Royal Society of Arts

Royal Society Of Arts

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. It is usually known as the Royal Society of Arts for brevity (and on the building's frieze The Royal Society of Arts — see photograph). The Society was founded in 1754 and was granted a Royal Charter in 1847. Charles Dickens, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx, William Hogarth, John Diefenbaker and Stephen Hawking are some of the notable RSA's members and it has today more than 27,000 Fellows from 70 countries worldwide. The RSA's Medal winners include Nelson Mandela, Sir Frank Whittle, and Professor Stephen Hawking. The RSA Medals, named Albert Medal, the Benjamin Franklin Medal and the Bicentenary Medal, are still awarded. The RSA members are still among the innovative contributors to the human knowledge, as shown by the Oxford English Dictionary which records the first use of the term "sustainability" in an environmental sense of the word in the RSA's Journal in 1980. The RSA was granted a Royal Charter in 1847, and the right to use the term Royal in its name by King Edward VII in 1908.