend Lord Cormack said, it is in a unique position in the arts world as a centre for artists, sculptors, architects and printmakers.

As we have heard, the last year has seen the most impressive redevelopment that I think the Piccadilly building has ever had, remembering the move from Somerset House to, eventually, Piccadilly in the 19th century. The linking of Burlington House with Burlington Gardens has been quite remarkable. I walked around it again yesterday morning to get myself up to date. To have created 70% extra space in that joint building under the leadership of the architect Sir David Chipperfield has been miraculous, and the range of facilities is also very special. For example, yesterday I saw the remarkable Renzo Piano architecture exhibition in one of the new rooms. There is also the new Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, where I recently heard Sir David Cannadine give a brilliant lecture on Sir Winston Churchill’s qualities as a painter. The variety of learning to be had at the Royal Academy is quite remarkable.

I want to reinforce the remarks that have been made about funding. For five years I had the privilege of being Arts Minister, and here I ought to say that I owe a great deal to my noble friend Lord Cormack for the advice and support that he gave me at that time. During that period I paid my first visit as a Minister to the Royal Academy. Having, for my first several months, been besieged by everyone all over the country for taxpayer support, it was quite extraordinary to arrive at the Royal Academy and to be told that the whole institution was being run without a single penny of taxpayer support, bar of course the indirect support that my noble friend Lord Cormack mentioned of the peppercorn rent and the indemnity for exhibitions. You would expect a Rolls-Royce arts centre to find it easier to raise money from the private sector; nevertheless, to me, it was a remarkable story.

There is a lesson to be learned too from the Royal Academy’s recent achievement of getting nearly £13 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. As my noble friend Lord Cormack said, there was challenge funding in the past, and I am a great believer in that. In my time as Minister, I was able to prove to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that for every £1 of taxpayers’ money, you could get £5 from the private sector in various ways. That led him to give more taxpayer support to the arts. However, it is the variety of funding that matters. There is the commercial aspect and there are the donations of course—it is a charitable institution—but it was Sir Hugh Casson who, in the 1970s, started Friends of the Royal Academy. There are 100,000 friends from all over the country, which makes it a national institution. All of us take part in it and are interested in it, and we join in the activities.

We have heard all about the significant loan exhibitions of Italian and Chinese art, David Hockney’s art and the exhibition of Charles I’s paintings this year. Unfortunately, “Oceania” has just closed but I agree with my noble friend Lord Cormack that it was the most remarkable and highly imaginative exhibition. Very few of us know much about the history of the Pacific Ocean, such as that it has 20,000 islands, but the portrayal of its arts was quite special.

The art school is singularly important. Of course, the Royal Academy provided the first art school 250 years ago—we have heard of all the distinguished artists who have learned there. It is the only three-year postgraduate art course in Europe that is free—for the student, not for the Royal Academy, which supports the school.

I like the story in which the president at the time, Benjamin West, gives Constable encouragement. His painting had just been rejected for display in the academy, and Benjamin West said:

“Don’t be disheartened young man, we shall hear more of you again; you must have loved nature before you could have painted this”.


So there is encouragement for us all—not that I claim to be a Constable. I think that is a wonderful story.

The final thing I will touch on is the uniqueness of the governance system in this institution and its outstanding leadership. The 13-strong Council of Academicians, under the leadership of the president, sets the direction and strategy. I join the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, in praising Christopher Le Brun, who has been an outstanding president. Then there is the chief executive or secretary—a good historical description of Sir Charles Saumarez Smith’s job, which has been to direct the work and the implementation of that strategy. He is retiring, of course, and we all wish him well. The chairman of the Royal Academy Development Trust, the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Abersoch, is retiring at the same time. He has done an exceptional job of helping to raise funds. Finally, I mention the Burlington appeal board, chaired by Sir Richard Carew Pole, who has worked tirelessly to raise money for the Royal Academy. They have all been outstanding leaders, but without its dedicated staff the place would not have managed such a great achievement. We have a great deal to celebrate on this 250th anniversary. It is an institution that can give great encouragement to the rest of the arts world.