Royal College of Art Students' Union

Happy Pride Month from the Students’ Union! Pride Month is celebrated in June to honour the Stonewall uprising in 1969. It’s important to remember that the first Pride was a protest, and the LGBTQIA+ community is still fighting to this day for their rights, both here in the UK and across the world. Pride Month centres around intersectionality, activism and community resilience 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Here are some events we’ll be running across June.

1. Join us for a making workshop focusing on the central themes of Pride: intersectionality, activism and community resilience. The workshop will be facilitated by Naz Toorabally, founder of the alternative South Asian zine WEIRDO. Thursday 4th June, from 12-2pm in the Courtyard Gallery. 

2. Film screening of Joyland, directed by Saim Sadiq, Tuesday 16th June from 5:30pm in LT1, Kensington. Joyland follows the youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family as he takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque and quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.

3. Q***r bookswap. We will be in the Courtyard Gallery on Thursday the 18th of June at lunchtime, and the swap will live in the ArtLounge otherwise. Students and staff are invited to bring books that feature LGBTQIA+ stories, histories, authors, or characters, and exchange them for another book from the display. 

4. Film screening of Moonlight, Thursday 25th June from 5.30pm in the Govy Lecture Theatre, Battersea. Moonlight chronicles the life of Chiron, a young Black man growing up in a rough Miami neighborhood, through three pivotal stages of his life. It explores his struggle with identity, masculinity, and love, as he navigates family challenges, societal pressures, and personal discovery.  

5. Pride craft and chat session with the SU on Monday the 29th June in the ArtBar, from 12-2pm. Although we know that this is ripe Show time, we would love for you to drop in! Prepare for upcoming marches like Pride and Trans Pride and join us to make a banner or a sign, or simply drop in for a chat.

As the DesignBar is being used for Show, we are unable to use it for workshops or making sessions at the moment, apologies!

Tactile Belief

Exhibition Dates: 26 May – 2 June 2026
Open Day / Private View: 26 May 2026, 14:00–22:00
Venue: Hockney Gallery, SW7 2EU

We live in an age that often feels disenchanted, yet faith has not vanished. It has quietly woven itself into the systems that shape our lives. Algorithms, family expectations, social timelines, gender norms, and even the standards of the established art world can all begin to take on the force of belief.

Tactile Belief explores how these invisible forces continue to organise the visible world of everyday life. The works in this exhibition approach them not as distant ideas, but as something that enters daily life, settles into habit, and is felt through the body.

Curated by:
Masako Zhang .sensory
Jiexin Huang
Tingxuan Xu .xuan_works

Exhibiting members

Animation:
Shiyu Huang
Print:
Lyu Guan
Digital Direction:
Qifu Xu
Xiaoyao Ma
Jingyu Luo
Painting:
Cong Peng
Sculpture:
Sukie Kang
IED:
Ruiqi Lan
Masako Zhang .sensory
Yiran Liu ._yi
Tamaki Miyase .o0
Tingxuan Xu .xuan_works
Shuoyuan Cao
Yeeri Wang
Jiexin Huang

🌀Shifting Realities: 11th-15th May, Hockney Gallery, Kensington Campus🌀

Our last first SU Exhibition of the year will be in the Hockney Gallery from the 11th-15th May. If you’re a student or staff member, drop by and check it out!

Shifting Realities explores works that resist fixed states of completion.
Rather than presenting resolved outcomes, the exhibition focuses on process, gesture, and states of becoming—where meaning remains open.
Completion is approached as one condition among many, while incompleteness is understood as active and generative.
Uncertainty, experimentation, and revision are not exceptions, but everyday realities.
This exhibition proposes incompleteness not as failure, but as an intentional position.

Participating Artists
Zelga Miller, Paula Grundy, Michelle Owen, Leyla Pooya Khan, Annie Briown,
Isabel Zetterstorm, Heather Ota, Billy Berkouwer, Yuexuan Li, Reka Ritt Laklia,
Yunhee Chang, Namrata Kumar, Klara Fokicheva, Siuli-mo Pal, Marion Riley,
Dan Brodie, John Huw Davies, Benjamin Blanc, Manisha Puri, Haohao Zhang,
Sohee Jang, Yujin Jung, Robert Thompson, Rhiannon Salisbury

Curator
Yunhee Chang ()

Visual Design
Yoojin Jung, Soohee Jang

🚤✨ RCASU END OF YEAR BOAT PARTY ✨🚤

We’re closing the year in style on the Thames! Join us for an unforgettable night of music, views, and celebrations with your friends 🌆🎶

📅 09/07/2026
📍 Westminster Pier (Gate D)
⏰ Boat departs at 19:00PM sharp (arrive promptly at 18:30PM for boarding)

👗 Dress code: Dress to impress — this is your moment to show up and show out!

Expect amazing vibes, iconic London views, and the perfect send-off to the academic year 🥂🌃

🎟️ Tickets available via the QR code on the poster or through our LinkTree— don’t wait, spaces are limited!

Let’s make this a night to remember 💃🕺

🚤 SAVE THE DATE 🚤

We’re going out with a splash 🌊
Join us for the FIRST EVER RCASU Boat Party — the ultimate way to wrap up the academic year 🎉

📅 Thursday 9th July 2026
🎟️ Ticket info coming soon…

You won’t want to miss this one 👀🔥

Poster created by .gerousi

The results are IN! Thank you to all the candidates for your hard work campaigning, and a huge thank you to everyone who voted— we reached a record high for voters! To beat last year’s turnout of 17% we needed 399 voters, and thanks to all your hard work we got a record high turnout of 34% with 793 voters! Our highest turnout on record 🥳 

Please join us in welcoming our returing President, Leona Chang, and newly elected Vice President, Zainab Goriawala 💐

Our voting is a ranked preference system, which means voters rank candidates in order of preference. Voters can list just one candidate but can rank as many as they wish. Candidates have to reach a quota of votes to be elected. The quote is half the voters plus 1. If no candidate reaches the quota, then the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and their votes go to their second preference candidate.

For Leona to win in the first round, she needed a quota of 384 votes out of 768 total. She won with 415, so no second round was needed.

For Zainab to win in the first round, the quota was 317 out of 634 total. As nobody reached this, the lowest scoring candidate was eliminated (R.O.N, or Reopen Nominations). In the second round, the quota needed was 314, which nobody had. As the next lowest scoring candidate was tied, our Vice-President flipped a coin to decide who was eliminated, which saw Siddhant Garg eliminated. In the third round, the quota was 304. Nobody obtained this, so Tobechukwu Ogbolu (the next lowest scoring candidate) was eliminated. In the fourth round, the quota needed was 292. Zainab had 303 and so was elected.

The powerpoint can be found on our website if you are interested in the full breakdown! 📈📊

We’re looking forward to seeing what Leona and Zainab do next year!

🗳️RCASU Elections🗳️

Ballot week has begun!

Voting is now open for your 2026/27 SU Presidents and Vice Presidents. You can vote online through our website (link in our bio) or on campus. The SU team will be stationed across all three campuses from now until Thursday. Come and find us- if you vote at one of our polling stations, you get a free donut as a reward! 🍩

This year, we have seven candidates competing for President, and six for Vice. Their manifestos can be found on the SU website (or maybe you’ve seen their campaign posters on the walls?) so have a read and choose widely!

The voting system is called single transferable vote. Each voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In the first round candidates have to get half of the votes available. If no candidate does, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated and their votes are split between whoever those voters put as their second preference. If no-one has 50% of the vote after that
then the next lowest scoring candidate is eliminated. This keeps happening until one candidate has 50% of the vote and is declared the winner. This means
that you need to RANK your preference of candidates!

Results will be announced on Thursday the 26th
March in LT1, Kensington at 6pm. Get voting! Use your voice as a student and Students’ Union member to contribute to meaningful change.

Stallholder spotlight! 💐💡🎨

With only a few days to go until our Spring Fair, behold a selection of work from our stallholders! Drop into Battersea this weekend to shop some gorgeous handmade, bespoke pieces. We’ve got over 40 stallholders, each of whom will be selling unique products; jewellery, prints and cards, ceramics, textiles… anything you can think of. The weather is looking GORGEOUS this week, and we will have Pimms and Elderflower Spritz on sale for you to sip whilst you browse! 🍹💐☀️

📅 Friday 20th & Saturday 21st March
🕛 12 PM – 7 PM
📍 Hangar Gallery, Royal College of Art, Battersea Campus, Howie Street, London SW11 4AY

Work shown in order:

1. Natural history and botanical illustrations by .frenchdrawings 

2. Handcrafted glass pieces by .glassart

3. Clothing as research, expression and social critique by

4. Unique handmade silver jewellery by .jewellery

5. Playful beaded tableware and handmade lifestyle pieces by .studio

6. Natural jewellery crafted from woven metals and glass by

7. Prints and handmade ceramics by

8. Handmade mugs, trinket bowls, candle holders, cards, prints and jewellery by

9. Handmade ceramics and print-based work by

10. Individually crafted lampworked glass pieces by

🌷🎨RCASU Spring Fair Returns! 🎉🌷

After making a glorious comeback in 2023, the Spring Fair has blossomed into a popular annual occasion. If you enjoyed the Christmas Fête, join again in Battersea for some spring shopping!

📅 Friday 20th & Saturday 21st March
🕛 12 PM – 7 PM
📍 Hangar Gallery, Royal College of Art, Battersea Campus, Howie Street, London SW11 4AY

Explore an inspiring collection of handcrafted, bespoke works by RCA Students, Staff and Alumni—from ceramics, jewellery, prints, textiles and more. In time for some seasonal redecorating or gift giving as the weather warms up, come down and find one-of-a-kind treasures and support emerging artists and designers.

Watch this space for some sneak peeks of what’s to come 💝

Don’t miss out on the creativity of the RCA community! See you there🪻🌻🌺🌷🌹💐

Design by Zengyue Zhao, IED 25/26

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