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Archival description
Campaign for Learning

The Campaign for Learning was an initiative, co-ordinated by the RSA in collaboration with the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education, the TEC National Council, the Open University and a range of other sponsors. Its aim was to encourage individuals to think more positively about learning and to take greater responsibility for their own personal development. The Campaign was chaired by Sir Christopher Ball\nRecords comprise printed reports and publicity material

Tomorrow's Company

A business-led enquiry into the role of business in a changing world. During 1992 the RSA organised eight dinners at which business leaders were challenged to think afresh about business, its purpose, its role in society and the measures of success.The result was the three year RSA inquiry Tomorrow's Company: the role of business in a changing world. By the beginning of 1993, 25 companies had committed the time and energy of their senior executives to the inquiry, led by Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman, IBM UK Ltd.\nRecords comprise published material including reports

Redefining Work

Redefining Work was concerned with the ways our society may function in future and the assumptions we might make about the nature and pattern of work within it. Many aspects of the way we lead our lives are rooted in traditional assumptions which for many people do not reflect today's reality. Redefining work took a comprehensive approach in exploring the issues and crossed conventional boundaries

The aim of the project was to define the role of manufacturing in a sustainable economy, which the Society considered to be one of the key issues of economic and industrial policy facing the UK. A linked series of three lectures and five seminars to clarify the significance of a healthy manufacturing sector in improving the UK's international trade and economic growth.

Albert Medal

A general meeting of the Society was specially convened on 21st March 1862 to discuss suitable memorials to Prince Albert, President of the Society for eighteen years (1843-1861). At this meeting the Council put forward their resolution 'that a gold medal, to be called the Albert medal, be provided by the Society, to be awarded by the Council not oftener than once a year, for distinguished merit in promoting Arts, Manufactures or Commerce'. (A commemorative bust was also decided upon at this meeting).\n\nLeonard Wyon produced the design of the Medal showing the head of Albert in later life on the obverse. Other artists were commissioned for designs from which the reverse might be selected, such designs to be illustrative of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The first award was made in 1864 to Sir Rowland Hill for his reforms to the postal system, the benefits of which extended over the civilised world.\n\n'The list of recipients forms a record of the greatest of those who have laboured to benefit mankind, and whose service lends lustre to the reputation of the sagacious and benevolent Prince in whose memory it was founded'.\n\nWinners of the Albert Medal are offered Honorary Fellowship of the RSA.\n\nIncludes files and working papers on the selection of candidates, arrangements for ceremonies and general administration, as well as photographs of medal presentation ceremonies

The Journal was established in 1852 to disseminate information about the Society's activities and included transcriptions of lectures. Unlike the annual printed Transactions which preceded it, the Journal was initially published weekly.\nRecords include files and papers on the production of the Journal and other related promotional publications and press and publicity generally. Complete runs of the Journal are available for consultation in the Research Room at the RSA. Each volume is indexed and there are cumulative 10 year indexes for the Journal up to 1952.

Home-School links

The RSA has had an interest in Home-School links and the use of written agreements since 1988 when it worked with the National Association of Head Teachers on a project 'Home-School Contract of Partnership'. It has published regularly on the topic since then, some of these publication being part of the Education for Capability (PR/ED/107) and Parents in a Learning Society(PR/ED/104) projects

Redefining the Curriculum

The RSA's New Curriculum project is a mainstream contribution to the strategic development of compulsory school education in Britain. At its heart is the development of a curriculum that places as much emphasis on the learning of critical thinking skills or 'competences' as it does on the traditional transmission of facts from teacher to pupil.\n\nOpening Minds: Education for the 21st century was published in June 1999, was the final report of the 'Redefining the Curriculum' consultative stage. Subsequently, the RSA has been working with a number of schools to make a reality of the ideas in the report. It recommended a competence-based curriculum framed around five sets of competences: for learning, managing information, managing people, managing situations, and citizenship. Project schools have developed a number of innovative curriculum initiatives, which they are now putting into practice.\n\nRecords comprise the main published reports of the project

The Fourth Plinth project was initiated by RSA past Chairman Prue Leith. The RSA's central aims in this initiative were to: use the plinth to display works of art after the 150 year deadlock; raise the level of debate about the nature of public art today; and inform decisions about the plinth's permanent use. The project was co-ordinated by the RSA.\n\nAll files were appraised and routine correspondence removed.\n\nThe series consists of the administrative records from the initiation of discussions about the empty plinth to the the display of the scupltures: Ecce Homo by Mark Wallinger, Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow and Monument by Rachel Whiteread.