From Claridges Hotel to the London Underground – the life and work of Textile Designer Marion Dorn

Dorothy Todd, the influential journalist and Editor of the magazine British Vogue, first brought Dorn to the public attention in 1925 and christened Dorn the ‘architect of floors’. Renowned for her ’sculpted rugs’, this lecture will reveal Dorn’s various commissions from the 1920s to the 1960s, which included amongst others, designs for the Savoy Hotel Group in London, Eltham Palace (the former Tudor royal residence that was transformed by the millionaires Stephen and Virginia Courtauld), the London Underground and the White House in Washington DC. 

In addition to her designs of wall hangings, carpets and rugs, Dorn also produced wallpaper and graphics, having studied graphic design at Stanford University prior to coming to live and work in London. We will explore her extraordinary career and position her place as a designer whose name should be for ever enshrined in the history books of British 20th century Art Deco.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston

Over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the RA’s Adult Education Department.
Also conducted numerous guided tours, residential trips and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art - with a particular love for the 1920s and 1930s. A permanent career at Royal Academy of Arts for 12 years.
Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register and National Trust. 
Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. Recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club. She has a MA Hons Art History, St Andrew’s University.

From Biscuits to Blouses, Garibaldi and the British

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was one of the leading figures in the fight for the unification of Italy during the nineteenth century. During his lifetime he attracted almost fanatical devotion. He was a romantic and heroic figure who captured the imagination of Italians but also of the British. His interest to the British prompted a fashion for everything from Staffordshire figurines, biscuits and blouses to the famous red shirts that became symbols of the Risorgimento and Italy's fight for freedom. This fascination on the part of the British culminated in a triumphant visit in 1864 when over 500,000 Londoners turned out to see him in Trafalgar Square. This lecture looks at the amazing life of Garibaldi through the art of the Risorgimento and uses paintings, documents, newspaper accounts and the many representations of him in popular British culture to trace the reasons for his popularity in this country. It looks at the many links he had with Britain and how he fits into the contemporary artistic fashions of the period.

Christopher Garibaldi

Independent Researcher. 2010–2019 Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Horse Racing Museum: www.nhrm.co.uk). 2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections. 1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000. 1994–1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

The History of American Art in 25 Iconic Works

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in America, this lecture explores 25 iconic works including Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic,’ Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother,’ Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ of American art. It traces the history of America through paintings, sculptures, land art, and photography that exemplify vital moments in American history like the Gold Rush, the Civil War, Civil Rights movement, and so forth; key styles/movements like the Hudson River School, Regionalism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art; and showcases ground-breaking artists from the indigenous Native American peoples through to virtuoso portrait painter John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Warhol, Kara Walker and many more.

Marie-Anne Mancio

Trained as an artist before gaining a DPhil in Art and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex. Has lectured in art history for the City Lit, Tate Modern, the Course, Art in London, V&A, Dulwich Picture Gallery, HENI films, Ben Uri gallery; also runs art history study tours abroad for ACE and is a Director of InFems art collective for whom she curates exhibitions and writes.

Marie-Anne has a BA (Hons) First class, Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University, a
DPhil in Art and Critical Theory from University of Sussex and a MPhil Creative Writing, University of Glasgow.

Sir Henry J Wood – Founder of the Proms and Master Musician

Without the tireless efforts of Sir Henry J, Wood, British musical life would be very different indeed. Organist, vocal pedagogue, recording artist and conductor were all disciplines that defined this great and indefatigable artist. Aware of the inegalitarian nature of concert life during the late nineteenth century, he set about making music available to the man in the street by founding the Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall in 1895 with the impresario Robert Newman. Wood was also quick to recognise the potential of the gramophone, as both a means of mass musical dissemination and as a teaching aid.

Raymond Holden

Born in Australia, Professor Raymond Holden AM studied at Sydney, Cologne and London and is both a critically acclaimed and a multi-award winning writer, conductor, broadcaster and lecturer. He has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Emilia Romagna and the New Symphony Orchestra of London, and has been published regularly by Oxford, Cambridge and Yale University Presses, the Royal Academy of Music Press, Hans Schneider Verlag (Vienna) and by ICA, EMI and Warner Classics. Professor Holden has appeared on BBC Television and Radio, Servus TV (Germany), RAI Television and Radio, ABC Classic FM, 3MBS FM, Vision Australia Radio, SRF (Switzerland) and Classic FM (South Africa), and has spoken at many of the world’s leading music and literary festivals, universities, conservatoires and research institutes. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and is currently Emeritus Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music, London

The Art of Atonement – how Germany commemorates WW2

In this country, relatively little is known about Germany’s complex post-WW2 process of ‘coming to terms with’ the atrocities of its recent past and the counter memorial movement that started in the eighties and continues to this day. Instead of commemorating their own losses, German artists created art forms that responded to questions of apology and atonement: How does a nation of former persecutors mourn its victims? How do you remember what you would rather forget? The idea behind counter memorials is to keep the memories and lessons of the past alive in the individual psyches of the people. The results are extraordinary, brave and inspiring.

Angela Findlay Biography:

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England. Her time ‘behind bars’ and later as Arts Coordinator of the London-based Koestler Arts, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation. Angela’s Anglo-German roots led her to research Germany’s largely unknown post-WW2 process of remembrance and the extraordinary culture of 'counter memorials' and site-specific artworks that emerged to express national shame and apology. Angela has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour) and her paintings have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her book - In My Grandfather’s Shadow - expanding on the above subjects was published by Penguin Transworld in July 2022. 

The Art of the Cartoonist

Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high profile UK publications (The Guardian, Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal Of Wound Care). He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom. In 'The Art Of The Cartoonist' Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page that day!  Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect and discover exactly what the eskimo brothers said in The Funniest Joke Ever (possibly).

Harry Venning

Harry Venning is a cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton. Harry’s cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Mathematics Today, Radio Times, Music Teacher and The Stage. For twenty five years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare In The Community, about an unaware and empathy free social worker. In 2004 he developed Clare In The Community into a successful BBC Radio 4 sitcom starring Sally Philipps which ran for twelve series. When not at a desk , Harry tours his cartoon workshop around schools, theatres, arts centres, cruise ships and festivals. He is an Honorary Fellow of the English/Creative Writing departments of Aberystwyth University, resident cartoonist with the Blue Hat team building organisation, UK Social Workers Union honorary ambassador, winner of a Sony Radio Award for Comedy and a former UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year.

The Art and Culture of Fin de Siecle Vienna

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the composer Gustav Mahler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, this talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900. 

Gavin Plumley

A writer and broadcaster. Appears on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. Lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe. Recent appearances include Klimt and The Kiss in cinemas worldwide, and talks for the Hay and Cheltenham Literature Festivals, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum and the V&A. His first book, A Home for All Seasons, is out now

There have been pictorial representations of The Magi from as early as at least the 6th century, such as depictions in Byzantine ivories with origins in places such as Constantinople. Indeed, a vast array of artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (active 1550/1; died 1569), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Masaccio (1401-1428/9?), and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) to name but a few, have been clearly fascinated by story and its possibilities when it comes to visual depictions. However, these depictions over this vast period of time have been anything but consistent. All the aforementioned artists will be mentioned in this lecture.

Leslie Primo

Art historian Leslie Primo is an author, broadcaster, and graduate of Birkbeck, University College, with an MA in Renaissance studies. He lectured at the National Gallery, London for 18 years, and has appeared on the BBC speaking on Michelangelo and presenting on JMW Turner.

He contributed to the Oxford Companion Guide to Black British History, and has a forthcoming Thames & Hudson book called, The Foreigners that Invented British Art. He currently teaches art history at Imperial College, The City Literary, London, and lectures for the National Portrait Gallery, London.

In this amusing lecture I will talk about the seemingly happy world of professional, family pantomime - and what it’s really like. I’ll recount the bouquets and the brickbats. I’ll look at the famous names, the greatest Dames and the old routines that we all remember – and I’ll look at when it all works – and when it doesn’t.  And I’ll talk about why this most precious of British traditions will always endure, and why, surprisingly, every actor wants to do it. This is a revealing look at professional panto, from someone who was born into it. 

Tyler Butterworth

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent twenty five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries. Now, he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients. He lives in Sussex where he walks on the South Downs and the South Coast.

The international 1925 Paris Arts Décoratifs exhibition marked the culmination of an exciting new style – the streamlined elegance of 'Art Deco' – and its transmission to a new generation of artists and designers. Using contemporary photographs and accounts of the stunning showcase pavilions, we will act as spectators of the wide range of work and media on display, including Baccarat crystal, Cartier jewellery, fashion by Poiret, furniture by Ruhlmann, metalwork by Brandt and the leading French magasins exhibits, Bon Marché and Primavera. We will ask such questions as – Why Paris? What would it have been like to be there? Was there a distinctive style? And what propelled its international influence? A visual feast ...

You will have the rare opportunity to see and handle artefacts from the time, including postcards and the exquisite 1925 medallion by Pierre Turin.

The programme for the day includes 3 one hour lectures:-

 10.30 – 11.30  A Phoenix arises in Paris: origins and design leadership

11.30 -12.00 Coffee

12.00 – 13.00 As if we were there …. A Virtual Tour of the Exposition

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 15.00 The new Deco style goes international – the role of the Press and New York as the conduit

 Cost:           £39  to include coffee and lunch  

Venue:       Main Hall, Shalford Village Hall, Kings Road, Shalford, Guildford  GU4  8JE

 Contact:   Mrs Judy Downing – Tel. 01483 856856 or e-mail - judyjeffes@gmail.com

 ALL ARE WELCOME !

Mary Alexander

Mary Alexander trained as an art historian and graduated with a BA Hons in History & History of Art (University College London) and later an MA (with Distinction) in History of Art (University College London). She moved to Manchester to take up the post of Assistant Curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of English Costume, a renowned collection of historic dress. Subsequently she lectured in art history at the University of Leeds, the Open University and Manchester University Extra Mural Department. From 1995 - 2008, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education in London. Mary has also combined academic work with the world of design consultancy.

In 1985 she joined Pentagram Design in London, a leading international design consultancy, and coordinated client presentations, publications, conferences and international special events, including the 1986 British Design event in Aspen Colorado. In 1988 she transferred to Pentagram’s New York office with the task of organising an international design conference held at Stanford University involving business, design and education leaders. As an experienced international speaker, Mary lectures regularly for The Arts Society throughout the UK, Europe and Australia and New Zealand. She also contributes articles to magazines, newspapers and professional journals. She was President of The Arts Society Glaven Valley, Norfolk from 2016- 2021.  

A jam-packed hour of information and entertainment. Take a trip with Margaret as she delves into the 5000-year history, development, design, music, and lore of this fascinating instrument. Boasting over 1400 working parts, you will learn how the complex pedal mechanism was introduced and perfected into the instrument played today together with slides of the extraordinary designs as the instrument developed over the centuries. Indulge in the lavishly decorated Rococo harps made for Queen Marie Antoinette, the fashion statement that became associated with the instrument - and listen as Margaret plays her harp for you on this unique musical journey.

Margaret Watson

Margaret studied harp under the late Sidonie Goossens OBE and Sussex harpist Helen Arnold. She holds a Diploma in Music Performance on the harp and is also a Fellow of The Guild of Musicians and Singers. Now one of the busiest harpists in the Southeast, Margaret has played for Royalty, given concerts at National Trust properties, played at City Guildhall, Clarence House, The Garrick Club, The Savoy, Ritz, Dorchester and Hilton Langham Hotels in London, Glyndebourne Opera House, Covent Garden and for many weddings, private parties, group meetings, receptions, launches, corporate, civic and charity functions. Margaret is a very active member of the charity ‘Music in Hospitals and Care’ and gives bedside concerts for patients and mentally or physically disabled people in hospitals, hospices, and specialist care centres and nursing homes. With her very varied repertoire and often resplendent costumes, she has delighted numerous audiences throughout the UK.

When Augustus John died in 1961 he was described in The New York Times as ‘the grand old man of British painting and one of the greatest in British history.’ He was only in his mid twenties when, in the early 1900s, he was widely acknowledged as one of the most talented and promising young British artists – a Welsh rival, perhaps, to Gauguin or Picasso. This lecture explores John’s extraordinary life, including his early achievements, his position as one of the most exciting and outrageous young British artists before the Great War, his slow decline after it, and his troubled status as ‘the last Bohemian’.

Dr David Haycock

Dr. David Boyd Haycock is an established freelance art historian and curator. He is best known for his 2009 book, A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War, and the subsequent exhibition he curated at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Educated at the University of Oxford, and a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, he is a specialist in British art and culture in the period 1860 to 1940. His latest books include a new biography of the young Augustus John, and a new biography of the equestrian painter Lucy Kemp-Welch.

Mozart was perhaps the greatest composer who ever lived. Embracing and developing, wholesale, the operatic form he composed his first fully staged theatrical work aged just eleven. He composed eight more before he was eighteen - and then his major works began! This illustrated lecture will highlight the majestic musical moments with excerpts of productions from around the world. Embrace and enjoy the story of Mozart's glorious and extraordinary operatic genius. The major canon of his operas, from Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) to Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) are explored in detail. 

Jamie Hayes

After training at RADA Jamie graduated as a Stage Manager and subsequently worked for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Bristol Old Vic and the BBC. He became an Assistant Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Kent Opera and English National Opera and soon began directing productions of his own. He has directed many new opera productions in the UK whilst other new opera productions overseas include Reykjavik, Malta and Melbourne. Jamie was Associate Director on the original production of the hit musical Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway. He has directed productions in all the major UK conservatoires and was Director of Productions for British Youth Opera for over a decade, a company devoted to promoting the talents of our finest young opera singers in the UK. Jamie is a regular enrichment programme lecturer for various leading cruise ship companies. He is married to the mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby and they have three sons. 

Aristocrat, politician, rake and revolutionary: William Cavendish, 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Devonshire, is certainly one of the more colourful of seventeenth-century noblemen. So wicked was he, that an Italian visitor to Restoration England described him as ‘the most dissolute man in London’. Yet Cavendish is also remembered as one of the great saviours of English civil liberties, part of a small group of aristocrats who overthrew James II and brought William of Orange and constitutional monarchy to the throne. In addition, he remodelled his Elizabethan family seat and transformed it into one of our greatest country houses and a monument to his success, Chatsworth in Derbyshire. So this is a lecture about depravity, politics and fine architecture, as we look at Cavendish’s morals, his political redemption and his wonderful house and gardens: truly, ‘a Palace for a Prince’.

Dr Gillian White

Dr Gillian White specialises in the history and visual arts of late medieval and sixteenth-century England. After beginning her career at the Warwickshire Museum, she then worked for the National Trust as Curator/Collections Manager at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, about which she wrote her PhD at Warwick University. Since that she taught part-time at Leicester University in the Centre for the Study of the Country House and continues to teach History of Art in the Department of Continuing Education at Oxford University and elsewhere.

Canterbury Cathedral tells the story of a nation. This talk breaks that complex tale down through focusing on three individuals: Thomas Becket, who was dramatically slain in the cathedral in December 1170 and brought about an enormous pilgrim trade celebrated by Chaucer; King Henry IV, the only king to be buried there and deemed responsible for the Wars of the Roses; and Cardinal Morton, who completed the building by creating the central tower, and whose tomb remains in the crypt, laden with symbols revealing his preoccupations just decades before the Dissolution transformed the land he knew.

Jonathan Foyle

Jonathan Foyle is best known for presenting TV series such as BBC2's Broadcast Award-winning 15-part 'Climbing Great Buildings', as well as contributing to Channel 4's 'Time Team' and currently Channel 5's 'Secrets of the Royal Palaces'. His former roles have encompassed Curator at Hampton Court and Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, and he is now a lecturer at the University of Bath. Jonathan has authored seven volumes on great cathedrals and castles and has spoken across the world. The offered Arts Society talks draw on a 30-year career in the historic environment to offer in-depth and fresh analyses of personal fascinations in architecture and the arts, especially their all-important symbolism, through which we can better understand what their makers are trying to communicate

On Ernest Shackleton’s third Antarctic expedition in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and eventually crushed in the pack ice. After camping for five months on the ice, Shackleton’s men rowed to the remote Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton sailed for help to South Georgia over 800 miles away. Over three months later he returned to rescue the crew of the Endurance. Frank Hurley, one of the great photographers of the 20th century, was the expedition’s official photographer. His photographs are a visual narrative of an epic journey which capture with great artistry new and amazing landscapes within which a remarkable human drama is played out. The aim of the lecture is to capture Hurley’s achievements as a photographer of the Antarctic in the first flush of human contact when it was still essentially terra incognita.

Mark Cottle

Born on the Isles of Scilly and educated at Truro School, Cornwall, and Birmingham University. His career has been spent in education and training at home and abroad. He has lectured at Exeter College on Medieval and Tudor history, St Mark's & St John's University College, Plymouth, and at Bath University on Anglo Saxon and medieval England. Currently runs two small companies providing training and study breaks.

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’.  

Starting on Oxford Street’s ‘golden mile’, we’ll set off on a cultural tour of the capital’s big stores – from snooty Marshall & Snelgrove, to Pontings, ‘House of Value’; from Kennards’ wart-removal service, to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms; from Bodgers of Ilford, to Bon Marché of Brixton. How did it feel to enter a great store in 1850 – and in 1950? What was it like to serve? From shoppers to shop girls, publicity stunts to wow factor window dressing, a fascinating slice of social history, with wonderful period images. 

Tessa Boase

Tessa Boase is a freelance journalist, author, lecturer and campaigner with an interest in uncovering the stories of invisible women from the 19th and early 20th-centuries – revealing how they drove industry, propped up society and influenced politics. She’s the author of three books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House (2014); Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds (first published as Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather in 2018), and London’s Lost Department Stores: A Vanished World of Dazzle and Dreams (2022). Since uncovering the feminist origins of the RSPB, Tessa has been campaigning for public recognition of its female founders with plaques, portraits and a statue. 

This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape. This lecture sets them head-to-head and examines their differences, their similarities, their battles and their shared triumphs. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter? As well as giving an overview of Turner and Constable, the subject provides an enjoyable overview of the British art world during the nineteenth century. 

Nicola Moorby

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian and curator, specialising in British art of the nineteenth century. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions including, most recently, Constable: The Dark Side at The Arc, Winchester in 2023. She has published widely, including as co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010) and as a major contributor to the online catalogues of the Turner Bequest and the Camden Town Group.

She is an experienced lecturer and regularly teaches short courses at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has appeared as an expert on television and radio including ‘Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr’ (2020 and 2021) and ‘Art on the BBC’ (2022). Her forthcoming book about Turner and Constable for Yale University Press will be released in 2025.

Our royal families have celebrated Christmas throughout their long history, from William the Conqueror making sure of his claim to the English throne by being crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Feasting on a spectacular scale characterised medieval Christmases – we read of extraordinary culinary delicacies served to Henry II, crane’s flesh, peacocks and herons. Present-giving always marked the season, from the extravagant – the City of London presented Richard II with a camel and a pelican – to the witty – Mrs. Thatcher sent the Queen a pair of yellow washing-up gloves having seen Her Majesty doing the dishes without any. The Royal Christmas Broadcast is now an established part of our celebrations and we shall hear extracts from George V’s, George VI’s and our present Queen’s addresses.This lecture explores these Royal traditions, many of which we have adopted as a necessary part of our own celebrations.

Roger Askew

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. He combined a teaching career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College in Edinburgh.

After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England. He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society.

Modern art is often considered difficult, but it is much less so when seen through the eyes of some of the greatest cartoonists of the last one hundred and fifty years, who provide a humorous and sceptical but instructive guide to modern art from Courbet to the Britart of the 1990s. A chance to enjoy the insights and cartoons of (among others) Daumier, Larry, Thelwell, Matt, the wise guys at the New Yorker magazine and, of course, the immortal Giles. Collectively, they provide an absorbing, illuminating and, above all, a funny, revealing and sidelong view of 150 years of modern art. 

Barry Venning

Barry Venning is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. He has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting, but also has an ongoing research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire. He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University. His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and abc Australia, and a DVD on Turner for the Tate. 

Diego Velazquez: Painter and Courtier to Philip IV

When Diego Velázquez arrived at the court in Madrid from Seville, he stepped into a world that was the polar opposite to the bustle and chaos of his hometown. The court of Philip IV was governed by strict codes, hierarchies and prejudices. Yet, in his portraits of the king, courtiers, jesters, and dwarfs Velázquez manages to peel away mask of formality to reveal the individual beneath. This lecture explores these paintings and the relationships behind them. I will end with a discussion of Velázquez’s greatest and most enigmatic masterpiece, Las Meninas.

Isabelle Kent

Isabelle is an academic and educator specialising in the baroque, with a particular focus on Spain and its empire. She received a BA and MPhil in History of Art from Trinity College, Cambridge, where she is currently completing her PhD on the art of Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. From 2017 to 2019 she worked as the Enriqueta Harris Frankfort Curatorial Assistant at the Wallace Collection and in 2020 her book Collecting Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in Britain and Ireland was published by CEEH. Alongside her academia, Isabelle is an expert guide for a travel company, leading groups around Spain and beyond, and she also teaches regularly for the V&A, Art Fund, Royal Academy, Chelsea Arts Club, Wallace Collection and University of Cambridge.

Vincent Van Gogh - Madman or Genius

It would seem that there has never been fascination in an artist to rival the Dutchman who simply signed his work 'Vincent'. We are all aware of the recent exhibitions and the remarkable prices realised for this humble artist's work. Most of us appreciate the beauty of his efforts but how much to we know about the man himself? This lecture considers exactly why, despite never selling a painting and his committing suicide in poverty, no art historian today denies his genius. There are extraordinary, little known facts to be revealed, while enjoying the remarkable range of his talent. Though seeming so extreme and exceptional, the tragic story of his loveless life is deeply moving and his humanity makes a lasting impression. 

Anthony Russell

As a cultural historian, writer and artist Anthony Russell has travelled much of the world.. He spent six years as a consultant for Luke Hughes advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings throughout Britain, including museums, palaces, and cathedrals. At the British Museum, where for many years he ran outreach events and hosted visiting lecturers, he has been described as "Hugh Grant meets the Dalai Lama.” Committed to the 'search for civilisation' and as an advocate of nonviolence, he is the founder of The Chandos; supporting causes that promote understanding and cooperation, is on the committee for Uniting for Peace and a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma. He is author of the book ‘Evolving the Spirit - From Democracy to Peace' commended by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, as meaning a great deal to her. He was also Founder of the Brockley Festival of Ideas and a Founding Advocate of CIVIL-ISATION. He is currently undertaking research for a new book on civilisation; what it is, whether we have it & how you get it.

Mad Men and Artists – How the ad industry exploited fine art

Tony describes some of the processes by which advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source. From the Renaissance through to the present day fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance Brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony. In an entertaining and informative lecture Tony uses a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end result.

Tony Rawlins

Tony was educated at Highgate School, starting his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J.Walter Thompson, where he became an account director.  There he handled primarily Guinness advertising in Africa and the Caribbean. He remains active as a consultant in the industry, but now concentrates on more philanthropic projects - producing a film in the rural villages of Nigeria for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. More recently he has completed a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  

He has been a member of The Arts Society for many years. His earlier lecturing experience includes presenting to client groups, sales conferences and students of creative advertising in the UK and overseas. More recently he has been lecturing to Arts Societies in the UK and Europe.

The Subtle Science and Exact Art of Colour in English Garden Design

In 1882 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”.  As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”.  This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting.  However, it goes further than this and looks at how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy Walker

Timothy read Botany at University College Oxford and then worked as a trainee at Oxford Botanic Garden, the Savill Garden Windsor, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In 1995 he was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London. From 1988 to 2014 he was director (Horti Praefectus) at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Between 1992 & 2000 the OBGHA he won 4 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show London. In 2009 the Botanic Garden was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for providing imaginative educational programmes for adults, students, children, and the general public.

In 2010 he was elected as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. In the same year he presented a 3-part series of films on the history of botany on BBC4. Since 2014 he has been a tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford.

Now you see it, Now you don’t! The Art of Visual Deception

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear. There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie Pearce takes his audience on a whistle stop tour of art which fools, surprises and amuses the viewer. Beginning and ending with the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, it encompasses Trompe L’oeil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few. Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried.

Bertie Pearce

Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. A member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. Has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

The Golden Lyre of Ur

This is the story of making a replica of the oldest known stringed instrument, the Gold Lyre of Ur, a Mesopotamian lyre dating from 2,500 BC.  A lyre is the precursor of the harp. We have made a playable instrument, using authentic materials from the Middle East: cedar wood, mother-of-pearl, pink limestone and lapis lazuli. The crowning glory is the bull’s head on the front, which is covered in gold.  The lecture is illustrated with Powerpoint pictures of all the stages of the making, and then of musicians performing with it, with a sound clip so that you can hear what it is like. It took more than 3 years to complete, all with voluntary help. The story of the acquisition of the materials, and the construction, is quite dramatic, and the finished product is amazing.

Jennifer Sturdy

My professional background is as a teacher of German and English. I became involved with the Gold Lyre of Ur Project in 2003, initially as a researcher and administrator, but as it progressed, I also gave talks about how we had managed to build such a magnificent instrument, with the help of volunteers from around the world. I have spoken at academic conferences, universities, churches, schools, U3A and other similar meetings. Later when the instrument was completed I became a performer, dressing in Mesopotamian costume and reciting the poetry from Sumerian times, such as from the epic of Gilgamesh, accompanied by the lyre. The instrument is playable, but it is also a work of art, being covered in precious metals and semi-precious stones. Its name derives from the spectacular gold bull’s head which adorns the front of the lyre.

The Elgin Marbles

It is now around 200 years since the purchase of the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' from Lord Elgin, by the British Parliament. This lecture, beautifully illustrated with specifically taken slides and video, will explore the aesthetics, the back-story, and the heated debates surrounding these fascinating and controversial works of ancient Greek art: what do we mean by 'the Elgin Marbles'? How and why were they originally created? Why are they so highly regarded? What happened to them between their creation and Elgin's time? How did he acquire them? Why are they now in the British Museum? And why are there such passionately held views both for and against their repatriation to Greece?

Stephen Kershaw

As a Classics Tutor for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Professor of History of Art for the European Studies Program of Rhodes College and The University of the South, he has spent much of the last 30 years travelling extensively in the world of the Greeks and Romans both physically and intellectually. He has published A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Robinson, 2007) and A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization (Robinson, 2010) and is currently working on A Brief Guide to the Roman Empire.

The Antiques Roadshow behind the Scenes and the Great Discoveries

A first-hand insight behind the nation’s most popular antiques programme by Marc Allum - specialist on the show for over 20 years.

Marc Allum

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire. He is shortly to begin his 23rd year as a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer. He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service. Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic. He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual through ‘a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins’. Marc has lectured widely for many years to a number of different organisations in both the public and charity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust, The WI and many literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath, Wells and Petworth. Marc is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

The Christmas Story in Renaissance Art

This lecture tells the Christmas story through a selection of well-loved paintings and illuminated manuscripts by Italian and Flemish artists, including Botticelli, Fra Angelico and Jan van Eyck, together with many less well-known images. From the Annunciation to the Nativity, the Journey of the Kings and the Flight into Egypt, it explores the rich symbolism of Christmas imagery, highlights the ways in which spiritual ideas and devotional practice shaped the depiction of the narrative, and introduces some less familiar aspects of the story, such as the Midwives and Joseph’s stockings. 

Paula Nuttall

Paula is Director of V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year Course. Specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely, notably From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500 (Yale, 2004). Has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020). Formerly lecturer at the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.

Widor and his Mighty Toccata

One of the most popular organ pieces in the world and one which has accompanied many just-married couples down the aisle, the Toccata in F Major by Charles-Marie Widor presents performers with the challenge of delivering over three thousand notes in around six minutes. A renowned organist and composer in his time, Widor brought the standard of 19th-century French organ music and performance to new heights. We follow his illustrious career before examining in detail the Toccata itself, concluding with a full rendition of this special piece.

Nigel Bates

Nigel Bates has been a performer for more than forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the Orchestra and eight years as the Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet.

 He has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry and was also a producer for both the BBC's Maestro at the Opera and Pappano's Classical Voices documentary series. He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the ROH.

He has given lectures for over thirty years, including many arts societies and conservatoires in the UK and across Australia.

Imperial Purple to Blue Denim: The colourful history of textiles

This lecture explores the fascinating story of how dyes were discovered, made and used, focusing on some of the social implications of colour at different times in history. The lecture takes us from pre-historic man to the middle of the 19th century and geographically from Europe to the Middle East, India, Turkey, North America, Mexico and Peru. It is a story of exploration, invention, war, the church, money, power and sex.

Susan Kay-Williams

Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience and has been invited to lecture in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Taiwan as well as for the V&A and across the UK. 

A Tour of Big Ben

Big Ben is one of the most iconic buildings in the world – it identifies the UK and democracy in the Western world. But there is a lot more to this tower than the beautiful external gothic architecture; and Tim will prove this to you. Using stunning images, he will take you on a virtual tour of the interior, saving you the effort of climbing 334 spiral stairs. He will explain the historical background and discuss the friction between the often controversial personalities involved in the building and designing of the tower. Tim will then take you behind those magnificent clock faces; show and explain the workings of the enormous clock mechanism; before finally taking you into the belfry and presenting before you – Big Ben, the most famous bell in the world!  After all that excitement Tim will ensure you safely descend the stairs ready for your well-earned cup of tea!

Tim Redmond

Tim spent his earlier career as a detective in the Metropolitan Police, working on murder, kidnap and anti-corruption investigations as well as in covert criminal intelligence. He finally retired as a Detective Superintendent and as the first police adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

On retirement Tim decided on a complete change of direction, becoming a City of London tour guide and working for a London tour operator, specialising in tours around the UK. He then used the knowledge gained to become a guide within the Palace of Westminster, specialising in tours of Big Ben. His many guests on tours of the clock tower have included people such as Michelle Obama, Bill Gates and members of both houses of parliament. He also appeared in UK and overseas documentaries of the tower.

Catherine de Medici, poor Queen: the story of three in a marriage

This is the story of this unfortunate young woman who left Florence to be Queen of France, and the unhappy life that followed. She was a brave woman, who suffered every indignity at the French Court, but survived all her enemies.

Caroline Rayman

Caroline has lectured for many years to universities and art organisations in America and on cruise boats. She was an official guide at the British Museum and has published articles on samplers. Her lectures range from the role of the royal mistress in history to more scholarly lectures on Frederick the Great of Prussia.

New Dawn – A memorial to Women’s Suffrage, Houses of Parliament

This talk informs people about Mary’s artist process and what was involved in making this public work of art.

Mary Branson

Mary is best known for her large scale conceptual light sculptures and installations, particularly the iconic ‘New Dawn’ 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement and is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster.

She has created light and sound works for the London 2012 Olympics, Royal Holloway University and ‘Harvest’ a huge site specific installation at Box Hill Surrey in collaboration with Surrey Hills and the National Trust, highlighting the plight of farmers facing climate change. At the beginning of 2019 Mary transformed Salisbury Cathedral into an ethereal construction site. 

Branson enjoys the challenge of using landscape and architecture as a backdrop to site-determined pieces. She often works with teams of volunteers to help her realise her ambitious uses of scale and finds the shared ownership of the community as an important part of her artistic process. 

She has held a number of artistic residencies, including for Parliament, the British Council, the RHS, Crisis and HM Prison service, where she led an art group for women life prisoners. Locally she is artist in residence at the Watts Gallery.

Vita Sackville West and Sissinghurst

The Arts and Crafts gardens created, in particular by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, set a standard against which English gardens would be measured for the next 60 years. Sissinghurst, created and gardened by Vita Sackville-West, novelist, poet and garden writer, and her husband, Harold Nicholson, from 1930 to her death in 1962, is the perfect example of this style; wonderful plantsmanship set within a framework of hedges and vistas.

Sissinghurst is the child of Knole, the sprawling Elizabethan house that Vita did not inherit, described by her as having “an inward gaiety of an aging woman who has had many lovers and seen many generations come and go.” The Nicholsons acquired a ruin and, to their intense surprised, created, along with Lawrence Johnston’s Hidcote, the quintessential twentieth century English garden.

This lecture looks at the life of Vita Sackville-West and the extraordinary garden that she created which nearly 60 years after her death continues to charm and delight.

 James Bolton 

Inchbald School of Design 1990 (Dip ISD). Head Gardener, Old Rectory Farnborough 1990-92. Faculty Director, Design History, Inchbald School of Design. Garden Designer 1992- present day. A lecturer for The Arts Society since 1995. Organiser of The Arts Society's garden study days and tours in UK and Europe. Organises tours to the best private gardens in the UK, Italy, France and South Africa. Garden Mania, a book on garden ornaments, published in 2000.

William Morris Socialist and Entrepreneur

William Morris is renowned as wanting to make art and beauty available to everyone, not just the very rich. He also wanted to overthrow Victorian capitalism and create a more equal society without masters and servants or rich and poor. Yet much of the work produced by his decorating firm was too expensive for anyone but the wealthy to afford. And without their patronage he would not have been able to maintain his own artistic lifestyle or to support his many socialist causes. This lecture examines the ideas and contradictions inherent in Morris’s life and ideas, and the tensions between his two roles as revolutionary socialist and highly-successful businessman and entrepreneur.

Jo Banham

Jo is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer. From 2006-2016 she was Head of Adult Learning at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and before that Head of Learning and Access at the National Portrait Gallery, and Head of Public Programmes at Tate Britain. She has also been Curator of Leighton House and Assistant Keeper at the Whitworth Art Gallery. She has published on many aspects of Victorian and early 20th century decoration and interiors. She is currently curating an exhibition on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement for the Juan March Fundacion in Madrid and the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya in Barcelona. She is also Director of the Victorian Society Summer School.

Tulipomania, A 17th Century Passion in Arts, Gardens and Collecting

The lecture explores the passion for the exotic and beautiful tulip flower which reached its height in Amsterdam in the 1630s. Collectors, besotted by the exceptional beauty of this new and exotic flower, speculated in and paid ever higher prices for the rarest varieties, in expectation of the metamorphosis of bulb to a flower with petals of an unparalleled richness and intensity of colour. The variety ‘Semper Augustus’ was the most desirable, with its mysterious and spectacular ‘flamed’ petals. The coveted tulip featured as a motif on still-life flower paintings by Balthasar van der Ast and Ambrosius Bosschaert and on many different works of art from furniture to embroideries, furniture, ceramics and silver. During the seventeenth century, this rare and precious flower, beloved in art and a feature of botanical gardens, inspired the production of Delftware flower pyramids for the English court of William and Mary and examples can still be seen in the collections at Hampton Court Palace and Dyrham Park near Bath

Anne Haworth

Anne is a lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Queen’s Gallery. She is a visiting lecturer for Regent's University, Sotheby's Institute and SOAS. Since 2008, she has been a member of the London faculty of Eckerd College, Florida, teaching Art History and is also an accredited Arts Society lecturer. For ten years she guided private evening tours of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. She lectures extensively for private groups, guides museum tours in London and has lectured on William Morris for the British Council and British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow.  

After studying Modern History at Durham University, she trained and became a senior specialist in ceramics at the head offices in London of Bonhams (1981-1986) and Christie's (1987-1995). From 1995 to 2002, she was resident in Shanghai, China and gave lectures on the history of the China trade and European Chinoiserie to the international community of diplomats and expatriates in Shanghai and Beijing. On returning to London in 2002, she worked on a short project cataloguing Chinese ceramics at Kensington Palace and became Hon Membership Secretary and Treasurer of the French Porcelain Society.

Vermeer, Delft, Fame & The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Voted by the Dutch the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands, the true identity of the Girl with the Pearl Earring is unknown, and has been the subject of much speculation and several books. Painted by Jan Vermeer in 1665 it is possibly the most famous of the relatively few works we have of this great artist of the Dutch Golden Age whose reputation disappeared in the decade after his death, and whose fame rests on its 19th-century revival. 

Join us to look at this and other of Vermeer’s paintings, the artist and his life during the Golden Age of Dutch Art.

Lucrezia Walker

Lucrezia is a regular lecturer at the National Gallery both in front of the paintings and in the lecture theatre. For the Tate Gallery's Development department she speaks to their corporate sponsors in their offices and at their private receptions in both Tates. She teaches US undergraduates on their Study Abroad semesters in London. She was Lay Canon for the Visual Arts at St Paul's Cathedral 2010-2014.

Early Christians celebrated Christmas at the same time as the ancient Romans were feasting and partying for their pagan Saturnalia festival. Many of the pagan habits were therefore absorbed into our Christmas traditions. Present-giving, holly and even party-hats all have their origins in this 2000-year-old party. This talk will revel in artwork that is ancient and modern as we unwrap the images and stories behind our festive season.

Gillian Hovell

BA (Hons) Latin and Ancient History, Exeter University, and then branched out into archaeology. Ex-BBC, lecturer for British Museum and York University, an award winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives, in person, in the field, on line and in the media (most recently on Radio 4). Publications include Visiting the Past: A guide to finding and understanding Britain's Archaeology and Roman Britain. Forthcoming Latin Yesterday, Today and For Ever, and A Mediterranean Tour: Not just a Load of Old Stones. Teaches adult education courses in Latin, archaeology and ancient history and has publicly lectures widely and passionately, on cruises and tours and for museums such as the British Museum & Ashmolean, national press, universities, literary festivals, and diverse societies including Classical Associations, the U3A and the National Trust. 

The story of one of the greatest creative collaborations of all:  Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers, and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night in the theatre could be, and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all. Sandy examines the build-up to the Rite of Spring’s premiere in Paris, takes a look at the original costumes, plays excerpts from this fascinatingly inventive score, and explores what divided opinions of that first-night audience quite so dramatically.  No, nothing could top the riot at the Rite in 1913…

Sandy Burnett

Sandy is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing. After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. Combining engaging scholarship with hands-on expertise, he devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

There is no name more evocative of Bohemian life: of high spirits, decadence, poverty,  and revolutionary art in Paris, than Montmartre. In reality it was little more than a rundown suburb overlooking the city, bristling with windmills. But the garden cafes, the dancehalls and cabarets, and the ramshackled studios that spilled down the hillside of Montmartre would become the inspiration and home to some of France’s greatest artists.

From the Moulin de la Galette where Renoir painted Parisians dancing in the afternoon sunlight, to Toulouse Lautrec’s vivid images of the Moulin Rouge, the smoke filled cabaret where the can-can was danced to Offenbach’s music, to the shabby garrets of the Bateau Lavoir where a group of artists headed by Picasso would paint canvases that would shake the foundations of Western art, this lecture charts the course of this extraordinary artistic life.

Douglas Skeggs

Douglas read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of  The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe.

He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France.

A Royal Rescue: Dumfries House Saved and Revealed

Dumfries House in Ayrshire was acquired for the nation following a last minute rescue in 2007, largely through the involvement of HRH the Prince of Wales. Never before opened to the public, Dumfries House is a forgotten Georgian gem, designed by Adam and furnished by Chippendale and others. Once a home of the Marquesses of Bute, Matthew Williams has known and admired Dumfries House for twenty years. The story of its controversial rescue is both fascinating and entertaining. 

Matthew Williams

Lectures widely on the subject of design, and is especially interested in that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A recognised expert in the work of the designer William Burges, Matthew has been the Curator of Cardiff Castle since 1990 and has published widely in art and architectural journals. A long standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a Volunteers Representative, a Programme Secretary and a Chairman. He has been an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society since 2001.

This lecture explores an artist whose work, inventiveness, and ability to catch the zeitgeist is still admired a century after her bold 'Bizarre' wares were launched in 1927. These Art Deco masterpieces are the products that most vividly signify Clarice Cliff's legacy. She spent a lifetime innovating. Born in 1899, she was a working professional whose lifespan covered the period in which women broke through the barriers of the art world. While the Royal Academy barred women from accessing the full training and privileges of their male counterparts, the pottery industry was one that had traditionally offered female artists the opportunities to excel. Cliff's talents were recognised when she was still a teenager, and she went on to produce designs that keyed into the cutting-edge trends of the period, setting the bar for ceramics as a commercial art form. 

 Vivienne Lawes

I am an art historian, curator, author and journalist with over 25 years’ experience in the art market. I teach at several Higher Education institutions, including the University of the Arts London, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the City & Guilds of London Art School, SOAS (University of London) and Imperial College. In January 2021 I received the Geoffrey Bond Bursary for Art, an annual prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Educators to an “outstanding educator” nominated by their institution.

My articles, essays and reports have been published in numerous specialist journals, newspapers, catalogues, handbooks and websites, aimed at both the academic and general readership in print and online. The title of my current book project is The Bronze Horse: Themes in Equine Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present Day; in Spring 2021 I will embark on a critique and biography of contemporary Filipino artist Andres Barrioquinto.

Since 2011 I have been Senior UK Consultant to Singapore gallery One East Asia and have co-curated many exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art in London and Singapore. I am also Head of Education for the London Asian and African Contemporary Art Fair (founded 2020).

When time allows I lecture as an on-board art historian for Viking and Fred Olsen cruise lines.

Sir Christopher Wren, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Inigo Jones, Joseph Paxton....all these outstanding architects began with modest buildings which give glimpses of their future accomplishments. This lecture traces the little known and highly entertaining story of how Rogers and Foster struggled to complete a terrace of three beautiful houses in 1960s north London. We look also at a charming brick pavilion attributed to Jones and the bizarre use to which it was put in the 20th century. And we examine Wren’s first commission, a beautiful college chapel, and a tiny glasshouse by Joseph Paxton, who went on to build the mighty Crystal Palace.

Brian Stater

Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has  lectured since 1997. His principal academic interest lies in the appreciation of architecture, while a strong personal enthusiasm is for photography. He therefore explores both business and pleasure by offering lectures on each of these subjects.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs has been held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

The Emperor Qianlong was arguably the greatest of all Qing Emperors as he guided China through a period of unquestionable political, economic and cultural prosperity which rivalled any comparable period of high achievement in Chinese history. Territorially Qianlong added more than 30 per cent of landmass to the Empire through successful military campaigns and astute diplomacy. He was passionate about preserving Manchu culture whilst respecting and nurturing other ethnic Chinese cultures. Qianlong travelled his Empire regularly undertaking lavish expeditions to the South and West designed to forge loyalty to his Imperial rule. Despite all these successes as a ruler it is in the fields of the sciences, arts and culture that Qianlong made the greatest contribution to China’s heritage. Qianlong was a noted scholar who during his lifetime wrote and published over 43,000 poems, painted on virtually a daily basis and was accomplished in the art of calligraphy.

It was perhaps as a Collector of Fine Art that Qianlong created his greatest legacy. He amassed a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of works of art from previous dynasties or which represented the finest current workmanship. His collection spanned all genres of the arts including paintings, porcelain, jade, textiles, enamelling, ivory carvings and snuff bottles. This lecture will provide an insight into Qianlong not only as a successful Emperor of China but also as a scholar and ‘ultimate’ collector of fine art. A wide range of items of the highest quality, produced by the Imperial Workshops, will illustrate this lecture.

David Rosier

A Chartered Insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, with extensive international experience as an author and lecturer in Medical Risk Assessment. David has in excess of 25 years of working and living in Asia. Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004) he assembled a collection of approximately 700, predominately Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial and related textiles/costume accessories. Past Committee Member of the Hong Kong Textile Society and frequent speaker on Imperial Insignia and Badges of Rank.

N.B. NOT THE FOURTH TUESDAY

French 17th century chateau design owes much to one man; the ambitious visionary Nicolas Fouquet who is still somewhat of an enigma today. He seemed invincible but made one  grave error of judgement  which was to lead to his downfall. He employed the country’s best talent of the day to commission a spectacular chateau for himself. In doing so he was completely outshining the Sun King; Vaux le Vicomte presented a radical new look for the century whilst Versailles was nothing more than a humble hunting lodge at the time. The story that ensues is legendary.

This lecture explores innovative garden design and architecture together with lavish interiors to tell the shocking story.

Carole Petipher

Carole is an experienced guide and lecturer on combined history and art tours in France with 20 years experience. Having lived and worked on a number of bespoke river vessels and converted barges there she has used them as a platform from which to research her lectures. She uses art in all its guises to explore the characters who shaped France and likes to delve behind the scenes to discover hidden truths.

She also acts as a guide for a privately owned ancestral home in her native Chilterns.

The Founders and Treasures of the Wallace Collection

 The Wallace Collection, a national museum containing an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour, and other works of art, was brought together by five generations of one family between about 1780 and 1880. All the Founders were remarkable – and sometimes rather strange - men in their own right, but the greatest collectors were the 4th Marquess of Hertford and his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace, who lived most of their lives in Paris. It is their French upbringing which largely explains the strong, but by no means overwhelming, French emphasis to much of the Collection. This lecture tells the fascinating story of the Wallace Collection’s formation, and also presents many of its finest treasures.  

Stephen Duffy 

Educated at New College, Oxford, and formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where he had particular responsibility for exhibitions and nineteenth-century paintings. He has given countless tours of the Collection for visiting groups and many lectures on its art and other related subjects. His latest publication, The Discovery of Paris, is a book on early nineteenth-century watercolour views of Paris by major British artists.

Curves, Colours and Cool: An Introduction to Mid-Century Modern

The antiques market has changed dramatically and now pieces that were made during the 1970s can fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770s. Why has the teak sideboard you threw out become so desirable? Who is this Eames guy? Drawing a blank with Timo Sarpaneva? Who’s buying what and what are they doing with it? This practical and inspirational lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers, and examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

Mark Hill

Studied History of Art & Architecture (BA Hons), and began his career as a porter and Junior Cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department. Became director of an internet company forming and running a ground-breaking deal with eBay Live Auctions. Was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17. Founded his own publishing company in 2005 and has since published over 12 books on specialist subjects in 20th century design and decorative arts. A Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and has co-presented three primetime factual TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2. An auctioneer running 20th century design auctions in partnership with Dawsons Auctioneers. Has lectured across the world, including at the V&A in London, and contributed to many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes. A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

The history of this enduring and peculiarly British institution, from its origins in 16th century Italian commedia dell’arte through the influence of 19th century music hall, to the family shows that are still much loved today. On the way we examine the origins of some of the stories used in pantomime as well as such traditions as the (female) principal boy and the (male) pantomime dame. The talk is interspersed with personal anecdotes from the speaker’s years of working (and appearing) professionally in pantomime.

Ian Gledhill

Ian Gledhill has had a very varied career, from designing underground railways as an engineer for London Transport, to appearing in pantomime with Julian Clary. In between he has worked in travel and tourism, music publishing, television, and especially the theatre, where he has been an actor, director, set designer, stage manager and opera translator. His main interests include architecture, history, transport and classical music, especially opera and operetta, and these are reflected in the wide ranging list of subjects for his lectures. He began giving lectures in 1997, and now gives on average around 140 a year. 

THIS LECTURE WILL BE PRECEDED BY OUR AGM AT 10.15 A.M.

The cartoonist, Carl Giles, once said that he loved his creation, Grandma Giles – that fearsome, black-clad, gambling, drinking battleaxe – because she allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person. She helped him to poke fun at authority in all its forms, from Hitler to traffic wardens and even his employers at the Daily Express, who didn’t trust him and had sub-editors scouring his cartoons for subversive background details. His admirers included Prince Charles, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Tommy Cooper, and it was no surprise when he was voted Britain’s best-loved cartoonist in 2000. Few people realise, however, that this likeable and humane satirist was also a war correspondent who witnessed the horrors of Belsen, where he found that the camp commandant, Josef Kramer, was also a great fan of his work. Giles gave us a remarkable picture of a half-century of British life. He was also, as his editor John Gordon put it “a spreader of happiness’ and ‘a genius…with the common touch’.

Barry Venning

An historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and has recently taken part (2013) in a BBC documentary called The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution. He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

Cartoon Of the Giles Family by the cartoonist Carl Giles from Daily Express Jan 15th 1963

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD IN SHALFORD VILLAGE HALL. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!

In 1926 there was a significant clash between the worlds of ‘Art’ and ‘Law’, when American customs officers refused to accept that Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space was a work of art. This led to the legal case of Brancusi v. United States and is just one example of what can happen when the worlds of ‘legal’ and ‘creative’ collide.  The results are often bizarre and highly amusing. This lecture explores some of those situations … When is a gun not a gun? How close did Japanese officials come to destroying Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’?  What did Australian customs make of an artwork entitled An Oak Tree?

Rosalind Whyte

Rosalind Whyte has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises. Leads art appreciation holidays.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

This lecture explores how a musician from a relatively obscure German state came to transform the musical life of Britain, from his arrival in 1710 to his death in 1759, and beyond. He created some of the finest music for ceremonial occasions and during his lifetime was the one composer to whom people turned when they wanted to celebrate a national event. He invented the English oratorio which is central to much of the professional and amateur music-making up and down the country. The lecture explores this most British of composers and is illustrated with a variety of musical examples, some well-known, others less familiar.  

Roger Askew

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. He combined a teaching career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College in Edinburgh.

After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England. He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society and Chairman of Windsor and Maidenhead Decorative and Fine Arts Society.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Cleopatra, the woman for whose love’s sake Antony is imagined to have given up the chance to rule the Roman world, has been inspiring painters, poets and (more recently) film-makers for over two millennia. Their gorgeously voluptuous depictions of her offer insights into changing concepts of beauty, and into the racial and sexual assumptions underlying them.  Showing images ranging from Roman portrait busts, through medieval illuminations, the glorious works of Renaissance masters like Michelangelo, the splendour of Tiepolo and the exoticism of Gustave Moreau to 20th century film stars (Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and the Carry On team’s Amanda Barry), I will show how Cleopatra became a screen onto which artists have projected their wildly differing fantasies about exotic danger and erotic bliss.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio - which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award - and of Cleopatra and Heroes. Her novel, Peculiar Ground was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' (The Guardian) and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’. (New York Times)

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has reviewed for all of the UK’s serious newspapers and for Radio 3’s Night Waves, judged five literary prizes, and spoken at numerous literary festivals. She teaches Creative Writing at Arcadia University and at Arvon.   

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

This lecture provides a colourful introduction to the secret world of our 2000-mile inland waterway network and looks at all aspects of their exceptional artistic, architectural and engineering vernacular. Features range from sweeping aqueducts to tiny bollards; from colourful historic narrowboats to 'Roses and Castles' artwork; from grand World Heritage Sites to quirky listed buildings. A well-known architectural historian once described our canals as a 'poor man's art gallery'.

Roger Butler

Roger Butler is a landscape architect and an experienced writer, photographer and lecturer. He has a particular interest in the unique history, architecture and traditions of our canal network and worked on some of the UK’s major canal restoration projects. He has also acted as a consultant to bodies such as Waterways Ireland, Natural England and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

He regularly contributes to waterway and heritage magazines and writes and provides images for a range of countryside and outdoor titles. Roger is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute. He lives near Stratford upon Avon and lectures to groups such as the National Trust, RSPB, U3A, history societies, etc. across the Midlands and further afield.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Caravaggio – one of the best known names today. A man of proverbial rebelliousness, painting in a style which he knew would drop a bomb on the art world he grew up in. He painted with startling immediacy, rejecting his peers’ obsession with highly artificial designs and stale quotations from earlier works of art. But he was also fortunate to be painting at a time when the Church wanted to harness the power of his art to enforce its message. This lecture considers the unlikely alliance of artist and patrons, considering why the establishment was prepared to accept him, outrageous lifestyle and all, and at the same time, examining why his art is so powerful for us today. 

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe

MA in History of Art from Edinburgh, PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

The Maya created one of the most sophisticated civilizations in the ancient world.  Their achievements in the arts and sciences, along with their complex social, political and economic systems, make them one of the most remarkable culture groups in the Precolumbian Americas. These people brought us an intricate calendar system, complex hieroglyphic writing, some of the largest pyramids in the world, a form of ballgame that was like no other and most importantly chocolate! This lecture will discuss the major achievements of the Maya as well as pointing out the common misunderstandings we have of this remarkable civilization.

Dr Diane Davies

Dr Diane Davies is a Maya archaeologist and honorary research associate of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She completed her PhD at Tulane University, New Orleans. Little is known about the Maya in the UK and so aside from carrying out research in Guatemala and teaching, Diane is an educational consultant for schools giving workshops to both teachers and children on the Maya. She has created award-winning resources, organizes trips to the Maya area and is also the Chair of Chok Education, a charity supporting the education of Maya children. Diane organises conferences on the Maya as well as lecturing to a variety of organisations, including the City Literary Institute, London and the Historical Association.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

We will use the evidence of town planning, architecture, sculpture, mosaic, and fresco, supported by contemporary literature, to reconstruct something of the fabric of everyday life in ancient Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other Vesuvian sites. The lecture will contrast the world of public affairs, business, and aristocratic display (what Romans called negotium) with the more private world of relaxation in elite town-houses and villas (otium).

Neil Faulkner

Educated at King's College Cambridge and Institute of Archaeology UCL. Works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster. Research Fellow, University of Bristol. Editor, Military History Monthly. Director, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Director, Great Arab Revolt Project. Author of The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse, Hidden Treasure, Rome: Empire of the Eagles, and The Ancient Greek Olympics: a visitor's guide. Author of forthcoming Lawrence of Arabia's War. Major TV appearances include Channel 4's Time Team, BBC2's Timewatch, Channel Five's Boudica Revealed and Sky Atlantic's The British.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Les Parisiennes is a story about women’s lives during the dark years of Nazi occupation and beyond and includes British and American women caught in Paris as well as native born resisters who were eventually sent to camps, couturiers and jewelers, some of whom flourished in wartime, as well as actors, singers, night club dancers and housewives.

The lecture opens with a magnificent circus ball held by Elsie de Wolfe at the magnificent Villa Trianon, a chateau in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles; many of the guests could not believe that war was imminent and ends with Christian Dior’s lavish new look in 1947 as well as a perfume, Miss Dior, named after his sister Catherine, a resister, who had only just survived a prison camp and never wanted to talk about her experiences.

Anne Sebba

Biographer, historian and author of eleven books who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK, including the English Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League, National Trust, British Library and Imperial War Museum. A former Reuters foreign correspondent, Anne is now a broadcaster - she presented a BBC R3 documentary about the pianist Harriet Cohen and for Radio 4 the documentary Who was Joyce Hatto? she regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. The latter, published as That Woman, was an international bestseller. Her latest book is a history of Paris between 1939-49 through women's eyes published in 2016 as Les Parisiennes How the women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s. Anne is a former chair of Britain's 9,000 strong Society of Authors.

Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”  Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas in the domestic setting; with plum pudding, piping hot turkey, games, dancing  and family cheer by the hearth. Although he celebrated Christmas in numerous works it is his enduring master piece, ‘A Christmas Carol’ published on 19th December 1843 which immortalises the spirit of Christmas Cheer. Dickens was a man of extraordinary energy and talent: literary genius, reformer, public speaker, actor and amateur magician.

In his lecture Bertie Pearce reveals a Dickensian Christmas with readings, biographical details and conjuring tricks. 

Bertie Pearce 

Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, Bertie has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. He has also written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

The 17th & 18th centuries saw the introduction of thousands of plant species from across the world into northern Europe. Many of these plants are now staples of our gardens: magnolias, lilies, pelargoniums & Michaelmas-daises to name a few. Long before Kew Gardens was established, these plants found new homes in the, then great, gardens of London and its environs; places such as, the long-lost garden at Westminster, Hampton Court under the care of George London, Fulham Palace home to Bishop Compton or the two great gardens of Chelsea, one of which survives – the Chelsea Physic Garden.

 Dr. Mark Spencer 

Mark has been fascinated by plants since he was a small boy. Originally a horticulturist, he studied horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He also studied botany and mycology at university, after which he worked as a field botanist for a regional conservation organisation. After 12 years as a senior botany curator at the Natural History Museum, London he is now a consultant forensic botanist, public speaker and occasional radio and TV presenter. Mark is the honorary curator of Carl Linnaeus’s herbarium at the Linnean Society of London, one of the most significant collections in the history of science. He has a strong interest in the history of botany and botanic gardens, invasive non-native species and the flora of North-West Europe.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Best known for his outlandish appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment, a Turner Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character. He’s possibly one of the world’s best-known contemporary artists. His works of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and prints are highly sought after. Often controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way and holds a mirror up to society. This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s work, his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks. 

Ian Swankie 

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives regular tours at each venue. Also a qualified and active freelance London guide and a member of both the City of London and Westminster Guide lecturer Associations. Clients include Arts Society and WEA groups, Transport for London, the National Trust and London Open House. In 2012 he established a weekly independent art lecture group in Richmond and gives talks on a variety of subjects.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN POSTPONED.

Dumfries House in Ayrshire was acquired for the nation following a last minute rescue in 2007, largely through the involvement of HRH the Prince of Wales. Never before opened to the public, Dumfries House is a forgotten Georgian gem, designed by Adam and furnished by Chippendale and others. Once a home of the Marquesses of Bute, Matthew Williams has known and admired Dumfries House for twenty years. The story of its controversial rescue is both fascinating and entertaining.  

Matthew Williams 

Lectures widely on the subject of design, and is especially interested in that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A recognised expert in the work of the designer William Burges, Matthew has been the Curator of Cardiff Castle since 1990 and has published widely in art and architectural journals. A long standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a Volunteers Representative, a Programme Secretary and a Chairman. He has been an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society since 2001.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

THIS WILL BE A ZOOM LECTURE. A LINK WILL BE SENT TO YOU BEFORE THE LECTURE. PLEASE CONTACT GEOFF EMBLETON FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

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The Emperor Qianlong was arguably the greatest of all Qing Emperors as he guided China through a period of unquestionable political, economic and cultural prosperity which rivalled any comparable period of high achievement in Chinese history. Territorially Qianlong added more than 30 per cent of landmass to the Empire through successful military campaigns and astute diplomacy. He was passionate about preserving Manchu culture whilst respecting and nurturing other ethnic Chinese cultures. Qianlong travelled his Empire regularly undertaking lavish expeditions to the South and West designed to forge loyalty to his Imperial rule. Despite all these successes as a ruler it is in the fields of the sciences, arts and culture that Qianlong made the greatest contribution to China’s heritage. Qianlong was a noted scholar who during his lifetime wrote and published over 43,000 poems, painted on virtually a daily basis and was accomplished in the art of calligraphy. It was perhaps as a Collector of Fine Art that Qianlong created his

greatest legacy. He amassed a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of works of art from previous dynasties or which represented the finest current workmanship. His collection spanned all genres of the arts including paintings, porcelain, jade, textiles, enamelling, ivory carvings and snuff bottles. This lecture will provide an insight into Qianlong not only as a successful Emperor of China but also as a scholar and ‘ultimate’ collector of fine art. A wide range of items of the highest quality, produced by the Imperial Workshops, will illustrate this lecture.

David Rosier

 A Chartered Insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, with extensive international experience as an author and lecturer in Medical Risk Assessment. David has in excess of 25 years of working and living in Asia. Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004) he assembled a collection of approximately 700, predominately Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial and related textiles/costume accessories. Past Committee Member of the Hong Kong Textile Society and frequent speaker on Imperial Insignia and Badges of Rank.

Raphael is often referred to as one of the three giants of the High Renaissance in Italy, alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, yet his fame and position in the canon of art history may seem hard to explain. He made no discoveries like those of his celebrated rivals: although undoubtedly a draughtsman of exceptional talent he made no great progress in the fields of anatomy, science and construction nor did he share the wide-ranging talents which Leonardo and Michelangelo demonstrated in so many disciplines. Furthermore, his career was short-lived as he died tragically young, aged 37. Yet in this relatively short space of time Raphael managed to move from humble initial commissions in and around his home town of Urbino to the covetous position of one of the leading artists at the court of the most important patron in Italy, Pope Julius II, for whom he created some of the most sublime and influential frescoes of the early 16th century. We explore how Raphael achieved this extraordinary rise in status, tracing the development of early works and influences to the masterpieces created in Rome.

Sian Walters 

Sian is an art historian and a lecturer at the National Gallery. She also lectures for Surrey University, NADFAS and may other art societies in the UK and Europe, and leads art and architecture tours abroad from many companies and organisations including the Royal Academy, Kirker and NADFAS. Her specialist areas are 15th and 16th century Italian Art, Spanish Art and Architecture and the relationship between Dance and Art (she is honorary advisor to the Nonsuch Historical Dance Society). Sian runs her own company ‘Art History in Focus’ which organises regular lectures, study days and art holidays abroad and was recently nominated for the Daily Telegraph ‘World’s Best Guide’ Award. She has lived in France and Italy where she worked for the eminent Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon and for the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

Two hundred and fifty years after Antonio Stradivari’s death, his violins and cellos remain the most highly prized instruments in the world. Loved by great musicians and capable of fetching fabulous sums when sold, their tone and beauty are legendary. Every subsequent violin-maker has tried to match them. Not one has succeeded. How can that be? This lecture explores that central mystery by following some of Stradivari’s instruments from his workshop to the present day. It is a story that travels from the salons of Vienna to the concert halls of New York, and from the breakthroughs of Beethoven’s last quartets to the first phonographic recordings. Toby Faber’s book Stradivarius: Five violins, one cello and a genius, was described in The New York Times as ‘more enthralling, earthy and illuminating than any fiction could be.’ The lecture is illustrated with pictures of violins and of key individuals and locations, as well as with some short musical recordings. 

Toby Faber 

Has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Fabergé's Eggs, published by Macmillan in the UK and Random House in the US, and given lectures associated with these two subjects at venues including The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Library of Congress and the Huntington Library, as well as a number of literary festivals. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press and the Copyright Licensing Agency.

The scene of the Adoration of the Magi is central today to our image of the Christmas story. So it may come as a surprise to learn that their number, names and ethnic origins were all later additions to the biblical account. With reference to various texts and images, the lecture will chart the way in which the story was developed and adapted over the centuries from the original description of the event in the Gospel of St. Matthew. So by the end of the 15th century we have not only the full cast of players we know today but a glittering entourage that included exotic animals and even contemporary portraits.

Reading list – The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture – Peter and Linda Murray – Oxford University Press 1996

Journey of the Magi: Travels in Search of the Birth of Jesus – Paul William Roberts – Tauris Parke Paperbacks

Shirley Smith

Shirley Smith graduated from the University of East Anglia with a first class honours degree in the History of Art, specialising in Italian and Northern Renaissance Art and Architecture. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, lectured at the University of East Anglia and is a tutor for the Board of Continuing Education of Cambridge University at Madingley Hall for whom she runs weekend and study day courses. She also lectures to The Art Fund and various other Arts Societies. Her essay on ‘The Fresco Decoration in the Sistine Chapel: Biblical Authority and the Church of Rome’ appears in ‘The Bible and the Arts’ published by Edinburgh University Press

12th NOVEMBER 2019 (N.B. NOT THE FOURTH TUESDAY)

This lecture explores the way in which the East India Company developed its methods of trade and facilitated the increasingly sophisticated and profound exchange of ideas between East and West.  It focuses on textile design as the vehicle for this analysis, but also includes other works, such as wallpaper, porcelain and furniture, as well as the vast commercial trade in spice and tea.  Examining first the 17th century textile trade with India, the lecture shows how the East India Company established a methodology for sending out patterns to be copied by the local weavers and dyers, paving the way for the production of chintz – now considered to be a classic expression of English style.  The lecture then turns to the 18th century and the trade with China. Using the same methodology of sending out Western patterns to be copied for export goods, the Company rapidly expanded operations in the Far East. The currency and balance of trade with China is examined, and methods of production are illustrated with a number of Chinese export pieces, predominantly Chinese painted silks but also including furniture and porcelain.  The distinction is then drawn between Chinese export and Chinoiserie, a fantasy style produced by Western artists and designers based on the exoticism of China – known to Westerners as ‘Cathay’ – and combining with the prevailing Baroque and Rococo styles in Western design.

Viv Lawes

Viv Lawes is a lecturer, curator, author and journalist, with over twenty years’ experience in the art market. She works at several prestigious Higher Education institutions in London, leading the Modern and Contemporary unit of the Asian Art & Its Markets semester course at Sotheby’s Institute and the History of Decorative Style (c.1400-1970) course at the City & Guilds of London Art School. She also lectures for the University of the Arts and IESA (Institut d’Etudes Supérieures des Arts), London.  As Senior UK Consultant to Singapore gallery One East Asia since 2011, she has co-curated many exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art in London and Singapore. Her current project is a book is on themes in equine sculpture, commissioned by the Sladmore Gallery, London.

This lecture will look exclusively at Leonardo’s fascination with portraits and Madonnas. It would be constant throughout Leonardo’s life, something he returns to time and time again up to the end of his long life. Indeed we are all aware of, and acquainted with the work and experimentation of Leonardo da Vinci in a wide-ranging field of the arts and beyond. But the area of portraits and the challenge of the compositional grouping of the Madonna and Child held a particular interest and obsessive fascination for Leonardo from very early on in his career and throughout his life right up to the very end. Beginning with his early life, this lecture will look at Leonard’s early use of the oil medium and his use of varied drawing mediums to achieve his results. This lecture will also look at Leonardo’s endless struggle with the Madonna and Child grouping and what that can tell us about our own Madonna of the Rocks and Cartoon. And finally I will look at Leonard’s association with particular noble families, the interaction between these families and the female portraiture that was produced as a result of the associations with these families. These aspects will be looked at in the context of workshop traditions, his associations with other artists and major commissions.

Short Reading List: Brown, David Alan, Leonardo Da Vinci: Origins of a Genius (Yale University Press, 1998) Franklin, D, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the Renaissance in Florence (National Gallery of Canada, 2005) Kemp, Martin, and Kenneth Clark, Leonardo Da Vinci (Penguin, 1993) Kemp, Martin, Leonardo Da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (Oxford University Press, 2006) 

Leslie Primo

Holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. Was Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, and gives lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Also lectures at the City Literary Institute, and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute.

Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan dominated the pre-war theatre scene but by the 1950’s had begun to fall out of favour with the British public. A revolution was taking place in the arts and new voices were beginning to be heard such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. This lecture examines the stark contrast between pre and post-war British theatre and how we, in the 21st century, can now reassess which playwrights really stood the test of time.

Giles Ramsay

Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre director and producer who specializes in creating new work with artists in developing countries. He is the Founding Director of the charity Developing Artists (www.developingartists.org), a Fellow of St. Chad’s College, Durham University and Course Leader in Theatre at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Giles has run theatre projects in Botswana, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Kosovo, Palestine, Mexico, Thailand and Zimbabwe and given numerous talks for institutions ranging from The Foundation for Mexican Literature in Mexico City to The Royal College of Physicians in London. He regularly lectures on the history and practice of theatre on the Queen Mary 2 as it sails from New York to the UK. Giles combines academic analysis with hands on experience to bring a unique insight to the world of the theatre.

‘A Passion for Fashion’ tells the story of 20th century fashion design, tracing how clothes, textiles and accessories were influenced by contemporary history.

It includes the elegant fashions of the Edwardian era, the glamour of the 1920s and 1930s, the austerity of the 1940s, the futuristic fashions of the 1950s, the liberating styles of the 1960s and the avante-garde fashions of the 1970s to the present day.

Sally Hoban

Dr Sally Hoban has lectured extensively on art, design and antiques throughout the UK and at The University of Birmingham. She has broadcast on BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC Radio 4 and her publications include Miller’s Collecting Modern Design. She has an Honours certificate in public speaking from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and is a freelance arts journalist for local, national and international media. Sally has a PhD in the history of art and design from The University of Birmingham.

In the 18th century, England, along with many other countries in Europe, had begun a huge trade with the East, especially China for its blue and white wares. The economic toll these imports were having on the country prompted the founding of some of the early factories such as Bristol, Plymouth, Lowestoft, Vauxhall and Limehouse, all of which replicated Chinese wares in soft paste. The period 1740 saw a huge increase in the English manufacture of china, and the Chelsea and Bow factories are a prime example; Worcester, Wedgewood and Derby followed these. This lecture covers the experimental wares of the early periods and ends with the transfer wares of Spode and Wedgewood who were, by the early 19th century, supplying the mass market.

Peter Le Rossignol

Peter has degrees in Decorative Arts & Historic Interiors and Fine Art Valuation; he also holds a DPhil in Art History. Has forty years' lecturing experience, including to the Art Fund in Jersey and Guernsey, the Ringwood Antiques Club Hampshire, the Jersey College for Adult Education, and various after-dinner engagements. Has given talks on local radio, and held antique road shows for various organisations. Interests include eighteenth century fine & decorative art, the Grand Tour, Oriental decorative arts, and silver and jewellery. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Experience the story of gold and its significance and symbolism within the history of art - as the colour of the sun; the colour of divinity; the colour of status and the colour of love. From creations ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane - all that glitters is certainly gold…

Alexandra Epps

Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Guildhall Art Gallery. Pallant House Gallery Lecturer. City Lit Institute Art History Tutor. Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering lectures and walks about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book ‘Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 ‘(2015). Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years. BA Saint Martins School of Art, MA London College of Printing.

This story has a plot worthy of Agatha Christie. The cast includes Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Laszlo Moholy Nagy, refugees from the Bauhaus in Germany, Henry Moore the sculptor, the writers Nicholas Monsarrat and Agatha Christie herself as well as numerous other writers, intellectuals and civil servants. 

The setting is The Lawn Road Flats, a startling Modernist block in a leafy road in North London. It offered a radical new housing concept for young professionals: small serviced flats with a communal  restaurant and popular club. But was there a darker side to this lively bohemian environment? It was in fact also home to a nest of Soviet spies, including the recruiter and controller of the Cambridge 5. 

This is the story of a ground breaking building, now Grade 1 listed, and of the rich and complex lives of its residents.

Deborah Lambert

Deborah Lambert is a freelance art historian and lecturer. After reading for an MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, London University, she became an arts administrator.  In 1978 she joined Christie’s Education, part of Christie’s Auctioneers, as tutor, lecturer and academic director teaching fine and decorative art history. From 2006 until stepping down in September 2015, Deborah was Curator of the Schroder Collection, an important private art collection, and she now concentrates on her freelance lecturing and research.

Deborah has lectured to a variety of organisations in the United Kingdom and abroad, and for over 20 years appeared on BBC Television’s Antiques Roadshow as a furniture specialist.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957) have iconic status in Mexico. Rivera's intricate visual narratives, rich with allegory and symbolism, adorn the walls of public buildings. Inspired by Aztec and Maya imagery, and by early Italian fresco painting, his vast murals combine social criticism with faith in human progress. Kahlo's work, unlike Rivera's, is small in format. Arguably Mexico’s most original painter, she made herself the principal theme of her art. Her paintings reflect her experiences and dreams. This lecture surveys the work of both artists; it chronicles their turbulent marriage and Mexico's history after the 1910 Revolution. 

Chloe Sayer

Freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. Has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture. Her many publications include Mexican Textiles (British Museum Press, 1990), Arts and Crafts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1990),  Focus on Aztecs and Incas  (Watts Books, 1995), The Incas - The Ancient World (Wayland, 1998), Textiles from Mexico  (British Museum Press, 2002), and  Mexico: Clothing and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 2015). Has also published articles in travel guides, newspapers and magazines.

The Royal Academy has an illustrious history that spans from the mid 18th century through to the 21st century. We contemplate its past and review its various homes before settling on its current Mayfair location in Burlington House.

This fully illustrated talk explores a selection of its ground-breaking temporary loan exhibitions and considers its role and impact on the art scene, both on British soil and overseas. The talk wouldn’t be complete without a behind the scene look at the Summer Exhibition – held without interruption since 1769 – which displays works in a variety of media and genres by emerging and established contemporary artists. In addition, anecdotal stories will also be revealed by the lecturer based on her twelve year career with the institution.

We also consider the influence of certain world-renowned Royal Academicians, exemplary artists in their chosen field, and the pivotal role that is played by the RA Schools. The impressive roll call of RA’s over the past 250 years includes household names such as Reynolds, Constable, Turner, Munnings and, more recently, Hockney, Paolozzi, Foster, Craig-Martin and Gormley.

By charting its history through intriguing and important archivsl photographs and considering its place in Britain’s rich artistic heritage, we can mark this significant anniversary and consider its future with much excitement and anticipation.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston

MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 20 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. Recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

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Caroline has lectured worldwide and for major organisations in the UK.  She is the author of eleven books;  is involved in theatre productions and is a presenter and contributor on TV and BBC Radio 4.

FOLLOWED BY MULLED WINE AND MINCE PIES

NB - Not 4th Tuesday

Matthew lectures widely on nineteenth and twentieth century designs. A recognised expert in the work of the designer William Bruges, he has been the Curator of Cardiff Castle since 1990.  

AGM - 10.15 START

Valerie is a Lecturer and Guide of Tate Britain and Tate Modern and other major galleries and, on religious art, in churches and cathedrals. She is also involved with  art for the blind and partially-sighted.

Bertie is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. He has shared his passion for Magic, Punch and Judy, Victorian Pastimes and Charles Dickens and his performances have taken him worldwide.

Christopher has lectured widely in Galleries, Institutions both here and abroad and in churches and cathedrals throughout England and in Italy.  Until recently he was Archbishop of St Albans and a member of the House of Lords.

Rupert specialises in the domestic and social life of the past.  He has published articles and books, the latest of which isBasingstoke and it's Contribution to World Culture.  He is an occasional broadcaster and experienced lecturer

Followed by Annual Lunch Booking Reguired

Caroline is an archivist, historian and writer.  She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives.  Her first book, The Day Parliament Burned Down won top prize at the inaugural Political Book Awards in 2013 and her second book, Mr Barry's War, was published in 2016.

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Andrew is an Extra-Mural Tutor for London, Essex and The Open University;  author of nine books including The East End Nobody Knows  He has lectured all over the world and  organises walks to complement his lectures.

Anthea studied Fine and Decorative Arts in London and continued her studies at Harvard University.  It was there that she became interested in 20th century architecture.  She has lectured widely around the UK.

Neil works as a freelance lecturer, editor, writer, excavator and occasional broadcaster.  He has appeared in Channel 4's Time Team programme and various documentaries for satellite and digital broadcasters. 

Followed by New Members' Drinks