From David Hockney to James Dyson, some of the world’s best-known artists and designers have studied or taught at the Royal College of Art. Now the RCA has launched a new exhibition about its 175-year history.

I visited the free show yesterday and was amazed at the breadth of work on display, from a real Porsche designed by RCA graduate Matthias Kulla, to David Hockney paintings from the 1960s, sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and a boat designed by James Dyson while he was still a student at the college.

I liked Gavin Turk’s blue plaque stating “Gavin Turk, Sculptor worked here”, which he famously exhibited in an empty studio for his degree show, and Tracey Emin’s The Perfect Place to Grow, a shed on stilts with a peephole that visitors are encouraged to look through.

Two of the most memorable artworks were a big cat made from coat hangers by David Mach (pictured above) and a sculpture made from plastic dolls’ heads joined together at the neck by Jake and Dinos Chapman.

I left feeling inspired and excited by the creative buzz at the RCA, and almost wishing that I could become a student again.

The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art is on until 3 January

Visit London was allowed a sneak preview of this year’s Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. It certainly is an impressive display of some of the best in contemporary art.

While work by David Hockney and Tracey Emin is a major draw and rightly so, the most impressive work is arguably by some lesser-known artists.

The theme of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2010 is “raw” and that’s certainly conveyed in the paintings. Bright colours, in particular a burning orange, dominate much of the work.

The notion of raw is also transferred in sculptural form with David Mach’s Silver Streak, an imposing ten-foot tall gorilla made from coat hangers dominating Gallery VII.

If contemporary art is not your thing, head to the Lecture Room where drafts and models by some of the World’s most influential architects are shown. It’s worth looking to find the next Gherkin, The O2 or Millennium Bridge, arguably some of London’s most treasured landmarks.