The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
on
Old Brompton Road
Old Brompton Road is a major street in the South Kensington district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.
It starts from South Kensington Underground station and runs south-west, through a mainly residential area, until i ...
,
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
It is the oldest and largest organisation dedicated to sculpture in the UK. Until 2017, it was the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
The Royal Society of Sculptors is a registered charity with a selective membership of around 700 professional sculptors, promoting excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. It aims to inspire, inform and engage people of all ages and backgrounds with sculpture, and to support sculptors' development of their practice to the highest professional standards.
History
*1905: Began as the Society of British Sculptors, with 51 sculptor members in its first year
*1911: Received royal patronage, and was renamed the Royal Society of British Sculptors
*1963: Gained charitable status in recognition of its educational activities
*1976: Received donation of 108 Old Brompton Road from the late sculptor
Cecil Thomas
*2003: Became Royal British Society of Sculptors in recognition of growing international membership
* 2017: Became the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Structure
Patronage
The society has received Royal Patronage since 1911 and
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II is the society's current Patron.
Governance
The society was founded as a company limited by guarantee in 1905 and has been a registered charity since 1963. It is a selective membership-based organisation, whose members elect its governing council.. The council meets regularly to review applications and select new members.
Membership
There are two types of membership: Members (formerly known as Associates until 2014) and Fellows, who are entitled to use the MRSS and FRSS
post-nominal letters
Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...
. Presidents of the society are entitled to use the post-nominal letters PRSS and Vice Presidents VPRSS.
Awards
Current
First Plinth: Public Art Award
Formerly FIRST@108: Public Art Award, the First Plinth is a biennial £10,000 award to contribute towards the production costs of producing a large-scale sculpture, thereby offering competing sculptors the opportunity to extend their practice into competing for public art commissions. Open to any artist working in three dimensions. The award is supported by the Mirisch & Lebenheim Charitable Foundation. The current winner of the First Plinth: Public Art Award 2021 is
Polly Morgan.
= Past winners
=
Grizedale Residency
With thanks to the Brian Mercer Charitable Trust the Society offers an annual residency opportunity based at Grizedale Forest. This intensive six week long residency aims to foster experimentation and innovation in response to the natural environment.
Past Winners
* Susan Stockwell (2021)
*Florian Houlker (2021)
*Karolin Schwab (2019)
* Ben Allan (2019)
Spotlight Award
Founded in 2017, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer is a private sculpture park in Buckinghamshire which surveys the breadth of contemporary sculptural practice. A new area of woodland has been opened out to create an environment for an artist to install a single large work or a series of works creating a solo installation. Society members and fellows are invited to propose new or recent work that is suitable for display outside over summer. The Spotlight exhibition is included on the route taken by all visitors to the gardens, but it is also separate and distinct from the rest of the sculpture trail, and as such applicants are encouraged to engage with the idea of it as a solo exhibition en plain air. The successful applicant works closely with director George Marsh. The current winner is Daniel Solomons.
Past Winners
* Tim Ellis (2021)
*Rosie Leventon (2020)
* Amale Freiha Khlat (2019)
* Marco Miehling (2018)
Gilbert Bayes Award
Established in 2000 as the RBS Bursary Awards, it was renamed in 2018 after the artist
Gilbert Bayes
Gilbert William Bayes (4 April 1872 – 10 July 1953) was an English sculptor. His art works varied in scale from medals to large architectural clocks, monuments and equestrian statues and he was also a designer of some note, creating chess piec ...
, whose charitable trust supports the awards. This is an annual award made to a small group of emerging sculptors that the society has judged to be of outstanding talent and potential. It is designed to aid them in the transition to full professional practice, by giving them a package of professional support including an annual membership of the society. The award is open to sculptors of any age, nationality, with or without formal training and working in any medium. Past winners include:
Alex Chinneck
Alex Chinneck MRSS (born 1 October 1984) is a British sculptor known for creating temporary public artworks.
Early life
Alex was educated at Bedford Modern School, where his father taught PE. He had ambitions to become a cricketer, having ca ...
,
Tessa Farmer
Tessa Farmer (born 1978, Birmingham, UK) is an artist based in London. Her work, made from insect carcasses, plant roots and other found natural materials, comprises hanging installations depicting Boschian battles between insects and tiny wing ...
and William Mackrell.
Eilean Shona Residency
The wilderness island of
Eilean Shona
Eilean Shona ( gd, Eilean Seòna) is a tidal island in Loch Moidart, Scotland. The modern name may be from the Old Norse for "sea island". The pre-Norse Gaelic name, as recorded by Adomnán was or , meaning 'foreshore island', similar to the d ...
has long been an inspiration for artists and writers. To further build upon this legacy, a members-only residency has been created - a month-long opportunity for a winning member of the Royal Society of Sculptors to live on the island and reflect upon and respond to the natural environment.
Past Winners
* Mhairi Vari (2022)
Red House Residency
For Benjamin Britten – one of the foremost composers of the 20th century – a quiet place to compose was absolutely essential. He was fortunate enough to achieve this for most of his life, spending his last two decades at The Red House, down a quiet lane on the outskirts of Aldeburgh, Suffolk. This new creative retreat at The Red House is open to women members of the Royal Society of Sculptors to spend time in Suffolk on a peaceful, creative retreat.
Past Winners
* Hannah Honeywill (2020)
Thread Residency
''Thread'' is a residency program and cultural centre that allows local and international artists to live and work in Sinthian, a rural village in Tambacounda, the southeastern region of Senegal. It houses two artists’ dwellings, as well as ample indoor and outdoor studio space.
Past Winners
* Julian Wild (2020)
Past Awards
Brian Mercer Residencies
Two annual scholarships for society members to experiment with stone or bronze under instruction from master craftsmen in
Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
enable sculptors to learn the technical aspects of the carving or casting process were supported by the Brian Mercer Charitable Trust.
Lady Feodora Gleichen Memorial Fund (1938 – 1988)
The Feodora Gleichen Memorial Fund was an annual award of £100 for women sculptors and was made from works shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition or any other exhibition at which works by female sculptors were shown. The Funds were administered by the Royal Academy from 1923 – 1938, after which management passed into the hands of the Royal Society of Sculptors. The fund was established following the death of
Lady Feodora Gleichen
Lady Feodora Georgina Maud Gleichen (20 December 1861 London – 22 February 1922 London) was a British sculptor of figures and portrait busts and designer of decorative objects.
Background
Born Countess Feodora Georgina Maud von Gleichen, ...
, who was posthumously voted as one of the first female members of the Society alongside
Christine Gregory
Christine Gregory (1879–10 February 1963) was a British sculptor and potter. She was among the first women elected as a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
Biography
Gregory was born and lived in London. Her father was a mineral ...
and
Flora Kendrick
Florence Ada Kendrick, later Flora Shipp, (1880-1969) was a British artist, notable both as a watercolour painter and sculptor of bronze busts and statuettes.
Biography
Kendrick was born in Margate in southern England, and her father, Joseph Thom ...
. Winners included
Anne Acheson, Rosamund Fletcher,
Karen Jonzen,
Lorne McKean
Lorne McKean (born 1939) is an English sculptor. She studied at the Guildford School of Art and the Royal Academy School, before being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British ...
and
Olivia Musgrave
Olivia Musgrave, Baroness Gardiner of Kimble (born 1958) is an Irish sculptor.
Biography
Olivia Musgrave was born in Dublin in 1958. She studied Political Science in Paris and lived in Italy. She then studied at the City and Guilds of London I ...
.
Otto Beit medal
For many years the society awarded the Otto Beit medal, named after and funded by the philanthropist Sir
Otto Beit
Sir Otto John Beit, 1st Baronet, KCMG, FRS (7 December 1865 – 7 December 1930) was a German-born British financier, philanthropist and art connoisseur.
Life history and career
Beit was born in Hamburg, Germany, the younger brother of Al ...
. Winners of the medal include
Michael Clark, Sean Crampton,
Philip Jackson,
Franta Belsky
František Bělský (also known as Franta Belsky; 6 April 1921 – 5 July 2000) was a Czech sculptor.
He was known for large-scale abstract works of public art as well as more iconographic statues and busts of noted 20th-century figures such ...
,
David Annand,
Dennis Huntley
Dennis Huntley, born in Weybridge in Surrey, England, is a British sculptor, furniture designer and author. A Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, he has completed works for cathedrals, individual collectors and other organisations. ...
,
John W. Mills,
Michael Rizzello and
Judith Bluck.
Sculpture Shock
Launched in 2013, Sculpture Shock encouraged surprising site-specific spatial interventions in non-traditional spaces outside the confines of a gallery. Three sculptors were awarded £3,000 and a three-month residency in Kensington. The artists then exhibited in one of three environments: Subterranean (the unseen world underneath the city), Ambulatory (without physical confines in movement through space and time) and Historic (an illustrious building in London). Sculpture Shock was supported by private philanthropists.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Society Of Sculptors
British sculpture
Organisations based in London with royal patronage
Charities based in London
Sculptors
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
Art societies
Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
1905 establishments in the United Kingdom