While its courtyard is well known as a striking venue for a winter ice rink and summer movie screenings, people are less aware that hundreds of artists and creatives work within its walls. And as it approaches 25 years in its most recent guise, the organization wants to raise its profile — in 2025, there will be a raft of exhibitions and events aiming to show off its artistic endeavors. “There wasn’t a … moment when Somerset House was revealed in its full glory. And, in a way, next year is a kind of belated moment to do that,” said Jonathan Reekie, director of the Somerset House Trust, the organization that preserves the building and its activities for the public. Somerset House has had many transformations. Queen Elizabeth I lived there in the 16th century, and since then it has been a Navy headquarters, a home for the Royal Academy of Arts and a newspaper tax office, before being completely rebuilt in 1801. “In the … 1770s, 1780s, [King] George III needed to build an ‘office block’ for his newly formed civil service. So, this is what he built,” Reekie said as he took CNBC on a tour. The studios’ first resident in 2016 was British fashion designer Gareth Pugh, and composer Anna Meredith was its second, with many others working in the visual arts. “Most of them are doing socially-engaged work … or engaging with emergent, evolving and advanced technologies,” McPartlin said. Artists are encouraged to collaborate — one high-profile name was turned down a studio place because of concerns that they would not have been on site enough of the time. “The community is the most important thing,” McPartlin said. “The majority of artists don’t have gallery representation — it’s such a precarious existence ... really quickly, we realized that long-term support is something Somerset House was able to offer.” Artists are resident for between one and seven years, with some on site for up to 10 years. In 2025, McPartlin will curate sculpture “The Spell or The Dream” by Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani, a resident of the studios, which will sit at the courtyard’s center in August and September. Inspired by a sleeping beauty-type figure, it will reflect “on the urgent contemporary issues of our time,” according to a release.