Cindy Polemis explores the eerie and sublime landscapes of Norwegian artist Nikolai Astrup, the haunting portraits of Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, the trailblazing abstraction of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, and fantastical landscapes of Lithuania’s M.K Ciurlionis.

Cindy Polemis is an art historian, independent lecturer and art guide. She has a BA in Modern History from Oxford University and as a mature student she went back to university to study first for a BA and then for a Masters in History of Art at Birkbeck College, London University. Before that she spent many years as a radio producer and presenter for the BBC World Service working in news and current affairs. Since 2016 Cindy has worked as  a lecturer and an official art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She has also been a trustee at the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum. Cindy has accumulated a wide range of art historical knowledge ranging from 18th European and British art to the contemporary international art scene. She has been an official guide for  Frieze Masters art fair in London. She is particularly keen to draw parallels with art and social history and her lectures are accessible and engaging, drawing out the stories of art and artists which are steeped in human emotions and experiences which we all share.

This lecture tells the story of the revolutionary company which Diaghilev established in Paris in 1909 and led until his death in 1929.  Building on the achievements of Tchaikovsky and Petipa, Diaghilev transformed classical ballet into modern dance by inviting modern artists of the calibre of Bakst, Picasso and Matisse to collaborate with composers such as Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, choreographers such as Fokine and Balanchine, and dancers such as Pavlova, Karsavina and Nijinsky.

Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator whose work ranges across the arts, and across the cultures of Europe, from Italy to Norway.  She began her career as an academic in Slavic studies after completing her doctorate at Oxford, and has held fellowships both in the UK and at the European University Institute in Florence.  In 2024 she became a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. 
The author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia, she is also well known as a translator - her publications include acclaimed editions of Anna Karenina and Chekhov's stories for Oxford World’s Classics.  She has written on music and literature for institutions including the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and the Salzburg Festival, and now writes about art for Apollo and The Burlington Magazine.  She is currently writing a book about the revolution in the arts which took place in early 20th-century Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Odesa, and its connection to modernist developments in Paris, Munich and Milan.

She has led art, architecture, design and music tours throughout Europe, and contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC. Her lecturing work has taken her from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where she lives, to the V&A in London, and to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.  

The Queen Mother bought the Castle of Mey after the King died in 1952. It was the only property she ever owned and she would spend every August there surrounded by members of her household and staff, and a number of young guests.

Jeremy first stayed there in the late 1970s on duty as the Queen Mother’s equerry and on many occasions thereafter as one of her guests. When she died in 2002 he was asked to help open the castle to the public and what was meant to be a six week appointment ended up lasting six years. As a result he has spent more time at the Castle of Mey than its royal owner ever did and developed it as one of northern Scotland’s most popular tourist attractions.

Jeremy Mainwaring-Burton
On leaving Durham University with a degree in geology Jeremy decided to join the army. After spending five years in the Irish Guards, the last two and a half were on secondment to Clarence House as the Queen Mother’s equerry. Being a geologist Jeremy couldn’t help but notice the magnificent gemstones in the Queen Mother’s jewellery. Indeed if he admired a piece she would sometimes take it off and give it to him to have a closer look. This inspired Jeremy to study gemmology and on leaving the army he qualified as a Fellow of the Gemmological Association. Then, in addition to working as an exploration geologist in South Africa and a gold miner in California, he spent several years as a jewellery and precious stone dealer in London’s Hatton Garden. 
Jeremy’s skillfully illustrated talk is an amusing account of what it was like to stay at Mey, not only for those lucky enough to be invited as guests but also for their hostess.

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in America, explore 25 iconic works including Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic,’ Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother,’ Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ of American art. Trace 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 showcase 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.

Dr. Marie-Anne Mancio trained as an artist before gaining a D.Phil (University of Sussex). She was commissioned to write and present online courses for Tate and How To Read Paintings for Pearson Love to Learn; has lectured for Dulwich Picture Gallery, Ben Uri, London Art Salon, The Course, City Lit, V & A, and many private societies.  She has written numerous art reviews and essays and was commissioned to create a series of e-books on The Theatre of Mistakes. 
She also leads art history tours abroad for ACE cultural tours. and for her own company Hotel Alphabet.
Her lecture on The Bed in Art was filmed for HENI talks. She is also a founder member and co-Director of feminist art collective InFems for whom she writes and curates.

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 the lavish Edwardian era? What was it like to serve? From shoppers to shop girls, publicity stunts to wow factor window dressing, this is a fascinating slice of social history, with wonderful period images. 

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. 

One of four titles springing from my book ‘A Marvel to Behold’, Gold and Silver at the Court of Henry VIII. This lecture looks at the king and his world through a rather special lens of the institutions concerned with gold and silver, the Mint (which made it into money), the jewel house (where the king’s plate was stored) and the Goldsmiths’ Company (which controlled the trade and supplied the royal goldsmiths). At the heart of all this sat Thomas Cromwell, who we all know now through Hilary Mantel’s novels, but who is shown in a rather different light in this lecture.

Optional lunch at 1pm:
Beef Lasagne or Vegetarian Lasagne with salad; fruit flapjack and tea or coffee
Second lecture at 2pm: City Livery Companies: the Origins of the Great Twelve
Lunch and extra lecture for £35
Lecture only for £15

Timothy Schroder is a historian and lecturer on silver and goldsmiths’ work and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He is former President of the Silver Society, Consultant Curator at the V&A and trustee of the Wallace Collection. He has served two terms as Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company. Publications include British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum (2009) and ‘A Marvel to Behold’, Gold and Silver at the Court of Henry VIII (2020).

Ancient Greek painted pottery is greatly admired, and with good reason. This talk, lavishly illustrated with both slides and video, will attempt to make the beauty of Greek ceramics more readily accessible and comprehensible. It will concentrate on gaining knowledge and understanding of the physical forms, stylistic features, subject matter, composition, emotional content, function and development of ancient Greek pottery, along with the acquisition of an understanding in its historical context of the civilisation studied through its art. Emphasis will also be placed on the relevant social, political and religious contexts: how were the vases created? Why? Who for?

Dr Steve Kershaw (BA (Hons); PhD) has had a special interest in the world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans ever since being introduced to Homer’s Iliad by an inspirational teacher at his primary school. He developed his interests in the Classics at Heath Grammar School in Halifax, before studying at Bristol University. Having achieved a degree in Classics, Steve stayed on to write his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Richard Buxton, arguably the leading scholar on Greek myth in the world.
Since graduation Steve has taught Classics in a number of establishments, and now operates principally for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He authored and teaches Oxford’s on-line Greek Mythology, The Fall of Rome, and Minoans and Mycenaeans courses, but he has also spent a great deal of time in the world of Classical Civilisation, both intellectually and physically: as a guest speaker for Swan Hellenic Cruises, Royal Hebridean Cruises, Voyages to Antiquity, Cox & Kings, Noble Caledonia, and Art Pursuits he has travelled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, and, as Professor of History of Art, he ran the European Studies Classical Tour for Rhodes College and the University of the South for over a decade. Steve also lectures regularly at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at New York University London. Former students include the Princess of Jordan, and he translated Matthew Pinsent’s 4th Olympic Gold Medal for him after his victory in Athens.
His many media appearances include acting as an expert contributor to the History Channel’s Barbarians Rising series, appearing in a Channel 5 TV documentary fronted by Dan Snow about destroyed ancient cities, and guesting on BBC Radio 4's You're Dead to Me hosted by Greg Jenner.
In 1990 Steve edited Pierre Grimal’s Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology, later converted to The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology, and in 2007, partly as a result of a course on Greek Mythology that he taught at Oxford University, he published A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Constable & Robinson), described by Paul Cartledge the Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge University as ‘eminently sane, highly informative, and reasonably priced’. His Brief Guide to Classical Civilization was published in 2010, followed by his A Brief History of the Roman Empire in 2013, and A Brief History of Atlantis: Plato's Ideal State in 2017. 2019 saw the publication of two new books: Barbarians: Rebellion and Resistance to the Roman Empire, and the highly acclaimed Mythologica, a children's book on Greek mythology that was Amazon.com’s Best Children’s Non-Fiction Book of 2019. Steve’s most recent publication, Three Epic Battles that Saved Democracy: Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis (2022), has also garnered many plaudits in the international press.
Steve is also an internationally renowned jazz double bass player, who has performed at jazz festivals from Cuba to Arkhangelsk. An Honors Graduate of the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, he has appeared in films and on TV, and has an extensive catalogue of recordings to his name, as well as a couple of books on playing the bass. He lives in the Oxfordshire village of Deddington with his artist wife Lal Jones, an English Springer Spaniel called Hero, and a rescue Cockapoo called Tan.

?What is the origin of slapstick? Where does the Dame come from? Why do boys dress as girls and what on earth is it with all those dancing cows and giant geese?  Find-out exactly why pantomime is so popular, what makes it so successful and how it remains such a joyful celebration of all that is quintessentially British.
Tony has been a writer and director of historic pantomimes throughout England for over 30 years. He has researched its origins and evolution, from the commedia d’ell arte roots, to its first British representation in Georgian England, to the Victorian spectaculars, music hall & variety additions and ultimately into the modern age.

Tony has been a showman, researcher and teacher for over 40 years. He specialises in historical popular entertainment forms and their application to contemporary contexts. Tony has written and directed 25 pantomimes in a variety of historical theatres. Tony was awarded a doctorate for his research into itinerant British performance forms by the University of Exeter, where he is now senior lecturer in drama. He regularly writes about the subject for academic journals and general interest magazines, as well as broadcasting on both radio and television for programmes such as ‘The Archive Hour’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ However, Tony is perhaps best-known as as ‘Uncle Tacko!’ -founder of ‘The Pierrotters’ (Britain’s last professional seaside pierrot troupe) and the ringmaster of his extraordinary flea circus!

In 1936 Dame Laura Knight became the first woman to be elected as a full member of the Royal Academy in London, 168 years after its establishment.  In her extraordinary career she painted landscapes, portraits and seascapes, as well as scenes from the circus, the ballet and the theatre.  She was the only woman to be given War Commissions in both the First and Second World Wars and the only British artist to cover the Nuremberg Trials of 1946.  This lecture provides an overview of her fascinating career and some of the remarkable achievements of her long life.

Nairn Community and Arts Centre IV12 4BQ
Coffee and tea from 11am
Talk at 11.30am

This talk is in addition to our programme of ten lectures, so we are asking TASH members and visitors to please pay £10 each. The money raised will be used for Young Arts educational projects in the area.

The Glasow Girls were a group of about sixteen women who made a significant contribution to the Glasgow Style during the period 1895-1920. This was a time of flourishing of artistic achievement, contemporary with the English Arts and Crafts movement and international Art Nouveau. Many talented female personalities contributed, working in metalwork, ceramics, book illustration, gesso, embroidery and fine art, although their work went unrecognised until 30 years ago. Perhaps the most well known of the girls is Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh whose work will be examined in some detail.

Murder, poison, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad? This lecture reveals the real family that dominated the Papacy and Italian politics during the last decade of the 15th century: the charismatic figure of Pope Alexander VI, living inside his sumptuously decorated apartments, the career of his son, Cesare, cardinal, general, employer of Da Vinci and the model for Machiavelli’s The Prince, and the journey of Lucrezia Borgia from “the greatest whore in Rome” to a devout and treasured duchess of the city Ferrara. Sometimes truth is more intoxicating than myth.

Sarah Dunant

Novelist, broadcaster and critic. Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves/Free thinking (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis and lectured around the world at festivals and conferences. Her last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance. In the Name of the Family completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s A POINT OF VIEW and these talks, alongside her series on history for Radio 4, When Greeks Flew Kites are available on podcast or BBC sounds. 

So many mosaics and tessellated pavements survive that we almost take them for granted with their gently-muted colours and sometimes strange messages from the ancient world. It's an art form that continues and is enjoyed to the present day but reached glorious highlights in Byzantium, Ravenna and Sicily in the Middle Ages. This lecture, however, concentrates on the mosaics (mainly floor mosaics) made by our Greek and Roman ancestors right across their empire. It's a remarkably durable art form being designed to be walked on or to have furniture standing on it. The designs might be advertisements or messages of warning or welcome, but mainly they are decorative. Some are distinctly pagan, others Christian, but many show charming, not to say revealing, vignettes of everyday life as it was lived up to two millennia ago.

Imogen Corrigan MPhil FRHistS FRSA
Joined the army straight from school and after over 19 years retired in the rank of Major and went to university to study Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History and Art. Gained 1st Class Hons and went on to acquire an MPhil.
First book: Stone on Stone, the Men who built the Cathedrals was published in 2019 with a second (The Green Man: Myth and Reality) due out in Spring 2025.
Freelance lecturer working across Europe for individual societies and on small ships and river boats. Leads study tours, mainly on churches for specialist travel firms.

Monuments and memorials advisor on the Diocesan Advisory Committee for Canterbury.

Has the Freedom of the City of London being a Freeman of the Company of Communicators.

This lecture provides a colourful introduction to the secret world of our 2000-mile canal network and looks at all aspects of their architectural and artistic vernacular - only the National Trust and the Church of England have more listed structures than our inland waterways. The lecture describes unique buildings, heroic engineering and quirky landmarks. Many of our distinctive canal structures were influenced by form and function as well as the energy and imagination of the pioneering waterway engineers. Highlights include unique cottages and clever warehouses; sweeping aqueducts and eye-catching lock flights; deep tunnels and distinctive clock towers – plus one or two contemporary features such as the amazing Falkirk Wheel.

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 and a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society. 

Join award winning cartoonist Harry Venning as he escorts you through the peaks and pitfalls of his profession, supported by visual and verbal contributions from such luminaries as Matt Groening, Dr.Seuss, Charles M. Schulz and Gary Larson. Entertaining and Informative in equal measure, the topics covered include rejection, procrastination, deadlines, artificial intelligence, professional envy, censorship, and the cartoon community's response to the Charlie Hebdo murders of 2015. Harry will also be drawing live on an A1 flip chart, the images filmed and projected onto screen for everyone to clearly see.

Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for over 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).

An award winning cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton. Harry’s cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Mathematics Today, The Radio Times, Music Teacher and The Stage. For twenty five years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare In The Community, based upon the misadventures of an 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 writing or drawing, Harry tours his cartoon workshop Release Your Inner Cartoonist around schools, theatres, arts centres and festivals. He also works as a graphic visualizer, providing live cartoons to illustrate talks and speeches at conferences, festivals and team building events.

He can’t draw hands or horses!

For the old hand as much as the first-time visitor, the Edinburgh festivals can be overwhelming. Running alongside each other in August are the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Together they form the world’s largest arts festival. Mark Fisher, author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, describes how this great cultural phenomenon came to be – and how to make sense of it when you arrive.

Mark Fisher
Is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a contributor to publications all over the world. He has run criticism workshops at schools, universities and theatres all over the UK as well as giving sessions as far afield as Malta, Brazil and Chile. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.

On becoming king Charles 1st purchased the fabulous art collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua.  He engaged Rubens to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting House and he appointed Van Dyck as his Court Artist.  But in amassing his great collection he bankrupted England and alienated his people.

Charles 1st was our most tragic monarch and yet he was also our greatest Royal Collector of Art.

Barbara Askew
Historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Royalty and Windsor Castle. The only Blue Badge Guide accredited to guide the Albert Memorial. Offers guided visits and walking tours linked to her lectures.

2024 marks the bicentenary of the founding of the National Gallery. This lecture tells the story of the establishment of the NG collection beginning in 1824 when Lord Liverpool’s government purchased 38 paintings for £57,000 from the collection of businessman and philanthropist John Julius Angerstein.
The paintings were initially displayed at 100 Pall Mall, Angerstein’s townhouse and by 1838, it was decided that a purpose built building was required, giving us the William Wilkins designed building we know and love on Trafalgar Square. During the course of the lecture we examine some of the high (and low) points of the early years of the gallery including suffragette sabotage, bombs and theft!

Simon Whitehouse

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique & voice teacher, and award winning London Blue Badge Guide.  He regularly guides for Arts Society groups on their Visits Programmes in addition to his lecture offerings.  He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC & the National Gallery, guiding a wide variety of public & private tours.  He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts & English literature modules.  Simon’s specialisms & passions are theatre, literature, fashion & art history, but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it!

Jane Austen’s novels are often characterised as lightweight romances dealing in trivialities and portraying a limited social sphere, reflecting the constricted circumstances of the author’s own life.  This lecture offers an alternative reading, suggesting that Austen is not interested in romance but moral challenge, not a mild spinster but a social commentator of contemporary relevance and by no means inferior to Eliot and Dickens by virtue of her limited canvas.  Mary will read and discuss extracts from Emma and Pride and Prejudice, considering questions such as how we should view the tedious Miss Bates to whom Emma is so famously insolent and how we should judge the over-excitable Mrs Bennet.

Mary Sharp
Mary is an experienced broadcaster and teacher with particular expertise in literature and drama.  She worked for many years for BBC Radio 4 producing some of its most popular programmes including Start the Week and Woman’s Hour before joining the senior management team as a Commissioning Editor.  Mary has subsequently worked as a teacher and Director of Sixth Form at a leading girls’ grammar school.  She now runs her own company “Opening Up Literature” which offers literature courses for adults including studies of Shakespeare and Creative Writing. 

For the officers of the British Empire, no “quarters in the world were as delightful as Quebec” and it was in winter that the Canadian social season sprang to life.

Crisp moonlit nights produced a perfect backdrop for midnight sleigh rides between country taverns ladling out hot punch; torch-lit walks on snow-shoes to picnics under frozen waterfalls; balls and champagne-suppers on ice; daring toboggan runs; and faux battles fought with fireworks between ice castles lit up by fire.

Mark Meredith is the founder of HouseHistree.com and lectures regularly in Europe and the United States, notably at the New York Historical Society.
After leaving Stowe School Mark worked as a plumber in London for 20 years. However his real passion has always been history and he delights in ‘telling a story’ rather than ‘giving a lecture’.
Packed with facts and laced throughout with humour he takes a particular joy in bringing to life the stories behind the people that shape houses. His area of special interest lies in the great American houses and American social history from pre-revolution to the end of the Gilded Age 

From 10.00am to 2.00pm at Nairn Community and Arts Centre IV12 4BQ
Including tea & coffee, lectures from 10am and lunch
Cost including refreshments £50
*please note that valuations of silver objects cannot be given

Lecture 1: Fashion form and function - A History of British Silver
This is a general lecture which looks at the history of silver (particularly British) and examines the history of both hallmarks and goldsmiths. It examines the way in which the history of silver reflects the more general social history of England. It is a broad survey of the changing role of silver in society, as well as an examination of different fashions and styles. It focusses on some of the leading figures in the history of the silver trade as well as looking at the role of the Goldsmith’s Company in promoting and protecting the craft.

Lecture 2: A Survey of Royal Patronage of Silver
This lecture aims to give an overall impression of the nature of Royal patronage of silver and silver-gilt and give (in broad outline) an impression of what is contained within the Royal Collection. It explains how the modern Royal Collection has come about, evolved and changed in character from the holdings of previous monarchs and attempts to explain its significance within the wider context of Royal patronage. The lecture focuses on some of the pre-eminent pieces of silver in order to examine the particular significance of individual members of the Royal Family (not just the monarch) in the history of building one of the most important collections of plate in the world

Session 3: A Discussion of Members’ Silver Objects (please bring your own)*

Application Form in DOCUMENTS
* Image copyright Christopher Garibaldi 2023

Indian classical music has a rich heritage stretching back beyond the thirteenth century. Its two major traditions - the Hindustani and the Carnatic - have given rise to some of the most beautiful and deeply spiritual music ever conceived. Yet Westerners tend to find it baffling. This lecture aims to break down barriers to artistic appreciation by providing an introduction to the major traditions, artists and concepts that form the basis of the Indian classical tradition. By the end of the lecture you will know your sitar from your sarod, your sarangi from your shehnai, and your tanpura from your tabla. Through musical examples and stunning images of India’s musical heritage, you will be given a key to unlock a wondrous world of music that you can continue to explore and enjoy for years to come.

Dr John Stevens
Gained his PhD in History from UCL, before going on to teach British Imperial History, Indian History and Bengali Language at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London). His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen – Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet - was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2018. He is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh and has lectured at numerous Indian universities. He also works as a consultant on Indian affairs and teaches the Bengali language to private students. He has appeared many times in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore.

The stylistic development of glass produced in Venice from the late 15th century to the late 17th century, seen through actual objects and through paintings.

During this lecture, we will look at the early history of glassmaking in Venice, the material itself and the techniques involved in forming and decorating the pieces. We will discuss the early fashion for richly coloured and enameled glass, the sources of inspiration behind the forms and the decoration, who would have owned the pieces and how they would have been used or displayed.
We will also consider the desire for luxury objects in the Renaissance, the new liking in the 16th century for clear glass or cristallo and the fashion for fine glass drinking vessels which followed on from this.
Finally, we will examine the spread of this fashion throughout Europe, the resulting trade and the gradual spread of glassmaking skills to other parts of Europe.

Introductory Reading List
Battie, D.& Cottle, S.            Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopaedia of Glass  London, 1991
Klein, D. & Lloyd, W.            The History of Glass  London, 1984
Liefkes, R.(Ed.)                     Glass  London, 1997
Tait, H.                                   Five Thousand Years of Glass  London, 1991
Tait, H.                                   The Golden Age of Venetian Glass  London, 1979

Jane Gardiner  (M.A. History of Art, University of London)
Jane trained at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was a Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years; becoming a Deputy Director of Sotheby’s U.K. She has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, Buckingham University, l’Institut d’Études Supérieures des Arts, the Arts Society, on cruise ships and at Antiques Fairs and Interior Design Conferences in America.

Sir Henry Raeburn was the leading Scottish portraitist of his time, with a dazzling aptitude for capturing the character of his sitters. Our expert, Amanda Herries, is curator of a new show of works by the artist. Here she reveals the core facts about his life and portraits, which should, she says, be known far better .
The exhibition will run from 29 June to 29 September.

Amanda Herries
With a degree in archaeology, Amanda was a curator at the Museum of London for a decade, specialising in the 18th to 20th centuries. She spent eight years in Japan studying East-West connections, and draws on this eclectic background for her lectures, writing and broadcasting. In addition, she has spent three years cataloguing Southern Scotland for the ArtUK project. Among her interests are decorative arts, including jewellery, porcelain and doll's houses, social history and Oriental and Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. You can read her ‘Instant Expert’ on ‘The Japanese Garden, East and West’ here. Among her talks for The Arts Society are Skin Deep: the beastly art of beauty, Opium: seduction, greed and art, A study of Joan Eardley (a focus on the art of the Scottish artist who died in 1963) and East meets West: the influence of Chinese and Japanese art on European decoration. Look out, too, for her new lecture, The making of an exhibition: rabbits, rabbit holes and Henry Raeburn. 

William Morris led a revolution against the products of the machine age. The first of our ‘passionate potters’, William de Morgan, was a friend of Morris who rediscovered the secrets of Near Eastern lustre glazes. In contrast, the eccentric and argumentative Martin Brothers created a range of elaborate salt glazed pots unparalleled in their imaginative breadth. Sir Edmund Elton, the ‘potter baronet’, made pots which combine startling glazes with exotic forms. And finally, Bernard Leach, the father of English studio pottery, not only married the arts of Japan and England but created a legacy that is still alive today.
This lecture explores the lives of these truly passionate potters and celebrates their extraordinary and beautiful creations. [116 words]

Julian Richards is an archaeologist, author, broadcaster and ceramic historian.  His career has largely been in field archaeology and in education with a diversion into TV and radio work 'Meet the Ancestors', 'Blood of the Vikings' etc) in the late 1900's early 2000's. Since this time Julian has become more involved in ceramics and is currently a guest curator at Salisbury Museum where he is re-organising their major ceramics gallery under the title of 'A potted history of Britain'.

Tim’s interest in the daring midget submarine raid on the German Battleship Tirpitz, stems - of course - from his twenty years serving in nine different submarines, and his pride in the submarine service.
But in addition, his father was in the Battleship QUEEN ELIZABETH when in 1941, the ship was attacked in Alexandria Harbour by very brave Italian ‘Charioteers’ - which then got Winston Churchill to immediately demand that the Royal Navy get into midget submarine and ‘chariots’ warfare too.
The training for the midget submarine  (X-Craft) attack on the Battleship Tirpitz, sheltering in the Kaafjord in the very north of Norway, was conducted in Loch Cairnbawn, and Kylesku was the Headquarters Base, from where the operation (SOURCE) was mounted: And for which, Donald Cameron, (from Carluke), and Geoffrey Place, were both awarded VCs for their astonishing professionalism, bravery and gallantry.
Tim is now leading a small group of people who are refurbishing the memorial cairn at Kylesku and replacing the weather-worn bronze with a new bronze to be made by ‘Black Isle Bronze’ of Nairn. He has also designed two information boards, which will be placed beside the cairn, to provide more information to the many passing visitors, on what must be one of the most daring operations of all times.  It maybe that Tim’s talk will inspire some Arts Society members to take the journey north to Kylesku, to view the ‘wild and beautiful waters’ where  in 1943, all this took place in the greatest of secrecy. And where the locals ‘knew so much, but talked so little’.
(I would also like to mention Sonia Cameron-Jacks of Ardersier, who has written a most informative and readable booklet on Donald Cameron VC, and has been enormously supportive of my “Kylesku” project)  

Venice – The Architecture of a Renaissance City
This lecture looks at the development of Venice from the origins of the city, to the architecture of Andrea Palladio at the end of the sixteenth century. Synopsis The waters of the Venetian Lagoon have been both saviour and enemy. Their protection enabled the city to become a magnifcent Republic, a leader in global trade and a highly successful world power. All of this is refected in the architecture her citizens created, from the delicate Gothic that so enchanted Ruskin to the elegant classicism of Palladio. Now those same waters challenge the city’s very existence. This lecture covers the origins of Venice, the difculties of building a city within the lagoon, and the idiosyncratic architecture that characterised the Venetian style. It also looks at the development of Renaissance architecture in Venice and explores the contributions of Jacopo Sansovino and Andrea Palladio.

Jo Walton

I read art history at Leicester University, then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford, specialising in the art and architecture of ffteenth century Italy. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore one of the most vibrant and exciting periods in history – and to do so surrounded by the marvellous collections of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers, Christies. I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching adult education classes in art history and, for twelve years, I was a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain. Much of my work now is with The Art Society (NADFAS) and The National Gallery, but I also lecture for The Art Fund and for local art groups and societies. I have occasionally lectured on cruise liners, discovering, rather to my surprise, that I love being at sea in very large ships. I really enjoy lecturing and introducing audiences to the periods, places and artworks that I love. Travelling for The Art Society has introduced me to many areas of Britain that I didn’t know, and it’s also given me the chance to meet fascinating people and learn so much from their experiences and their responses to my talks.

The talk will explore the lure of travel and its impact upon the work of artists from the Renaissance to the 19th century.  Rogier Van Weyden travelled to Italy and was impressed by the work of Fra Angelico.  Italian artists were equally influenced by the work of Weyden.  Just before van Eyck completed the Ghent Altarpiece in 1432, he was sent by Philip the Good of Burgundy to collect the Duke's bride, the Infanta of Portugal.  Upon his return Van Eyck inserted into his altarpiece the exotic plants and trees he had seen on his travels.  In 1551 Bruegel went on a study tpur to Italy but what impressed him was not so much Italy as the Alpine ranges of mountains and these stayed with him and were included in so many of his great paintings and prints on his return.  In the 17th century Rubens travelled to Spain and Italy and what he produced during his future career was shaped by those journeys.  Van Dyck's stay in italy and his experience of seeing the work of Titian enabled him to transform British painting for the next 300 years.
In the 19th century Delacroix at the beginning and Gauguin towards the end of the century travelled further outside Europe to North Africa and the \South Seas respectively.  How did their travels transform their work?

Clare Ford-Wille
Honours degree in History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London. Regular commitments include Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, National Gallery, V&A Museum, WEA, Morley College, the City Literary Institute, the Art Fund and National Trust. Study tours abroad.

Full of stories and personal insight, this lecture traces the history of one of London’s leading publishers through its illustrations, covers and designs. It will feature artists from Rex Whistler and Barnett Freedman to Peter Blake and Damien Hirst and design concepts from the typographical excellence pioneered by Berthold Wolpe to the various ‘grids’ used by the agency Pentagram.

Toby was a banker and management consultant before spending four years as managing director of the company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber. He remains on its Board and is Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music, an Arts Society lecturer, and a director of Liverpool University Press.

Toby has written three works of narrative non-fiction - Stradivarius (2004), described in The New York Times as ‘more earthy, enthralling and illuminating than any fiction could be’, Faberge's Eggs (2008) and Faber & Faber: The Untold Story (2019) - and one novel, Close to the Edge (2019). Only one of those books (the obvious one) was published by Faber.

Four men from Scotland, each influenced by innovations in French Art in the early twentieth century, produced colourful, striking and memorable paintings. Each had his own focus. Samuel Peploe is noted for the precision of his still lifes, whereas Francis Cadell is remembered for his elegant women framed by  Edinburgh’s Georgian interiors. George Hunter painted an eclectic mix of landscapes, still lifes, portraits and houseboats. The colourist who spent a large period of his life in France, John Fergusson, found his inspiration chiefly in the beautiful women whom he loved to portray.
Their work was described by a contemporary art critic as “too bright, too intense and too French!”
The presentation follows the career of each painter and traces the influences which produced each individual style.

Elaine Hansen has a Master’s degree in Education and taught for twenty-seven years.
She now splits her year between Italy and Scotland. After taking early retirement she was free to pursue her passion, Art History, which she studied at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. She became a guide at Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow in 2009 and gives lectures to her fellow guides.
In 2018 she was awarded accreditation as a lecturer for the Arts Society UK and since then has been in demand for lectures delivered in the Uk, in Europe and on cruises in the Mediterranean and in Scotland.

Embroidery has often been overlooked as a domestic hobby undertaken by women without serious attention given to the labour and the industry involved. This lecture looks at the often hidden world of couture embroidery artisanship, from its origins in the 18th century to the innovative practices that have taken place more recently.

Dr Kate Strasdin is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University. She has worked with historic dress collections for almost thirty years and has written and consulted on dress history themes in China, Australia, North America and Canada. Her first book with Bloomsbury Academic, titled Inside the Royal Wardrobe was a dress history of Queen Alexandra and her latest book published with Penguin Random House is called The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets of a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe.

The serenity, asymmetry and control of a Japanese garden is a seductive contrast to Western symmetry, form and free growth.
Even at the time of Japan’s self-imposed isolation (1639-1854) information reached the West about trees, plants, flowers and designs through illustrations on imported porcelain, lacquer and screens.
Once Japan opened up, travellers and plant-hunters were able to bring back information about the gardens and the plants themselves.Japanese garden styles became highly fashionable into the 20th century with several still identifiable
Tracing the origins of garden styles, the plants used and the surviving Western examples we can ask: is it possible to create a ‘Japanese’ garden outside Japan, or do we merely give it a Japanese voice?

Amanda Herries is an accomplished speaker on Decorative Arts and Social History who lives in Dumfries.

Art UK is a unique and ambitious project set up to catalogue paintings held in public collections across the United Kingdom. Remarkably, around 80% of these paintings are held in storage and rarely seen (www.artuk.org).

Art UK has uncovered many works relating to Malta, either by Maltese artists or by visiting British artists. Links between Great Britain and Malta go back hundreds of years. Its history is recorded in fascinating paintings ranging from the Great Siege of 1565 to the devastating bombardment in WW2, after which the islanders’ heroism was recognised in a unique way by King George VI. Other paintings portray Malta’s people, palaces, historic cities and unforgettable sea views.

Mary Rose Rivett-Carnac gained an MA (Distinction) in Victorian Art and Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2007 started working part-time for the Public Catalogue Foundation, now called Art UK. Accredited lecturer for The Arts Society and has given lectures all over the UK and in Europe. Volunteer guide at J.M.W. Turner’s House in Twickenham and Dorich House Museum in Kingston. Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, one of the City of London’s livery companies.

In this very colourful lecture we look at both the gardens painted by Impressionists, and the many gardens created by them – in some cases, one and the same thing. The artists to be discussed include Monet - with his famous water gardens - and Manet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. We also look at gardens in the paintings of Cézanne, Bonnard, van Gogh and Gauguin, and related garden influences in the work of Gustav Klimt and John Singer Sargent.

Dr Patricia Andrew has been a curator of museums and galleries, and Deputy Director of the Scottish Museums Council. She is now a heritage consultant, and a lecturer to a wide range of organisations including the National Galleries of Scotland and their Friends. Her publications include numerous exhibition catalogues, and articles in academic and general journals; her book A Chasm in Time: Scottish War Art and Artists of the Twentieth Century (2014) won the Saltire Society’s ‘Scottish History Book of the Year’ award. She is an art and garden historian, and also a hands-on gardener with an allotment.

Tim’s talk will be about a person he believes is one of the greatest Scotsmen of all times - and about whom, far too little is known about in his own country. Tim’s talk will also encompass some early Australian history, and be of particular interest to those who may have relatives in Australia, or have visited, or are considering visiting the country.

Lachlan Macquarie was a visionary of a man, far ahead of his time. He is recognised throughout  Australia; and Tim’s talk will endorse that recognition, and the debt that Australia owes to this great man.

Tim left the Royal Navy in 1984 and subsequently moved from Dartmouth to Inverness and founded ‘Piccolo Press’ a print-shop in Nairn.

The Art of State Ceremonial Music Great Britain provides some of the biggest ceremonial events in the world and arguably, has a reputation of being the best in the world when it comes to ceremonial parades; but why is that? How do the military prepare for major events such as State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, National Day of Remembrance, Royal Weddings and even a State Funeral? You will be amazed at how a golden thread of history, heritage and tradition can have such an impact on todays ceremonial events.

Dr Graham Jones MBE is a highly experienced lecturer and Military Music Historian, having served as a military musician in the British Army for forty years. His career culminated in being appointed Director of Music of the Coldstream Guards, a position unequalled in military music. His promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and the prestigious appointment of Senior Director of Music, Household Division handed him responsibility for the delivery of all State Ceremonial Music. Graham talks about his experiences during this most prestigious appointment in military music. He explains how major ceremonial events are prepared, in both an informative yet relaxed and sometimes amusing way. An Accredited Lecturer of the Arts Society, Graham will take you on an incredible journey as he shares his passion for music in the military.

Commences at 11.30am

Fifty years ago, many of us were captivated by the 1972 exhibition of Tutankhamun’s Treasures at the British Museum. 2022 is the centenary of the discovery of those treasures by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon and 2023 will celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the tomb for the first time in 3,000 years. The darkness revealed vast riches from antiquity which amongst other influences, spear-headed the design iconography of the emerging art deco movement, lifting the depressed spirits of the inter-war years. Tut-mania affected everything from jewellery and fashion, to architecture and design.

In life, Tutankhamun ruled for just a few years during a chaotic period of upheaval and was so unimportant that he did not even make it onto the famous list of Kings created less than a century later. Yet, in death, his 5,000 precious objects crammed into the smallest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, are some of the world’s most iconic works of art.

Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East. As a professional tour guide and lecturer he has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia. He has written extensively on Arabia and is the author of The Discovery Guide to Yemen', 'Insight Guide to the Silk Road' and Berlitz Guides to The Red Sea; Cairo; Abu Dhabi, Oman and Nile Cruising.
As a film producer and cameraman he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.

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The Bayeux Tapestry is instantly recognisable and one of the most outstanding cultural objects to survive from the early Middle Ages. Long admired for its vivid narrative, today it is the unanswered questions that most intrigue modern aud-iences: was it made in England or France? Was it stitched by men or women? This sparkling lecture looks not only at its creation, but also at its more amazing afterlife. Displayed by Napoleon to bolster French ambitions for a new cross-channel invasion; cherished by Victorian embroiderers as an icon of women’s
heroic joint efforts; hunted down by Hitler, who was outwitted by bureaucratic obfuscation. A fluent French speaker, Timothy Wilcox brings a lifetime’s interest
in Anglo-French relations to bear on a famous object set to become even more celebrated as it enters its next, surprising chapter.

Timothy Wilcox is a writer, lecturer and exhibition curator with special interests in British art, in landscape and in watercolour painting. He was a museum curator in the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings following positions at the V&A, in Liverpool and Hove. As a freelance curator and lecturer since 1997, he has organised exhibitions on John Sell Cotman and John Constable, Laura Knight and Hilda Carline at venues including Tate, The Lowry, the Wordsworth Trust and Dulwich Picture Gallery. He lectures at museums and galleries in Britain, Europe and the USA and is a regular contributor to the Visitor Programmes of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

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ART OF THE MUGHAL WORLD

The 16th to 18th centuries in India witnessed the golden artistic period of Mughal rule, marked by a unique flowering of art and architecture, unrivalled in luxury and opulence. These mighty Emperors were dedicated patrons of skilled artists, sculptors, jewellers, engravers, architects, poets and calligraphers whose creativity produced breathtakingly beautiful artworks and monuments.

From Mughal miniatures with their luminous, jewel-like colours to the exquisite design and ornamentation of imperial palaces and tombs, this talk considers the fascinating fusing of Persian, European, and indigenous Indian influences that produced this glorious work.

GEORGINA BEXON

Georgina is an art historian specialising in South Asian art who has lived and worked in the UK, USA and Singapore. Her practice includes lecturing, writing, consulting and collecting and she has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India, which she visits regularly.  

Consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club in London and an official tour guide at Tate Modern, Georgina is also a guest speaker on luxury cruise ships for whom she has developed a series of art talks relating to Asian and Pacific destinations. She has been a visiting lecturer at UK universities, presents talks at leading art institutions including Christie’s Education New York and the Museum of Modern Art, Moscow and speaks at international art conferences, most recently in New York, Paris and Lisbon.  Georgina is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society.

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Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for over 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 through the work of artists who have made an impact upon language, culture, history, and most importantly, upon him.
These include James Gillray, Charles Schulz, Herje ( Georges Remi), Posy Simmonds and Ronald Searle.

Harry will also be drawing live. Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect, learn what a plewd is and when you should use it, and discover exactly what the Eskimo brothers said in The Funniest Joke Ever (possibly).

Harry Venning is an award winning cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton. Harry’s cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Mathematics Today, The Radio Times, Music Teacher and The Stage. For twenty five years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare In The Community, based upon the misadventures of an 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 writing or drawing, Harry tours his cartoon workshop Release Your Inner Cartoonist around schools, theatres, arts centres and festivals. He also works as a graphic visualizer, providing live cartoons to illustrate talks and speeches at conferences, festivals and team building events.

He can’t draw hands or horses!

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The Nazis looted over 20% of Western Art during World War II, confiscating art from Jewish families and emptying museums throughout Europe. This lecture will provide an overview of Nazi looting by setting the scene in Nazi Germany, discussing Hitler’s obsession with art and how the Monuments Men recovered art after the war. Several landmark cases will be discussed in detail, including Gustav Klimt’s celebrated Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer and the stash of over 1200 artworks found in possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer.

Shauna Isaac has been active in World War II art recovery for several years and has worked with families and government organisations to return Nazi looted art. She set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served as a member of the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague. Shauna studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art and Smith College. She is a regular lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, Times Literary Supplement and Art Quarterly. She is a contributor to the book Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British Visual Culture.

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The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is not only the driest place on earth, filled with spectacular landscapes,  but also houses two distinct kinds of prehistoric rock art: first, rock paintings and engravings, often very beautiful, and mostly depicting llamas; but second, the world's greatest collection of "geoglyphs", huge drawings made on the landscape -- both on the desert floor and (more commonly) on hill-and mountain-sides. They include the "giant of the Atacama", 100 m high, by far the biggest human depiction known from prehistory. The talk presents the best examples of the Atacama's art, and discusses what we know of the purposes of these enormous drawings.

Paul Bahn studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge, and completed PhD thesis (1979) on the prehistory of the French Pyrenees. Has held post-doctoral fellowships, at Liverpool and London, plus a J. Paul Getty postdoctoral fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities. Devotes time to writing, editing and translating books on archaeology, plus occasional journalism and as much travel as possible. Main research interest is prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art, as well as Easter Island. Led the team which, at his instigation, searched for and discovered the first Ice Age cave art in Britain (at Creswell Crags) in 2003.

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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 is a specialist in renaissance art, with a particular interest in artistic relations between Flanders and Italy.  She is Course Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year Course, and lectures for a range of institutions including the Courtauld and the Arts Society.  In 2020 she collaborated on the exhibition Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent.  Her numerous publications include From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500 (Yale University Press, 2004) and a chapter on the Northern Renaissance in the Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance (2019).

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William Morris considered a beautiful home to be “the most important production of Art” and much of his working life was devoted to the production of household goods that were intended to bring art and beauty into a wide range of homes. He also expended enormous time and energy on beautifying his own homes, creating first at Red House in Bexleyheath, and then at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, and finally at his country home, Kelmscott Manor, a series of interiors that exemplified his ideas about art and design.

This lecture explores not only the decoration, but also the relationships and lifestyles associated with each of these very different homes.

Jo Banham is a curator, lecturer and writer. She has been head of public programmes at the V&A, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery. She has published books on many aspects of 19th century art and design and has curated exhibitions on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. She is a Trustee of Leighton House Museum and is currently writing a book on the history of Wallpaper.

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Myth - Man - and Mutiny
Tim Honnor's  interest in the subject is the result of a trip in 1961, across the South Pacific, that he made in his first ship HMS CRANE. During this they navigated past the island where the Mutiny on the Bounty had occurred. Tim reckoned that we were the first Royal Naval vessel to have been back in these waters since 1789.  (No mutiny occurred in our ship!) Whilst the mutiny is central in the story, Tim attempts to show that Bligh was a remarkable man who should not only be remembered by mutiny.

After Tim Honnor's time in HMS CRANE, he joined the Submarine Service and served in nine different submarines.

Tim left the Royal Navy in 1984 and subsequently moved from Dartmouth to Inverness and founded ‘Piccolo Press’ a print-shop in Nairn.

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Four hundred years ago in July 1623 saw the death of the outstanding English composer William Byrd; prolific and successful, he was a favourite at the court of Queen Elizabeth. But Byrd led a complicated existence as a devout Catholic in troubled Tudor times, when to infringe strict religious rules ran the risk of imprisonment or even death. Forced underground, he created some of his most expressive music for fellow Catholics to use in secret worship. This talk celebrates the best of Byrd’s awe-inspiring work and reflects on what it means to create superb art in circumstances of great danger.

Sandy Burnett 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. He devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, runs an online classical music appreciation Listening Club, 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.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

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NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

Commences at 11.30am

Irma Stern was one of the most important and influential artists to come out of South Africa in the twentieth century. A concern with figurative painting was directed towards the production of luxurious flower paintings in the manner of Van Gogh whilst perhaps her most original achievement were the powerful portraits she painted of black Africans in exotic locations and costumes.

This lecture serves as an introduction to the art of Southern Africa whilst addressing important contemporary themes relating to the depiction of race, colonialism and the appropriation of African culture.

Christopher Garibaldi MA (Oxon), MBA, MPhil (Cantab), is an independent researcher and scholar. He recently completed an MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture at St John’s College, Cambridge where he is currently studying for his PhD on aspects of the history of royal patronage.

From 2010 to 2019 he was Director of Palace House, Newmarket (the National Horseracing Museum).

He was Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections from 2008 to 2010 and in 2014 was Acting Director of the Royal Collection Studies Course run in conjunction with the Attingham Trust.

From 1998 to 2003 he was Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum where he co-curated a major touring exhibition programme which included ‘Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art’ and ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000’.

From 1994 to 1997 he catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

Commences 11.30am

Many people now carry a phone with a camera capable of taking very high-quality pictures, and yet the creation of botanical illustrations persists with new Florilegium Societies still being formed.  Why is a drawing or a painting still considered to be superior to a digital image?  This talk looks at the history of botanical illustration from the early herbals 1,500 years ago to the present day, taking in the lives of both the artists and the plants immortalised in the artwork.

Timothy Walker is a British botanist. He was the Horti Praefectus (Director) of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum.

From 1977 to 1980, Walker studied for a BA degree in Botany at University College, Oxford.[1] From 1980 to 1982, he was a trainee gardener at the Oxford Botanic Garden. He studied for a National Certificate in Horticulture at Askham Bryan College in North Yorkshire during 1982–83. Then during 1983–84 he was a trainee gardener at the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park. He was a diploma student at Kew Gardens during 1984–85. From 1986 to 1988 he was General Foreman at the Oxford Botanic Garden then from 1988 to 2014 he was Horti Praefectus of the Garden.[3] He also holds a lectureship in Plant Conservation at Somerville College, Oxford and is a lecturer in Biological Sciences at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. He has won four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

In June 2011, Walker presented Botany – A Blooming History, a series of three television programmes broadcast on BBC Four, covering the history of botany.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

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From the 1890’s to the 1960’s, Winston Churchill’s life was captured in countless photographs.  He was a prolific writer and speechmaker - the definitive edition of his speeches alone runs to four volumes. He was a successful and enthusiastic artist, producing some 500 paintings in a span of over fifty years. 

Churchill was a complex and sensitive man of many parts and many interests – a discriminating contemporary, Kenneth Clark, was to write of him, “I have never been frightened by anyone except Churchill … he was a man of a wonderful and very powerful mind”.

The aim of this talk is to try to capture the richness and diversity of this great man’s life and character which can still inspire us today.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

Commences at 11.30am

This lecture examines the work of one of the outstanding figures of 20th century sculpture, an artist who achieved an international reputation for her monumental works depicting the human figure, birds and other animals.

Sadly she died in her early 60s but from the first small sculpture acquired by the Tate Gallery (when she was a student of 21) until her death, she produced an astonishing body of work. Her bronzes varied in scale and feeling, from small, threatening birds to the life-size, tranquil “Walking Madonna” in Salisbury Cathedral Close.

Frink’s work will be examined in the context of great British and European predecessors such as Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti , as well as her contemporaries, including Reg Butler, Jean Fautrier and Germaine Richier.

Frank Woodgate is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He lectures for the Art Fund, National Trust, U3A and The Arts Society. He is also lecturer and course organiser at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

Children’s Book Illustrations with John Ericson
Monday 7 March 2022 at 11.30am

As adults we carry in our heads a huge number of images from childhood, and some of those most deeply etched come from illustrations in books that we read as children. Images of ‘Tigger’ and ‘Toad’ drawn by E.H. Shepard will probably remain with us for ever! In addition many of us will carry in our mind’s eye pictures from children’s classics such as ‘Black Beauty’, ‘The Knights of the Round Table’,‘Treasure Island’ - or even ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ that we may have discovered and read to our grandchildren!

Before examining how the interaction of image and narrative creates such powerful memories, John will compare different styles of illustration from simple line drawing to photo realistic imagery. In this colourful and nostalgic lecture we will not only consider a range of book illustrations but also the intriguing lives of famous illustrators such as Beatrix Potter, Howard Pyle and Arthur Rackham.

John Ericson was formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath and Director of Studies in the School of Education. He has worked as an Educational Consultant overseas and has considerable experience of lecturing.

NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

The Genius of Robert Adam (Furniture) with Janusz Karczewski-Slowikowski
Tuesday 8 February 2022
Lecture at 11.30am
Complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits before the lecture, from 11am.
An appraisal of Adam’s influence on the development of neoclassical furniture, focussing on items in interiors designed by him.
This lecture examines neoclassical furniture in the context of the Grand houses and rooms for which it was intended.
Adam’s name has become an epithet for his architectural and interior design work, which is characterised by a remarkable and often overwhelming expression of stylistic and chromatic unity.
Neither a furniture designer nor maker, he did, however, design a number of pieces for specific locations within his room designs.
His style was interpreted and adapted by celebrated cabinetmakers who produced furniture that made “charming harmony” with his interiors.

Janusz is a collector of antique furniture, antiques dealer and researcher who has lectured on antiques since 1975. He seeks to explain the skills and materials employed in the design and construction of furniture and its socio-economic significance.

An ONLINE illustrated lecture by Peter Medhurst with piano accompaniment at 11.30am 
Paintings inspired by Music and Music inspired by Paintings
It has long been recognised that the worlds of the visual and aural arts link with extraordinary power when one medium inspires the other. This lecture, which spans over 600 years of the arts, analyses and discusses a range of related works. It brings together the music of Martinu with the frescoes of Piero Della Francesca, Boticelli’s Birth of Venus with Respighi’s Trittico botticelliano, Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead with Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Poem, and Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie with the piano playing of Albert Ammons.
Peter Medhurst is a musician and scholar who gives recitals and delivers lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. 

Monday 6 December 2021 at 11.30am
An illustrated lecture by Chloe Sayer,
specialist in the art & culture of Latin America
NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ
Complimentary tea/coffee from 11.00am

Mexico has a vast range of vibrant and colourful festivals. While some commemorate national events, the majority are religious in inspiration. These draw on the Christian legacy of Colonial rule. After the Spanish Conquest of 1521, priests used theatrical representation as a method of instruction. Lavish and extremely costly, Mexican festivals are often preceded by extensive preparations. These include seasonal markets; the preparation of elaborate foodstuffs; the creation of floral archways and pathways of dyed sawdust; music; fireworks, and the construction of a castillo (literally ‘castle’). Importantly, many fiestas still feature dances with richly embellished costumes and masks. Today the Christmas story is acted out in towns and villages. In some regions adults and children take the roles of shepherds and shepherdesses, hermits and devils. Many families display nativity scenes in their homes. The British Museum has a large collection of nativity scenes in different media: one nativity scene is even modelled in marzipan.

Chloë Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. She has lectured for galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico. Between 1992 and 2000 she was a visiting tutor at the University of the Arts in London (Central Saint Martins, Department of Cultural Studies). She has been a lecturer with NADFAS since 2004, and has been the NADFAS guestspeaker on cruises for Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic. She has also worked on a number of television documentaries about Mexico and Peru for the BBC and Channel 4.

Robert Adam in Scotland - the Castle & the Country House with Caroline Knight
Tuesday 9 November 2021
An Illustrated Online Lecture at 11.30am
Complimentary coffee/tea from 11am At Nairn Community and Arts Centre IV12 4BQ

Robert Adam, famous for his elegant neoclassical houses in England, worked in a more muscular style in Scotland.
Knowing and loving the robust fortified houses of his native land, he designed castle-style exteriors in some of his late works for Scottish clients.
Country houses such as Culzean Castle in Ayrshire or Mellerstain House in Berwickshire combine turrets, towers and battlements with very up-to-date neoclassical interiors.
As in London, he was also involved in town-planning schemes and public buildings in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, although these have survived less well.

Caroline Knight is an architectural historian who trained at the Courtauld Institute. She specialises in 16-18th century English and Scottish architecture.
She is a lecturer for the V&A, Art Fund and in the US.
Caroline has written a history of Kensington Palace. She has contributed to a book on the Cecil family and to a history of the Royal Academy.

Abstract Expressionism with Linda Smith
Tuesday 12 October 2021
Online Lecture at 11.30am

World War II caused huge upheavals in all parts of the world, and in all parts of society, including art.
Many avant-garde artists were forced to flee Europe and some very significant pioneers of modern ideas found themselves in the United States. The global centre of gravity for modern art soon shifted to New York.

This talk looks at the emergence of American Abstract Expressionism as the dominant style of the period, and the role it came to play in the Cold War.

Linda Smith specialises in British Art and Twentieth Century Art.
She is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain & Tate Modern, and has lectured to school and university students.

AN EXCEPTIONAL AND REMARKABLY ORIGINAL ARTIST
WHO SAID THINGS THAT COULD ONLY BE SAID IN PAINT

Tuesday 28 September at 11.30am
NAIRN Community & Arts Centre
King St, Nairn IV12 4BQ

Born in 1921 in Sussex, Joan Eardley showed artistic talent from a young age, and after post-war studies at Glasgow School of Art, made Scotland her home until her untimely death in 1963 aged just 42.
Joan’s work is known from her twin passions – the country and town. Country where she braved the elements to paint the wild forces of nature on the North Sea coast of Aberdeenshire, and town where she was drawn to the equally wild elements of the Glasgow slums. She left a legacy of completely individual artworks; a raw experience of nature combined with a painfully moving expressiveness. This is her story.

Online lecture at 4pm

Princess Ksenia’s father, King Nikola, was nicknamed “the father-in-law of Europe “ having successfully married off his daughters to the royal houses of Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia.

His eighth daughter, Ksenia, chose a different route, carving out a place for herself as secretary and valued advisor to her father, becoming the first woman in Montenegro to drive, and developing a particular talent for photography (though a contemporary also described her as a “courageous and skilled shot with a pistol “) The lecture shares the photographs she took during her years in what contemporary British traveller William le Queux described as “the little city in the sky “, the brand-new Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, where the royal family had their palace before they were exiled to France in 1916.

Despite her privileged life of garden parties and tennis, Ksenia’s photographic record also shows how she drove out to take beautiful photographs celebrating ordinary life in Montenegro among its schools, soldiers, fishermen, cooks, horses and villages.

This lively lecture draws on my research in the archives of Ksenia’s correspondence, and on collaboration with staff at the National Museum of Montenegro. It gives a face and a human narrative to the history and culture of a part of the Balkans which is just beginning to be visited by British travellers.

Elizabeth Gowing studied at Magdalene College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington.

Moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded “The Ideas Partnership”, a charity working on educational and cultural heritage projects.

Speaks fluent Albanian and has translated two books.

The author of four books about Kosovo:

“Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a bee-keeper in Kosovo”(2011) “Edith and I: on the trail of an Edwardian traveller in Kosovo”(2013) “The Rubbish-Picker’s wife, an unlikely friendship in Kosovo “(2015) “The Silver Thread: a journey through Balkan craftsmanship “(2017) A regular contributor to Radio 4 (Saturday Live, Excess Baggage, From our own Correspondent) and the BBC World Service.

Online lecture at 4pm

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://theartssociety-org.zoom.us/j/91412084072

Standing in the nave of Ely cathedral when I was 14, I stopped listening to the guide saying how long and how high and started wondering how on earth ordinary human beings created sky-scraping, dizzyingly high buildings on which even the top-most parts were delicately decorated. How, why and for whom were my questions. For God, for personal redemption  and to make a living are the answers to the last two of those, but the ‘how’ was harder to fathom.

In this lecture we meet the Master Masons who both designed the buildings and ran the site. They commanded everything whether it was sourcing the vast quantities of wood and stone, recruiting the workforce or knowing enough about their various trades to be able to create heaven on earth out the cacophony of thousands of chisels and hammers.

These men were charismatic leaders, but they were continually checked by their fellow Master Masons in the interests of making a building as strong as possible – we only see their successes, after all. They were real people who got into trouble with the law, who occasionally cheated on contracts, who liked to start a job but not to finish it. On the other hand, their creations remain to this day, some breathtakingly beautiful in their exquisite detail causing us, centuries later, to stand in a nave and wonder.

Imogen Corrigan was in the army for nearly 20 years and then turned to a life-long interest with the result that in 2004 she graduated from the University of Kent with a 1st class honours degree in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History and with an M.Phil from the University of Birmingham and has been studying ever since.

Imogen has been lecturing and running study tours on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval history for some years and uses art – usually church art – as the evidence in her research as much as possible. But  however lovely or bizarre the images might be, it is fascinating to try to get at the people who made them and to hear their voices speaking.  Sometimes, one may say, they speak to us directly and write things such as the Anglo-Saxon scribe who complained at the end of his manuscript that: “three fingers write, but my whole body labours.” Imogen covers 1,000 years of history and likes to take the major events and look at the individuals living through those times to try to understand them. For instance, when we see an image made around 1400, we could be seeing a reaction to the several catastrophes of the C14th, and might be looking at a cry for help, or someone reacting to the situation with sensitivity, superstition or perhaps with humour.

Imogen lectures for Martin Randall Travel, ACE Cultural Tours and other specialist travel companies leading tours which have included ‘A White Garment of Churches’ (French cathedrals), ‘Medieval Pilgrimage’, ‘Medieval Brittany’, ‘The Age of Bede’, ‘An Appointment with Angels’ (Norfolk Churches), ‘First-Millennium Northumbria’, ‘Welsh Marches’ and ‘An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England’. Imogen  lectures on board small ships for Noble Caledonia  as well as  for The Arts Society (formerly called NADFAS). She is a speaker for the U3A, Kent Federation of History, East Kent National Trust amongst many others.  Imogen is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the British Commission for Military History.

If you find any issues with trying to join the lecture please contact Penny Evennett on 07749 732020 who will do her best to assist you.

Thanks to all members of The Arts Society Highland who have already paid their subscription for this year.
Those who have not paid are invited to make a donation of £5 for watching the lectures..

This can be paid by Bank Transfer to:

A/c No. 00439779
Sort Code: 80-91-26
Using ref: FEB3 followed by your name

We are delighted to announce the following online lecture on Tuesday 10 November 2020 at 7pm open to our members with an invitation extended to others who would be interested in joining us.

A century ago a group of American musicians docked in London, bringing with them for the very first time one of the twentieth century’s most important musical genres: jazz, a fascinating blend of rigorous structure, free-wheeling creativity, close-knit ensemble work and improvisation. Drawing on his practical experience both as musicologist and gigging musician, Sandy is able to shed light on jazz from the inside. His talk touches on the disparate influences which lay behind the emergence of jazz, with musical illustrations ranging from the blues, ragtime and the very earliest jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the dawn of the Swing Era.

      Please click the link below to join the webinar:

      https://theartssociety-org.zoom.us/j/94091633079

For details of how to make a £5 donation to support this and future online lectures, we would welcome a payment by Bank Transfer to the following account:
A/C No. 00439779  Sort Code 80-91-26 using the reference DONATE followed by your NAME

Morris considered a beautiful home to be `the most important production of Art` and much of his working life was devoted to producing household goods which brought art and beauty into a range of homes.    He also expended considerable time and energy beautifying his own homes by creating a series of interiors which exemplified his ideas about art and design.

Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns.    This lecture looks at why the works of Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite artists have proved such rich sources.    Using visual images and videos, Tony shows the creative process and the adverts which are the (not always successful) end result.

Beatrix Potter was one of our best-loved children`s authors and illustrators.   She was also a respected naturalist, entrepreneur, astute business woman, farmer, breeder of prize-winning sheep and a conservationist who helped establish the National Trust.    This lecture explores her life, art and stories.

Cotton Pickers and Cosmonauts - April Lecture on Video
Those of you who attended Chris Alexander's fascinating lecture in February on the Silk Road, will be delighted to know that Chris has generously provided a link to one of his lectures on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4bYYLnMdH0
This is available for all our Members and non Members to enjoy:

COSMONAUTS AND COTTON-PICKERS –
SOVIET CENTRAL ASIAN MOSAICS AND THE USE OF PUBLIC ART AS PROPAGANDA

This lecture explores the birth of the Soviet mosaic from its roots in Islamic mosaics and Communist propagandist posters through to the question of preservation in post-Soviet Central Asia. We explore why Soviet thinking was so keen to bring art out of galleries and into public spaces, and how, in an era when Socialist Realism was the only permitted artistic expression, every public artwork came with a message, a value and an agenda. How did Soviet artists deal with the uncomfortable reality that Muslim Central Asia was a Russian colonial conquest? In what ways were gender, race, work, leisure and achievement important when it came to shaping Central Asians’ ideas of their own identity within the wider Soviet family, and what agency did Central Asians have in portraying themselves in art?

Although it has been told and retold in books and films, no story in the 20th century has caught the imagination more powerfully and poignantly than the tragic life and execution of Nicholas 11, the last of the Romanovs.    This lecture explores the factors which shaped his life and the influence exerted by his wife Alexandra.

Wool, silk and cotton have each played a crucial role in the fortunes of Central Asia.   The felts, carpets, embroideries, robes and veils of the Silk Road stratified wealth, displayed religious and political entrenchments, and changed the fortunes of this fascinating part of the world:  a meeting place between Mohammed and Marx.

From calling ancient armies to battle to signalling the audience to stand for the National Anthem, drums and percussion have been part of history beyond their musical contributions.    Nigel is a professional percussionist who will explore the development of percussion instruments over the last 100 years.   His lecture includes video footage from the orchestra pit at the Royal Opera House.

With the growth of the package holiday, travel was no longer the preserve of the wealthy.    The Bright Young Things of the 1920s sought new destinations such as the African Bush, new corners of the Riviera, ski slopes and the ocean liner.    Art Deco played a significant role to signal the exclusivity, luxury and modernity of the Glamour Holiday.

This lecture examines the life and career of Burne-Jones, his collaboration with William Morris and his creation of beautiful stained glass windows.  Alan argues that Burne-Jones should be recognised as the herald of the Aesthetic Movement and Symbolism, which dominated European Art at the end of the 19th century.

In 2012, for the TV series `Downton Abbey`,  Andrew was commissioned to make many jewels for the main characters.   This lecture explores the changing styles of jewels and fashion portrayed in the series.    It also looks at the collaboration between the great couturiers and jewellers from 1890-1929, and the clients who commissioned and wore the jewels.

An Early Netherlandish painter who created fantastic worlds peopled with devils, Bosch has been considered a visionary, a heretic and even an hallucinating madman.    He was acknowledged as a gifted artist by his contemporaries and avidly collected by Philip 11 of Spain.   This lecture explores Bosch`s art in it`s historical and cultural context.

This talk provides an outline of Roman activity in the Eastern Mediterranean, focussing on cities which have been destroyed, looted or are too dangerous to visit.    Images of fine architecture, sculpture and mosiacs from Iraq, Syria and Libya will illustrate the talk.

British photography enjoyed a golden age in the 1960s as young talented newcomers broke out of the conventional studio to revolutionise perceptions of fashion, portraiture and popular culture.    His talk looks at a range of superb images from photographers such as David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Lewis Morley, Tony Ray-Jones and Jane Brown.

Considered one of the most distinguished architects and talented designers, Dame Zaha Hadid received numerous awards and honours for her work.   Her talk examines her completed works around the world illustrated with breathtaking images.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera helped shape the cultural identity of 20th century Mexico making it a magnet for the rest of the world.    Her talk explores the work and influence of both artists, chronicling their turbulent marriage and Mexico’s history after the 1910 revolution.

A light hearted look at the amazing developments in British Sculpture over the last half century from Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth through the New Generation and New British Sculpture to Britart.

A talk which surveys the wide range of art forms including vases, drawings, sculptures, tapestries and “House of Essex” produced by the flamboyant character and Turner Prize winner, Grayson Perry.

Where do all the traditions of the festive season originate?  Who invented mince pies, cross-dressing, Christmas Crackers and Cards?  Who decked the halls with boughs of holly?  All will be revealed in this light hearted and informative talk.

A whistle-stop tour of the history of food as artistic medium, starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing to 3D dessert printing and beyond.

A beginner’s guide to the biggest art movement since pop art, this talk explores the key stages in street art’s growth, and examines the different elements and styles that comprise the scene with no rules.

Members and Guests welcome.     

How arguably, the greatest invention of all has shaped our modern world and our vocabulary.   This is another talk by Tim on the subject of letterpress printing.    Starting at 10.30, his talk will precede the Coffee Morning.

Tracing foreign artists from the Tudor period to the Renaissance and Baroque, this lecture explores the popularity and influence in London of painters such as Holbein, Gheeraerts, van Dyke and Rubens

Richard Box is a freelance artist and lecturer with considerable experience in art education.    In this lecture he argues that art is not an insignificant frill in the education system but of the utmost importance in creative, emotional and spiritual development.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster specialising in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries and classical music.   Klimt was a prominent figure in Viennese fin de siecle creating paintings whose sexual themes and bold use of colour and gold shocked his audience.    This lecture explores the changes in Klimt`s life, his rejection of public pomp and the impact on his style and works.

Malcolm Kenwood is a former specialist police detective investigating art and antique crime who was Recoveries Director for the Art Loss Register (international commercial database of stolen cultural property).   Revealing actual case studies he demonstrates how forgers dupe many at the highest level in the art market and inflict damage to collectors and the trade.

Fagin, Mr Micawber and Abel Magwitch are among the abiding characters of English literature.   This truly Dickensian experience will explore the life and places of the author with readings from some of his works.    Bertie Pearce is an actor and conjurer with a passion for Victorian Pastimes, Punch and Judy, Magic and Dickens.

Mark Hill is an antiques and 20th century design specialist, author and TV presenter.   He will give a persuasive introduction to buying antiques, and integrating them in today`s homes.    He will consider the state of the antiques market, the meaning of `value`, and what current and future collectors are buying.

Pianist, singer, scholar, lecturer and leader of cultural tours, Peter Medhurst will give live performances as part of this lecture.   As Venetian as the canvasses of Canaletto, Vivaldi`s music transports its listeners to the heart of 18th century Venice.

After a career in the army, Imogen Corrigan studied medieval history and now runs lecture/study tours conveying her fascination with this period and the people behind the images. This lecture examines the symbolism of Mary and the Annunciation, and is illustrated with images from 4th to 16th Century

A freelance lecturer in practical drawing, painting and printmaking and the history of art, Lynne Gibson will explore the hidden meanings in the everyday scenes of 17th century Dutch paintings displayed in merchants` homes.

An art and architectural historian, Matthew Williams has 25 years experience as curator of Cardiff Castle and works as a lecturer, broadcaster and writer.   He will describe some of the losses to our national architectural heritage as a result of neglect, arson, family rivalry, financial disaster and even insanity, arguing that each lost house is fascinating in its own way.

After studying at the Courtauld Institute Anna Buruma has worked as archivist at Liberty of London since 1995.   Liberty`s was perhaps the first lifestyle store in the early 20th century commissioning good designers and capturing the new art market with textiles, fashions, jewellery, silver and pewter ware.

Charles Hajdamach is one of the top authorities on glass in the country and has written extensivelty on this subject.    American glass artist Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is the superstar of the glass world.    His glass magic has transformed the studio glass movement and altered our visual perceptions of this extraordinary material forever.

Tricia Passes studied at the Courtauld Institute and now teaches at Bristol University.   She is a particular expert in late modernism to post modernism art and the art market.

Tobias Capwell is the founder member of the Royal Armouries jousting team and Curator of Arms & Armour at the Wallace Collection in London.   Armour was one of the great Renaissance art forms, a process that demanded not only fantastic skills but mastery of all the decorative techniques then available to the metal worker.

This lecture explores Sargent`s dazzling society portraits, and also his more intimate portrait studies and sketches.    The range of Sargent`s portraits is astonishing, including his representations of childhood and psychological insight and humorous observations.

Janucz Karczewski-Slowikowski is an antique dealer and specialises in English furniture history.    He will examine how 18th Century English and European designers and cabinetmakers, like Chippendale, Cobb, Vile & Kent, elevated furniture making into art, creating the Golden Age of Mahogany.

Evelyn Silber is Hon. Professional Research Fellow in the History of Art at the University of Glasgow and chair of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.    Focussing on Charles Rennie and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh`s varied and innovative work for Miss Cranston`s Glasgow tearooms, this lecture also explores the tearoom phenomenon in Glasgow.

Artist-drawn postcards were the most popular art-form from the Edwardian era to the outbreak of World War 11.   They entertained, inspired, instructed, motivated, persuaded and lifted up the spirits.   Discover the popular themes and styles by the masters of the medium such as Mabel Lucie Attwell, Donald McGill and Fred Spurgin;  and the reasons why their popularity waned with the British public.

David Phillips studied history at Oxford and his lecture examines the fascinating subject of art forgery and its identification.   Although modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged art much simpler, the market still favours the forger!

Susan Kay-Williams is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework based at Hampton Court Palace.    Her lecture introduces some of the most important sets of tapestries in Europe.    She explores the designs and craft of tapestry and why it has been the most expensive form of artistic expression until recent times.

Alan Read is a gallery guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery.   In the two centuries since they were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the meaning and significance of the Elgin Marbles has changed significantly.    This lecture covers the initial controversy over their purchase through to the current debate on the restitution of the Marbles back to Athens.

John Constable is much more than Britain`s favourite painter of natural landscapes: from early on he rebels against established conventions while nevertheless looking back to earlier masters. His great achievement is experimenting with new stylistic manners such as little white touches, his famous `Constable snow` - the freshest way to render land and skyscapes. Another innovation is putting small red touches somewhere in his pictures which bring them so energetically to life. In his later years Constable pours unequalled emotion into his paintings by means of vigorous brushwork.

Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given unique insights into the destructive and costly cycle of crime, prisons and re-offending. In this thought-provoking talk she offers a deeper understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders. And, with extraordinary slides of art projects and prisoner`s art, demonstrates how within the process of creating art of any discipline, there are vital opportunities for offenders to develop key life skills. A frequent response to this talk has been `I had no idea!` and indeed it casts light onto areas of our society where the Arts are not only visual, decorative, or commercial, but absolutely vital, hugely relevant and potentially life-changing. This talk is moving, informative and very original. Interspersed with personal accounts of humorous or slightly horrifying situations, Angela`s talks have kept audiences across the country engrossed.

Students from Culloden Academy will show their work before and after this lecture.

Dr Paul Bahn`s main research interest is prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art, as well as Easter Island. He led the team which searched for and discovered the first Ice Age cave art in Britain at Creswell Crags in 2003.

Linda Smith is a well-qualified art historian with a broad range of knowledge, with a special interest in British art and the art of the twentieth century. In addition to being an accredited NADFAS lecturer she is an experienced gallery guide, especially at Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, where she works as a Guide and Lecturer.

Dominic Riley is a bookbinder, teacher, writer, lecturer and film maker. He specialises in the restoration of antiquarian books and the creation of contemporary fine bindings.

In 1999 Janet Brennan and her husband bought Barholm Castle in Galloway, a 16th century tower house, and began the long process of restoring it from a ruined shell surrounded by thistles and hogweed to a comfortable home with a beautiful garden. Since completing the restoration in 2006 Janet has been researching and photographing the other restored castles of Scotland, and recording the narratives of those who brought them back to life Her lecture looks at the `renaissance` of Scottish castles that has taken place during the past sixty years and tells the story of the triumphs and pitfalls involved in rebuilding a castle.

Artists often talk about their art in terms of cooking and when we look at a beautiful painting we often do too! This lecture will be a feast for the eyes and the taste buds and will be a veritable inspiration for your cooking. It will feature the art anecdotes and recipes of artists who loved their food. Mrs Howard will discuss Toulouse Lautrec, famous in his day for his truly fabulous meals and infamous cookbook, Renoir who introduced Paris to the pleasures of Provencal peasant cooking, as well as Monet, Cezanne, Picasso and many others. She suggests you bring a pen as you may want to jot down recipes.

Never before was man confronted with an upheaval of the magnitude of the Great War. Never was he confronted with warfare of that nature, nor on such a scale of violence and devastation. The staggering artistic output produced during the War reflects on the overwhelming effect it had on mind, body and soul. It embraces all forms of art, created by ordinary soldiers in the trenches alongside commissioned artists at the service of their government, as well as the avant-garde. Thirza Vallois will explore their multi-faceted legacy in its variety of modes of expression - from soldiers` artefacts and wall carvings to graphic art, cartoons, photography, painting and sculpture. She will also try to determine the extent of the seismic impact of the Great War on the shaping of Modern Art.

Martin Lloyd takes us back three and a half centuries to demonstrate, with the aid of illustrations from his collection of historic passports, how passport design developed from the handwritten paper to the technically complex document that we use today. How art and artisanship have played an important and sometimes secret part in this longstanding desire to fox the forger. He will show you how the forgers have responded to the challenge presented by these secret safeguards and you will never look at your passport in the same light again!

The wealth and ambition of the Viking Age is visible in the powerful sculptures and intricate designs of gold and silver artefacts. Anonymous craftsmen portrayed the world of the Nordic gods, as well as their legends and beliefs. Their imaginations also led them into ever more fanciful abstract art, sometimes brutal in its effect, but often of breath-taking delicacy. Their designs inspired later generations, who interpreted Viking art in their own styles. Drawing on re-interpretations of Nordic mythology, Victorian artists portrayed triumphant Viking warriors wearing horned helmets, while Archibald Knox based his increasingly sought-after work for Liberty of London on the rich collection of Scandinavian crosses from the Isle of Man.

Prof Marie Conte-Helm is currently a Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, and a member of the White Rose East Asia Centre (Universities of Sheffield and Leeds) International Advisory Board, and the British Association for Japanese Studies. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2009 she was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister`s Commendation `for outstanding contribution to relations between Japan and the UK`.

Theodora Clarke is an art historian, lecturer and critic specialising in Russian art and European modernism. She lectures widely on 20th century avant-guarde painting and sculpture to audiences across the UK.