A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to announce the naming of the Royal Drawing School

In establishing the School, it was our hope that we could provide a space in which expert teachers could help our students to see the world with greater clarity and sensitivity, whether that vision was ultimately expressed through painting, sculpture, illustration, animation, film or design. It is my firm belief that drawing is one of the most direct ways of engaging with the world and, like music and dance, needs to be taught and practised throughout an artist's life.



So I am delighted that what started in 2000 as one small teaching studio with just forty students, although it was very nearly twenty-five years ago, that Catherine helped me start the life-drawing classes for my original Institute of Architecture which then became the foundation for the Drawing School  it has grown into a vibrant and valued part of the art education landscape and has come of age this year as The Royal Drawing School. In the intervening years, more than 7,000 people have come to draw at the School and there are now over 300 alumni of the School's postgraduate Drawing Year programme.



The postgraduate and public courses that formed the School's initial programmes are now joined by The Foundation Year, The Drawing Clubs for young artists and a steadily growing international and artists' residency programme which, along with its five central London studios, allow the School to continue to meet the need for serious, sustained drawing tuition among artists, art students and the public.



 Although this started out much as an experiment, I could not be more delighted or proud to be with you today, to announce the School’s Royal status, newly granted by Her Majesty The Queen, as an acknowledgment not only of the School's academic and artistic excellence, but also of the importance of drawing itself as a primary language natural to all human beings.



The Royal Drawing School has now become a permanent institution, dedicated to ensuring that observational drawing remains an evolving and vital force in the arts, in perpetuity. I am determined that The Royal Drawing School will continue to grow as a specialist, educational resource of international standing and that it will remain open to all, regardless of background or circumstance.



I need hardly say that The School's growth over the years has been enabled by the wonderfully generous support of its many supporters and friends, and, of course, its tutors and students, past and present, to whom I would like to express my heartfelt thanks.



Ladies and Gentlemen, I look forward with great anticipation to the future and remain hopeful that subsequent generations will continue to experience one of the greatest aspects of our human culture - the profound need to make our mark and to continue the great tradition of the quiet, intense process of drawing from observation.