RCA
From the RCA studio to the spotlight: Show-stopping women artists, then and now
06 Feb 2026
We revisit the student work of RCA alumnae now staging major UK exhibitions, tracing how experimentation, risk and early ideas shaped their practices.
Five RCA artists shape New Contemporaries 2026
05 Feb 2026
This year’s New Contemporaries features five RCA artists, continuing a long lineage that links the college to the UK’s most exciting emerging talent.
Life at the RCA: Arrival and adjustment
03 Feb 2026
Varun Bisht moved from India to study Design Futures at the RCA. Here, he reflects on his journey — from receiving his offer letter to finding his feet in London.
Royal College of Art announces programme design partnership with new Riyadh University of Arts
02 Feb 2026
The RCA has announced that it will be working in partnership with Riyadh University of Arts (RUA) to co-design new programmes for RUA’s College of Design & Architecture and the College of Visual Arts & Photography.
How two RCA Textiles artists weave ancestry into healing futures
28 Jan 2026
RCA alumni Jasmine Dhika and Tyreis Holder use textiles to explore ancestry, healing and community, weaving memory into new visions of care and sustainability.
Art, care and creative health: what can creativity offer that medicine alone cannot?
21 Jan 2026
Exploring how art supports healthcare in clinical settings, in communities, and as a way of communicating lived experience.
Finding ground after graduation: Inside the RCA x Southcombe Barn MFA Residency
20 Jan 2026
A new MFA prize offers graduating RCA artists two funded weeks in rural Devon to pause, reflect and reimagine their practice beyond education.
Stephen Vernon with an eye toward the future and an unwavering commitment to design excellence
20 Jan 2026
Stephen Vernon (MA Fashion Womenswear, 1998), Senior Design Director at Calvin Klein, has an impressive history working with renowned brands such as Jil Sander, Thom Browne, Stella McCartney and Theory.
Royal College of Art announces Design for Betterment as theme for Grand Challenge 2025/26
13 Jan 2026
The Royal College of Art shares the theme for the 2025/26 edition of the Grand Challenge
Highlights of 2025 at the Royal College of Art. | Royal College of Art
22 Dec 2025
2025 was a year of awards, research, new partnerships, new scholarships, exhibitions, student and staff success, and incredible teaching and learning at the world's leading university for art and design.
Featured
Typewriters, the office machines that preceded computers
By Kiron Kasbekar | 10 Apr 2025
You see office tables today equipped with desktop computers or laptops. But think of the 1970s, and what would you have been seeing?
Wishful thinking about cars
By Kiron Kasbekar | 05 Apr 2025
Donald Trump may be many things, but a good economist he is not. Accustomed to dictating terms to people he has worked with,
The history of safety glass
By Kiron Kasbekar | 26 Mar 2025
You probably already knew that the world’s VIPs move around in cars with bullet-proof glass windscreen and windows. But did you know that ‘bulletproof glass’ is not really bulletproof?
German silver: used in cutlery, music, electricals - but it’s not silver
By Kiron Kasbekar | 20 Mar 2025
This material, which was first developed in China, not Germany, and is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc, has lost its sheen in home uses, but finds favor in electrical engineering.
Pioneers – the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss launched the aircraft industry
By Kiron Kasbekar | 17 Mar 2025
First Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their plane, the ‘Wright Flyer’, from near a small town called Kitty Hawk. Then Glenn Curtiss built planes with a very different system of controls, which has lasted until now.
What do aircraft have in common with bicycles and motorcycles?
By Kiron Kasbekar | 17 Mar 2025
From chains and sprockets to direct drives—If someone asked you what aircraft have in common with bicycles and motorcycles, how would you respond?
Radar’s ancestors: From sound mirrors to modern detection technology
By Kiron Kasbekar | 11 Mar 2025
Radar has become a well-settled technology today, especially in the field of navigation.
Nokia Bell Labs: innovations in communication, computing, technology
By Omar Almeida | 08 Mar 2025
Bell Laboratories, or Bell labs, which has now become Nokia Bell Labs, is one of the most renowned research and development organizations in the history of science and technology.
Company story – Quaker Oats
By Kiron Kasbekar | 08 Mar 2024
Quaker Oats is a company whose products I remember from my childhood days. Years before a foreign exchange crisis caused the Indian government to impose curbs on consumer product imports, we used to see a host of foreign brands in the Indian market. Including Quaker Oats, which I remember eating when I was a child, and which has been available for the past two decades or more.
