Royal Academy of Arts to that drawn up by Cheere in 1755. It was Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect and head of the British government's architects' department, the Office of Works, who used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support for the Academy in 1768. The painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president, and Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788. The instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of
The Lviv National Academy of Arts art), the doctor of Art Criticism O. Bodnar (theory of design), Honoured artist of Ukraine O. Bonkovsky (art metal) and others. 21 graduates of the Academy became T. Shevchenko prize-winners. Modern development of the Academy is impossible without active collaboration with home and foreign higher educational institutions. First of all it concerns long and productive collaboration with Kyiv National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture and the Kharkiv Academy of Design and Art. Among foreign educational institutions there are a good few of famous European art academies and institutes in Poland, France, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Russia, Baltic countries. It is