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Latest thinking

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Last Word

Last word: hauntology

Artist and designer Helena Traill FRSA imagines how the present is haunted by the ghosts of the past.
23 Jul 2026 Helena Traill FRSA
Impressionistic painting of six ghostly, translucent figures walking in a dreamy, pink and purple forest with dappled light filtering through trees. The scene feels mystical and otherworldly.
Arts In The Spotlight

Where art meets access

Riya Mahajan explains how The Whale reimagines the classic American novel, Moby-Dick, placing accessibility at the centre of immersive theatre.
23 Jul 2026 Riya Mahajan
Five silhouetted people stand in front of a large projection of an animal’s face and the text, “And as if a bolt of lightning had struck me, I realised something.” The scene’s dramatic lighting and reflective mood evoke the raw intensity found in immersive theatre productions like The Whale Moby-Dick.
Feature

Fellowship news and events

Stay in the know with Fellowship: learn about the newly elected council, hear from Fellows making the most of the mentoring programme and the co-working spaces around the UK and Ireland, stay up-to-date on events happening at the House, and more.
23 Jul 2026
A man in a beige overall stands in front of a painting of a woman in an orange headscarf, holding brushes and a palette filled with paint. A second, less detailed portrait is visible behind him.
Feature

Loosening canons

Pawlet Brookes, FRSA, MBE challenges the assumption that Black presence in classical music is recent or peripheral, tracing a lineage of composers, performers and cultural leaders whose contributions shaped the form over centuries. From Ignatius Sancho to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Brookes shows that Black artistry has long been central to classical innovation.
23 Jul 2026 Pawlet Brookes, MBE, FRSA
Black-and-white portrait of Ignatius Sancho, FRSA, a distinguished figure among black classical musicians, seated in a carved wooden chair and looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.
Feature

History in runes

Historian, writer and broadcaster Eleanor Barraclough, FRSA reveals a Viking world shaped not only by warfare, gods and exploration, but by poetry, riddles and storytelling.
23 Jul 2026 Eleanor Barraclough, FRSA
Six people in fur clothing sit and stand around a campfire in a village with huts and trees, talking together. The sky is dark and swirling, and the mood appears calm and communal.
Feature

Common ground

The Royal Society of Arts’ Daisy Carter explores how RSA Fellows across the UK are reclaiming physical space through creativity, community ownership and civic imagination.
23 Jul 2026 Daisy Carter
A man with dreadlocks wearing a checked jacket stands in front of a mural and a building with scaffolding. The mural depicts a person wearing sunglasses and a headscarf.
Feature

Hungry for change

Artist, scholar and activist Dr Ally Zlatar explores the collision between the romantic myth of the ‘starving artist’ and the lived reality of eating disorders.
23 Jul 2026 Ally Zlatar
A woman in a red dress lies on her back, extending her tongue up to support a cake with white icing and strawberry slices. The background is pink.
Feature

The work of art

Professor Hasan Bakhshi examines the changing relationship between the arts and economics, arguing that culture is no longer simply required to prove its value through economic measures.
23 Jul 2026 Professor Hasan Bakhshi, MBE
A colourful illustration showing people working, painting, studying charts, dining at a café, viewing art, and constructing a building in a lively cityscape with various urban and creative activities depicted.
Feature

Drawn together

Christopher Daniel, FRSA reflects on the annual chalking of the Uffington White Horse, a 3,000-year-old land artwork whose survival depends on repeated communal care. Joining volunteers from Long Now London, he considers the Horse not a fixed relic but an ongoing practice.
23 Jul 2026 Christopher Daniel, FRSA
Four people sit on a grassy hillside, chiselling and cleaning a large white chalk figure on the ground—a scene reminiscent of those featured in the RSA Journal—with fields and trees visible in the distance under a blue sky.
RSArchive

Our mutual friend

Charles Dickens is one of our most famous Fellows, but an examination of archival documents shows just how much the work of the Society influenced the daily life of this lion of English literature.
23 Jul 2026 Susan Bennett, HonFRSA
A sepia-toned portrait of an older man with a moustache, bushy sideburns, and a pointed beard, wearing a dark suit and looking directly at the camera, set against a pink background—evoking the dignified presence of Charles Dickens RSA and his enduring influence on literature.