Royal CambrianAcademy

The Royal Cambrian Academy has shown Welsh art since 1881, formed the following year under a charter granted by Queen Victoria. The academy first exhibited in Llandudno, then moved into Plas Mawr in Conwy in 1886 at the invitation of Lord Mostyn, before relocating in 1993 to its current gallery, a converted former Seion Independent Chapel on Crown Lane. More than one hundred elected artist members show and sell work through the gallery's rolling programme of exhibitions, alongside children's and adult workshops and life drawing sessions, run as a registered charity rather than a commercial venture. The gallery opens Thursday to Saturday. Its move from a Tudor town house into a chapel building gives the exhibition space an unusual double-height interior that suits large-scale contemporary painting as much as historical work.