BBC Arts at the Royal Academy

This summer, the Royal Academy of Arts is collaborating with BBC Arts in a major partnership to celebrate the Summer Exhibition 2014. This will comprise coverage on BBC Arts Online, a BBC Two programme and an exhibition of works by the finalists of The One Show Summer Art Competition 2014.

The Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission exhibition, providing a unique platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their works to an international audience, comprising a range of media from painting to printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture and film.

In a BBC Two programme filmed form the buzz of the Summer Exhibition Preview Party, presenters Kirsty Wark, Alastair Sooke and Morgan Quaintance will take viewers on a behind-the-scenes journey of the making of the exhibition Following the judging process of the 12,000 works submitted this year. There will be interviews with Cornelia Parker RA, who will be curating a black and white themed room, featuring works by artists David Batchelor and Ackroyd and Harvey, as well as a selection of newly elected Academicians, including Conrad Shawcross, Yinka Shonibare and Bob and Roberta Smith, whose work will be on prominent display.

This year, the RA will also house a selection of works from The One Show Summer Art Competition. Launched In April, and now in its second year, amateur artists and viewers of The One Show submitted work to be judged by the panel - esteemed Royal Academician Michael Landy; Edith Devaney, Head of Summer Exhibition and Contemporary Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, actress and writer Maureen Lipman and Nick Grimshaw, presenter of the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show. The shortlisted artworks and eventual winners (to be announced on The One Show in July) in two categories, aged 13 – 17, and 18 and over, will be displayed in a special exhibition from Monday 16 June until Saturday 9 August 2014.

BBC Arts Online

BBC Arts Online will partner with the RA to give audiences special access to the Summer Exhibition.

Films

• Guided Tours: three art lovers and academicians choose their 2014 Summer Exhibition highlights. In three films Tracey Emin, Norman Ackroyd and The One Show’s Alex Jones give us a personal guide to the exhibition.
• Symphony Of A Missing Room: BBC Arts Online’s first artist commission - a guided virtual museum tour created by Swedish artists Christer Lundahl and Marina Seitl. Presented by LIFT and the RA, Lundahl & Seitl’s immersive tours will lead viewers through the RA’s public and private spaces, giving a unique insight into the Summer Exhibition and revealing the Royal Academy as never before. With a limited number of visitors able to experience this guided tour at the RA, this exciting collaboration creates a digital version which can be enjoyed by anyone online.

The Summer Exhibition 1914

The RA has shared access to its archive for the BBC to tell a remarkable story of the Summer Exhibition 1914 and what happened at the RA in the year the World War I broke out, revealing one Suffragette’s attack on one of the most notable pictures of the Exhibition, a portrait of novelist Henry James painted by John Singer Sargent RA.

The One Show Summer Competition 2014

BBC Arts Online will showcase the winning submissions from those shortlisted to be displayed at the RA – presented in two online picture galleries, one for 13-17s and one for over 18s.