Records of Standing Committees

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The Royal Academy was slow in developing a formal structure of sub-committees of Council, with associated terms of reference and delegated powers. In part this was a consequence of the annual rotation of membership of Council precluding a stable membership of any sub-committee, along with perhaps a reluctance to create any structure that took away from Council's primacy in all matters of business.

The first standing sub-committees were created in the wake of the move to Burlington House and the resultant increase of activity. Both the Schools and the Exhibitions committees were established in 1870 and have been in existance, in one form or another, ever since. A Finance Committee was instituted in 1911 to undertyake internal auditting tasks, followed by a Library committee in 1920. This structure remained unchanged until the late 1960s, when chronic financial crises impacted with a shock to governance, resulting in a group of powerful, though relatively short-lived, standing committees - the Financial Advisory Committee, the Policy Advisory Committee and the House Committee.

Records produced by committee established as an enduring administrative function within the Royal Academy, whose remit pertains to a particular sphere of business.