—Ukraine!

The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces has led to an astonishing array of creative works throughout the world, from cartoons and memes, to poems and songs, to paintings and graphic designs including one by our own member, Derwyn Goodall, RCA. Derwyn’s two-colour design, in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, is an eloquent gesture which acknowledges this tragedy.

—New RCA members, scholarship winners and medalists

We’re pleased to announce that at this year’s Awards Dinner in Montreal on November 15, 2025, we inducted eleven new members, awarded three CD Howe Scholarships, one Ernest Annau Travel Study Scholarship, one Arthur Erickson Travel Study Scholarship and two RCA Medals. Our new members are Majid Abbasi, Dayna Danger, Yurko Gutsulyak, Ben Johnson, Lyne Lapointe, David Peters, Skawennati. Leesa Streifler, Zainub Verjee, Richard York, and Chloe Wise. Our CD Howe Scholarship winners this year are Ella Ethier van Blokland, Visual Arts/Arts visuels, John Abbott College/Collège John Abbott; Jane Rochette, École d’art, Université Laval; and Mathieu DeBlois, NAD, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. We have one Ernest Annau Travel Study Scholarship winner this year, Andréanne Hébert, École de design, l’Université du Québec à Montréal. And our Arthur Erickson Travel Study Scholarship winner is Shauntae Vassell, McEwen School of Architecture, Laurentian University. We awarded two RCA Medals, to Peter Jacobs, RCA, Professor Emeritus, University of Montreal and past Vice President, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and to Phyllis Lambert, RCA, Founding Director Emeritus, Canadian Centre for Architecture.

—New Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Laureates

The 2025 Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Laureates, recently inducted by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, are Daina Augaitis, Thaddeus Holownia, Bruce LaBruce, Kent Monkman, Yin-me Moon, Peter Pierobon, Clive Robertson, and Sandra Rodriguez. we congratulate all winners.

— King Charles III Coronation Medal recipients

In January 2025, following an invitation by our Patron, the Governor General of Canada, we announced the awarding of twenty-three King Charles III Coronation Medals. We received a mandate to administer the nomination process in a manner that made sense for our organization. We thus created a fair and transparent open call to members to put names forward and are happy to report that every nomination was successful. We framed the King Charles III Coronation Medal as essentially a service award for individuals who had admirably served the RCA or more generally ‘the arts’ in a manner worthy of recognition. Recipients are: Gesta Abols, John Arnott, Robert Beck, Derek Michael Besant, Diane Leclair Bisson, Thomas Arthur Cannell, Karen Anderson Cantine, Ginette Caron, Luc Courchesne, Christos Dikeakos, Gene Dub, Daniel Fortin, Peter Jacobs, Barrie Jones, Albert Leclerc, Rod MacDonald, Judith Mary Nasby, Helga Plumb, Elsie Marion Sullivan, Robert Tombs, Colette Tougas, Hendrikus van Assen, and Barbara Vogel. Thank you to all nominators and congratulations to all medalists!  See press release here.

—Our new Ottawa location

On September 1, 2020, the RCA moved into its new office space at 50 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, the home of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Situated at the confluence of the Rideau Falls, and the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers, this building, designed by architect Peter Spaull in 2000, has two purpose-built gallery spaces. We will present exhibitions beginning in the 2021–22 season, once social distancing is relaxed from the advisories established during the Covid-19 pandemic.

—Closing our office at 401 Richmond, Toronto

Since the early 1990s, the RCA’s office was located at 401 Richmond, a historic warehouse in downtown Toronto and home to over 140 cultural producers including fashion designers, film makers, jewelers, architects, animators, communications specialists, graphic designers, art galleries, artist-run centres, and several charitable organizations. Originally the site of the Macdonald Manufacturing Company, a tin lithography factory built in 1899, 401 Richmond represented a wonderful opportunity for the RCA to liaise efficiently with a centralized arts and culture community. It was determined in 2018, however, to relocate our office to Ottawa as both a cost-saving measure and to benefit from closer proximity to national arts funders.