With public space being eroded in our cities and the internet subject to near pervasive surveillance, our panel explore whether spaces of freedom still exist, and if so, where.

Architecture and Freedom season: Reinier de Graaf

Dec 15th, 2015 53m 30s

In this podcast, Reinier de Graaf, partner at OMA, reflects on architecture’s different roles in today’s globalized world.

RA Architecture: Tony Fretton and Ellis Woodman on James Gowan

Dec 15th, 2015 58m 23s

Tony Fretton and Ellis Woodman discuss the powerful, yet often overlooked contribution of James Gowan to twentieth-century British architecture.

Architecture and Freedom season: Farshid Moussavi RA

Dec 15th, 2015 1h 14m

In this podcast, part of our ‘Architecture and Freedom’ season, newly elected Royal Academician, Farshid Moussavi, discusses architecture’s function as an agent in shaping everyday life.

Jean-Etienne Liotard in London

Dec 8th, 2015 1h

When Liotard travelled to London, his reputation was at its summit. This podcast with curator William Hauptman examines Liotard’s astonishing portrait work while there, his impact on the London art scene and his connections with the Royal Acade

The Evolution and Conservation of Pastel Painting

Dec 8th, 2015 55m 28s

In this podcast, Tate conservator Rosie Freemantle and conservation curator Jo Crook discuss the development of the medium of pastel in the 18th century, the medium in which Jean-Etienne Liotard was an expert.

Edmund de Waal and Aurora Orchestra

Dec 8th, 2015 27m 34s

In this podcast, potter and writer Edmund de Waal and Scottish composer Martin Suckling discuss their recent collaboration, a piece of music played by Aurora Orchestra – and explore the meaning of the colour white across music, poetry and the v

Architecture and Freedom season: Architectural Ethics

Dec 8th, 2015 37m 34s

In this podcast, our expert panel consider what architecture’s responsibilities should be to the public good and whether it is time for architects to adopt a new code of ethics.

Chris Wilkinson RA and Humphrey Ocean RA discuss drawing

Nov 23rd, 2015 1h 3m

In this podcast, two distinguished Royal Academicians discuss what it is to draw, and why the process is so important for their work.

Jean-Etienne Liotard: Pioneer in pastel

Nov 23rd, 2015 1h

In this podcast, curator MaryAnne Stevens gives an introduction to the work of the artist Jean-Etienne Liotard. Travelling across Europe to Constantinople, patronised by rulers, aristocrats and the professional middle class, Liotard was interna

The Stuff of Chinese Art

Nov 20th, 2015 47m 57s

In this podcast, art historian Professor Craig Clunas looks at the cultural role of materials in the art of Ai Weiwei.

Architecture and Freedom: Patrik Schumacher

Oct 28th, 2015 1h 4m

Architect and theorist, Patrik Schumacher, considers the various parameters for architectural practice today, in the second lecture of our ‘Architecture and Freedom’ season.

Dialogues: Niall McLaughlin and Kim Wilkie

Oct 28th, 2015 1h 7m

In this podcast, architect Niall McLaughlin and landscape architect Kim Wilkie discuss the history of the world and everything in between, as part of our ‘Dialogues’ series.

Ai Weiwei and architecture

Oct 23rd, 2015 1h 17m

In this podcast, curator Philip Tinari and architects Daniel Rosbottom and Simon Hartmann explore Ai Weiwei’s wide-ranging and lesser known Architectural practice.

Architecture and Freedom season at the RA

Oct 23rd, 2015 1h 12m

In the first lecture in our ‘Architecture and Freedom’ season, German architect, Jürgen Mayer H discusses how architecture can facilitate social interactivity.

An evening of short stories with Will Self

Oct 22nd, 2015 42m 53s

In partnership with Pin Drop, the RA hosted an exceptional evening of fiction and storytelling during Ai Weiwei’s landmark exhibition with the highly acclaimed and award-winning author, Will Self.

Ai Weiwei audioguide extract

Oct 12th, 2015 1m 42s

This extract from the audioguide for the RA's blockbuster exhibition of the work of Ai Weiwei examines his work 'Fragments' (2005), in which the artist salvaged pillars and beams of “tieli”, Chinese ironwood, from demolished Qing dynasty temple

Tim Marlow in conversation with William Kentridge Hon RA

Oct 12th, 2015 49m 9s

Internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge joins Tim Marlow, the RA’s Director of Artistic Programmes, to discuss his career and work.

Ai Weiwei: The Readymade and Destruction in Art

Oct 12th, 2015 38m 49s

Artists Christian Marclay and Cornelia Parker RA discuss the impact of the ‘readymade’ and the destructive process in art, as seen in the work of Ai Weiwei.

An Introduction to ‘Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon’

Oct 12th, 2015 48m 16s

Curator Annette Wickham explores the story behind this epic drawing by Daniel Maclise and considers why such a remarkable work has been hidden from public view for almost a century.

An Introduction to Ai Weiwei

Oct 12th, 2015 52m 54s

Exhibition curator Adrian Locke introduces the work of Ai Weiwei and explains how the artist has used his art to comment on contemporary Chinese society.

Joseph Cornell: Outsider artists in the art market

Sep 22nd, 2015 42m 25s

Joseph Cornell has often been referred to as an ‘outsider’ but he was accepted into the art market as a partial Surrealist at a time when the art of the self-taught had no name or definition. If he had been defined as an outsider, would he have

Joseph Cornell: creativity and the mind

Sep 22nd, 2015 48m 29s

Joseph Cornell is one of the most famous yet mystifying characters in modern American art. Cornell scholar Lynda Roscoe Hartigan explores what recent studies in creativity and cognition have contributed to understanding his distinctive construc

Curator Sarah Lea discusses 'Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust'

Sep 17th, 2015 50m 50s

Exhibition curator Sarah Lea introduces ‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’, the first solo exhibition of this artist’s groundbreaking collage and assemblage art in the UK for almost 35 years, and talks about the preparations involved in such an exhib

Joseph Cornell: Surrealism and time

Sep 8th, 2015 48m 20s

Art historian Professor Dawn Ades discusses Joseph Cornell’s relationship with Surrealism, his engagement with the concept of time and the ongoing dialogue in his work between the ephemeral and the eternal.