We had a press event this morning to celebrate a major gift from Lloyd Dorfman to the RA, partly to support our capital project, but also, more especially, to help the visibility and public profile of architecture at the RA, including the establishment of two major architectural prizes. Architecture has been part of the RA from the beginning. William Chambers, an architect, was its first Treasurer. John Soane was one of the early students in the Schools. Lutyens, Albert Richardson, Hugh Casson, Philip Dowson and Nicholas Grimshaw have all been President. But since the foundation of the RIBA as architecture’s professional organisation, many people think of the RA in terms of painting and sculpture. Lloyd Dorfman’s gift will help change this.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
That’s wonderful news! A fantastic boost to the Academy !
Now all that is needed is a similar donation to allow you to give a Prize, and an RA, to a Ceramicist such as Edmund De Waal .. .. .. ? !
In recent years, architecture was part of the RA thanks to the advocacy, programming, and curatorship of Mary-Anne Stevens. At one point she and Dowson hoped that Burlington Gardens would be an architecture centre.
Yes, not forgotten and mentioned at the press launch, so there is a satisfying sense of congruity to the gift. Charles