Helen Legg has been appointed the artistic director of London's Royal Academy of Arts (RA). Legg, currently the director of Tate Liverpool, is one of the UK’s most experienced regional museum leaders. Taking up the new role in June 2026, she will be responsible for the RA’s exhibitions, collection and public programme, assuming a position that has long shaped the institution’s international reputation.
Legg has led Tate Liverpool since 2018, where she has overseen a major capital redevelopment of the gallery’s Grade I-listed building, due to reopen in 2027. Before arriving at Tate, Legg was the director of Spike Island in Bristol between 2010 and 2018, a gallery and studio complex with a programme focused on emerging and under-recognised artists. She previously worked as a curator at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, where she helped the development of Ikon Eastside, a second gallery and events space housed in a factory building in the city centre's former industrial area of Digbeth.
Legg said she was “thrilled” by the appointment. “The RA is led by leading artists and architects, with the UK’s oldest—and, crucially, free—art school at its heart,” she said in a statement. “The opportunity to shape the RA’s artistic programme and respond to its extraordinary gallery spaces, as well as launching the expanded Collection Gallery, is tremendously exciting.”
Legg gained a master's degree in history of art from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in 1996, followed by another in curating and commissioning contemporary art from London’s Royal College of Art. She has been part of selection committees for British and Scottish representation at the Venice Biennale, and has been a judge for the Turner Prize, the Contemporary Art Society’s Museums Award and the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, among others.
Simon Wallis, the secretary and chief executive of the RA, says in a statement that Legg is the “ideal” candidate. “She is highly respected in the art world and has a proven track record in delivering exceptional exhibitions,” he adds.
The announcement coincides with two further senior appointments at the RA. Livia Evans—formerly of the retail, supermarket and financial business John Lewis & Partners—joins as commercial director, while Lamia Dabboussy will become director of brand and audiences, joining from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
Unlike most major museums in London, the RA does not receive direct government funding and instead relies on ticket sales, donations, sponsorship, commercial activities and its membership scheme for its income. In recent years it has faced financial troubles, leading to a 15% reduction in the RA’s workforce in 2025. “This was delivered through a combination of vacant roles not backfilled and redundancies (a mix of compulsory and voluntary). The consultation involved all levels of the organisation,” a spokesperson for the RA says. On 5 March, Sotheby's held an auction of ten works by Royal Academicians and honorary RAs, that raised around £2.1m for the institution.
