 An Act of Parliament in 1857 provided for the establishment of a number of art schools throughout the United Kingdom and the Cardiff School of Art opened in 1865.Graduates still very often had to leave Wales to work, but Betws-y-Coed became a popular centre for artists and its artists' colony helped form the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1881.The sculptor Sir William Goscombe John made works for Welsh commissions, although he had settled in London.Christopher Williams, whose subjects were mostly resolutely Welsh, was also based in London.