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Fellowship news and events
reading time: 11 minutes
Summary
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.
FELLOWSHIP COUNCIL
A Council for the future
A new Fellowship Council has been elected, and it feels rather like the Royal Society of Arts returning to its roots – those gloriously unruly days when challenging the status quo wasn’t a slogan but a default.
Our newly elected team blends fresh faces with seasoned hands; it is a privilege to step into the role of Chair of the Council. Sheridan Chilvers has joined as Deputy Chair, and we will be coordinating with RSA management via our reformed Council leadership team.
I offer my heartfelt thanks to Neil Beagrie, our outgoing Chair, for his foundational work on restructuring the Council. I have been a London councillor for the past three years and am excited to build on Neil’s strong foundations and to share the responsibilities for our Fellows in the capital with new councillor Stephen Oram.
Elizabeth Donnelly, Alan Mumby, Alan Raw and Helen Gormley are just some of the incoming councillors who bring the same restless curiosity as their predecessors, powered by a determination to make the Fellowship feel bold again.
The international members of the Council are a fitting echo of RSA early Fellows, who were hopping borders, trading ideas and generally refusing to stay put. They include new member Zoe Camper, a leader in community building in the US, and second-termer Vanessa Barros, who is active in Europe.
For the UK, we are joined by second-term councillors with serious community-building muscle. Ann Longley in Brighton channels the city’s creative, rebellious spirit. Ann Packard and Dr Eric Carlin add strategic clarity and a commitment to ensuring that Fellows in Scotland and our most northern English counties feel fully woven into the fabric of the RSA.
Together, we will be shaping a ‘Fellows First’ agenda that should be a modern remix of the RSA’s original founding ethos. Expect events that are local via our new community leaders, gatherings that spotlight Fellows’ books, campaigns, prototypes and provocations, and the occasional beautifully eccentric project.
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Our activities are already producing a shift to bring the new CEO’s strategy to life ‘on the ground’, with key themes for 2026 including Arts and Culture, Education, and Connections and Community.
The aim of the Council is simple: to make the Fellowship visible, vibrant and impossible to ignore. The mood is unmistakably energetic, and we are keen to evolve.
With a new team, new skills and strong representation from all regions, our Fellowship is poised to create strong impact, something former Fellows Henry Cole and William Shipley would be very excited about.
Eva Pascoe is Chair of the Fellowship Council.
RSA EVENTS
From The Observer’s newsroom to a royal legacy
The Royal Society of Arts current events season has drawn packed audiences into the Great Room for public talks on pressing issues, including the shape of 2026, the future of the BBC, the joy and reality of growing older (with Dame Prue Leith), the 40th anniversary of Chornobyl and emerging trends in AI.
The AI discussion marked the launch of the RSA’s new events partnership with The Observer. This collaboration continues on Thursday 30 April, when attendees will witness the newspaper’s journalists debate, pitch and select the stories that will lead the following Sunday’s news section.
Fellows should also note that royal biographer Robert Hardman will discuss the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 May. All public talks are available to watch online via the RSA’s YouTube channel.
Watch anytime, catch up now
Take a look at our vast library of past events and find one that’s right for you.
SHARED SPACES
Making the case for co-working
More and more co-working locations are becoming available to RSA Fellows across the UK and Ireland. Shared spaces can be accessed from Dundee to Exeter, Cardiff to Norwich, and Belfast to Dublin.
You can use our shared spaces to work, relax and meet other Fellows on dedicated RSA co-working days. We asked two Fellows to tells us about their particular experiences:
Grace Lees-Maffei: As an RSA Fellow since January 2020, I initially felt distanced from the institution. But then local opportunities for Fellows in Norwich were introduced, including co-working.
Co-working sessions take place at St George’s Works, which is ideally located in the thriving Norwich Lanes District. While the facilities are excellent, including meeting rooms, a resident barista and individual hot desks, the thing that I have really enjoyed is the opportunity to meet other Fellows.
Co-working complements our RSA Norwich monthly meetups, and local events programme. At each meeting, we learn more about each other, our expertise and the opportunities to collaborate.
It really does feel like a community of Fellows in Norwich now, and I am grateful for how hard Jess McMorrow, our RSA engagement manager, and Xenia Horne, our local volunteer community leader, have worked to make local Fellowship come alive.
Ben Cummings: I became a Fellow in 2019 when I relocated to Nottingham. While my values aligned with the RSA’s vision, it was the prospect of using RSA House as a place to work from on business trips to London that was the key motivator to join.
Despite this motivation, I was an infrequent visitor to John Adam Street in my early years as a Fellow. But my visits have grown since becoming a freelance consultant, helped by the upgrades to the House that have provided Fellows with a choice of working environments that surpass any number of ‘clubs’ in London.
It is, however, the reciprocal workspaces outside of London that have really unlocked value for me. Freelance consultancy is often a home-focused role that can feel isolating, and so I am now a regular visitor to the Nottingham co-working space.
Here I have met other local businesses, start-ups and consultants. While these connections may not lead to work or collaboration, they do provide human interaction and community. One benefit of the post-Covid world is the realisation that as humans, we thrive on personal engagement to stimulate relationships, ideas and a sense of purpose.
My RSA Fellowship has certainly facilitated this for me, and I hope for other current and future Fellows, too.
Grace Lees-Maffei, FRSA is Professor of Design History at the University of Hertfordshire
Ben Cummings, FRSA runs sports partnerships consultancy NYVEJ.CO
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FELLOWSHIP STORIES
Mentoring for impact: two Fellows aim high
According to the late educationalist Sir Ken Robinson: “For most of us, the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail. It’s just the opposite; we aim too low and succeed.”
Robinson’s view on aspiration is shared by two RSA Fellows united by a similar outlook, despite a 40-year age difference. Jamie Hannon is lead partnerships and programmes officer at the City of London Corporation, while Mike Knowles is an education consultant with more than 50 years’ experience across academia, furniture design and architecture in the UK and India.
The pair were brought together through the RSA’s Mentoring Programme and a shared admiration for Robinson’s ideas on ambition, education and creativity. For the past nine months, they have been meeting regularly online (Knowles recently had a stroke and is recuperating at home) to discuss Hannon’s plan for an Impact Directory designed to inspire those working with young people.
“I’d been looking through the profiles for a potential mentor. I saw Mike’s entry and that he had specifically mentioned Ken Robinson. I realised that we had a connection through a shared guru, and I knew that he would be the right person to work with,” says Hannon.
Since then, Hannon has been fleshing out his plan for the directory, which will showcase workshops, programmes, visits and trips that have helped to strengthen the capabilities of the next generation. While the initial focus is on interpersonal skills in the UK, the ambition is for the project to expand both in scope and geography.
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And that is where Knowles comes in. “I see this as something massive – an international movement,” he says. “Imagine if we can get the Impact Directory into India, translated into Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati. It could become a major project with huge influence.”
Hannon says Knowles made him feel at ease from the very first mentoring session. “He has been incredibly encouraging, helping me identify ways to move the project forward and making sure my thinking wasn’t too small.”
The benefits are not all one way, however. Knowles values the “intellectual stimulus” of their conversations and the opportunity to draw on his knowledge, contacts and drive to help Hannon create something meaningful and transformative. “Jamie has a great idea. It deserves success,” he says.
Both mentor and mentee are relishing the experience and would recommend the programme to other Fellows. “I have been on mentoring schemes before, but I am enjoying this process much more. It’s definitely one of the best benefits of the RSA Fellowship for me,” says Hannon.
Nearly 300 Fellows are currently registered on the RSA’s Mentoring Programme. Mentees must be aged 18–35, while mentors can be any age.
EXHIBITIONS
Shining a light at RSA House
AOAP (Art on a Postcard) Projects is partnering with the Royal Society of Arts to host a summer exhibition on the theme of ‘Illumination’, which will include the work of artists Hannah Tilson (pictured above), Ken Nwadiogbu, Trevor Sutton and Rachel Howard.
AOAP was established as a fundraising initiative to support charitable causes by creating an accessible way to buy works from both highly regarded artists and emerging talent.
The Illumination exhibition will be open from 10 – 24 June 2026 at RSA House, with a private viewing on Tuesday 9 June. The exhibition will be on display in our courtyard, Suthers Court, open to the public Monday to Friday, 8am – 11pm.
View exhibitions at the House
Stay in the know about art on display at RSA House, and where they are located.
FELLOWSHIP COUNCIL WALES
Reflections from a freshman Fellowship councillor
In my first six months on the Fellowship Council, I have discovered the insight a councillor gets into the RSA’s inner workings – its ambitions, its challenges and the sheer effort needed to keep a large creative organisation moving in the same direction.
The support I’ve had from staff, trustees and longserving councillors has been reassuring. The high point of my first Council meeting was hearing from CEO David Joseph as he shared the early shape of his vision for the RSA. What he had to say was fascinating and honestly brought a smile to my face.
But the real highlight for me has been connecting, and in some cases reconnecting, with Fellows across Wales. There’s something uniquely grounded here: a willingness to experiment without fuss, collaborate without ceremony, and build ideas rooted in real communities rather than hypothetical ones.
Whether it’s educators rethinking learning, innovators tackling social issues, or local pioneers trying something bold on a smaller, more practical scale, there’s a quiet confidence running through it all.
Looking ahead, I hope to help strengthen the links between these pockets of creativity – connecting Fellows with partners, institutions and each other in ways that feel natural rather than forced. Wales isn’t short of talent; it just sometimes needs a few more bridges and far fewer bypasses.
If I had three tips for fellow councillors, they would be: don’t try to manage (it’s not required), enjoy every interaction with Fellows in your area, and stay close to your RSA Fellowship engagement manager – in my case, Kate Monkhouse, who’s a brilliant representative of John Adam Street and a fantastic source of support and advice.
Alan Mumby is the RSA Fellowship Councillor for Cymru/Wales.
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