Royal Academy of Arts

Artists, not curators, run the Royal Academy of Arts. Founded in 1768 under George III with Joshua Reynolds as its first president, it is governed by its members, the Royal Academicians, and still trains students at the Royal Academy Schools, Britain's oldest art school. Its Summer Exhibition, held every year since 1769, is an open-submission show where work by established names hangs beside entries from the public.

The Academy occupies Burlington House, a Palladian mansion on Piccadilly, and connects through to the Burlington Gardens building behind it, a link completed for its 250th anniversary. Most visitors come for its large temporary loan exhibitions, but the permanent collection is also worth time. Highlights include Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo, the only marble sculpture by him in Britain, and the diploma works that each Academician donates on election.

More than one and a half million people visit each year, drawn by both historic and contemporary art.