Favourite artist in historic city (5)
I believe the answer is:
petra
'historic city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'favourite artist' is the wordplay.
'favourite' becomes 'pet' (synonyms).
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'pet'+'ra'='PETRA'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for petra that I've seen before include "Ancient Asian city, now in Jordan" , "Historic city in Jordan" , "Jordan's rock-hewn city" , "Old city in Jordan" , "Burgon's rose-red city" .)