The first bit of press has appeared in the Daily Telegraph colour supplement this morning for our new building development under the title ‘Grand Designs’ (it was already online yesterday on https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/royal-academy-250-inside-sir-david-chipperfields-new-56-million/). It seems quite fair, at least to me. It is impossible to escape the myth of dysfunctionality, ‘the Naples of the art world’. Is it ‘the establishment’ or not the establishment ? The article makes clear that it’s both.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
fine torygraph feature and great group pic…. but which one’s the lead guitarist?
Yes, several people have said it looks like an ageing pop band !
Maybe, but you are playing great music!
It’s an excellent article with some nice jokes – I love Tim Marlow’s ‘difficult’ for Norman Rosenthal !
Surely 2018 is the right time for the Academy to face the future and (a) restart the Discources, and (b) elect ceramicists and photographers in their own right so that you can elect Edmund de Waal and Don McCullin ?
For the record, Norman did not throw a phone at me; he spat. No guards were called. In the end we had a very good relationship. He was a brilliant exhibition maker.
It’s funny how journalists still replay the old stories. Charles
I walked past when The Telegraph were doing the photo shoot and was going to come and say hello . Funny to come across all the top brass of the RA as I crossed Burlington Gardens .
You should have done ! Charles