The RCA Visual Gallery is housed in the historic LSPU Hall, a multi-disciplinary performing arts venue and gallery, in the heart of downtown St. John's, the oldest city in North America.
It is a branch of Resource Centre for the Arts; a democratic, artist-run centre committed to the support of artists working in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Gallery was founded in the early 1980's to broaden RCAs support for visual artists. It shares the LSPU Hall with RCA Theatre, and RCA Operations. Within the Hall, the Gallery sustains an exhibition space on the main floor. It is well maintained and activities are regularly undertaken to upgrade its facilities.
The Gallery space comprises 100 linear feet of exhibition wall space, 900 square feet of floor space, halogen lighting, updated audio-visual equipment, a seating capacity of 80 and the gallery is wheelchair accessible.
The combination of presenting nine exhibitions each year and sharing the building with a 200-seat theatre results in gallery visitation of 12,000 people annually. RCA Visual is well equipped for multi-media presentations as well as multi-use activity, such as lectures, readings, meetings, workshops and performance art. Resource Centre for the Arts is a not for profit organization run by a twelve person Board of Directors, the majority of whom are professional artists.
A Gallery committee is comprised of professional visual artists who sit on the Board and professional artists within the community who oversee all activity within RCA Visual. The Committee selects exhibitions once a year following a public call for proposals and oversees their promotion and presentation with the assistance of the Gallery Coordinator.
The Gallery is committed to leading-edge artistic activity primarily from emerging artists from Newfoundland and Canada. RCAV is particularly interested in work that reflects current issues specifically relating to culture; identity, and technology. RCA has a history of being an important threshold in the professional and artistic develoment of many Newfoundland artists. RCA Visual is also well known for its role in supporting a diverse community of Newfoundland visual artists.
