SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – THE RE’s NEW SUPPLEMENTAL CHARTER
 
It is our great pleasure to formally announce that the RE has been granted a new Supplemental Charter by His Majesty King Charles III.
The Supplemental Charter includes our new name and re-written Bye-laws.
 
Therefore as of today, Thursday 23 April 2026, the Society will now be known as the
Royal Society of Printmakers.
Our new bye-laws strengthen and refine the Society’s existence as an all-inclusive contemporary organisation looking to the future, whilst our new name gives us a clearer identity and aligns us more visibly with our objectives of continuing to promote the medium of original printmaking.
 
We will continue to be known by the abbreviation ‘RE’ and members will retain their post nominals ‘RE’ as a key part of the Society’s identity and history.
 
Prof David Ferry
President of the Royal Society of Printmakers

 

 

 

 

WHY HAVE WE CHANGED OUR NAME?

 

The Society has been working through the process for the last few years to alter the Society’s name, from the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers to more simply, the Royal Society of Printmakers.

 

The term ‘painter-printmaker’ derived from ‘painter-etcher’ which was used in the Society’s original name Society of Painter-Etchers in 1880. At this time, ‘painter’ in this context was used to mean ‘original’ as opposed to mass produced mechanical prints or etchings produced by copyists, but ‘painter-etcher’ was an obscure term even at this time.

 

In today’s artworld printmaking is viewed in a much different regard than as it was in the late 19th Century, and so this distinction is now unnecessary. Increasingly, the inclusion of the term ‘painter’ misleadingly suggests an involvement with painting when the Society’s sole focus is printmaking so we felt it was time to make this change.

 

 

A timeline of the Society’s name changes, reflecting its inclusion of a wider range of printmaking practices over the years to our most recent update