The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy is a must-see. Year after year, it has occupied a special place in the collective imagination as a reflection of all that is exciting and essential in British and international art and architecture right now.

You’ll encounter art and artists of all kinds here – drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, film and digital art, made by members of the public, emerging artists and household names, including our Royal Academicians (and the occasional celebrity).

But as tennis is to Wimbledon or music is to Glastonbury, so the art is only half the picture at the RA. It’s about joining in, catching up, being present, bearing witness, getting together – no art expertise required.

For this year’s edition, we will be open late on Saturdays (as with regular Fridays, until 9 PM), and our in-gallery gin bar will be open Thursday through Sunday – meaning more time (and more ways) to be social with your nearest and dearest. Every Friday in July from 5pm, the galleries come alive with DJ sets.

To share a moment at the Summer Exhibition is to not so much be a part of our story as to take a piece of it for yourself. You can buy many of the pieces you like the look ofand take them home – and much of the art is affordable.

It’s your being here, though, that makes the Summer Exhibition what it’s always been: an unmissable summer celebration of art, and an enduring landmark of British life.

This exhibition contains explicit language and imagery and sensitive content covering political and societal issues. Inclusion of works in the Summer Exhibition should not be read as the RA supporting any particular artist’s point of view.