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The Royal Institute of Art is located on Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm. Here, one can find modern workshops in historic buildings, all in an inspiring environment surrounded by water. The majority of our locations are owned and run by the National Property Board Sweden.
The Royal Institute of Art’s main building, Kasern (‘Barracks’) III, was erected 1778-79 as a grain depository, designed by Carl Fredrick Adelcrantz. One hundred years later, the warehouse was rebuilt into a barracks for the Royal Fleet, based on designs by Victor Ringheim, when the building got its current name.
The Royal Institute of Art moved into the building in the mid-1990s, after an extension and redevelopment managed by Gösta Edberg Architects, where the original building was integrated with the newly built structure by a glass atrium. Today, this area is used as an exhibition space.
Kasern III contains student studios, workshops, lecture halls, libraries and exhibition areas. This is where the school administration and most teachers are located.
The name of the building Mindepartementet (‘the Ministry of Mines’) dates back to the time of the Crimean War, when the building served as a hub for manufacturing and servicing mines. The Royal Institute of Art then took over the premises in 2017, and it has since been renovated, modernized and adapted to meet its current function. The name lives on, but has gained a new meaning and resonance within the current setting.
When, in 1875, Sweden bought its first 25 torpedoes, a building was needed to store them. This became Torpedverkstaden (‘the Torpedo Workshop’), designed by Albin Ferdinand Medberg. The torpedoes were stored in waterproof cellars, and Torpeddepartementet (‘the Torpedo Ministry’) was housed in the attic. Since the 1980s, the building has been used for various cultural activities. Today our listening station is located here—including facilities for electro-acoustic music, radio performance, and sound art.
Hus 117 (‘House 117’), or Kanonverkstaden (‘the Canon Workshop’) was erected in 1943. When the Royal Fleet moved from Skeppsholmen, the Royal Institute of Art took over the premises. Today, we have the upstairs available for our use, where we keep a number of student studios.
Students in the five-year program in Fine Art have access to a studio space during their studies. All students are also allowed to use our project studios for both major and time-limited projects. The student studios are located at Kasern III, Annexet (‘The Annex’), Hus 117, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Konstakademien).
Galleri Mejan is the Royal Institute of Art’s student gallery. The building was erected in the late-19th century, when the adjacent building Kasern II was in need of expansion. The structure was subsequently built multiple times, and has been used – among other things – as the Marine Corps’ depot.
In 1963, the structure was rebuilt into a sculpture studio for the Royal Institute of Art, which by then already used Kasern II. Hans Brunnberg, who was then the professor of architecture at the Royal Institute of Art, was the lead-architect for the renovation. Then came the prominent studio-windows, which still give the building its special character to this day. The building got its current appearance in 1988, after a redevelopment designed by the architects Anders Bodin and Bo Edblad.
For most of the year, our graduate students in Fine Art show their solo exhibitions here. An important part of each student’s education consists of completing, installing, and being examined on a solo exhibition.
About a week after the vernissage, the exhibition receives a critical review in seminar-form. It is lead by the exhibiting student’s professor.
An essential part of our educational philosophy is to give our students the opportunity to put together exhibitions and to showcase their projects. In this regard, the exhibition space Mellanrummet plays an important role.
Mellanrummet (‘The Space In-Between’) has a central location, and is directly aligned with the main building’s entranceway. It is a free space for our students to exhibit shorter-term works, or experiment with ongoing projects. Here, they create their own exhibitions.
Rutiga golvet (‘The Checkered Floor’), which was initiated by the former Vice-Chancellor Sara Arrhenius in 2017, is located on the entry-level floor of the main building. During some parts of the 1970s, it was the site of Moderna Museet’s set of experimental activities, named Filialen. Rutiga golvet builds on that legacy and provides a space for artistic risk-taking and the pleasure of experimentation.
Rutiga golvet is both a site and ongoing-project that links art theory and seminars with publication- and exhibition-production. The space serves as a workshop for thought- and discourse-production where different practitioners meet and thrive off each other’s work. Curators, editors, critics and art scholars are invited and contribute to the university’s environment. Here, artistic and educational projects are also being developed and presented at the school, and artists present important projects and issues. It is a place that opens the Royal Institute of Art to the world at large.