OFFICIAL: No 12,000 cap on entries to RA Summer Exhibition + dates change

OFFICIAL: There is no 12,000 cap on entries to the RA Summer Exhibition

This is an update - and clarification - regarding my original Call for Entries for the Summer Exhibition - RA Summer Exhibition 2019: Call for 12,000 entries

In the middle of February, I was contacted by the marketing team for the Royal Academy of Arts and asked to change three things

• my reference to the 12,000 entries cap - which was REMOVED in 2018
• the dates for announcements of the digital selection announcement and those selected for the exhibition - as these dates were changed (by a few days) shortly after the announcement of the call for entries. 

I duly changed my blog post.

However it appears that there's still some confusion (see the above email) - hence this post.

Absolutely everyone who submitted work for the show is having it considered by the selection committee which devotes a huge amount of unpaid time and effort into that process. Anne Desmet

The 12,000 entries cap has been removed

The Cap on Entries introduced by the Royal Academy of Arts no longer exists. 
Apparently it was removed last year - but this was not announced at the time.

It also did NOT apply to this year's entry - and I apologise if I confused anybody.

I'm guessing that:

• the opportunity last year to open more spaces for the exhibition and the fact it was the 250th meant they wanted to able to selected more works from the open entry.
• the entry fee income is always welcome....

Pity they forgot to mention that the 12,000 cap had been disbanded!

Please note, I'm also not the only person quoting the 12,000 cap in relation to this year's entries.

New Dates

The new dates are marginally different.

Apparently they changed the website and the leaflet but made no other announcement.

This is why those of us who download on the day the call for entries opens were still working off the first document uploaded to the website - and why my post which was published the same day the call for entries opened had the original dates.

Below is what it now says in my original post

• Shortlisted works from the first round of selection will be announced on [THIS IS AN UPDATE] Thursday 14 March 2019
• The final list of exhibitors for the Summer Exhibition will be announced [THIS IS AN UPDATE] on MONDAY 20 May 2019

This means:

• digital selection is a day earlier
• final selection is two days later.

So I suggest you change your dates in your dairy/calendar if you were working off the original announcement.

I've suggested to the Royal Academy that it would be very helpful when CHANGING things, if these could be highlighted in an email to those who are interested in the exhibition and signed up for notifications.