The Royal West of England Academy (RWA), is an art gallery where Queens Road meets Whiteladies Road in Bristol. The academy was the first art gallery in Bristol. It was financed by a donation of £2000 in the 1849 will of Ellen Sharples and a group of artists in Bristol, known as the Bristol Society of Artists, these were mostly landscape painters and many were well known such as William James Müller, Francis Danby, J.B. Pyne and John Syer. In 1844, when the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts was founded, the Bristol Society of Artists was incorporated into it. At this time the President and committee was predominantly its patrons, rather than its artists. Ellen Sharples, was an artist associated with this group and a member of a portrait painting family, who spent considerable time in America. When she died in 1849 she left £2,000 to the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts. This sum, together with an earlier gift from her and money raised by other supporters, enabled the erection of a fine building in 1858 - Bristol's first Art Gallery. Early patrons included Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Prince Consort. In 1875 a considerable collection of Turner watercolours were exhibited attracting over 15,000 visitors.
In 1914 a major extension to the front of the building, including the dome and Walter Crane lunettes, was completed and in 1915 King George V granted the Academy its Royal title, with the reigning monarch as its Patron. During World War II the Academy became the temporary home of various organisations including the Bristol Aeroplane Company and the U.S. Army. Immediately after the war ended the Council applied for the release of the galleries but was informed that the Inland Revenue would occupy them until further notice. It wasn't until 1950 that the building was returned to its original function after the intervention of the then Prime Minister, Clement Atlee. The building is a grade II* listed Building built in 1857. The interiors are by C Underwood and facade by JR Hirst, altered in 1912 by SS Reay and H Dare Bryan. The first floor is in 3 sections, the outer ones articulated by paired Corinthian pilasters flanking large shell head niches with statues of Flaxman and Reynolds. A large carving of 3 female figures crowns the parapet. The interior includes coloured marble. A school of art was established in 1853, known as the Bristol School of Practical Art supported by artist members and studio space was later provided by the Academy. From 1936 to 1969 it was known as the West of England College of Art. Since then a school of art has always occupied part of the Academy premises. Education continues to be important at the RWA. HRH Prince of Wales officially opened the RWA School of Architecture in 1921; it was later taken over by the University of Bristol in 1963 and closed in 1983.

Among the paintings in the permanent collection are works by artists from the Newlyn, St Ives and Bloomsbury Schools. Paintings by George Swaish, Matthew Hale, Anne Redpath, Mary Fedden, Carel Weight, Bernard Dunstan and Elizabeth Blackadder are also valued additions to the collection.