Video - Drawing on Japan: A Conversation with Rebecca Salter

In this in-conversation event on Wednesday 14 May 2025, Rebecca Salter, artist and President of the Royal Academy of Arts, was interviewed by Dr Meri Arichi of the Japanese Women’s Association in Great Britain, and Jenny White, Honorary Editor of The Japan Society and former CEO of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Salter discussed her long-standing fascination with Japan, which led her to study ceramics and printmaking there in 1979. The conversation explored various aspects of her career, her experiences in Japan, her role as President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and her advice to young artists.

Rebecca Salter studied at Bristol Polytechnic and later at Kyoto City University of the Arts, where she spent six years and trained in traditional Japanese woodblock printing under Professor Kurosaki Akira. Her practice combines printmaking and painting, and she has authored two books on Japanese printmaking. Until 2016, she lectured on the MA Printmaking course at Camberwell College of Arts. Salter has exhibited internationally, including a major retrospective at the Yale Center for British Art in 2011. She became a Royal Academician in 2014, Keeper in 2017, and in 2019, the first female President of the Royal Academy. She was appointed CBE in 2025.

We are deeply grateful to Rebecca Salter for her candid reflections and inspiring words. Gratitude is also due to Dr Meri Arichi and Jenny White for their thoughtful and engaging questions, and to the Japan Research Centre, and the Japanese Women’s Association in Great Britain for making the event a memorable occasion.