How the two great Queens of Crime brought the metropolis to life in the 1920s and 30s and how Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey found a home there. Both authors chronicled the rapidly-changing London of the 1920s and ‘30s, writing in the same genre but in radically different ways.

Richard Burnip took a BA Hons in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester, followed by an acting diploma at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. He combines acting, writing and lecturing. He has lectured in many venues including the National Army Museum and the Museum of London, as well as presenting a variety of virtual lectures online. Richard has contributed to, among others, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and the P G Wodehouse journal Wooster Sauce. A specialist in voice work, he has narrated numerous television documentaries and 180 audiobooks.

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM at 10.30am

Colour theory underpins the visual world. Today there is a sense of thinking there is one colour theory, but actually over history many people have contributed from Aristotle to Goethe, from Newton to Joseph Albers. This is a very colourful lecture which will explore some of the theories and the wonderful colour charts they produced giving a visual feast. The lecture explores colour in ways that will appeal to the artist, textile person and anyone with an interest in colour.

For 17 years from 2007 to 2024 Susan Kay-Williams was Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience across the world as well as for the V&A and across the UK. In 2022 she published An Unbroken Thread: the 150 year history of the Royal School of Needlework, a second edition of which was published in 2024 to include the RSN's work on the coronation. She is currently the President of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. and is now getting back to research into the history of colour in textiles

How do artists and designers reach fame and hold onto it? Is genius enough? In the 1950s Finn Juhl was one of the most celebrated architects and designers in the world. Only 30 years later he had fallen into total obscurity, his works selling for a pittance. But today he is recognised as one of the giants of Mid-Century Modern design - with one of his chairs achieving over £430,000 at auction. What was behind this extraordinary reversal in fortune, and what does it tell us about the vagaries of artistic success? 

You can find James Vaux' handout on Finn Juhl in our documents section, dated 14 April 2026 here: 

https://theartssocietygranta.org.uk/Admin/AdminDocuments.aspx

James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. He has presented extensively on diverse topics throughout his career to demanding audiences across the globe, including CEOs and government ministers. His talks now focus on understanding art through its historic, cultural and political context.  

James took a law degree at Oxford with First Class Honours and qualified as a solicitor before switching career. As a managing director of the international bank Rothschild, he advised governments and corporates worldwide. He set up and ran the bank’s Nordic operations, living and working in Scandinavia and immersing himself in the countries’ arts, culture and history. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Language, Culture and History (Scandinavian Studies). His dissertation was on Swedish design, and he specialised in landscapes, the Viking Age, politics and literature. 

He studied interior design and art history at the Inchbald School, Mid-Century Modern at Sotheby’s Institute and electronic music at Point Blank. He has also been a DJ, promoter, record label owner, hosted a local radio show for four years and ran a pop-up community cinema. He is currently chairman of the Oxford University Society of West Sussex.

He now lectures and provides study days focusing on Scandinavian arts and design, Danish landscape painting and mid-century furniture, Norse mythology, Icelandic culture, the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic painting and the role of modernism in the Cold War. 

Antoni Gaudí is well known and much loved. In this lecture, his work will be explored in detail. It will be shown how he engaged with nature in the most innovative and extraordinary ways. Inspired by honeycombs and spiders' webs, armadillo skins and mushrooms, trees and whales' bellies, he worked with extraordinary ceramicists, iron workers, tilers and decorative artists. We will look at his public and private buildings and his relationship with a wealthy and demanding patron. Private shy and retiring he was also humorous and witty in his extravagant style.

Jacqueline is Managing Director of Art and Culture Travel, running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region as well as curated tours to Madrid, Tangiers, Barcelona, Paris and Venice. Jacqueline is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy,  She has toured New Zealand and Australia for The Arts Society. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950. She is currently working on a Monograph on Goya (Prestel, Spring 2024)

Artists have always used jokes to make serious statements – about themselves, about the world, about the nature of art. This lecture looks at artists’ jokes through the ages, from medieval monks doodling graffiti in the margins of manuscripts to Banksy turning supermarket walls into social satire. Caravaggio put his own face on Goliath's severed head as an apology for a racy lifestyle, Michelangelo hid a self-portrait on the hide of St Bartholomew on the Sistine ceiling to express the agony of creation.

When Van Gogh attacked formal art education and Salvador Dali got at Picasso, they did it in paint. Trompe l'oeil, parody, visual puns, the moustache on the Mona Lisa - all in fun, all deadly serious: artists' jokes tell you a lot once you know.

Susie Harries is a writer, editor and lecturer, specialising in 20th century culture and the arts. She has published eight books on subjects including official war art, opera and the composer Elisabeth Lutyens. The most recent is the biography of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, published in August 2011. She has lectured to a range of audiences, from the Imperial War Museum and British Museum to the Twentieth Century Society, the RSA, the Cheltenham and Bridport Literary Festivals, and the Victorian Society.

A wealthy Venetian shopping in the Rialto area had access to goods from far and wide. Luxury goods were entering Venice both from the Islamic East and Northern Europe. This lecture vividly  evokes a day on the Rialto, its surrounding buildings and its merchants. We will examine the wares that were on offer and how Venetians displayed them after purchase.

Dr Antonia Gatward Cevizli is an independent art historian specialising in both Italian Renaissance art and Ottoman art. She gained her PhD from the University of Warwick. Her publications focus on cultural and diplomatic exchange between the Italian city-states and the Ottomans. Antonia has lectured for a number of institutions including Sabancı University, Istanbul; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; the National Gallery; the V&A Academy and The Courtauld summer school. Her interests are wide-ranging and she also worked across the collections of both Tate Modern and Tate Britain as a professional guide. She has lived in Siena, Venice and Istanbul.

The celebration of the period following Christmas can be traced back several millennia, and to at least two cultures – neither of them Christian. One of them is the southern Roman feast of Kalends on the 1st January, and the other, the northern Nordic festivals of Yuletide surrounding the celebrations of the Winter solstice.

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

One of the most celebrated artists of her time, French painter Rosa Bonheur had an extraordinary gift for painting animals that brought her international fame and recognition. Her works fetched exceptionally high prices on both sides of the Atlantic, and in 1865 she became the first woman to be awarded the légion d’honneur, France’s highest of merit. Defying convention, Bonheur obtained official police permission to wear men’s clothing, so that she could study animal anatomy in the male-only spaces of livestock sales.

Dr Lois Oliver is Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute. She has worked as a Curator at the V&A, the National Gallery, and the Royal Academy. Her recent exhibitions include ‘Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery and ‘Jock McFadyen: Tourist without a Guidebook’ for the Royal Academy. She has created audio and multimedia tours for many of the UK’s leading arts institutions and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV. Also a keen violinist, Lois plays regularly with Kensington Chamber Orchestra and the Endellion Festival Orchestra. Lois studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her PhD thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855.

When the new process of photography was formally introduced and demonstrated to a joint meeting of the Académie des Science and Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in January 1839, the history painter Delaroche is reported to have exclaimed “from today painting is dead!”. Far from sounding the death knell of painting, photography in fact gave rise to a fascinating dialogue between both art forms. This lecture charts and outlines the birth of photography in the early nineteenth century and how its invention transformed and influenced the use, purpose and aesthetic of painting.

Born in Paris in 1976, Aliki studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Courtauld Institute where she was awarded a distinction for her masters in 17th century painting. After working for National Gallery for 20 years, she now teaches for Christie’s Education and the Wallace Collection, and is an Associate Lecturer for the Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts London. Aliki is also a practicing artist who regularly exhibits her photographic work internationally.

Every year, thousands of people visit sites associated with their favourite writers: graves, birthplaces, writers’ house museums - even fictional settings. But what is it that makes us so interested in seeing where great literature
began? Does seeing a grave or a birthplace, or even a lock of hair, bring us closer to the writer or the work?
This fascinating lecture takes us on a journey through the history of literary tourism in the UK. Beginning in Stratford in the 18 th century with the cult of Shakespeare, we move north to Scotland and then end with the founding of museums dedicated to Wordsworth, the Brontes and Jane Austen.
Along the way, we learn about the people who’ve played their part in this history; including enthusiast collectors, custodians, literary pilgrims – even forgers!

Following a career in teaching, Annalie spent several years working on education programmes at museums and literary houses across the UK, including the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere; Wordsworth House in Cockermouth; Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire; and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. At Jane Austen’s House, Annalie won 2 Sandford Awards for Excellence in Heritage Education; she also worked with the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and Chawton House Library in promoting Austen’s work to young people.  Annalie’s lectures focus on aspects of Romantic and Victorian literature. She uses her knowledge and personal experience of literary houses - and their collections - to offer a unique perspective on writers and their works. 

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was a key player in early twentieth century avant garde art, design and literary/theatrical circles in Paris. As a widely travelled polymath, Dufy's charismatic personality, wit and curiosity about the world was infectious. His imagination and technical virtuosity - across a range of media including painting and lithography, posters, book illustration, theatrical set design, textiles and fashion, ceramics and large murals - cut across all conventional boundaries.

Mary Alexander trained as an art historian and graduated with a BA Hons in History & History of Art (University College London) and later an MA (with Distinction) in History of Art (University College London).

She moved to Manchester to take up the post of Assistant Curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of English Costume, a renowned collection of historic dress. Subsequently she lectured in art history at the University of Leeds, the Open University and Manchester University Extra Mural Department. From 1995 - 2008, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education in London.

Mary has also combined academic work with the world of design consultancy. In 1985 she joined Pentagram Design in London, a leading international design consultancy, and coordinated client presentations, publications, conferences and international special events, including the 1986 British Design event in Aspen Colorado. In 1988 she transferred to Pentagram’s New York office with the task of organising an international design conference held at Stanford University involving business, design and education leaders.

As an experienced international speaker, Mary lectures regularly for The Arts Society throughout the UK, Europe and Australia and New Zealand. She also contributes articles to magazines, newspapers and professional journals. She was President of The Arts Society Glaven Valley, Norfolk from 2016- 2021.

This lecture follows the story of the Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs from their disappearance in the Revolution and subsequent deep unfashionability to their current status as one of the world's great collectables.

Toby is an experienced lecturer and public speaker who has been accredited by The Arts Society since 2012. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press. Toby has written three narrative histories: Stradivarius – Five Violins, One Cello and a Genius; Faberge’s Eggs; and Faber & Faber – The Untold Story, as well as a novel, Close to the Edge. Of these, only the obvious one is published by the family firm.

The Maya lived in Central America between 1000 B.C. and 1528 at which time they were conquered by the Spaniards. The peak of their civilization was between 300 and 900 AD. During that time, they built enormous monuments, produced jade and ceramic items of great beauty and developed a calendar that was far more advanced than anything in Europe at the time.

Educated at Oxford (BA, MA) and London (MA, Ph.D) universities. PhD thesis on “The Preclassic Ceramics of Northern Belize”. Subsequent articles, mainly on Mayan ceramics. The Protoclassic in the Maya Lowlands published in 2000 by British Archaeological Reports. Recent publication on Early Maya Ceramics in "Pre-Mamom Pottery Variation and the Preclassic Origins of the Lowland Maya" ( Ed. Debra Walker University Press of Colorado 2023).

Explore the World's first dinosaur models hidden in a south London park. Created in 1850s, we will look into the history and science behind these Grade I listed architectural structures. These models represented the cutting edge of our knowledge of ancient dinosaurs and marine reptiles in the 19th century. Palaeontologists had only just coined the name Dinosaur, and with limited fossil bones, they began the journey to discover how these extinct animals from the deep past looked.

I am a professional scientist and researcher with the University of Cambridge and a prize-winning London Blue Badge Guide, a Green Badge Guide for the City of London and Oxford, and a City of Bath Mayor's Guide. As a palaeontologist, I am an expert on fossils and prehistoric life from the first animals to appear on our planet to the evolution of early humans. I have published research on the origin of marine animals 480 million years to the Jurassic World. After degrees in Geology & Palaeobiology, I gained my PhD from the University of London and went on to pursue an academic career working first as a research fellow in France, Germany and Japan and then as a Senior Lecturer in Malaysia and Western Australia. I have a passion for archaeology, history, architecture and the history of art. I give lectures that encompass these subjects looking at the interface between the arts and sciences.

Photo Credit: Ian Wright, 2.8.14. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

This lecture celebrates the 400th Anniversary of Charles I’s accession to the throne in 1625. Charles I’s obsession for collecting works of art began when as a 22-year-old prince he travelled to Spain and saw the magnificent collection of the Spanish king, Philip IV.  On becoming King in 1625 Charles purchased the fabulous collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua which included works by Titian, Raphael and Andrea Mantegna’s astonishing series of paintings “The Triumphs of Caesar”.

Barbara Askew is a Historian. She grew up in Eton with Windsor Castle as part of her daily view. She has been a London Blue Badge Guide since 1988 and is Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses. She is an acknowledged expert on Royalty and Windsor Castle. 

The foods we eat at Christmas have a long, curious and visually spectacular history. This lecture narrates and illustrates that history from Medieval boar’s head and brawn, by way of highly decorated seventeenth century mince pies to the almost forgotten Twelfth Night Cake. Medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings and prints from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and illustrations from cookery books provide us with images of some of the lost glories of the British Christmas feast.

Peter has a History of Art degree, an MA in London history, a PhD in the cultural history of an English Criminal, and qualifications in the teaching of adults. Until recently Principal Librarian at Guildhall Library, he has for 20 years lectured on a broad range of topics including the history of English books, portraiture, and London history. Peter has appeared on TV and radio as a consultant on the 18th century criminal Jack Sheppard,  on the history of English food, and on Shakespeare’s First Folio. His most recent publication, The Curious Cookbook, was published by the British Library. Peter is currently writing a book on Eating out in Georgian London.

This is a change to the originally published lecture

Few people nowadays give more than a second thought to their clocks: practical, sometimes beautiful, devices that form the background noise of our daily lives. But from their introduction in the thirteenth century onwards, clocks have held a variety of philosophical and social meanings. This talk explores the visual and literary uses of the clock, the varied meanings it could hold throughout the ages: as an ominous symbol of oncoming death, but also as a metaphor for the soul, for capitalism, and for the good use of time.

Dr Christina Faraday is a historian of art and ideas, specialising in Tudor and Stuart Britain and the wider 16th and 17th-century world. She is a Research Fellow in History of Art at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, a Trustee of the Walpole Society for British art history, and a BBC New Generation Thinker, appearing regularly on BBC Radio 3 and in other popular media. She is an experienced lecturer, and teaches for the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge, The Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, London, and for the Institute for Continuing Education, Cambridge, where she is Co-Director of the MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture. Her first book, Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England, was published in 2023 and her next book, The Story of Tudor Art, will be published in 2025.

Picture credit: Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer, 1597. Oil on copper, 21.6 x 14.6 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

2024 marks the bicentenary of our much loved national treasure - the National Gallery. Home to one of the greatest collections of European art, it is also a repository of headline grabbing stories surrounding acquisitions, controversial conservations, thefts, film appearances, acts of vandalism and scandals... Lydia Bauman, a guide and lecturer at the National Gallery for over 35 years, will tell those stories against the backdrop of some of the most glorious masterpieces in the collection.

Born in Poland and studied for her BA in Fine Art at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (John Christie Scholarship and the Hatton Award), and an MA in History of Art from Courtauld Institute of Art, London, (19th-20th century art - Distinction for thesis on Matisse's Illustrations to Poetry). She has since divided her time between painting and exhibiting as well as lecturing widely to adult audiences. She has taught at London's National Gallery for more than 35 years, and intermittently at Tate Gallery and National Portrait Gallery as well as collections such as Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Hermitage and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the latter as a guest speaker for travel companies. Since the pandemic began in March 2020 Lydia had devised and delivered a programme of upwards of 180 online lectures to her own group Art For The Uninitiated.

This fast moving lecture is my ‘calling card’. It charts opera from its classic 17th century beginnings to its evolution in the 18th (brocade, high voices, happy endings) and on through war and revolution to the 19th (nationalism, grand opera, and dead sopranos). As we hit the troubled 20th century the genre begins to spin out of control but, to everyone’s surprise, it’s landed in the 21st in good shape, with more festivals and opera houses than ever. On the way we discover how closely connected opera is with the politics and tastes of the people who pay for it.

About the lecturer: Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre: her principal employers are the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera. She writes programme articles, radio and play scripts, gives lectures on the operas and ballets in the rep. and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radios 3 and 4. She is also a cartoonist. 

This lecture will be preceded at 10.30am by the AGM

In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was commissioned to create a series of paintings for a dining room in Antwerp. The images, charting the course of a year, changed the way we view the world through art. Landscape had previously been a decorative backdrop to dramas both sacred and profane. But in Bruegel's hands the landscape and our interaction with it became the focus. Looking at paintings such as The Return of the Herd, Hunters in the Snow and The Gloomy Day, this lecture explores how Bruegel pioneered a whole new way of thinking about the environment and our individual places within a shifting cosmos.

A writer and broadcaster. Appears on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes. Lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent appearances include 'Klimt and The Kiss' in cinemas worldwide, and talks for the Hay and Cheltenham Literature Festivals, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum and the V&A. His first book, A Home for All Seasons, is out now.   

Image Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1919

Rock art has been produced in Australia since at least 40,000 years ago and probably even longer, but continues to be produced in some regions - and major new discoveries of rock art are still being made in remote areas. The talk presents an account of some of the major regional variations in both rock paintings and rock engravings, and presents a brief account of what we know of their many meanings, particularly in relation to Aboriginal creation myths and creator-ancestors. 

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. 

Throughout his career Patrick has performed different settings of the medieval hymn Stabat Mater in Holy Week, often singing Pergolesi’s famous duet with his friend Lucy Winkett.  He will explore a wide range of this music that reflects on Mary’s suffering at the foot of the Cross.  He will place these pieces in the wider context of music for Holy Week and investigate the extensive range of art and poetry that has been inspired by the events of this dramatic moment in history.  

Featuring music by Palestrina, Lassus, Josquin, Vivaldi and Scarlatti.

About the lecturer: Patrick Craig is a Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral. For twenty years he combined this with an international career singing over a thousand concerts with the world-renowned early music consort The Tallis Scholars. He also sings with the award-winning group The Cardinall’s Musick. He founded and conducts this country’s leading all-female professional choir, Aurora Nova. He has conducted concerts for the BBC Proms, the Brighton, Lichfield and Aldeburgh Festivals, and with the City of London Sinfonia.

As a Cambridge history graduate with a lifelong interest in the arts, he has gone on to lead choral workshops for amateur singers across the world, where he places music in its historical and cultural context. He regularly lectures for the St Paul’s Adult Education programme and for John Hall’s Venice Courses, which have allowed him to incorporate his interests in theology, art and poetry. 

In 2020, when his singing and conducting work disappeared overnight as a result of the Covid pandemic, Patrick poured all his experience into online presentations which have raised vital funds for the Help Musicians Charity.

One might think that it is easy to spot the difference between contemporary and historical art, but what about what they have in common. Can old masters help us understand art works such as the infamous 'pile of bricks' or 'unmade bed'? This lecture explores whether the old masters can help us understand modern and contemporary works, and questions whether artists' intentions and strategies have really changed across the centuries.

About the lecturer: Born in Paris in 1976, Aliki studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Courtauld Institute where she was awarded a distinction for her masters in 17th century painting. After working for National Gallery for 20 years, she now teaches for Christie’s Education and the Wallace Collection, and is an Associate Lecturer for the Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts London. Aliki is also a practicing artist who regularly exhibits her photographic work internationally.

Houses made from wool that warm in the depths of winter, carpets that tell stories, woven bands that appease ancestors, embroideries that ward off evil, and kilims that store kitchenware, with everything ready to be packed and carried on yak, or camel at a moment’s notice; the little-known nomadic textile cultures of the Kyrgyz, Turkoman and Karakalpak are explored in this lecture, along with the rise and fall of nomadism and where nomadism fits within the modern world. Chris also shares from his own experience of working with nomadic yak herders in the High Pamirs for three years.

About the lecturer: Chris Aslan was born in Turkey (hence the name Aslan) and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge, and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent several years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came a couple more years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Since then, Chris has studied and rowed at Oxford, and is now based in Cambridge, but with plans to move to North Cyprus. When he’s not lecturing for The Arts Society, he writes. His latest book, Unravelling the Silk Road, is published by Icon Books. Chris also takes tours to Central Asia, returning whenever he can, having left a large chunk of his heart out there. 

2023 marks the 600th anniversary of the death of the fabled Dick Whittington (c1354-1423).

For many of us, Dick is simply a fictional character from a Ladybird book or the Christmas pantomime. In fact, Dick was very real, indeed one of the major movers and shakers of medieval London. 

In this lecture we separate the man from the myth as we follow in his footsteps through the streets that were not exactly ‘paved with gold…’. Apprenticed to a master mercer, Whittington went on to become one of the wealthiest and most successful textile merchants in the City, bankrolled no fewer than three medieval kings and as a result held the office of Lord Mayor of London no fewer than four times. And what of that famous feline companion; his cat? Well, the church that he built might just provide the answer but the lecture reveals all….

About the lecturer: Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature. Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

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 audiences: 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.

About the lecturer: 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 Laura Knight, Hilda Carline, John Sell Cotman and John Constable, at venues including Tate, The Lowry, the Wordsworth Trust and Dulwich Picture Gallery. He contributes regularly to the educational programmes at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and lectures at museums and galleries in Britain, Europe and the USA.

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

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

Image copyright: Christopher Garibaldi

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was the domination of shipping routes to and from America that was the golden prize.

Here is the fascinating story of how each company positioned itself in the size of liners, the luxurious environments with posters, art, ephemera and the offerings across the Atlantic Ocean either side of the Great War. We look at the breathtaking interiors as portrayed in the Shipbuilder special supplements of the day and the Sales Brochures. What were the reasons for the tragedy of both the Lusitania and Titanic? What art was lost on Titanic? Was it just plain sailing on the Atlantic?

Howard Smith’s lectures have a reputation for stunning graphics - this lecture is no exception and also has vintage film of RMS Olympic with the building and launch as well as a glimpse of the First Class dining experience - these were floating luxury hotels for the seriously rich and below decks a cramped one-way ticket for the 12 million immigrants to the States.

...the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh...

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International advertising agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury.

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM

In 402 AD Ravenna became the capital of the Western Roman Empire and continued to prosper under Ostrogoth and then Byzantine rule. This past eminence left Ravenna with a legacy of richly decorated early Christian buildings, which has earned it UNESCO World Heritage site status. This lecture will explore some of these buildings and their magnificent mosaics: The domed church of San Vitale home of the celebrated portrait panels of the emperor Justinian I and his wife, the notorious empress Theodora; the basilica church of S. Apollinare Nuovo decorated with spectacular processions of male and female saints, and with surprising evidence of its past life as the palace chapel of Ostrogoth King Theodoric; the basilica church of S. Apollinare in Classe featuring a magical starry sky apse mosaic; and the cruciform oratory of imperial princess Galla Placidia, with its inspiring mosaics against a heavenly blue background.

Dr Helen Rufus-Ward is an art historian with a BA (1st), Masters with distinction, and doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Sussex. She has published on Late Antique and Byzantine ivory carvings, plaster casting of art works and 19th century collecting. As well as holding a Higher Education Academy teaching qualification, Helen is a member of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, the Society of Jewellery Historians, and is the Chairman of Eastbourne Arts Circle that has raised significant sums of money for the Towner Art Gallery Eastbourne.

This is a change to the originally published programme due to the late cancellation of the lecturer. 

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

In the context of our World War centenaries, anniversaries and the current debate about statues and monuments, the subject of this talk is hugely relevant. In this country, relatively little is known about Germany’s complex post-WW2 process of ‘coming to terms with’ the atrocities of its recent past and the counter memorial movement that started in the eighties and continues to this day.

Germany’s very specific situation rendered all traditional concepts of monuments and memorials irrelevant and inappropriate. Instead of commemorating their own losses, German artists created art forms that responded to questions of apology and atonement: How does a nation of former persecutors mourn its victims? How do you remember what you would rather forget?

The idea behind counter memorials is to keep the memories and lessons of the past alive in the individual psyches of the people. The results are extraordinary, brave and inspiring.

With her Anglo-German roots, artistic background and years of research, Angela is in an ideal position to give insights into Germany’s fascinating and on-going efforts to find artistic forms to remember and apologise for one of history’s darkest periods.

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England. Her time ‘behind bars’ and later as Arts Coordinator of the London-based Koestler Arts, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation. Though novel, her ideas were effective and in 2016 she was invited by the Ministry of Justice to support the case for the arts to be included in new, progressive programmes of rehabilitation and education. Brexit unfortunately reversed the direction of prison policy but art's role is still vital. 

In the past decade Angela’s Anglo-German roots led her to research Germany’s largely unknown post-WW2 process of remembrance and the extraordinary culture of 'counter memorials' and site-specific artworks that emerged to express national shame and apology. With the current debates on statues and monuments, the ways Germany has tried to deal with its dark past is more relevant and inspiring than ever.   

Angela has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour) and her paintings have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her book - In My Grandfather’s Shadow - expanding on the above subjects was published by Penguin Transworld in July 2022.

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 was arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. The name of this boy-king conjures up wonderful imagery and mysterious tales of the pharaohs. In this lecture I shall explore this unusual tomb and its iconic treasures. I shall examine the design and decoration of the most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings. I shall discuss Carter’s discovery of the tomb, and explore what happened to the incredible wealth of funerary goods found inside. I shall survey these fabulous treasures, from Tutankhamun’s golden shrines to his ornate board games. 

Lucia is an Egyptologist who works in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but mostly lectures. Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology. Has taught Egyptology at several UK universities. Works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Leads tours to Egypt. Former Director of Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL. Chairs the Friends of the Petrie Museum. 

This talk is about the White House’s most celebrated twentieth century residents. Others had been, perhaps, more intellectual, such as Eleonora Roosevelt, certainly others utterly perfidious, just to name Nixon for one, but no other couple who inhabited the White House were ever so glamorous, sophisticated and celebrated. Of course they will never be forgotten given the tragic end to the Kennedy presidency, but this has tended to overshadow, somewhat, the astounding aesthetic and artistic changes made during their relatively brief tenure. Apart from the wonderful film tour of the residence made by Mrs Kennedy and still shown to visitors today, the Rose Garden was a fine creation by Jackie and her friend, the renowned garden designer Bunny Mellon. So too, the interiors were restored seriously, based on historical research and items belonging to the house throughout its history were purchased and returned, even in many cases gifted back by patriotic individuals. Take a trip down memory lane and visit Camelot in this richly illustrated talk.

Andrew Hopkins was previously Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from 1998 to 2002 and, since 2004, Associate Professor at the University of L'Aquila. Part of his PhD (Courtauld Institute 1995) on Venetian architecture was awarded the Essay Medal of 1996 by the Society of Architectural Historians (GB). He was a Fellow at Harvard University's Villa I Tatti in Florence in 2003-2004, and in 2009 was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Amongst his many publications are, with Arnold Witte, Alois Riegl, The Origins of Baroque Art in Rome (2010), and Baldassare Longhena and the Venetian Baroque (2012). 

This lecture will be followed by our Christmas Party. This will follow a similar format to last year, and the cost is £30 per person.

You are welcome to bring a guest. To reserve your ticket, please email Fina Mason.

The story of the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Virgin Mary as told in St Luke’s gospel, has inspired some of the most beautiful images in Western Art. These include Simone Martini’s altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, now in the Uffizi Gallery, and Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the monastery of San Marco in Florence. The earliest depiction of the Annunciation is thought to date back to the 2nd century AD. Since then, the narrative has been reimagined by numerous artists including Van Eyck, Botticelli, Dürer and Rossetti. This lecture will take you on a journey through a range of different depictions of the Annunciation and explore the ways in which artists have captured this pivotal moment of the Christian story. A perfect subject for the Christmas season.

Sarah Burles studied History of Art at Cambridge University before doing a master’s degree at University College London. She went on to have a career in museum and gallery education, establishing new services in three different museums before working at the Fitzwilliam Museum for many years.  

Sarah is the founder of Cambridge Art Tours, which runs tours and courses in and around East Anglia. She is also a Tour Director for a travel company and has led tours to Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and America. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Sarah moved her work online, offering art history courses to audiences all over the world. 

Image: Pietro Cavallini (1259- c. 1330), The Annunciation, c 1296-1300, Mosaic, Apse, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome

Norman Rockwell’s folksy images of middle America were dismissed for decades by art critics as over-sentimental and banal.  But his reputation has soared in recent years as a new generation comes to appreciate his humanity and inventiveness and he is revered by film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for his brilliant storytelling. At their best, his paintings reconcile midwestern values with progressive ideals and artistic traditionalism with optimism about the modern world.  This lecture traces the roots of Rockwell’s art through and his immediate predecessor and idol J.C. Leyendecker, back to the 19th century work of Winslow Homer and Howard Pyle.

Rupert Dickens is an art historian with a special interest in Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century painting. He works at the Wallace Collection as a guide conducting public and private tours and lecturing on aspects of the collection. Rupert is also a tour director for a Cambridge-based company accompanying groups on art-themed tours to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria and Italy. He has lectured to large audiences on subjects as diverse as the game of chess in art and Madame de Pompadour’s artistic patronage in 18th century France. He studied art history at Birkbeck College before undertaking a Masters in Dutch Golden Age Studies at University College London. Before that Rupert had a 26-year career as a BBC journalist ending as an editor in radio news. 

This lecture seeks to provide a balanced insight into the life and achievements of one of the most important women in Chinese Imperial history.

From relative obscurity as a low-ranking consort we explore the events that led to her confirmation as Dowager Empress Cixi in 1861 and her strategy to preserve, then revitalise, imperial rule after a series of humiliating military defeats by Western Colonial Powers plus several brutal ethnic uprisings.

We will trace the distinct cycles of Cixi’s power, as Emperors came and went, whilst the Dowager Empress moved periodically from a position of influence to full authority and then into times of enforced retirement.

Looking beyond Cixi’s desire to force China into the modern world we will gain an insight into her life within her beloved Summer Palace with a focus on her passion for painting, embroidery, fashion design and the extensive gardens. A location where Cixi forged some extraordinarily close relationships with leading western women. 

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

This lecture will take place in the Recital Room, in the Music Centre.

Pease follow the signs. Coffee in the Buttery as usual. 

The piano music of Chopin enjoys widespread popularity. The stories behind the music and the man are less well known. This programme seeks to paint a picture of Chopin, his life and times. We provide a chronicle of Chopin’s life, including the turbulent relationship with the writer George Sand and his little known friendship with his Scottish pupil, Jane Stirling, using excerpts from his letters and his often witty quotes about music. The music heard includes the little known childhood polonaises, many popular pieces and also the dramatic third ballade.

Books of Hours are the most famous late medieval illuminated manuscripts. They are private prayer books for domestic use at home, and they often include enchanting illustrations and decorated borders, sometimes with scenes of daily life in the Middle Ages. The lecture looks at what a Book of Hours comprises and how they were used and who commissioned them. It shows how we can date and localise surviving manuscripts. It discusses how and where Books of Hours were actually made, and it follows through the various stages of writing, painting and illuminating a medieval manuscript.

Christopher de Hamel, FSA, is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He has doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge. He was a director of Sotheby’s for 25 years, responsible for illuminated manuscripts, and then librarian of the Parker Library in Cambridge for 17 years. His very many books on medieval manuscripts include the best-selling Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, which won the Wolfson History Prize. He is widely known as a lecturer across six continents.

Image: Hours of Catherine of Cleves, c. 1440

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert expressed their love for each other through art. Every birthday and Christmas they exchanged gifts of paintings, sculpture and jewellery, and they commissioned artists to record their lives together at Balmoral and Osborne House. They were keen amateur artists, sitting side-by-side to draw and to try their hand at etching. And they took pleasure in arranging their collection of portrait miniatures, drawings and prints in a special room the prince designed at Windsor Castle.

We will look not only at glamorous paintings by Landseer and Winterhalter, but also at the lesser-known watercolours the couple took pleasure in arranging in their treasured ‘souvenir albums’. This lecture tells the story of these royal patrons and collectors who were every bit as passionate about art as they were about each other.

Dr Susan Owens is an art historian, writer and curator. She studied English literature at Oxford University and European art at the Courtauld Institute, then wrote a doctoral thesis on Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations to Oscar Wilde’s play Salome at University College London. She was a curator at the Royal Collection before becoming Curator of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Susan has curated many displays and exhibitions and written or co-authored books on natural history illustrations, watercolours, drawings and self-portraits. She is a regular contributor to publications including the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review.

Image: Yale Center for British Art: 'To the Queen's Private Apartments', 1843. 

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

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

IMAGE: FRANK HURLEY/SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE/GETTY IMAGES

The City of London is home to no fewer than forty Livery Company Halls, almost as many as existed immediately prior to the Great Fire of London. Some of the Halls succumbed to the fire, others to the Blitz, and several to the property developer, but all that remain contain a wealth of treasures in art, sculpture, stained glass, silverware and furniture. Many are of national significance, including Royal portraits such as that of HM The Queen during her Golden Jubilee year, commissioned by the Drapers’ Company of which HM is a member. Others are more quirky, such as the meat cleaver used to chop up the first New Zealand lamb imported to Britain, and eaten by Queen Victoria. Join us for a tour of some of the eclectic treasures hidden away in the City of London’s Livery Halls.

Paul Jagger is a Court Assistant of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and author of The City of London
Freeman’s Guide - the definitive concise guide to the City of London’s customs, ceremonies, officers, institutions,
landmarks and traditions. He has a particular interest in the treasures and heraldry of the City’s Livery Companies.
In April 2016 Paul received the City’s prestigious Root and Branch Award from the Lord Mayor of London for his work in promoting awareness and understanding of the City of London and its Livery Companies, and in particular their beneficial impact on wider society.
Paul is a Trustee of the Heraldry Society, a member of Cambridge University Heraldic & Genealogical Society, the
White Lion Society (supporting HM College of Arms), and a life member of London Historians. He formerly
served with 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment (EOD) - one of the City of London’s privileged regiments.

Image: Millennium Dish presented to the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists by Past Master Peter Cropper in 2000. Copyright is owned by the lecturer.

We very much regret that this lecture is cancelled due to the the ill-health of the lecturer

Everyone has heard of Tutankhamun and his celebrated tomb, found almost intact in 1922. He was a minor king of so little consequence he was cut out of official king lists. He came at the end of a dynasty of kings who had ruled Egypt for over two centuries since c. 1550 BC. Their rule saw an explosion in the evolution of bombastic monumental art designed to promote the king as an all-powerful demi-god, the bastion between the Egyptian people and the forces of chaos. Yet, each devoted as much effort to stealing the statues and monuments of his predecessor in the bid to create the ultimate image of the Bronze Age absolutist ruler and triumphant conqueror. The elite followed in their footsteps, and they all trampled willingly on the broken backs of the ordinary people and slaves captured in wars. One of the last rulers of the Dynasty was the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten who presided over a religious and cultural revolution only to be erased from Egyptian history and his monuments destroyed. Within a few decades the Dynasty had come to an end, leaving its tombs, temples, and colossal statues to be subsumed by later generations and then finally the sand. The lecture is an over-view of this extraordinary era in world history, placing the art in an historical context.

Guy de la Bédoyère is a historian and archaeologist well-known for his frequent appearances on Channel 4’s Time Team and his numerous books on Roman history and other topics for Batsford, Thames and Hudson, Yale University Press and others. Guy has degrees from the universities of Durham and London and worked for many years in the BBC. He also taught History and Classical Civilization at a girls’ grammar school for nine years. Guy has lectured to societies in Britain, the Gloucester History Festival, and also in Western Australia. He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

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

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

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

Image: Fezziwig's Ball. John Leech, 1843

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

Tim spent his earlier career as a detective in the Metropolitan Police, working on murder, kidnap and anti-corruption investigations as well as in covert criminal intelligence. He retired as a Detective Superintendent and as the first police adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Upon retirement, Tim decided on a complete change of direction, becoming a City of London tour guide and then a guide within the Palace of Westminster, specialising in tours of Big Ben. Big Ben is now closed for a lengthy refit but Tim still guides people on tours around parliament and continues to talk on many aspects of history and stories relating to parliament.

Image: Lecturer's own photograph.

This lecture will be given via Zoom! A link will be sent a couple of days in advance.

Not until the mid-19th century did Russian painting move from Western inspired, academic themes towards Russia itself, its history and landscape for sure, but now for the first time all those who inhabited it. Daring young artists such as  “the Wanderers” started to put Russia, and its problems, under the microscope. Both liberated serfs and former masters were ill-equipped to deal with a rapidly changing country, one that was already hurtling headlong towards revolution, and yet whose unique beauty none of them could ignore. This lecture reveals the fascinating insight into this moving story afforded by the paintings of more than a dozen superb artists, yet whose work is still relatively unknown in the West.

Brian was a senior modern languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, and has also enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1980s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 he has been regularly appointed to a number of prestigious ocean and river cruise lines, either as resident artist, guest lecturer on art history, or as destination speaker for more than forty countries.

A light-hearted look at seaside entertainment over the years, from Bathing Machines to End of the Pier Shows and “What the Butler Saw” machines. The British seaside began with the fashion for sea bathing in the 18th century, but expanded enormously in the 19th century with the arrival of the railways and the era of mass travel. We look at the specialist buildings which proliferated at the seaside in the 19th century, such as piers, towers and aquaria, that provided entertainment for the masses – not to mention that famous breed, the seaside landlady!

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

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

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

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM

Wine has been part of our global society for over 7,000 years, and the story tells of its origin and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and through Europe. There is rich evidence of the role wine has played in these societies and how it became an important component of faith, well-being and festivity. From the kwevris of Georgia in 5,000 B.C., the symposia in ancient Greece, the thermopolia of Pompeii, the hospices of Europe, to the dining tables of fine society wine has been ever present. Drawings, paintings, engravings, buildings, pottery and wine labels themselves all contribute to the story.

I have been a wine retailer, importer and distributor for 30 years. In that time, I have publicly presented tastings and talks on wine to trade and private audiences. These have taken the form of wine ‘tastings’ or charity events where a particular subject is presented and wines tasted. I have developed a talk, A Brief Story of Wine, a great subject, and full of rich evidence, going back 7,000 years, in the form of paintings, decorated drinking vessels, buildings and literature that contribute to the story.

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

An overview of the British Studio Pottery movement, exploring handmade pottery in Britain from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the present day, including the work of the Martin Brothers, Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Alison Britton and Grayson Perry.

Helen Ritchie is Curator of Modern Applied Arts at The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. Recent exhibitions include Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery, Flux: Parian Unpacked and Designers and Jewellery 1850-1940: Jewellery and Metalwork from The Fitzwilliam Museum, for which she wrote the accompanying catalogue. Helen is also the author of A Passionate Collector: Mrs Hull Grundy and Jewellery from the Harrogate Collection (2014). She studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the University of the Arts London, and has worked at numerous institutions including the Royal Collection Trust, Christie's, Harrogate Museums and the British Museum. She is a Trustee of the Society of Jewellery Historians.

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

Covers surprising attempts to create some graphic unity, even in the 1860s and 70s, expansion of the Underground and the need to create some cohesion between the different operating companies, Leslie Green's architecture and the Arts & Crafts movement, Frank Pick, Edward Johnston's typeface, Charles Holden's architecture and the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco movement, the New Works Programme, post war austerity/design, Victoria Line, loss of Johnston & rescue by Kono, Jubilee Line Extension/architecture, creation of TfL, recent schemes and future works including the Elizabeth Line/Northern Line extension to Battersea etc..

One hundred years 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, and his musical illustrations range 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.

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

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

An in-depth look at the unique jewellery created by flamboyant artist Charles Ricketts at the turn of the twentieth century. His intricate and richly-enamelled neo-Renaissance pieces were designed as gifts for his many friends including May Morris and the fascinating couple known as Michael Field.

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

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

2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael. The monumental figures and clarity of form of his art epitomises the grandeur of the High Renaissance while his masterful drawings, in a variety of media, reflect his creative processes. His early death at the age of 37 belies the scope of his work and future influence. In this lecture, we will study his art and architecture, from his early work in Urbino and Florence to its full maturity in Rome.

Graduated from the University of East Anglia with a first class honours degree in the History of Art, specialising in the Italian and Northern Renaissance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a part-time lecturer for the University of East Anglia and for the Department of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge. Has run study days and certificate courses as well as residential weekend courses. Also lectures to the Art Fund and individual clubs and societies. She is particularly keen to set the art and architecture of the period in the context of the society for which it was produced.

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

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

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

Gavin is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent talks include the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum, the V&A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York, as well as for history of art societies and The Art Fund. 

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

Angels, familiar and fantastic, playing major and minor roles, can be seen in centuries of paintings, engravings, illustrations and sculptures. Archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation or Archangel Michael fighting the good fight. Angelic references also abound in Islamic and Jewish traditions, the latter beautifully evoked in Chagall’s Bible Message. Time to contrast the beauty and light of cherubim and seraphim with the dark, fiery abyss of Satan and contemplate the Angel of the North.

James Gillray may well be the greatest political cartoonist who ever lived. He did not invent the art of caricature, but in his hands it became a highly sophisticated and inventive aspect of the visual culture of his day. The breathtaking audacity and sheer rudeness of his work still has the power to make people laugh out loud, and has ensured that his images retain a freshness and vivacity which present day satirists still revere. Through his work, we can get a glimpse of the riotous society in which he lived, and see how the larger-than-life public figures and political personalities of the times were viewed by this master of disrespect. 

Linda Smith has two first-class degrees in Art History. She has a broad knowledge of art historical subjects, but specialises in British Art and twentieth century art. She is an experienced lecturer and guide, especially at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and has lectured to a wide variety of audiences in different venues, including school and university students, and independent arts societies in the UK and overseas.

Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given Angela 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. With extraordinary slides of art projects and prisoner’s art, she demonstrates how within the process of creating art of any discipline, there are vital opportunities for offenders to confront their crimes and develop the key life skills so essential in leading a positive and productive life. 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 not only are visual, decorative or commercial, but absolutely vital, hugely relevant and potentially life-changing.

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England. Her time ‘behind bars’ and later as Arts Coordinator of the London-based Koestler Trust, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation. Her ideas were novel but effective and in 2016 she was invited to the Ministry of Justice to present the case for the arts to be included in their new rehabilitation and education policies. Since Brexit, the direction of prison policy has reversed. In the past decade Angela’s Anglo-German roots led her to research Germany’s largely unknown post-WWII process of remembrance. So completely different to the British one, the arts once again play a huge and vital role, this time in expressing the apology that underlies the country’s unique culture of counter memorials.  Angela has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour) and her paintings are widely exhibited both nationally and internationally. 

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

In the second half of the nineteenth century an extraordinary group of purpose-built studio-houses were built on the edge of London’s Holland Park. At their centre was the house built by Frederic Leighton from the mid-1860s. With its vast studio and exotic Arab Hall it provided an inspiration to other artists who commissioned houses of their own. Combining domestic accommodation with studio space and space in which to entertain, these houses provide fascinating insights into the wealth, status and taste of successful artists of the period. The lecture explores the houses of the Holland Park Circle to determine why these artists invested so much in the creation of their homes and the uses they then put them to.

Women in Victorian England were categorised into two distinctive types 'The Angel in the House' and the unfortunate 'Fallen Woman'

The popular Victorian image of the ideal women or wife came to be known as  "the Angel in the House"; she was expected to be devoted and submissive to her husband. This ideal primarily expressed the values of the middle classes and Queen Victoria's devotion to her husband Prince Albert encouraged this ideal to spread throughout nineteenth century society.

In contrast a “Fallen” woman was a term applied to a variety of woman. A woman who had sex outside of marriage, a woman of a lower socio-economic class, a woman who had been raped or seduced or a woman with a shady reputation, or a prostitute.

Through artists’ portrayal of these two sorts of women we gain a unique insight into Victorian sexuality, morality and their double standards.

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and lectures at various art societies and institutions. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Having gained an MA in film and television practice, Jennifer had a long-standing career spanning twenty years as a television producer/director making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She was also a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck, University of London and a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

This is an AS Cambridge lecture to which we have been invited. It will be via Zoom. The link will be sent out a few days in advance.

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

This lecture will begin at 2pm

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

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

This lecture will begin at 10.30am

The Camden Town Group was an innovative circle of painters united by the desire to paint works of a modern character. They combined the techniques and visions of European Post-Impressionism with the changing modernity of Edwardian London. This lecture introduces the core members of the group, led by Walter Richard Sickert, and tells the story of their brief but significant association. We will examine the key themes addressed within their work: urban life, popular entertainment and the lower social classes, as well as Sickert’s infamous series of paintings inspired by the notorious Camden Town murder. 

Nicola is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

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

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

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM at 10.30am.

The Camden Town Group was an innovative circle of painters united by the desire to paint works of a modern character. They combined the techniques and visions of European Post-Impressionism with the changing modernity of Edwardian London. This lecture introduces the core members of the group, led by Walter Richard Sickert, and tells the story of their brief but significant association. We will examine the key themes addressed within their work: urban life, popular entertainment and the lower social classes, as well as Sickert’s infamous series of paintings inspired by the notorious Camden Town murder. 

Nicola is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

In this lecture Bertie recounts the extraordinary tale of how a small bronze statue, which had sat in his Grandfather’s garden for 40 years, was discovered as a masterpiece and ended up in the Getty Museum, California. Adriaen De Vries (c.1556-1626) was a Northern Mannerist sculptor born in the Netherlands. A technical virtuoso, he created spectacular bronzes for the most discerning patrons of his time, including the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. He excelled in refined modelling and bronze casting and in the manipulation of patina, and became the most famous European sculptor of his generation.

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

Sericulture was established throughout much of continental Europe by the 14th century. With the British élite joining the fashion for expensive silk clothing, in the 17th century James I set about establishing sericulture in England. Importing thousands of mulberry trees from France, by 1611 the first harvest of raw silk was produced. But the venture did not thrive. This lecture will tell the story of this failed industry, of Shakespeare’s famous mulberry and of the later — and successful — weaving industry, facilitated by the skilled Huguenot refugees seeking sanctuary in Britain.

Dr Susan Whitfield is a writer, scholar, lecturer and traveler of the Silk Roads. During 25 years curating the collections of manuscripts from Dunhuang and other Silk Road sites at the British Library, she also helped found and then developed the International Dunhuang Project (IDP), now a thriving international collaboration working on the art and artefacts of the eastern Silk Road. She has lectured and written widely on the Silk Road. Her latest book, Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road, was published in March 2018. She has also curated several major exhibitions and organized field trips to archaeological sites in the Taklamakan desert.

Notre-Dame de Calais is the only example of an English Perpendicular church in Europe, it has been restored by the Association pour la Mise en Valeur du Patrimoine Architectural du Calaisis. Echoing the pageantry of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520) I designed gardens in Tudor Renaissance humanist style – emblematic knots, cloister and orchard. They encapsulate Mary’s paradise and the court of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon and the Princess Mary, their faith and fashion. The gardens also draw on the symbolism within the church to create a circular walk without that is spiritual, intellectual and physical as well as looking and smelling good.

Caroline has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe, Japan and on cruises to the Baltic, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Indian Ocean. Caroline lectures for the University of Cambridge ICE (Course Director for International Summer Programme), the Royal Horticultural Society, museums, and specialist travel companies. She is a consultant designer specializing in evoking historic, artistic and symbolic references, and is the author of 11 books. She has produced a number of theatrical events, and has been a presenter and contributor on television and BBC Radio 4. She is the 2017 recipient of the Herb Society of America ‘Elizabeth Crisp Rea Award’.

This lecture will be followed by our Christmas Party. Tickets will be on sale in the autumn.

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

Gillian gained a BA (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History at Exeter University before branching out into archaeology. She is an award winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives, in person, in the field, on line and in the media (most recently on Radio 4). Publications include Visiting the Past: A guide to finding and understanding Britain's Archaeology and Roman Britain. Forthcoming Latin Yesterday, Today and For Ever, and A Mediterranean Tour: Not just a Load of Old Stones. Gillian teaches adult education courses in Latin, archaeology and ancient history. She has lectured for the British Museum, York University and the Ashmolean, and has also been guest lecturer on cruises, at literary festivals, and for diverse societies including Classical Associations, the U3A and the National Trust. 

The lute holds a special place in the history of art: painters of the Italian Renaissance depicted golden-haired angels plucking its delicate strings, evoking celestial harmony; in the sixteenth century, during the rise of humanism, the lute was a becoming pastime of educated courtiers, as depicted by the likes of Holbein and Titian; throughout the seventeenth century, the instrument continued to play a key role in emphasising the intimate, debauched and transient pleasures of interior scenes by Jan Steen and portraits by Frans Hals. This lecture looks at the lute, and other musical instruments, as devices to express various aspects of the human character throughout the ages.

Adam Busiakiewicz is an Art Historian, lutenist and lecturer. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in History at UCL in 2010 he held the position of Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle. He left the castle in 2013 after winning a full AHRC studentship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Fine and Decorative Art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Art History at Warwick University.

This lecture will be followed by a Reception for our new members.

London not only has a world-class reputation for art in its many galleries, but also a remarkable range of art outside in the streets. We tour around the capital discovering some of the most interesting works from across the centuries. They range from huge and expensive commissions to unofficial graffiti, which is sometimes audacious and often playful, but they all have a place in our society. We look at why art is there, how it has developed over the years and discover many hidden gems.

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours around each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and organisations. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

In the early evening of the 16th October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses the great conflagration destroyed Parliament’s glorious old buildings and their contents. No-one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it.

Based on the acclaimed book of the same name, this talk takes the audience through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire through contemporary depictions of the disaster by Turner, William Heath and others.

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book 'The Day Parliament Burned Down' won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘microhistory at its absolute best’. Its acclaimed sequel, 'Mr Barry’s War', about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as ‘a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful’. Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2017, has appeared at the Cheltenham, Hay and Henley literary festivals and on BBC radio and TV.

Poet, playwright and theatre entrepreneur William Shakespeare became one of the wealthiest celebrities of the Elizabethan age. He also wrote some of the most brilliant plays the world has ever known.

Giles, an independent theatre director and producer, examines how theatre moved into the modern era.

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

Kings Henry VII and VIII together with the short-lived Edward VI dominated the remarkable 16th century Tudor dynasty. Nevertheless it is their queens who provide us with most interest. The ten Tudor queens, some as consorts and some as queens regnant are arguably the real influence behind a tumultuous period that altered the face of England irrevocably.

Portrayed in art and architecture, in historical narrative and in cultural and religious change this lecture covers part of a fascinating period of our history to bring two of these ten queens to life.

A graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Nicholas trained for the Anglican ministry at Ripon Hall, Oxford. Inspired by a period working on the staff of Coventry Cathedral he has gained a wide experience of international matters. He was formerly Bishop-elect for the Diocese of Lake Malawi in Central Africa (2005-2009) and undertook his doctorate on Lay Anglican Ecclesiology with the University of Wales, Lampeter. Nicholas has a particular interest in the period of the English Reformation and the associated cultural, architectural and social changes it has produced. He lectures regularly and currently works as a parish priest in West London.

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

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

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

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

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

The story of one of the greatest theatrical collaborations: Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night in the theatre could be, and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all.

Sandy examines the build up to the premiere in Paris of ‘The Rite of Spring”, takes a look at the original costumes, plays excerpts from this fascinatingly inventive score, and explores what divided opinions of that first night audience quite so dramatically. No, nothing could top the riot at the Rite in 1913……..

After studying music 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 music presenters on BBC Radio 3. He enjoys a varied career that embraces broadcasting, conducting, playing double bass and communicating his passion for music. His radio series for Ireland’s RTÉ Lyric FM, Great Moments in Classical Music, recently won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards. He regularly leads cultural lecture holidays, and is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music.

Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns. Tony describes some of the processes by which some of these advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source. From the Renaissance through to the present day fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony.

In an entertaining and informative lecture Tony uses a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end results.

Tony was educated at  Highgate School, starting his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J.Walter Thompson. Graduating through the training system there to become an account director he worked in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985, primarily to handle Guinness accounts in Africa and the Caribbean, where he produced many commercials and ads for them over a period of 15 years. He remains active in the industry, but now concentrates on more philanthropic projects - producing a film in the rural villages of Nigeria for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and recently completing a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  

He has been a member of The Arts Society for many years. His lecturing experience includes presenting to client groups, sales conferences, students of creative advertising in the UK and overseas, on creative and marketing strategies.

Forests are frozen in amber, and reindeer give us antler – both organic gem materials.  Others include horn, tortoiseshell, ivory, pearl, shell and coral. All have been used through the ages as personal adornment and for decorating our surroundings.
The talk will be an introduction to organics (with a Christmas slant), their past uses, and their origins. Mention will also be made of current trade bans. The presentation in no way condones the use of materials from protected species today.

MAGGIE CAMPBELL PEDERSEN, FGA, ABIPP is the first female President of the 110 year-old Gemmological Association of Great Britain (also known as Gem-A), which is an educational charity with teaching centres in twenty-three countries.  She is also an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photography. 

Maggie’s speciality is organic gem materials – that is, those of plant or animal origin. She regards ivory as her main area of expertise.

Her work includes identifications, teaching, writing, and constant research into all the various aspects of the subject.  She has given lectures and seminars world-wide, Master Classes in museums, and has appeared on television. She has also worked in various countries as a research assistant in animal conservation, studying elephants, turtles, and other animals.

Maggie is the author of ‘Gem and Ornamental Materials of Organic Origin’, and ‘Ivory’.  Her next book, ‘Tortoiseshell’, is due to be published in 2020.

Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31st 2016 at the age of 65. Architectural historians of the future will surely recognise her as one of the most important architects of the early 21st century. She was born in Iraq and her reputation was global, but she made Britain her home.This lecture tells the story of her career from the visionary projects of the 1980’s, through the years of frustration  when her designs were considered unbuildable, to the prolific crop of successful projects built all over the world during the last decade of her life.

Prof of Architectural Theory. Former editor Architects Journal and contributor to magazines worldwide. Books: Thinking About Architecture, Key Houses of the Twentieth Century,The Prefab Home, High Tech Architecture and monographs on work of Foster, Hopkins, Grimshaw.

Britain’s oldest fine arts institution celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2018. The Royal Academy has an illustrious history; we contemplate its past in its various locations before settling in its current home in Burlington House: we explore a selection of its ground-breaking  exhibitions and consider its impact on the arts scene in Britain and overseas. There is a behind-the-scenes look at the Summer Exhibition which has been held annually, without interruption, since 1769.  By charting its history and the roll call of Royal Academicians over its 250 years through archival photographs and considering its place in Britain’s rich artistic heritage we can mark this significant anniversary and consider its future.

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

Your Country Needs You.  Skegness Is So Bracing.  Careless Talk Costs Lives.  Alexander Korda Presents.  Shell, Pears Bubbles Soap, the Guinness toucan, the Bisto Kids - the British poster has informed, entertained and instructed ever since Toulouse-Lautrec and the arrival of the colour poster showed what was possible.
We will savour this colourful, vibrant and often overlooked art form which reveals just how we lived, worked and played over the last century and more.

Andrew Davies is Extra-Mural Tutor for London, Essex and The Open University. He is the author of 9 books, including The East End Nobody Knows, as well as a frequent contributor to radio and television.

Because space in the Wolfson Theatre at Churchill is limited,
lectures are only open to members and their guests.

The Quiet Period in Churchill has now started.

Please be as quiet as possible when going to and from the Wolfson Theatre.

Statesman, diplomat, art patron and connoisseur, the Prince was the director of the Hermitage. Buying his first books, drawings and paintings in the Netherlands, he soon amassed one of the most comprehensive collections of paintings as well as of snuff boxes, walking sticks, art from the Far East, tapestries, carved ivories, and gems. Richer than royalty, discover the man and his legacy.

Marie-Anne Mancio trained as an artist before gaining a PhD in Art and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex. She has lectured in art history for the City Lit, Tate Modern, the Course, Art in London, London Art Salon, Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Nth Degree Club and many private art societies; she also runs art history study tours abroad. 

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM at 10.30am.

The Great Northern Coalfield was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Not only was this the most productive coalfield, but many other heavy industries were spawned. Shipbuilding, marine and heavy engineering, bridge building and railway locomotive manufacture, iron and steel making, armaments and hydraulics, all became prominent forces in the North East’s industrial thrust - none, however, inspired a corpus of art as did the mines.

The phenomenon of mining art, emanating from the least visually attractive of those heavy industries, deserves special consideration. Why did the miners paint the mines? What attracted others to the colliery as inspiration for their art?

Coalmining was considered an honourable profession in Europe where the miner was seen as a noble toiler against Mother Earth, whereas in England the arcane world of the collier, with its terrible conditions, was hidden from the gaze of the well-shod. This is refelected in the art. The nineteenth century miner appears as a heroic figure in European art - we find no such imagery from England.

Formal commissioned images of mines exist from the 18th century, but experiential mining art didn’t appear in England until the 1920s. Many of the most celebrated contemporary artists come from their collier roots; full-time pitmen who still found time & energy to record their experiences in paint.

The mines were not the sole preserve of the pitman painter. Professional artists, many with no experience at all, found the power of the miners’ world irresistible and have produces their own corpus of work. More recently, the glow of nostalgia for a way of life consigned to history has inspired many former miners to revisit their past employment to find subject matter for retrospective bodies of work - retaining the memory of mining for future generations.

Robert McManners is a practising artist and regularly holds exhibitions of his work. He has delivered art lectures to, amongst others, the Friends of the Bowes Museum, the Art Fund, U3A, Bishop Auckland Civic Society and Nunnington Hall, York, as well as to the Mining and Mechanics Institute, Newcastle. 

Members are reminded that due to the refurbishment of the Wolfson Hall, this lecture will take place in the Dining Hall.

Portraits provide a fascinating insight into the changing styles of dress over the centuries. This lecture follows the different fashions as revealed in paintings, looking at dress and accessories, and some of the more ridiculous styles of fashion from the 16th century to the 19th century. It focuses particularly on fashion in England, but looks also at some contrasting Continental fashions. In times when Sumptuary Laws prescribed what you could wear, according to your status in society, fashion was much less of a personal choice and more a reflection of social standing. The colour of your clothing or a plunging neckline could mark you out as belonging to a particular class. Whilst the ordinary working folk might have longed for a wardrobe full of reds, purples and golds (or, indeed, for a wardrobe at all!), their ‘superiors’ may well have envied them their ability to move freely in their clothes, without the restrictions of ruffs, stuffed sleeves, enormous petticoats, or headdresses the size of small animals, sometimes also containing small animals! Have fun exploring the wildest extremes of fashion through the ages.

Rosalind Whyte holds a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She lectures at Tate and Dulwich Picture Gallery, as well as to independent art societies and on cruises.

Members are reminded that due to the refurbishment of the Wolfson Hall, this lecture will take place in the Dining Hall.

On the basis of sensational new evidence from archaeological fieldwork, Neil will contrast the legend of Lawrence of Arabia with the true story of what happened in the famous desert war of 1916 to 1918. Is the legend a myth? Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan? Or does the legend reflect reality? Was he, in fact, a brilliant military commander and a sincere advocate of the Arab national cause?

The historical context for the legend was the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918. The numerous well-preserved archaeological remains of the conflict, mainly along the line of the former Hijaz Railway, have been the subject of a ten-year programme of field research led by Neil and his close colleague Professor Nick Saunders. Neil will summarise the key findings. Some representative archaeological objects will be on display.

He will also offer a new narrative and analysis of the war based on the archaeological evidence, leading to a new assessment both of Lawrence’s role and achievements, and of the relationship between art and reality in the creation of ‘celebrity’.

Neil Faulkner is a graduate of King's College Cambridge and the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. He works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, is the editor of Military History Monthly, and is Director of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project and the  Great Arab Revolt Project. 

Whilst having a chair with a hinged seat under which a chamber pot resides was at times most “commodus”, the commode this lecture refers to served a more decorative purpose and was to be found in the grandest of 18th century rooms. As Sheraton put it, commodes were “…never intended for use but for ornament”  - not an attribute of that other item we call a commode! Tracing their origin in late 17th century France and development through to the end of the 18th century there and in England provides an insight into the fashions and life-styles of this period. 

Janusz writes as follows: I have retired from a 35 year-long career in Higher education. Whilst studying for my first degree, I worked part time in an antiques shop, which I came to take over as proprietor. Such was my interest in collecting that I became known as the dealer who bought but never sold. My lectures seek to explain furniture in terms of the skills and materials employed in its design and construction and also its socio-economic significance. I have lectured on antique furniture since 1975 and have been in the NADFAS Directory since 1982. I have lectured to over 300 NADFAS societies including those in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, The Hague and Spain.

Armour was one of the great Renaissance art-forms, but today it is usually overlooked by art historians, scholars and enthusiasts. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries almost all of the richest, most powerful noblemen in Europe could be counted as dedicated patrons of the armourer’s art. This was an intensely personal art, both expressive and decorative. Its essence was the creation of a living sculpture, a process which demanded not only fantastic skill in the sculpting of iron and steel, but also mastery of all decorative techniques available to the Renaissance metalworker. The achievements of virtuoso master armourers like Kolman Helmschmid, Konrad Seusenhofer, Filippo Negroli, Pompeo della Cesa and Jacob Halder were not however just about splendour and richness. They also embodied more complex messages, about status and the social order, divine power, and attitudes and identities.

Toby Capwell is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an internationally acknowledged expert on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. After fifteen years of research, Toby's groundbreaking book Armour of the English Knight: 1400-1450 was published in September 2015; the second part, dealing with the second half of the 15th century, will be released in 2017.

This lecture will be followed by our Christmas party - details to follow

Have you ever wondered where the blue in medieval illuminated manuscripts came from, or how chemists of the nineteenth century invented synthetic blues?

The Ancient Britons tattooed their bodies in a blue dye, and, two thousand years later in a Parisian art gallery Yves Kline in a public performance painted his nude models blue and dragged them across his canvasses.

Why does the Virgin Mary wear blue and what is significant about the blue used by Gainsborough in his portrait “The Blue Boy”? These are some of the questions that I will be addressing.

The story of blue takes us from the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan to the studios of Titian, Vermeer, Hokusai, Picasso and Matisse, to name but a few. The spirituality of Blue led Kandinsky and Franz Marc to name their art movement “The Blue Rider” in 1911.

Alexandra Drysdale is an art historian and a professional artist specialising in painting, sculpture and performance. Her lectures combine art historical knowledge with personal expertise in aesthetics and artistic techniques. Art from all periods, including examples of her own work, is examined from an artist's point of view. This entails a perceptive analysis of a painting's structure, its meaning, and its relationship to the history of art. She puts a particular emphasis on studying the symbolic language of the imagination. BA (Hons) Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art and an MFA from Cambridge School of Art.

This lecture will be preceded by an EGM at 10.30am.

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.

Novelist, broadcaster and critic.  Sarah Dunant 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 (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen  novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured around the world at festivals and conferences. Her last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance.

This lecture will be followed by a Reception for our new members.