International Residencies


The Don Bachardy Fellowship
The Don Bachardy Fellowship at the Royal Drawing School invites a gifted and dedicated post-graduate artist from outside the United Kingdom to study at the Royal Drawing School for 3 months and to experience the cultural life of London. The fellowship is named after the Californian portrait painter, Don Bachardy (b. 1934), who studied at the Slade in 1961, had his first show at the Redfern Gallery in Mayfair that year, and has gone on to draw and paint over 10,000 portraits from life. 

The Don Bachardy Fellowship is sponsored by The Christopher Isherwood Foundation, www.IsherwoodFoundation.org

Find out more details about this residency



Art School partnerships
The Royal Drawing School holds a number of partnerships with some of the United States’ most renowned art schools. Together, we are developing residencies, workshops and exchange programmes to benefit art students on both sides of the Atlantic for whom drawing is central to their work.  

2022 partner art schools: 

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

The Yale University School of Art

UC Davis


Residencies for US artists at Dumfries House
Part-funded four week residencies at Dumfries House, in the South West of Scotland, are available for American artists who are connected to our partner art schools. Students are given a private studio and self-catering accommodation on the Dumfries House estate. 

The residency is delivered by the Royal Drawing School and Dumfries House in conjunction with the School's international partners above Find out more about our residencies for artists in the US and UK.

Life in the Woods


Residencies for UK artists in the US
Selected alumni of the Royal Drawing School’s ‘Drawing Year’ are awarded a three-month residency in the US at El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA) in California. Thanks to the generosity of Brian and Eva Sweeney at ESMoA.

Find out more about this residency

Rosie Vohra ESMOA residency


Expanding our US programme
We are eager to develop these and other opportunities for emerging artists, at a very low cost to both the individuals and institutions. To do so we are reliant on donors from the UK and US who see the benefit of cross-cultural associations. 

Find out how you can support our work in the US

For further information on all of our US initiatives, please contact The Royal Drawing School’s Development Office.