Viewing Young Artists’ Summer Show 2026

Young artists, big ideas.

The Royal Academy’s Young Artists’ Summer Show is returning for its eighth edition, bringing work by artists aged 4 to 18 into the Weston Studio and online. Free to visit, the exhibition showcases young people from across the UK, selected from a huge open call that received 25,660 entries from more than 4,500 registered schools, art clubs and home educators.

Home to the UK’s only free postgraduate art school, the Royal Academy has championed artists at every stage of their careers since its foundation in 1768. This annual show gives this legacy a properly lively future. The works on display are chosen by judges including Royal Academicians, RA Schools students and professionals working in art education, with panels split across primary and secondary levels. Among this year’s judges are Mike Nelson RA, Sikelela Owen RA, Eliza Bonham Carter and Vicky Carmichael.

The show celebrates young artists as artists in their own right, rather than treating them as future versions of someone else. Expect work full of invention, humour, seriousness and surprise, with prizes awarded to outstanding entries and a People’s Choice Award open for public voting online from 14 July to 31 August.

Running alongside the RA’s Summer Exhibition, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a reminder of what happens when imagination is given space to thrive early on. It also honours the teachers, parents, carers and art clubs who keep creativity alive at a time when art education needs every champion it can get. One to visit with the next generation, or simply to remind yourself how good young people are at seeing the world just a little bit differently.