Уильям Шипли: Өнер қоғамын және академияны құрған негізқалаушы

English founder of arts society and academy
William Shipley

William Shipley (baptised: 2 June 1715 – 28 December 1803) was an English drawing master, social reformer and inventor who, in 1754, founded an arts society in London that became The Royal Society of Arts, or Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA).

Shipley was born in Maidstone, Kent, the son of Jonathan Shipley (d. 1749, originally of Walbrook, London) and Martha (née Davies), and baptised on 2 June 1715. He had a brother Jonathan Shipley, who became the Bishop of St Asaph, and whose son William Davies Shipley became Dean of St Asaph. William grew up in the City of London. His father died when he was just three years old, and William was sent to live with his maternal grandfather. At the age of 21, he inherited £500 and used that money to practice as a painter and drawing master in Northampton. At this point, he also joined the Northampton Philosophical Society, where he began his philanthropic life by raising funds to buy fuel for the poor. Around 1750, Shipley moved to London and set up a drawing school near Fountain Court in The Strand (at the east corner of Beaufort Buildings), which was known first as "Shipley's Academy" and later as "Ackermann's Repository of Arts". The school proved highly successful, and among Shipley's pupils were Richard Cosway, Thomas Jones, William Pars, and Francis Wheatley. Founding members included Viscount Folkestone, Lord Romney (1712–1794), Isaac Maddox, Stephen Hales, and Thomas Baker, the naturalist. A "plan" of Shipley's devising was published in 1755 in folio, where the aims of the society were stated, "to promote the arts, manufactures, and commerce of this kingdom by giving honorary or pecuniary rewards, as may be best adapted to the case, for the communication to the society, and through the society to the public, of all such useful inventions, discoveries, and improvements as tend to that purpose". The society would award premiums for different discoveries and inventions: "There appeared in the daily and evening papers a notice announcing premiums or awards" They offered premiums for the discovery of cobalt and the raising and curing of madder, for example. These were not just frivolous concerns but matters of Britain's most important industry, namely, textiles. According to Colley, "Cobalt dyes a brilliant blue and the madder was the principal source of all red dies until the 19th century". Quite simply, the society wanted to enable Britain's most important industry, its textile manufacturers, to be able to dye their cloth at home rather than send it abroad." They once offered a premium to anyone able to develop a scheme to transport breadfruit from the East to the West Indies. Shipley raised the money for the endeavour through subscriptions. He also encouraged people to make new and more accurate maps by awarding special prizes to encourage exploration. Richard Cosway painted an oil portrait of Shipley, and there is also a portrait, drawn and engraved by William Hincks, in the National Portrait Gallery. There is a mezzotint by John Faber the Younger of a painting by Shipley of a man blowing a lighted torch. Many credit Shipley with helping to establish the role of private organisations to serve the public; the Crown of England was so preoccupied with war and money dealings, it had little resources to further enhance culture at the time. "Merely by existing,the society challenged the way that the British state was organised. To begin with, by taking on certain tasks, they underlined just how much the state left undone.