A virtual tour of the London Underground, showing the vast range of artworks that decorate the platform and concourse walls.  Ever since the 1960's London Underground has been commissioning leading and aspiring artists to celebrate the character, history and personalities to reflect life and times in the area it serves.

Mike Grundy gives lectures and training courses throughout his business career.
He lectures to the U3A and other community organisations throughout south-east England

The Maya lived in Central America between 100BCE and 1528AD when they were conquered by the Spanish. At the peak of their civilisation they built enormous monuments, produced jade and ceramic items of great beauty.  They had an advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy and developed a hieroglyphic script.

Duncan Pring was educated at Oxford and London.  He has published articles on Mayan ceramics.  He is currently involved with other North American archeoligists on a project in Belize.

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

This lecture, "The End of Shadows: Light and the Painter", delves into the mastery of light as a vital tool for artists and explores how light has been used symbolically in art, particularly in religious art, where light and dark serve as symbols of spiritual vision and enlightenment. Symbolic, illuminating, awe inspiring – light is a vital tool of the artist. The brooding moods of Rembrandt, the dappled pastures of Constable, the reflections of Impressionism, the symbolism of haloes and divine radiance - all would be impossible without the emotional and physical effects of light. From the gold of medieval altarpieces to photography, its rich and subtle effects and materials can be explored as a single lecture or a study day.  

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast until 2009.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Higher Education Academy and her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

This lecture explores the fascinating story of how dyes were discovered, made and used, focusing on some of the social implications of colour at different times in history,  The lecture takes us from pre-historic man to the middle of the 19th century and geographically from Europe to the Middle-East, India, Turkey, North America, Mexico and Peru.  It is a story of exploration and invention.
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Susan has recently retired as the Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience and has been invited to lecture in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Taiwan as well as for the V&A and across the UK. 

When Jane Austen declared that she wrote ‘only for fame’, she was, of course, being ironic: she published anonymously; there is no record on her gravestone that she was a writer; and her books fell out of print shortly after her death.  But now, Jane Austen is one of our best loved authors, with legions of adoring fans throughout the world.  Her novels have inspired countless stage and screen adaptations, and even provided solace to soldiers in the trenches.  She is the face of the £10 banknote, and she adorns tea towels and fridge magnets everywhere.  Jane Austen is now very famous indeed.    But how did it all happen?  This lecture will chart Jane Austen’s rise to fame; it will explore the making of a literary celebrity and examine Austen’s legacy, 250 years after her birth. 

Annalie Tallent; 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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

Timothy Walker: 

Timothy teaches Biology at Somerville College, Oxford, and most of his teaching concerns plant biology because this is the interesting part of the subject.

In the first year the topics he covers include plant life histories including pollination, biological classification, the use of plants in medicine, the emergence of agriculture, and conservation.  In the second year he teaches about plant adaptations (particularly those found in Mediterranean-type regions), ecology, and ethnobotany.  In the final year he runs an option on species conservation and I teach on the Tenerife Field Trip.

Prior to coming Somerville he worked at the Oxford Botanical Gardens and Harcourt Arboretum for the best part of 34 years, the last 26 as Horti Praefectus (i.e. director).  His particular interests are plant conservation and the genus Euphorbia which is a fascinating group of 2000 species found all over the world.

This unique lecture presents the Top 20 most popular paintings and other artworks in Britain today. In putting this talk together, the results of eight polls carried out from 2005 to 2020 have been aggregated and analysed. The polls began with Radio 4’s poll of its listeners from 2005, and include the Samsung/Daily Mirror poll of 2017 when buyers of Samsung products and readers of the tabloid were asked for their favourite artworks. There will be a brief description of some of the paintings that did not make it into the Top 20; followed by a ‘Pick-of-the-Pops’ style countdown of the Top 20. Be prepared to hear about some old favourites, but also be ready to welcome some new ones.

Ray Warburton has had a life-long love of art. However, in his twenties, he studied social sciences at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. These studies led to a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. But all that changed in 2011, when he became a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Then from 2014 to 2017, he studied art history at the Open University, and then at the University of Buckingham, from where he gained an MA in the History of Art.

What did ignorant 10 year-old boys like the young Botticelli or the young Rubens learn during their apprenticeships to become the artists we know today? This lecture looks at the hard work that went into making a painting, and the training needed to become a painter. I will use the evidence in paintings themselves to understand daily life in the studio, - the darkness and the cold of winter, the precarious scaffoldings needed to paint any oversize picture, or the studies and preparatory sketches needed to train a good artist.   And what was it like for any young woman wanting to become an artist?

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

What was the public reaction to jazz when it began to appear in Britain in the aftermath of the First World War? What did early jazz sound like and how did British musicians learn to play in the style? How did British artists and designers react to the new rhythms and colours of the music? Following on from The Arts Society/Two Temple Place Rhythm and Reaction exhibition which I curated in 2018, this lecture explores how jazz arrived in Britain and the impact that it had on musicians, artists and the wider public. The lecture is illustrated with examples of visual art, including works not shown in the exhibition, and recorded music examples.

Professor Catherine Tackley  is a musicologist specialising in jazz. She was Head of the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool, UK from 2016-2022 and is now working on a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship project on British Dance Bands. She has written two books – The Evolution of Jazz in Britain: c.1880-1935 and Benny Goodman’s Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert - and co-edited Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and Performance. In 2018, Catherine curated Rhythm and Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain for The Arts Society, an acclaimed exhibition in London based on her research. In recognition of this and her work with many other organisations,

Caravaggio’s paintings inspired many artists during his lifetime and would go on to influence many more, from Orazio Gentileschi to Peter Paul Rubens, Gerard van Honthorst and Rembrandt. Each absorbed a different aspect of his work. His style spread across Europe and gave rise to the international movement known as ‘Caravaggism’. Yet for many, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is famed as much for his art as for his criminal record. Was it the violence of his times or his own violent spirit that inspired the dramatic lighting and intense naturalism of his work? This lecture follows the dramatic incidents of the artist’s life and looks at why and how his influence spread so far.

Julia Musgrave gained her first degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to become a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and IT project manager. In 2008 she decided that life was too short for just one career and decided to become an art historian. She now has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She gained her PhD at the University of York for her research into the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group and the social networks of the British art world in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1939. She teaches Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit) and is Co-Director of The London Art Salon.

This lecture introduces some of Japan’s most famous gardens and provides a context for understanding the principles of Japanese garden design as it has evolved through the ages. The Japanese love of nature and the changing seasons has manifested itself in the subject matter of paintings and in the intimate and grand-scale gardens surrounding aristocratic palaces and Buddhist temples as well as Zen-inspired dry landscape gardens with their strikingly symbolic content. Nature and artifice are intriguingly combined in such examples to capture the very essence of the landscape. Historical developments and religious and philosophical influences have informed the Japanese approach to the visual arts. This lecture will also draw upon wider examples to illustrate the distinctive qualities that the Japanese have brought to garden design, an approach that has been successfully adapted to modern domestic settings and to Japanese gardens abroad. 

Professor Marie Conte-Helm is a long-established Arts Society Lecturer with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic posts at various UK universities. She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts. She is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise speaker and a Resident Historian with Viking Ocean Cruises, lecturing on many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. 

Stonehenge is the most celebrated and sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the British Isles. This lecture explains why Stonehenge must be regarded as architectural in its layout and construction, embodying  techniques that for centuries convinced antiquarians that it could not have been built by ‘primitive’ ancient Britons but must be a product of ‘sophisticated’ Romans. We then explore how, over the last two centuries, this iconic structure has inspired painters, potters and poets. Blake, Turner, Constable and Moore are amongst those who have all been drawn to this magnificent ruin, resulting in a diverse catalogue of images and impressions.

Julian Richards studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist, in commercial archaeology, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992 and has an honorary doctorate. He has long been involved in teaching and outreach projects, lecturing widely in continuing education, to schools (with a focus on special needs pupils) and societies. His career in broadcasting involved researching and presenting Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings for BBC2, and Mapping the Town for Radio 4. He has written a number of English Heritage publications on Stonehenge, including the previous and current guide books to the monument and landscape. 

This lecture examines the life and times of Oscar Wilde from his Irish roots to his days as a student at Oxford and his meteoric rise to the heights of celebrity. We travel with him to the United States and examine his starring role within the artistic & theatrical worlds of late 19th century London. We visit his home in bohemian Chelsea and some of his favourite West End haunts. Finally, we learn how ‘tired of being in the heights, he plunged into the depths’ and became famous for being INfamous...

Simon Whitehouse 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.

There are four elements to this lecture. The first is a look at the emergence of the North in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Room at the Top, A Taste of Honey, This Sporting Life etc.. Second would be a look at Swinging Britain – Julie Christie in Darling, Michael Caine in Alfie, the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night and the James Bond movies. Third would be a look at the last days of Empire as seen in Tony Richardson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, Zulu and, comically, Carry On Up the Khyber. Finally the drastic change in the depiction of sex from Dirk Bogarde in Victim (1961) to Alan Bates and Oliver Reed famously wrestling nude in Women in Love (1969).

Colin Shindler has been lecturing on American and British social and cultural history for over 20 years. He was awarded his PhD at Cambridge University and subsequently lectured on film for their History Faculty between 1998 and 2019 exploring its relationship to modern British and American social and cultural history. He also teaches a variety of adult education courses at Madingley and Higham Hall in Cumbria and has lectured on cruises. Between 1975 and 1999 he pursued a wide-ranging career as a writer and producer in television, radio and film. He won a BAFTA award for his production of A Little Princess. His production of Young Charlie Chaplin was nominated for a US Prime Time Emmy. He wrote the screenplay for the feature film Buster and was the producer of various television dramas such as Lovejoy and Wish Me Luck. He has written three novels as well as numerous television scripts and radio plays but regards his greatest cultural contribution as choosing the title music for the police series Juliet Bravo.

Few artists are as rooted in a place as Stanley Spencer and his beloved home village of Cookham. This Thames-side village was not only his birthplace, his home for most of his life, and even his nickname, but it dominated his imagination and was the inspiration and location for many of his greatest paintings. This lecture will look at Cookham’s place in Spencer’s art, and how it was central to his unique vision of English domestic and spiritual life.

Dr Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. She is also an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque: Power and Illusion (2020) and the forthcoming Women Artists in Britain. Amy has degrees in History and Literature & Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Tamara de Lempicka's story is one of self-invention. From her early beginnings as an aristocratic fugitive from the Russian Revolution, to later taking Paris by storm as a successful artist living on her own terms, she has become an icon of the Roaring Twenties. Her unique style reflects the shifting morals of the age, representative of the wealthy and decadent European elite, and boldly celebrating female sexuality. Few artists sum up an epoch quite as completely - a true art deco diva.

Alexandra Epps

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

Celebrating the Centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh

2024 - 2028 marks one hundred years since Winnie-the-Pooh was introduced to children of all ages in the four iconic books created by A A Milne and E H Shepard. First seen in When We Were Very Young (1924), Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood had their own adventures in Winnie-The-Pooh (1926), with Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), giving us more wonderful poems and stories which include the introduction of both Tigger and Poohsticks. This lecture tells the story of how these much loved books were created by the genius of Milne and Shepard’s groundbreaking collaboration and why they remain embedded in our national identity. A wonderful opportunity to see behind the scenes of these marvels of childhood for a hundred years. This lecture will only be available between 2024 - 2028.

James Campbell has an MA in the History of Art, and a particular interest in the work of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist E H Shepard (1879-1976). He has been lecturing for over twenty years, and has lectured across the UK and overseas to community groups, Literary Festivals, Art societies, military museums, and to private clubs and societies. His books Shepard’s War and The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh were published in 2015 and 2017 respectively. He is currently working on a joint biography of A A Milne and E H Shepard commissioned for the centenary of the Winnie-the-Pooh books.  

The wide reproduction of paintings by Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh has led to a sense of familiarity and, potentially, a diminished desire to look closely at the real art itself. Yet when van Gogh visited Seurat’s studio, he remarked upon the ‘fresh revelation of colour’ in Seurat’s work. This presentation aims to rejuvenate our interest in looking slowly with a curious eye to discover how works by both artists were both extraordinary and pioneering.

Despite their short artistic careers, both Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat made extraordinary contributions to the development of modern art, each through their own distinctive and experimental approaches to picture making. Discussing the terms Post-Impressionism, Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, we consider the suitability of such labels when faced with unique work and we compare paintings by both artists with those made by their Impressionist contemporaries to discover potential connections.

Jo Rhymer

Since completing an MA at University College London (UCL) in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation (1997), Jo has been employed in various roles at the National Gallery including Adult Learning Officer and the Head of Adult Learning Programmes. In a freelance capacity, she has worked in prestigious learning departments in London galleries and museums including Tate, the Hayward Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery as well as leading group excursions in the UK and abroad.

She is currently a Panel Tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge and teaches for the Wallace Collection and the V&A as well as a range of private institutions. 

Her areas of specialism include 19th century and early 20th century French art, and her interests include the visual skills involved in sustained looking at paintings. 

This lecture’s narrative revolves around my experience of having masterminded a British Government backed project to restore the magnificent George Gilbert Scott designed university buildings in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The chapters of this building’s story- its design (in England), construction, history and, of course, its restoration – provide useful startpoints from which to consider the broader historical, cultural and architectural context. For instance the lecture looks into Bombay’s economic boom of the 1860s. This coincided with the high point of the Gothic Revival: Nowhere else in the world can claim to have as magnificent an assemblage of Gothic Revival buildings. Whilst examining the city’s colonial architecture study is made of the carvings of Bombay’s Jeejeebhoy School of Art (see above), whose Architectural Sculpture Department (during this mid-Victorian heyday) was headed up by John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling. The story of the award winning project to restore the University of Mumbai’s Gothic Revival buildings provides an opportunity to touch upon philosophical approaches to conservation as well as traditional repair techniques. Account is also given of the work undertaken by those who took time away from their respective Cathedral workshops in the UK to transfer knowledge and skills to their Indian counterparts. Venturing beyond Mumbai to consider key colonial buildings in Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Yangon (Rangoon), the scope of the lecture broadens to examine evolving attitudes in India and beyond (as well as in the UK) towards the British empire and also towards the buildings which survive as testament to its achievements. 

Anthony Peers

A freelance historic buildings' consultant, educated as an Architectural Historian at Manchester University and trained in building conservation at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York. After two years with SAVE Britain's Heritage, where he wrote Deserted Bastions, worked with the English Heritage Listing Division on the review of military buildings. In the mid 1990s was employed by the DTI in Bombay, India, setting up and running an innovative project to repair George Gilbert Scott's university buildings and training local architects and craftsmen in conservation techniques and philosophy.

Music at the Courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

The great chronicler, Raphael Holinshed, claimed that in 1510 Henry VIII was “exercising himself daily in shooting, singing, dancing, wrestling, casting of the bar, playing at the recorders, flute, virginals…[and also] in setting of songs, making of ballads and did set two goodly masses, every of them five parts”. The epitome of the Renaissance man, Henry VIII – through his passion for music – had a pivotal influence on the development of English music, laying the foundations for the so-called ‘golden musical age’ at the end of the 16th century. Like her father, Elizabeth I had a passion for music and possessed skills in singing and performing on he lute and the virginals; in addition, she was remarkably nimble footed on the dance floor. As the Spanish Ambassador related after he had attended the Twelfth Night celebrations at the English Court in 1599, “The head of the Church of England and Ireland was to be seen in her old age dancing three or four galliards”. Music was a driving force in the lives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and their desire to be surrounded by it inspired the great composers of the day to rise to the challenges of producing first class compositions, which readily rivalled those being written on the Continent. The lecture-recital explores the wide range of musical talent that existed at the Tudor Court and draws on the music of Cornyshe, Henry VIII, Tallis, Byrd, Morley, Johnson, Dowland, and – of course – Anon. 

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.

In this lively lecture, author Mark Fisher will introduce the principles of arts criticism and show you how to put them into practice. You’ll journey from the present day into the past, learning lessons from history about how to think about the arts. He’ll ask questions about the place of the artist, the role of the critic and the ways in which all of us can discuss the art we enjoy in a productive and creative way.

Mark Fisher is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a contributor to publications all over the world. He has run criticism workshops at schools, universities and theatres all over the UK as well as giving sessions as far afield as Malta, Brazil and Chile. His online workshops have attracted participants from South Africa, Canada, Singapore, the USA, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK.

Gold in South America had a spiritual importance. Its brilliance evoked the Sun — the golden disk that nourished the Earth. In Peru and Colombia, goldsmiths made some of the most spectacular treasures of the ancient world. Cast and hammered, gold was transformed into sacred offerings for tombs and temples. Europeans, by contrast, saw gold as a commodity — the ultimate symbol of wealth. For decades, Europeans searched in vain for El Dorado, the legendary Golden One. Although many golden treasures were melted down for bullion, magnificent works of art are preserved in the museums of Peru and Colombia. 

Chloe Sayer

Is a specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. Has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture.

Many adore her art, few understand it. Rego’s confusing and confrontational paintings mix fairy stories with the socio-political context of her family and her homeland. Helen Oakden will talk about Rego’s life, the history of Salazar’s rule in Portugal, and delve into detail into the works recently seen in the Tate Britain’s exhibition, as well as some other important works by the artist including the mural in the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing café.

Helen Oakden

Helen is the Head of the History of Art Department at St Mary’s School Ascot. She studied at Manchester University and achieved her Masters’ Degree in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Based in London she has previously worked for the Royal Academy and National Gallery, as well as leading specialised art history courses across Italy. 

In this lecture Rome tourist guide Stuart Harvey will look at some of the famous British visitors to Rome between the 1500s and 1800s, and how these Grand Tourists changed the art world. These wealthy travellers not only visited the great works of art and architecture, but also wanted portraits, miniatures, mosaics and ancient sculptures to purchase for their family collections. We will meet renegade cardinals, exiled royals, wealthy aristocrats and of course the artists who came to study. I will also introduce some of the fascinating characters that catered to them in Rome, as we look at how the art world in Rome adapted to this lucrative new market.

Stuart Harvey

Stuart is a “History and Art Communicator” of 30 years experience. He is a London
Blue Badge Tourist Guide (qualified in 1998 - awarded “New Guide of the Year”) and
also a Guida Turistica Abilitata della Provincia di Roma (qualified in 2010). He has
worked in educational tourism since 1992, leading study tours all over Europe.
Living in Rome since 2003, Stuart has developed a great love for the Eternal City
and its many treasures. In addition to his primary career as full-time Rome tourist
guide, Stuart’s entertaining and lively lectures and virtual tours bring the rich artistic
and historical wealth of Rome’s 28 centuries to life for people all over the world.

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

Susan Kay-Williams

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

In the year 2000, having been a Curator  in the Greek And Roman Department of the British Museum  for 13 years, Louise decided to escape. Given a  trowel with a diamond and silver casing in the handle as a leaving present, she set off on a series of extraordinary archaeological adventures. In this richly illustrated talk she will take you with her to a  mysterious and atmospheric ancient city on the coast of southern Albania, to the banks of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia -  the Euphrates and the Tigris  - and then to the wild and wonderful mountains of northern Ethiopia.

Louise Schofield is an archaeologist who was Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities at the British Museum from 1987-2000. Her book, The Mycenaeans, was co-published by the Getty Museum and the British Museum in 2007. She now writes, lectures and runs international archaeological projects - previously in south-eastern Turkey, Greece and Albania and currently in Ethiopia. And rather wonderfully she has just been appointed Visiting Professor of Archaeology at the American University of Rome.

The Nutcracker ballet has delighted audiences at Christmas for many decades yet it was deemed a failure at its initial performances. Based upon the current Royal Ballet production by Sir Peter Wright, this lecture takes a close look at how this well-loved ballet now takes its rightful place on stage and how the music of Tchaikovsky along with story-telling, design, dance and a little bit of stage ingenuity all come together to make the most magical escape for young and old alike. Includes several performance video clips.

Nigel Bates

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

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

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

Nigel Bates gave us a brilliant lecture in November 2021 about Orchestra Conducting

An Actor's Life for me?

Drawing on his own experiences as both a child and adult actor, Tyler reveals the pains and the pleasures of a career in the theatre, and takes us through the various intricate processes of putting on a play from the actor’s perspective, from the casting session to the curtain call, and all stops in between.

On the way, he reveals how props can let you down at crucial moments, how actors survive when out of work, and how to deal with stage nudity.

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent twenty five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries and was closely involved with NASA on a landmark commemorative tv series. Now, he works as a voice actor, recording audiobooks, documentaries and voiceovers, and he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients on whatever subject he’s commissioned to do. They’re just like the audio guides you get in art galleries and museums but they’re out on the street. He lives in Sussex where he walks on the South Downs and the South Coast.

Photogragh shows a very young Tyler with his parent's Janet Brown and Peter Butterworth together with his sister and actor, Kenneth Williams

Agatha Christie : Queen of Crime

Agatha Christie is undoubtedly the world’s greatest crime writer, her books sell over four million copies worldwide every year and there is a continual demand for new adaptations to be made of her work. She led a sheltered and privileged life in her native Torquay which was not dissimilar to the characters she invented. She was brought up in the comfort of upper middle class society and she too had mystery in her life.

Jane Tapley

Currently Special Events Organiser, Theatre Royal Bath. Interviews visiting actors, writers, directors. Lectures regularly to theatre going societies, NT and history and fine arts groups. West Country Tourist Board Registered Blue Badge Guide and Lecturer. Author and researcher of theatre programme notes on Hamlet, Sheridan's The Rivals and Jane Austen's Emma. Theatrical landlady! Home Economist. Consultant to various TV productions of Jane Austen adaptations on food in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hosts and cooks period meals in her Regency house in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival and other literary groups.

The Cotswold School: The Arts and Crafts Movement at its best?

In 1914 C. R. Ashbee described Ernest Barnsley’s Rodmarton Manor as ‘the English Arts and Crafts Movement at its best.’ Barnsley was one of a group of three young architect friends who had moved to the Cotswolds in the 1890s to pursue country life, produce crafts and design buildings. These three men, Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers, Ernest and Sidney, shared a style and philosophy. They set up craft workshops in their adopted village of Sapperton, and drew a group of like-minded friends and followers to the area. This talk explores their work, their ideals and a legacy of craft work that stretches well into the 20th century

Kirsty Hartsiotis has been the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham since 2008, and prior to that was the curator and manager of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. At Cheltenham she looks after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection, which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library. She’s curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts and Private Press Movements, most recently Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination & Making. 

Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, she’s also a freelance researcher, currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West. She’s also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories. She’s the newsletter editor for Society of Decorative Art Collections, a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, and writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.

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 18th 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!

Annalie Talent

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. She is particularly interested in the material culture of writers’ lives, including the quirky and interesting; from the collar worn by Emily Bronte’s dog, Keeper, to William Wordsworth’s ice-skates. 

Why did Laura Knight become so famous?

Laura Knight, born in Nottingham in 1877, died in London in 1970 at the age of 93. From a difficult and impoverished background she rose to become the first woman ever elected to the Royal Academy and the first painter made a Dame. She was a War Artist in both world wars and wrote two volumes of autobiography. Knight belonged to a generation which saw women vote, sit in Parliament, and gain entry to formerly male professions such as medicine and the law. By her determination and ceaseless hard work, she became something of a spokesperson for the self-made woman of the age. The lecture traces her long and highly varied career from the artist communities of Staithes and Newlyn to affluent St John’s Wood in London and her wartime refuge in Malvern. Sustained by her great long-lasting friendships with many of the leading artists, performers and writers of her time, Alfred Munnings, George Bernard Shaw, Tamara Karsavina and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, she was one of the great figures of twentieth-century British culture.

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.

The Norfolk clergyman, James Woodforde kept a diary between 1758 and 1802 in which he daily recorded almost every dinner he ate, whether at home, with friends, at an inn or in the houses of the local gentry. Jane Austen, moving in similar social circles a generation later, recorded food and manners in her letters and novels that illuminate Woodforde’s careful recording of his every meal. This lecture brings together these two with images of paintings, prints, cookery books and the objects of daily life to illustrate the often hidden domestic lives of our Georgian ancestors.

Peter Ross

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. Currently 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 and on the history of English food. His most recent publication, The Curious Cookbook, was published by the British Library.

A Child of Six could do it! Cartoonists' View of Modern Art

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

Barry Venning

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

Fashion, Fury and Feminism: Women's fight for change

When social historian Tessa Boase told the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds she wanted to write their early story, they refused to let her visit their archives. To a former investigative journalist, this was a challenge she could not resist . . . This lecture shines a light on the intriguing story of women’s love affair with plumage ­ – and of the brave eco feminists who fought back on behalf of the birds. Moving from a polite Victorian tea party to an egret hunt in a Florida swamp; from a suffragette ‘monster rally’ to a milliner’s dusty workshop, you’ll be taken back in time to a world where every woman, of every class wore a hat.

Tessa Boase

Tessa is a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society along with other organisations such as the V&A, English Heritage and the National Trust. She’s the author of two books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale – The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House, and Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather – Fashion, Fury and Feminism, Women’s Fight for Change. Her interest lies in uncovering stories of invisible women of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, revealing how they drove industry, propped up high society and manipulated politics. Tessa has an MA in English Literature from Oxford University, a diploma in Art History from the British Institute of Florence, and has enjoyed a long career in journalism for national newspapers and magazines. 

Music in Art

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

Sophie Matthews

Sophie is a musician well-known for her prowess on the English border bagpipes and has become one of the foremost players of the instrument in the UK. She also plays a variety of early woodwind instruments such as shawm, rauschpfeife, crumhorm and recorder. She’s also one of a handful of British players of the baroque musette, an 18th century French bagpipe similar to the Northumbrian smallpipes.

When not touring with GreenMatthews, Sophie also makes instruments (she made her own baroque oboe) and works with respected luthier Tony Millyard on his flutes. Sophie is self-taught on all of her instruments.

Bombing with Banksy & Co - The Graffiti and Street Art of Shoreditch and Spitalfields

This lecture gets up close and personal with the dynamic east London street art scene.  You’ll see art on the walls, the sides of buildings and sidewalks….. 

In this lecture we will look at work by Banksy, quite possibly the most famous living street artist in the world, as well as street art by Ben Eine whose piece “Twenty First Century City” was presented by former Prime Minister David Cameron to Barrack Obama. We will also see work by Shepherd Fairey the most celebrated street artist working in the US today, known around the world for his Obey and Hope campaigns.  

You will discover how the huge growth and popularity of Street Art is reflected in the astonishing transformation of Spitalfields and Shoreditch from a once seedy and deprived area into one of the most vibrant, most fashionable, most happening neighbourhoods in London.

Pepe Martinez is a London Blue Badge guide and since qualifying in 2011 has specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London

Iran has a sophisticated cultural heritage ignored in the headlines. The main part of the lecture illustrates the development of the spectacular architecture in the mosques and palaces of Persia through the Islamic period, with an emphasis on their brilliant tilework and painting, including the splendid buildings of Shah Abbas' early 17th century Isfahan. Persia’s classic gardens are mentioned, and beautiful examples of manuscript illustration (‘miniatures’) are included. The lecture explains how the Shi'a form of Islam originated and became the ruling creed in the late 20th century Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini. This puts the contemporary politics in the context of the country's fascinating cultural history.

John Osborne

Graduated in Classics at Cambridge University. Taught Classics at Marlborough College for over thirty years. Worked for the British Council in Iran and Turkey, and lectures in Islamic Civilisation. Tutor, Marlborough College Summer School. Lecturer, Department of Continuing Education, University of Bath.

The Power of Photography                                                                                                         Photographs have the ability to stop time, to provide a freeze-frame of a moment in time and space. They give the observer the opportunity to think, to react, to feel and to soak in the details of the circumstances surrounding the image. This talk examines some the most important images and photographers of the past century. It explores why these images are so powerful and influential in our understanding of history. 

Roger Mendham                                                                                                                                          A keen and accomplished photographer Roger has gained Distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society  and is currently the President of the Surrey Photographic Association. A scientist by background, his interest in art was sparked by his wife’s academic studies into the History of Art and he has a particular interest in 20th century art.  With his focus on the visual aspects of art he has studied the evolution of photography from its earliest days in the early 1800s to becoming a major art form in the late 20th and now 21st centuries. An experienced public speaker, his talks are all richly illustrated with both his own and images from some of the leading photographers in history. 

Ways to look at Paintings    Alice provides a contemporary painter’s perspective on famous artworks from the 17th to the 21st centuries- revealing Rembrandt and Turner as artistic risk-takers, whose new combinations of glazes, stains, pigments and processes re-defined the language of painting. These forefathers of experimentation lead the way for modern artists such as Pollock and Fontana, who went beyond the canvas, and even beyond the brush in search of the meaning of making. Explore the mess and methodology of the creative process: from broken brushes to smudged thumbmarks, raw pigment to secret sketchbooks, and torn canvases to immersive light installations, this lecture uncovers a new way of seeing painting.

Alice White is a contemporary oil painter, and Tutor at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Kings College London, Brunel University, The Art Worker’s Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

An Intimate Portrait in Music and Words

with Stephen Baron piano and Marguerite Duncan-Sutherland research and narrator

This lecture and entertainment offers an insight into Frederick Chopin's life and times with particular reference to his two lady friends, the writer George Sand and the Scottish pianist Jane Stirling. She was later to become his amanuensis. 

As well as a rich fount of music which will include Nocturnes, Waltzes, Mazurkas and Polonades, there will be readings from his letters and other biographical papers.

Stephen Baron is a well known solo pianist in the UK and Europe. He has performed widely as a soloist and accompanist with many well known ensembles at amongst other's; London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room.

Marguerite Duncan-Sutherland ( mezzo contralto) has performed extensively across Europe and particularly in France as French is her second language. She and Stephen have performed many concerts and musical lectures together.

Captain Scott and his four companions died in the Antarctic in 1912. Although they had lost the race to the South Pole to Norwegian Roald Amundsen, their deaths unleashed an astonishing wave of tributes not only in Britain but around the world. This lecture will examine the different ways in which artists represented death in the polar wasteland and portrayed failure as heroic sacrifice.

Max Jones:formerly a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Christ's College, Cambridge, Max now teaches at the University of Manchester and is a recent winner of the university’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ award. He specializes in the cultural history of war and heroism, and is currently writing a new history of British heroes. Public lecturing is Max’s passion. Alongside lectures at Manchester and other universities, he has spoken about his research to public audiences throughout the UK and beyond, from the Isles of Scilly to Hobart, Tasmania.

Happy and Glorious: A thousand years of Coronations

2022 is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and 2023 marks the 70th Anniversary of her Coronation, events which are unique in the history of our nation.

This lecture celebrates these events and looks at the evolution of the coronation ceremony from Saxon times to that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It examines the different stages of the ceremony from the Recognition through to the Homage and explains the significance of the different items of the Coronation Regalia.

 Finally, the lecture gives an account of the ill omens and memorable mishaps which have occurred at coronations throughout the centuries and ends with the coronation of Her Majesty the Queen, the first to be genuinely witnessed by the people through the medium of television

Barbara Askew

Historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Royalty and Windsor Castle. The only Blue Badge Guide accredited to guide the Albert Memorial. Has conducted tours for American museums and alumni groups for the past 25 years.

Sometimes called Britain’s greatest  ‘Art Form’, pantomime has been a popular form of entertainment for over 300 years. In the early 18th century the word was used to describe the performances at Drury Lane Theatre based on the Italian Commedia dell’arte. In the 18th century it was often seen as an opportunity for political satire but it is through the 19thcentury that the fairy-tale story plots were established and the extrovert Music Hall entertainers created the traditions that we know as pantomime today.

Malcolm Jones

Studied at University of London and King’s College, London & RADA. He has worked as an actor, director and teacher and even backstage at the Royal Opera House. He was Workshop and Events Manager at the V&A Theatre Museum in London for 10 years. Since 2009 he has lectured on the V&A Short Course and Year Course Programme on Theatre and has worked on the Art and Expression Programme. He has taught at Rose Bruford College, Mountview Theatre School, The Actors Centre and RADA. He has written material for The National Theatre Education Department and contributed as a speaker on theatre to many television programmes while working at the Theatre Museum. He lectures for Road Scholar USA for Theatre groups visiting London and has lectured in America.

Selfies, Self-Expression, Celebrity & the Victorian Carte de Visite

From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s a new craze gripped the world. Photography had just begun to be popularised, and suddenly nearly everyone could afford a portrait of themselves to share with others. These small photographic portraits mounted on card were shot professionally in studios and handed out like business or greetings cards – just like we share ‘selfies’ on today’s social media. Across nearly two decades, over 400 million cards were estimated to have been printed and shared with friends, family, and fans. We think we invented the ‘selfie’, but we didn’t – welcome to the Victorian carte de visite.

In this highly visual and relevant lecture, we’ll look at the rise and fall of the fashion, learn how these cards were used, and find ways of dating cards from clothing and hairstyles. We’ll examine in detail the hidden meanings behind the poses, facial expressions, backgrounds, and choice of clothes to reveal the fascinating histories behind these cards that were used by everyone from royalty to the man in the street.

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

Murder, Sex and Mayhem: an entertaining look at unique and little known images in our churches and churchyards and the stories behind them.

The peaceful setting of most of our medieval churches cannot cover up the fact that they contain images and references to less savoury aspects of life. Medieval murals and stained glass windows depict the martyrdom of saints from home and abroad and the grisliest of dooms. Stone carvings, monuments and memorials show scenes of murder, mayhem and disasters of the period.

The lecture shows some of these images and explains the stories behind them.

John Vigar is a professional ecclesiastical historian, author and broadcaster. He has visited and recorded over 13,000 churches in England, written 12 books on his subject, leads specialist church tours and is a tutor at Denham College. He is a trustee of the oldest church preservation society in Great Britain- The Friends of Friendless Churches.

Christmas at Covent Garden; 300 years of Christmas Shows

The London Christmas season was invented at Covent Garden. The first theatre on the site was the home of Harlequin and Columbine and now after 300 years they are still dancing in The Nutcracker. Most of what we now consider to be quintessential Pantomine can be traced back to the operas and ballets put on in Covent Garden during it's first 200 years. Pantomine has moved to other venues but you can still see the basic components in it's seasonal offerings, both opera and ballet.  Examples are Rossini's Cenerentola (Cinderella), Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretal, Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty or Ashton's Cinderalla. 

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre, principally at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and English National Opera. She writes programme articles, gives numerous different lectures on opera and ballet and broadcasts on her subject on both Radios 3 and 4. She has written and directed many productions including more than 20 for the ROH Studio and for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

They make no noise...what is it that conductors do that makes orchestras respond in so many differeny ways? Is it good baton technique? A strong personality? The way they look? And why are there relatively few woman found on the podium?

Drawing on history and his own experiences from well over 6000 performances and recordings, Nigel will seek out some answers. The lecture will include rare video footage of conductors in rehersal and performance.

Nigel Bates began his career as a percussionist with the Band of the Scots Guards. In his 40 years since leaving the band, Nigel spent many years in various roles at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden including 17 as Principal Percussionist and 8 years as Music Administrator at the Royal Ballet. As a Freelance he has worked with most of the main London Orchestras and Ensembles. He has taught at the Guildhall School of Music and produced various BBC radio programs. He has written and lectured. Clearly the perfect choice for a lecture about conductors and conducting

Treasures of the Fan Museum

Occupying a pair of early Georgian townhouses nestled in historic Greenwich, the story of how the Fan Museum came to fruition is intervoven with the biography of the founder, whose personal collection forms the basis of the Museum's holdings. From an especially rare Elizabethan period embroidred folding fan to comtempory examples decorated by street artists. Discover some of the key objects within the museum's collection of over 3000 fans, dating from the 10th century to the present day.

Jacob Moss qualified with a BA (hons) in Fashion at the Reading School of Art and then a Postgraduate Degree(Distinction) from the London College of Fashion. Having joined the Fan Museum and become it's Curator, Mr Moss is responsible for co-organising it's temporary exhibitions and overseeing loans from the Museum's collections to other Museums.

Looking for Georgia; in the footsteps of Georgia O'Keeffe

A personal account by the landscape painter and art historian Lydia Bauman, of her journey through New Mexico in search of the iconic motifs painted by American painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 -1986).

Hear of the insights and discoveries made about the life and work practices of the legendary painter and see how the desert of New Mexico, Miss O'Keeffe's 'backyard' for over 50 years, inspired a very different artist working in London today.

Lydia Bauman... born in Poland but studied for her BA in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle and then for her MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. She has lectured, notably at the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery  in London and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston as well as leading many fine art tours in Europe and elsewhere

The Devonshire House Ball 1897

Held on the 2nd July 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and during a period when dressing up was more than just an entertaining occasion, the Devonshire Ball was extravagant and spectacular. From goddesses to mythic monarchs, the social elite caroused in creative and costly costumes. The lecture includes photographs of nine surviving costumes and explains how this event was not soley or even chiefly about having a good time. It was an important occasion to demonstrate authority and wealth, to gain social acceptance and to affirm social positions. The lecture will focus on some of the guests revealing their personal and sometimes tragic stories. It will also examine whether this lavish display was perhaps more distasteful and vulgar then exotic and luxurious.

Dr Benjamin Wild was educated at King's College, London studying History. His published doctorate analyses the material culture of King Henry lll. He is now is a cultural historian and is currently a lecturer in Contextural Studies(Fashion) at the Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University. He writes books and for publications. He works and collaborates with the V&A, the BBC, The Royal Academy, The National Portrait Gallery and many others.

The Fascination of Jewellery

We will be looking at the collections of four very different women and their approaches to jewellery, how their backgrounds influenced their choices and the messages jewellery can send in respect of status, wealth and politics. Marjorie Merriweather Post, Evalyn Walsh McLean, Madeleine Albright and Elizabeth Taylor are the subject of this richly illustrated talk.

Clare Blatherwick is an independent jewellery consultant based north of the border. She has over twenty years experience in the jewellery profession including ten as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland. During this period she was particulary active travelling internationally searching for wonderful jewels to be autioned at Bonhams worldwide. She has a keen interest in the historical aspect of jewellery and consequently is an active member of The Society of Jewellery Historians. She lectures on various jewellery subjects and often appears in UK and US television programmes as a jewellery expert.

Still Loving Still Life: Caterpillars, Lemons and Lobsters- Dutch Still Life from 1560-1650

When it comes to Dutch Flower paintings the only real expert in the field is the insect that lives off the stems and petals. From meat stalls to mince pies and bubbles to bread rolls, this lecture will help you discover the enormous symbolism conveyed by simple everday objects which have been rendered with breath taking accuracy and convey really satisfying moral meaning. The lecture will examine works by Aertsen, Claez, Steenwyck, de Heem, van Aelst and Mignon.

Dan Evans was at one time Head of History of Art at Wycombe Abbey School and is now a Housemaster at Cheltenham College. His out of term life has seen him working as a senior lecturer, tutor and tour guide for Art History Abroad. Indeed in 2008 he was the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Award. His great passion is for all things Italian and he still continues to lead special groups to that country for educational study.

Bruegel-discovering the master through his sons

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569) was an undisputed master. His small body of surviving paintings demonstrate his supreme ability to depict the daily life of peasants with both humour and humilty. The lecture will introduce Bruegel as a distinctive artistic voice in the sixteenth century and will consider the ways in which his revolutionary images were transmuted and popularised after his death in the works of his two sons, Pieter Bruegel the Younger (1564-1638) and Jan Bruegel the Elder (1568-1625).

Amy Orrock completed her BA Hons at University College London and then received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh with a dissertation on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting Children's Games. She has published and lectured widely on Northern European art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is a Curator at Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park. She is also the Curator of many exhibitions featuring art of her speciality period both at Compton Verney and the Holburne Museum, Bath.

Cleopatra: most womanly of women, most queenly of queens

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 fim-makers for over two millennia. Their gorgeously voluptuous depictions of her offer insights into the changing concepts of beauty. The lecture will show images ranging from Roman portrait busts through medieval illustrations to recent cinema films.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Our speaker is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association. She has reviewed for all of the UK's serious newspapers as well as for Radio 3. She has used her creative skills as a judge  for various literary prizes and has spoken at numerous literary festivals. She teaches writing at Arcadia University but she is especially known as a prize winning author having written both historical biographies and novels.

Dickens, Lawrence and Zhivago: David Lean's Art of the Camera

Cinematic Images are  modern art forms. In the 'golden age' of cinema, before the development of CGI technology, film makers had to construct sets to represent landscapes, towns and interiors. Often they just used painted backdrops or models. In each case, they created an art installation to be captured in the celluloid and which satisfied the viewer.

This lecture will use the fims of renowned British director David Lean to explore this art of the cinema.  How do the directors, screenwriters, production designers etc choose locations, construct sets, costume the actors and generally imagine the world they seek to represent.

Neil Faulkner

Studied at Kings College Cambridge and the Institute of Archaeology at UCL. He is a Research Fellow at University of Bristol. He is an author of numerous history books, lecturer and broadcaster. He has appeared in many television 'history' documentaries.

A Brief Story of Wine

Wine has been part of our global society for over 7000 years and the story tells of it's 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 5000B.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.

David Wright spent his working life immersed in the wine trade. He was a wine retailer, importer and distributor for over 30 years. He has for some time given talks on wine to the trade as well as private audiences.

The subtle science and exact art of colour in English Garden Design-why a garden can rank as a fine art

In 1888 Gertrude Jekyll wrote to 'remember that in a garden we are painting a picture'. She was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt in gardens these principles had been greatly neglected. This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting. Timothy Walker goes even further and looks at how contempory work by the likes of Turner, Monet, Jackson Pollack, Hockney and Rothko evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy Walker was director of the Oxford Universty Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Since then he has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College, Oxford. He is a very experienced lecturer with more than 1500 public lectures given since 1986

The Empty Chair in Art

Artists have for over 150 years used the humble chair as a conduit for their ideas from protest, absence and memory to domestic or everyday life.

In Europe, Egon Schiele, Rene Magritte, Gerhard Richter and Joseph Beuys used empty chairs for personal expression. In the US, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Kosuth and Bruce Nauman used chairs to develop the new artistic movements of the sixties. 

Our lecturer, who is an artist, has herself worked with chairs in her paintings and therefore knows well how to bring the subject alive for our interest.

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and lecturer. She has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and a Diploma in Artistic Therapy( specialising in colour). Her paintings are widely exhibited in the UK and internationally. She has spent many years teaching art in prisons both in the UK and Germany and saw how it could benefit some prisoners in their rehabilitation process. Angela's Anglo-German rootsalso  led her to research Germany's largely unknown post WW2 process of remembrance with the arts playing a huge and vital role.

The Silk Road was used for centuries to move the finest textiles and spices from Asia to Europe and this lecture will show how this all changed the fortunes, cultures and landscape of those in central asia. We could not have a more qualified lecturer in Chris Alexander. He was born in Turkey and spent his childhood in war-torn Beirut. After two years at sea and then three years at Leicester University, he moved to Uzbekistan to establish a UNESCO workshop reviving 15th century carpet designs and embroidery. He then spent three years in Tajikistan training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down.Next came two years in Kyrgyzstan establishing a wood-carving workshop in the world's largest natual walnut forest.

In comparison he is now settled in the UK writing and lecturing however he still guides tour groups to the region with our local specialist, Steppes Travel.

Captain Scott and his four companions died in the Antarctic in 1912. Although they had lost the race to the South Pole to Norwegian Roald Amundsen, their deaths unleashed an astonishing wave of tributes not only in Britain but around the world. This lecture will examine the different ways in which artists represented death in the polar wasteland and portrayed failure as heroic sacrifice.

Max Jones:formerly a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Christ's College, Cambridge, Max now teaches at the University of Manchester and is a recent winner of the university’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ award. He specializes in the cultural history of war and heroism, and is currently writing a new history of British heroes. Public lecturing is Max’s passion. Alongside lectures at Manchester and other universities, he has spoken about his research to public audiences throughout the UK and beyond, from the Isles of Scilly to Hobart, Tasmania.

The lecture will be preceeded by the AGM

From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s a new craze gripped the world. Photography had just begun to be popularised, and suddenly nearly everyone could afford a portrait of themselves to share with others. These small photographic portraits mounted on card were shot professionally in studios and handed out like business or greetings cards – just like we share ‘selfies’ on today’s social media. Across nearly two decades, over 400 million cards were estimated to have been printed and shared with friends, family, and fans. We think we invented the ‘selfie’, but we didn’t – welcome to the Victorian carte de visite.

In this highly visual and relevant lecture, we’ll look at the rise and fall of the fashion, learn how these cards were used, and find ways of dating cards from clothing and hairstyles. We’ll examine in detail the hidden meanings behind the poses, facial expressions, backgrounds, and choice of clothes to reveal the fascinating histories behind these cards that were used by everyone from royalty to the man in the street.

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

Sometimes called Britain’s greatest  ‘Art Form’, pantomime has been a popular form of entertainment for over 300 years. In the early 18th century the word was used to describe the performances at Drury Lane Theatre based on the Italian Commedia dell’arte. In the 18th century it was often seen as an opportunity for political satire but it is through the 19thcentury that the fairy-tale story plots were established and the extrovert Music Hall entertainers created the traditions that we know as pantomime today.

Malcolm Jones

Studied at University of London and King’s College, London & RADA. He has worked as an actor, director and teacher and even backstage at the Royal Opera House. He was Workshop and Events Manager at the V&A Theatre Museum in London for 10 years. Since 2009 he has lectured on the V&A Short Course and Year Course Programme on Theatre and has worked on the Art and Expression Programme. He has taught at Rose Bruford College, Mountview Theatre School, The Actors Centre and RADA. He has written material for The National Theatre Education Department and contributed as a speaker on theatre to many television programmes while working at the Theatre Museum. He lectures for Road Scholar USA for Theatre groups visiting London and has lectured in America.

This lecture explores the way in which artists over the centuries have included transparent glass objects in their paintings, taking huge delight in capturing the shadows and reflections seen within the glass as well as displaying their skill in portraying what lies behind and beyond. It will include the remarkable depiction of glass objects in Roman wall-paintings, works by artists such as Titian, Veronese and Caravaggio - where both the Gods of Olympus and the disciples are seen drinking out of fragile Venetian cristallo - and the proliferation of glass drinking vessels in Dutch still-life paintings.

Jane Gardiner

MA History of Art, University of London. Trained at the V&A and continues to lecture there. Was Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years, becoming a Deputy Director of Sotheby's, UK. Has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, Buckingham University, l'Institut d'Etudes Superieures des Arts in Paris, a private women's college in Saudi Arabia, on cruise ships and at antiques fairs and interior design conferences in America.

‘The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret’ – Salvador Dalí

Like the Renaissance artists he admired, Salvador Dalí did not restrict his creative output to painting but was also a writer, poet, engraver, sculptor, architect, photographer, theatre designer,  and jewellery designer. As well as designing the latter, Dalí selected the materials to be used, focusing not just on the colours or the value of the material, but also on their symbolic meanings. Jewels such as ‘El cor reial’ (1953, The Royal Heart) have become iconic works and are considered to be as exceptional as his paintings. He also was an omnivorous reader who was as interested in science as he was in art and in this his work also reflects the Renaissance artist he admired. This lecture explores the work of Dalí the designer and science enthusiast – a Renaissance artist in the 20th century.

Julia Musgrave got her first degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to become a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and IT project manager. In 2008 she decided that life was too short for just one career and decided to become an art historian.

She now has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She is currently working towards her Ph.D. at the University of York the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1937. She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit).

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

Tim Redmond

Tim spent his earlier career as a detective in the Metropolitan Police, working on murder, kidnap and anti-corruption investigations as well as in covert criminal intelligence. He finally retired as a Detective Superintendent and as the first police adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. During his career Tim often gave presentations to large audiences, either for operational briefings or at conferences

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

Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century is the theme of a series of lectures and study days by retired graphic designer Howard Smith. This lecture is about Rupert Bear, who celebrates his centenary in 2020. It traces the story of how and why Rupert was created whilst exploring the folklore and dark influences on his initial adventures. We will see how two artists, Mary Tourtel and Alfred Bestall progressed through the years with innovative artwork and multi-level adventure story lines that kept Rupert as a favourite through generations. We shall see numerous illustations featuring rare items and ephemera from major collections.

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

This lecture is open to all members however the Christmas Lunch preceeding it, is for ticket holders only.

The rounded arch was a fundamental element of Roman architecture, and as the triumphal arch represented power and triumph. It was adopted in architecture during the Renaissance to symbolise the roots of humanist thought – ordering the world - and also the new fascination with perspective in art. It continued to be employed architecturally in the eighteenth century to represent taste and status. It might be considered one of the iconic objects of Western art.

Dr Antony Buxton lectures on the history of art, architecture and design, and material and domestic culture for the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford and other British and American institutions of higher education. Prior to academic teaching he was for many years a furniture designer-maker and period furniture conservator, leading to an interest in the way in which material and aesthetic culture, social life and values interact.

The reign of Queen Victoria witnessed a spectacular rise in the visibility, wealth, and prestige of English artists and designers. Leading this resurgence was a group of artists who established their studios in and around the new, fashionable district of London's Holland Park.

The circle was formed around G.F. Watts,  the handsome and accomplished Frederic Leighton; and Valentine Prinsep.

The artists who followed included Luke Fildes, Hamo Thornycroft, William Burges, Marcus Stone and William Holman Hunt. Their studio-houses, designed by prominent architects of the era were featured in architectural journals and society magazines and several of them still stand today.

This lecture tells the fascinating story of their lives, works, and influence on society.

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.

Why were foreign painters preferred by the aristocracy in London to native born English painters, why did foreigners come in the first place, what was their motivation and what was the impact of foreigners in London on English art and art practice?

The lecture will look at the various formats and uses of art, tracing foreign artists from the Tudor period to the Renaissance and the Baroque, looking at their origins and how they came to work in England. It will examine the contributions of artists such as Holbein, Isaac van Honthorst, Marcus Gheeraerts the younger, Lucas and Susanna Horenbout. Isaac Oliver, Paulus van Somer, van Dyck, Peter Lely and Rubens. This lecture will look at how these artists influenced the British School of painting and assess their legacy.

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

A general introduction to the history, art and culture of Burma; a magical land stretching from the peaks of the Himalayas in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. This lecture traces the development of their artistic tradition from the time of the Pagan Empire up to the present day, focusing on art and architecture inspired by Theravada Buddhism and later influenced by British colonisation.  It also briefly explores Burmese  lacquer ware and wood carving before ending with an insight into the political situation of the last 50 years and the people’s hope for the future.

Zara Fleming is a freelance lecturer, art consultant and exhibition curator specialising in the art and culture of Tibet, the Himalayan areas and Mongolia. Initially based at the V&A, but also worked with the Central Asian Department of Bonn University, the Orient Foundation, the Royal Academy, Tibet House, the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and Asia House. In addition to lecturing for The Arts Society, she lectures for museums, universities, Asian art societies, and private associations. Guest lecturer and tour guide on numerous trips to the Himalayas. Edited Masterpieces of Mongolian Art: Vol 1 and has published many articles in the field of Buddhist art and culture.

This lecture will be preceded by our AGM.

From the early Kosovan silver mines which are mentioned in Dante, through the twentieth century politics over Kosovo’s mines which resulted in both a war and a golf course, a silver thread winds through Kosovo’s history. Its most intricate tanglings are in the country’s cultural capital, Prizren, where a seventh generation of filigree artisans use ‘filum’ and ‘granum’, zigzags, ‘mouse-tooth’ designs and other twists and turns to magic lacy creations from dull sticks of raw material. The results – in boxes, buttons, jewellery, religious ornamentation and the talismans of superstitition – are a fine narrative of Kosovo’s history and traditions.

Elizabeth Gowing studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington.  She moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects. Elizabeth speaks fluent Albanian and has translated two books (the unauthorized biography of Yugoslavia’s longest-held political prisoner, Adem Demaci, and the memoirs of one of the leaders of the 1912 uprising). She is also the author of four books about Kosovo – Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a beekeeper in Kosovo (2011), Edith and I; on the trail of an Edwardian traveller in Kosovo(2013); The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife; an unlikely friendship in Kosovo (2015) and The Silver Thread; a journey through Balkan craftmanship (2017). She is a regular contributor to Excess Baggage, From Our Own Correspondent) and the BBC World Service.

No synopsis yet available

Alan Read holds a masters and a first class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College. Is a gallery guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and National Portrait Gallery, and has lectured at the NPG, Penlee House (Penzance), Plymouth City Art Gallery, Croydon Clocktower and the Bridewell Institute. He is also a London Blue Badge Guide and City of London Guide and has conducted walking tours for the Twentieth Century Society, the National Trust and team London Bridge.

The Antiques Roadshow is one of the best loved and well established programmes on the BBC.  March Allum, one of the programme's regular experts, will be taking us behind the scenes of the programme and will be examining some of great discoveries which it has made over the years.

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire.He is shortly to begin his 20th year as a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer. He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service. Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic. He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual through ‘a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins’. Marc has lectured widely for many years to a number of different organisations in both the public and charity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust, The WI and many literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath, Wells and Petworth.

The Nazis looted over 20% of Western Art during World War II and the effects of Nazi looting are still evident today. This lecture will cover the following topics: setting the scene in Germany, the Fuhrermuseum, Nazi art repositories, Post War restitution and the Monuments Men, contemporary restitution issues and current international recovery efforts. I will also discuss several important cases involving Nazi loot. These will be tailored to the country in which I’m speaking, but there are landmark international cases that I will discuss in detail, including Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer and the stash of looted art found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s flat. 

Shauna Isaac studied at the Courtauld Institute and Birkbeck College, London and regularly lectures at the Sotheby's Institute of Art. Currently managing an art recovery company and served on the Looted Art Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, where she was instrumental in drafting the Terezin Declaration on Nazi looting, which was ratified by 46 countries. Has given talks to the Focus-Abengoa Foundation Symposium in Seville, the Courtauld Institute, the Documentation Centre of World War II Cultural Assets, Sotheby's and Microsoft. Publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, Art & Law Magazine and Art Quarterly.

The first liner to establish a regular service by steam across the Atlantic. The Concorde of its era, it carried the rich and famous, including stars of the London stage.  This lecture explores the history of this iconic ship, now moored in Bristol.

Helen Doe is a Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the University of Exeter, where she gained her PhD. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a trustee of the ss Great Britain. She has published extensively on 19th century sail, women in the maritime world, and in 2015, in a departure from her usual maritime theme, published a well received biography of a WW2 fighter ace. She is currently working on a series of books on Isambard Brunel's shipping ventures. Her lecturing experience is wide and she is a speaker onboard all three Cunard ships. She has appeared on radio and television, and is a regular maritime expert for programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? She is based in Cornwall and London.

Brought up as a house pet by a Director of the Dutch East India Company in India, from a young age, Clara was shipped to Holland in 1741 and spent nearly 20 years touring Europe as one of the wonders of the age.  She visited all the major Courts of Europe including to King Louis XV of France, dying in London in 1758. She was recorded in paintings, prints porcelain, bronze, clocks and even hair styles.  This talk explores the charming story of this magnificent beast, only the third or fourth rhino to be seen in Europe, through contemporary records and works of art.

Clive Stewart Lockhart studied on the Sotheby's Works of Art course and has now been working in the fine art world for 40 years. Managing Director of Woolley and Wallis, the UK's leading regional auctioneers, in Salisbury, and has been a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow for over 20 years. Has also lectured on cruise ships as well as for many other groups, and recently published a major article in the Journal of the Decorative Arts Society on Betty Joel.

This lecture will be preceded by our Christmas lunch.  More details to follow.

Wallpaper is often regarded as the Cinderella of the Decorative Arts – the most ephemeral and least precious of the decorations produced for the home. Yet, the history of wallpaper is a long and fascinating subject that dates back to the 16thcentury and encompasses a huge range of beautiful patterns created both by anonymous hands and by some of the best-known designers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture explores the history and development of this product from earliest times up to the present day. It includes a discussion of the changing ways in which wallpaper was made and a survey of designs from the first black and white patterns, the creation of elegant flock hangings, the fashion for Chinese hand-painted papers, the introduction of machine-printing, the designs of Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the taste for Modernist and Contemporary designs in the 20th century. It also includes a discussion of the ways that wallpapers were used within grand and more ordinary homes and hopes to justify the claim that they were indeed a truly Decorative Art.

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

Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s greatest treasure houses, Chatsworth. In the second half of the 20th century, in partnership with her husband, she imbued it with a spirit, elegance and sense of welcome that transformed it from being the worn-out survivor of decades of taxation, war and  social change into one of the best-loved, most-emulated and popular historic houses, gardens and estates in the country. With responsibility for Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey as well, no wonder her passport stated her profession as ‘housewife’.

Along the way, she became a best-selling author and sell-out speaker, champion of the countryside, its skills, traditions, livelihoods and food, trustee and patron of numerous charities, businesses and good causes, and the most famous poultry keeper in the country. She met Hitler and Churchill, was a trusted confidant of the Prince of Wales, played her part as the steady heart of the Mitford sisters’ melodrama and was friends with a dazzling array of some of the brightest and most fascinating of her contemporaries, including President Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar de la Renta, John Betjeman, Lucian Freud, Tom Stoppard, Neil MacGregor, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Alan Bennett.

She said herself that charm was the hardest quality to describe in another person; hers lived in her unique turn of phrase, her stoic Mitfordian perspective on life’s challenges, her curiosity about everyone she met, her stylish beauty, quick wit and delight in all that life offered her. Debo had a lasting impact not just on Chatsworth but on everything she touched and everyone she met; I was lucky enough to work for and with her over more than 20 years and in this lecture Simon Seligman pays tribute to an astonishing life.

Simon Seligman studied art and architectural history at Warwick University, including a semester in Venice. Also Graduate of the Attingham Summer school. From 1991 until 2010, worked at Chatsworth, in a variety of roles, latterly as Head of Communications. Has lectured about Chatsworth, the Devonshire Collection and associated topics, throughout the UK and on several US tours (including the Metropolitan Museum and the National Gallery of Art). Gave numerous public presentations and interviews with the late Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Publications include written or edited guidebooks and articles for and about Chatsworth.  

From Greek Mosaics in the second century, through weddings in the Bible, Renaissance allegories of refinement and excess, sixteenth century peasant parties out of doors, eighteenth century harlequins, to the celebratory styles of twentieth century painters, the depiction of parties has always been popular in the history of Western Art. 

Alice Foster traces the variety of merrymaking, banqueting, dances and music in a feast of colour.

Alice has lectured for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education since 1998. She lectures regularly at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Her busy freelance career includes organising History of Art study days with colleagues, and regular weekly classes in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire. In 2004 Alice joined The Arts Society and has lectured in Britain and in Europe. Since 2003 Alice has been a tutor on study holidays. In 2010 she was elected President of Banbury Fine Arts Society.

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Arts Society and the 40th Anniversary of the formation of Upper Thames, this lecture will be proceeded by a light lunch, starting at 12.30, to which all members of the Society are warmly invited.    

In 1924 an exhibition in London of Canadian landscapes moved the critic C. Lewis Hind to celebrate them as ‘the most vital group of paintings produced since the war—indeed, this century’. These landscapes of Canada’s northern lakes and rugged backwoods, painted in a boldly Post-Impressionist style, had been produced over the previous decade by a collective of Toronto-based painters known as the ‘Group of Seven’, whose aim was to forge a national school of landscape painting. This illustrated lecture introduces the painters—including their talismanic colleague Tom Thomson, who died in 1917—and examines how they stormed the conservative bastions of Canadian art to establish themselves on the international stage as practitioners of a distinctive avant-garde.   

Ross King is the author of eight books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he has won both the Governor General’s Award in Canada and the BookSense Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the United States. Born and raised in Canada, he has lived in England since 1992. He has lectured widely in both North America and Europe, and given lectures and guided tours in Florence, Rome, Milan, Paris and Giverny. 

Please note that this lecture is preceded by the AGM.

This lecture distils several years of original research on a much-overlooked aspect of royal iconography: the use of flowers as symbols. The Tudor rose has been one of Britain’s foremost emblems for half a millennium. But the monarchs we call ‘Tudor’ from 1485-1603 very seldom referred to themselves as such- to assert their right to rule, they were represented as the rightful descendants of former monarchs. So where did the ‘Tudor’ rose come from? Or the red or white roses of the so-called Wars of the Roses? Are they related? Late medieval art was rich in floral imagery, drawn from still older customs and ideas. A fuller understanding of how daisies, marigolds, red and white roses were used in manuscripts to convey the qualities of Christ and the Virgin Mary for kings and queens completely revises the significance of the ‘Tudor’ rose and reveals the long-hidden origins.

Dr Jonathan Foyle was Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years, and a Curator of Historic Buildings at Hampton Court for as long, during which time he took his 2002 PhD on reconstructing Wolsey's palace. He is a frequent feature writer for the Financial Times on issues of architecture, history and craft, and is approaching his fourth published cathedral monograph: Canterbury, Lincoln, Lichfield- now Peterborough. A presenter of numerous television series including BBC4's Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? and BBC2's Climbing Great Buildings, he lectures frequently on a range of art-historical topics. He brings teaching experience as a former Course Director for the University of Cambridge Summer Schools and is an Honorary Professor in Conservation at the University of Lincoln.

This lecture is a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated tour around the history, architecture, contents and use of libraries in British and Irish country houses from Roman times to the present. 

Mark Purcell is a Deputy Director of Cambridge University Library, and a Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of London. At Cambridge he is responsible for the heritage collections of one of the world’s great research libraries, and for sixteen years prior to that he had charge of more than 150 historic libraries in the care of the National Trust. He is an acknowledged expert on historic libraries, and in particular on country house libraries in Britain and Ireland, a subject on which he has published and lectured extensively.  

This lecture looks at the art of cooking purely through its results upon the table. Using paintings, illustrations and photographs, we will go on a culinary journey from the late Tudor period to the mid 20th century, considering both how food presentation was influenced by the wider trends of each era, and how that presentation reflects notions of edibility through time. From delicate, moulded pies, to flamboyant stuffed turkeys with lobster tail wings, we’ll explore the idea of food as the ultimate in ephemeral art. Raw ingredients can be transformed beyond all recognition, their presentation agonised over for weeks with the result presented with an artist’s flourish – but within each dish is the recognition that its destiny is utter destruction. The lecture will be enhanced by the lecturer’s own experience in cooking historic food, and with pictures of her very real creations. 

Dr Annie Gray is one of Britian’s leading food historians. She has degrees from Oxford, York and Liverpool, and remains connected to academia as a research associate at the University of York. She is also a popular lecturer, writer, consultant and broadcaster. She works as a consultant on historic food for organisations such as The National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces, as well as training staff in live interpretation, having run a team of professional costumed interpreters for many years for English Heritage. She also writes both popular and academic content, including articles for BBC Good Food Magazine, and is currently working on her first book. Increasingly in demand from the media, you may well have heard Annie as the resident food historian on BBC Radio 4’s culinary panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet, or you may have seen her on The Great British Bake Off, or in one of her regular slots on James Martin: Home Comforts. She recently advised on, and co-presented, Victorian Bakers, a living history-based documentary for BBC2. 

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

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

As adults we carry in our heads huge numbers of images from childhood, and some of those most deeply etched come from illustrations in books that we read as children. Images of ‘Tigger’ and ‘Toad’ or even ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ will probably remain with us for ever! In addition to a wide range of examples John will examine how illustrations contribute to the development of understanding and how the interaction of image and narrative creates such powerful memories. 

John Ericson was formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education with responsibility for the professional development of teachers. He has worked extensively overseas as an educational consultant and this has given him the opportunity to give lectures and presentations at conferences all over the world. In 2008 and again in 2011 he undertook extensive lecture tours of Australia and he has been a popular speaker on The Arts Society's circuit for a number of years.  As well as the talks he has developed from his professional background, he offers presentations on an eclectic range of topics that are derived from his diverse interests and enthusiasms such as pub signs, children’s book illustrations and the Shakers of North America.

Between 1885 and 1916, Carl Fabergé made fifty jewelled eggs – Easter presents from Russia’s last two emperors to their wives. They have become the most famous surviving symbols of the Romanov Empire: both supreme examples of the jeweller’s art and the vulgar playthings of a decadent court. Given almost total artistic freedom, Fabergé and his designers had to conform to only three rules: that each year’s Easter present should be egg-shaped, that it should contain some surprise to amuse or delight its recipient, and that it should be different from any predecessor. The result was a series of creations demonstrating ingenuity and creativity for which there are few parallels in any other field. Their styles range from traditional Russian to Art Nouveau, and their materials from carved hardstone to exquisite enamelled gold. Their maker’s relentless search for novelty also means that they provide a fabulously quirky illustrated history of the decline of the Romanovs. Toby Faber wrote Fabergé’s Eggs: One Man’s Masterpieces and the End of an Empire, described by P.D. James as a ‘fascinating story which combines unique decorative art, contemporary culture, history and the murder of the Romanovs with the excitement of a crime novel’. The lecture is illustrated with pictures of the Romanovs and their palaces, and, of course, with photographs of the eggs themselves. 

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

Please note that this lecture takes place after the Christmas lunch.  The lunch is by ticket only but the lecture is open to all Members.

Armour is not just equipment for war.  It is also costume, of a profoundly impressive and intimidating kind.  The plastic qualities of the iron and steel used to create it meant that it can be sculpted into whatever extraordinary form the master armourer-artist could imagine.  Until the fifteenth century armour forms tended to remain quite stark and functional.  However as the cultural and literary influences on chivalry diversified, so too did the ways in which knights and noblemen wished to portray themselves.  The heroes and monsters of Antiquity began to creep back into the Renaissance psyche, and from there, onto the armour of the richest and most powerful men alive during the sixteenth century.  Now, at the same time as the old Christian associations remained heavily in force, knights began casting themselves in Herculean terms, with armour sculpted to resemble the pelt of the Nemean Lion.  Or hammered into glistening, reptilian scale, to transform the wearer into Rodomonte, the Dragon Kingth from Orlando Furioso. Never did the art of embossing and chasing reach a higher artistic expression than in the viruosos creations of the armourers of Milan and Augsburg.

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. His book, Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011) was named Book of the Year by Apollo Magazine in 2012. He appears regularly on television, most recently as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012). His publications include The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520 1630, ex. cat. (2012) and 'The Arming of an English Man at Arms, c.1415', appendix, in Sir Ranulph Fiennes' new book Agincourt: My Family, The Battle, and the Fight for France (2014). 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

Travel availability: 

This lecture will discuss Paris, and in particular Montmartre, during the 1890s, when it became famous (or notorious) for its night-life which centred around music halls such as the Moulin Rouge, the Jardin de Paris and the Folies Bergere.  Artists such as Manet and Renoir had found their subjects there earlier, but it was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec whose paintings and posters gave lasting fame to the night-life of Montmatre.  Toulouse-Lautrec was born into an aristocratic family in the South of France, but childhood accidents to both legs left him a cripple, unable to take part in the country life of his birthplace.  He went to Paris to follow a career as an artist, and as a social outsider he found his friends in the music halls and brothels.  His subjects were dancers and singers.  His famous poste for the new Moulin Rouge helped make it the most popular night-spot, and at the same time revolutionized advertising.

Peter Webb has degrees from Cambridge, an Academic Diploma from the Courtauld Institute, and a PhD from the University of East Anglia. He lectures at art galleries and universities in England, the United States, France, Italy, Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico.  His publications include Sphinx: the Life and Art of Leonor Fini (2009), Death, Desire and the Doll: the Life and Art of Hans Bellmer (2006), Portrait of David Hockney (1991) and The Erotic Arts (1975).

Britain's historical involvement with India is sometimes criticised. And there were undeniably dark and culpable episodes. But a number of British individuals were very dedicated to India and made great contributions to the study of its history, languages, religions, archaeology, architecture, topography, sociology, zoology and botany. The talk describes the very successful work in those fields of a series of Britons who are not often given the recognition they deserve. Between Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General, and Lord Curzon, a most prominent Viceroy, there were civil servants, soldiers, judges, doctors, engineers, surveyors and others who immersed themselves in the local culture and revealed a great deal about India's amazing past.

Oliver Everett was educated at Cambridge University and did post graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA; and at the London School of Economics. Following service in the Foreign Office, including postings in India and Spain, he was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales,1978 80; and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-3. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984 2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, taught a course on its history and advised on a television programme about it. He wrote articles on the Royal Library and helped with two books on aspects of the Royal Collection. He is advising on a possible history series for television. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad and also on cruise ships.  Oliver is an old friend of Upper Thames and we look forward to welcoming him back.

From King Edgar in 973 to Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the coronation ceremonies of successive monarchs have been both bastions of tradition and prime examples of adaptation to new needs and circumstances. This talk looks at the development of the ceremonies, their purpose, and the myths that surround the public recognition and crowning of a monarch. The associated regalia – crowns, sceptres and orbs, and also the more obscure items such as armills and buskins – developed as part of the coronation ceremonies over the years, and their use (and misuse) is considered. One of the most important aspects of a coronation has always been music, from plainchant, through the compositions of composers like Byrd, Purcell, Handel, Stanford and Parry to the works written for the current Queen’s crowning. The talk will examine what makes a good ceremonial piece, the texts that were set and will include audio examples. There will also be answers to some interesting questions, including: What did Elgar say about the speed of the National Anthem? How did the youngest chorister obey a call of nature in 1953 – and where did peers keep their sandwiches during the ceremony? How did the Archbishop injure Queen Victoria? And who occupied the 'Loose Box' in the Abbey in 1902? 

David Winpenny studied English at Birmingham University and taught for several years before joining the Countryside Commission as Co-ordinator of its National Parks Campaign. Worked for the Central Office of Information in Leeds before setting up own public relations company. Author of 'Up to a Point - in search of pyramids in Britain and Ireland' and has written and contributed to several books for the AA. Writes regularly for BBC Countryfile Magazine, is chairman of Ripon Civic Society and lectures on architectural and related subjects.

Please note that this lecture in preceded by the AGM.

Traditional art history has regarded the painted female as an ‘object’. She is to be gazed at, admired and owned. This easily can be explained: most artists have been men, most collectors of art have been men, and the academic subject of art history has been dominated by men. An unbalanced view is hardly surprising! In the early 1970s, feminist historians began to explore how fine art has reflected, and even contributed to, a patriarchal ideology. Art and art history have undergone massive changes. We will explore some ideals of womanhood: the Virgin, the pure wife and loving mother. Also some warnings: Venus, Eve and the ‘fallen’ woman! This lecture will explore how we can re-interpret a wide range of images of women from the Renaissance through to the present century.

Lynne Gibson is now working as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Critical and Contextual Studies, as well as in practical Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. For many years she lectured for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. Lynne gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, National Gallery, art museums and art societies. Also, when time permits, works as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

Lisa Kaborycha, who was originally to have lectured to us was forced to cancel because of an illness in the family.    We are enormously grateful to Lynne for agreeing to take her place at very short notice 

The world’s first underground railway has a wonderful heritage of architecture, ingenious design, powerful advertising posters and unique calligraphy. In this talk we plot the early development of the Underground, examine the legacy of Frank Pick and Charles Holden, look at some of the iconic posters, and celebrate the award winning architecture of the modern Tube in the Jubilee Line Extension. We’ll also take a peek at some of the forthcoming Crossrail stations, designed by some of the world’s top architects

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

Lancelot "Capability" Brown was  born in 1716, which means of course that 2016 was his tercentenary year.   Brown changed the face of eighteenth century England, designing country estates and mansions, moving hills and making flowing lakes and serpentine rivers, a magical world of green.  Born the son of a yeoman farmer in Northumberland, he rose to fame and wealth and today over 150 of the 260 or so landscapes with which he is associated remain worth seeing.  Our lecture will examine his life and his legacy.

Christopher Rogers is an old friend of Upper Thames and has lectured to us on a number of previous occasions.  We are very grateful to him for taking the place of Chloe Cockerill who, sadly, is unable to come to us because of illness.  Christopher read Geography at Oxford and went on to teach at Downe House School and at Marlborough College.  He has lectured on country house architecture and landscape gardening since becoming interested in the subject while an undergraduate.  He lectures at the Marlborough College Summer School, for the National Trust and and is a guide at Salisbury Cathedral. 

Stonehenge is the most celebrated and sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the British Isles. This lecture explains why Stonehenge must be regarded as architectural in its layout and construction, embodying  techniques that for centuries convinced antiquarians that it could not have been built by ‘primitive’ ancient Britons but must be a product of ‘sophisticated’ Romans.

We then explore how, over the last two centuries, this iconic structure has inspired painters, potters and poets. Blake, Turner, Constable and Moore are amongst those who have all been drawn to this magnificent ruin, resulting in a diverse catalogue of images and impressions. Finally, we will look at Stonehenge as a global icon and how it’s instantly recognisable stones now grace tea towels in Wiltshire, phone cards in Japan and stamps from Bhutan. 

Julian Richards studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist, in commercial archaeology, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. Elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in July of this year. Has been involved in teaching and outreach projects, lecturing widely in continuing education, to groups and societies and to special interest tour companies. A career in broadcasting involved researching and presenting 'Meet the Ancestors' and 'Blood of the Vikings' for BBC2, and 'Mapping the Town' for Radio 4. Author of a number of English Heritage publications on Stonehenge, including the previous and current guide books to the monument and landscape. Guest curator of 'Wish you were here', an exhibition of his own extensive collection of 'Stonehengiana' which is currently on display at the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre

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

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian.  He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, including to the National Gallery, 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. 

Dublin in the eighteenth century was the second city of the just emerging British Empire.  From Dublin, the English monarch’s Viceroys, usually English noblemen, presided over a glittering court at Dublin Castle, and stood at the apex of a society renowned for its liveliness and hospitality.  This society of Anglo-Irish nobles, gentlemen and rascally drunkards and gamblers lived in surroundings of enormous grandeur, presided over by women of singular independence such as the renowned diarist, Mrs Mary Delaney.

Their public buildings were of unprecedented grandeur for these islands.  The Parliament House by Sir Edward Lovet Pearce, and the many exquisitely detailed buildings by James Gandon create a dazzling impression.  Their private houses were often conceived almost on the scale of European palaces.  Indeed, one Protestant Bishop was described as living in “Popish” splendour in his townhouse on St Stephen’s Green!

This world, seen at close quarters through contemporary accounts, painting, engraving and the evidence of the buildings themselves, will give an insight into an unforgettable place and age.

Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied History of Art and Ancient History and Classical Archaeology.  He then studied for his Masters in the United States, and moved to England in 1984 to complete his Ph.D.  He has lectured widely to heritage and artistic organisations, nationally and internationally, for many years.  Through his own company he also leads tours specialising in several areas, including Ireland, Italy and the Middle East. 

This lecture explains how the ruler of a relatively small German state came to be crowned king of Great Britain in 1714 and examines the Personal Union between the two countries which lasted until 1837.  The royal residences and the cross-cultural transfer in art, music, literature and horticulture are all discussed.  An account is given of what the Hanoverian kings did for Great Britain, George IV’s spectacular visit as King of Hanover and finally what happened to Hanover when the Personal Union came to an end.

Barbara Askew graduated with an honours degree in History and taught History for 15 years before qualifying as a Blue Badge Guide.  She is a lecturer, examiner and course director on Blue Badge Guide training courses and an acknowledged expert on royalty and Windsor Castle, for which she has been the Blue Badge Guides’ Site Liaison Representative since 1990.  The lecture is based on her research in Hanover and material gathered from six exhibitions celebrating the 300th Anniversary of the Hanoverian dynasty.  Barbara is a rota guide at the British Museum, the Houses of Parliament and the Albert Memorial and conducts historically-themed walking tours in Windsor for Windsor Festival and further education groups.

By the late Georgian period, the buildings of the Palace of Westminster had become an accident waiting to happen.  The rambling complex of medieval and early modern apartments making up the Houses of Parliament - which over the centuries architects including Wren, Wyatt and Soane had attempted to improve and expand - was by then largely unfit for purpose.  Complaints from MPs about the state of their accommodation had been rumbling on since the 1790s, and reached a peak when they found themselves packed into the hot, airless and cramped Commons chamber during the passage of the Great Reform bill.  Unable to agree on a solution for new accommodation, in the end the decision was made for them.  The long-overdue catastrophe finally occurred on 16 October 1834.  Throughout the day, a chimney fire had smouldered under the floor of the House of Lords chamber, caused by the unsupervised and ill-advised burning of two large cartloads of wooden tally sticks (a form of medieval tax receipt created by the Exchequer, a government office based at Westminster) in the heating furnaces below.  Warning signs were persistently ignored by the senile Housekeeper and careless Clerk of Works, leading the Prime Minister later to declare the disaster, ‘one of the greatest instances of stupidity upon record’. 

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivisit, historian and writer.  She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives and a senior archivist at the National Archives, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.  Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down was published to rave reviews in 2012 and won top prize at the inaugural Political Book Awards in 2013.

From magic to the Interaction of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Art: the Birth of Western Cosmology.

 From time immemorial, mankind’s various interpretations of the Heavens were built around magical stories of creation.  As the stars and planets were observed more carefully, they became used for divination and the sciences of astronomy and astrology were born.  The philosophy of the Greeks demanded reason and mathematics behind their interpretation of the cosmos.  This lecture looks at the legacy in art, culture and religion of some of the great thinkers of antiquity.  In particular it illustrates how Aristotle created a model of the heavens that was absorbed by the Church and its artists and remained unchallenged for almost 2000 years.  It charts how Ptolemy rationalized the science of astrology and quantified the heavens with such precision that his works remained unchallenged for 1400 years.  

Kevin Karney studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and worked across the world as an underground engineer.  He has had a life-long interest in the history of timekeeping and cosmology and in sundials in particular.  Members will recall with pleasure the fascinating lecture he gave us on this subject.  

James Gillray was the natural successor to William Hogarth but represented, in his cutting and cruel caricatures, everything about satirical prints that Hogarth despised. Uncompromising and fearless in his art, Gillray tore into politicians and the royal family alike. And yet, full of contradictions, that didn’t stop him pursing a staunchly patriotic stance when it came to the French Revolution, nor accepting a pension to tone down his satirical bite. After he died insane in 1815, his reputation, in the Victorian climate of moralistic righteousness, plummeted. It is only now that he can be seen as the natural forefather of Spitting Image and the cartoons of Gerald Scarfe – although none of these have quite matched the wit and vitriol of Gillray at his best

Having gained a First Class degree from Oxford in PPE, Ian Keable went on to become a Chartered Accountant and then a professional magician. He is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star and has received The Magic Circle Comedy Award. He performs a show about Charles Dickens, and collects 18th and 19th century books, posters and prints relating to magic and to hoaxes. Please note that this Lecture is preceded by the AGM.

What a difference the appropriate frame makes to a picture! This lecture gives a brief history of picture frames together with their design and construction, their conservation and how to choose the right frame for your pictures.

Julia Korner spent twenty years working for Christie’s as a paintings specialist, building extensive knowledge of Old Masters, and of British, European and American paintings from the 1700s onwards. She was elected Huntington Fellow of the Mariners’ Museum, Virginia, USA in 1997 and, over seven years, catalogued the museum’s collection and that of its sister organisation, The South Street Seaport Museum, in New York. For last fifteen years she had had her own studio in west London, specialising in conservation work.

When the First World War came to an end it seems that the people of Paris were jubilant at seeing the fighting end but fairly resigned to the fact that this would probably not be an everlasting peace. Their reaction was to enjoy every minute of the peace while it lasted. Many of the Black American servicemen who had been in Paris during the war stayed on in France and brought jazz to the city. Jazz was a way of enriching the European culture and it was also seen as a way of rebelling. The artists in Paris left the Montmartre of the Impressionist era and centred themselves around a busy crossroads in Montparnasse. They could sell their paintings without the need for the Academies or the Salons. Montparnasse was glitzy and exciting. Purism was followed by Dadaism and Surrealism. As war approached yet again, the people of Paris had been right in having a good time while it lasted. In 1940, France fell.

Linda Collins was employed by the Historic Royal Palaces for more than twenty years. She is now an independent lecturer and lecture organiser and lectures at many venues including the Tate Modern, National Gallery, and National Portrait Gallery

“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. They’re not for me.” This lecture is a persuasive introduction to buying antiques and integrating and using them in today’s homes. The state of the antiques market and the different meanings of the word value are considered, and we take a look at what current and future generations of collectors are buying, why they are buying it and how they are displaying it.

Mark Hill is an antiques and 20th century design specialist, author, publisher, lecturer, antiques dealer and TV presenter. He started his career at Bonhams, before moving on to Sothebys. He is an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and is co-author of the biannual international “Miller’s Collectables Price Guides“, as well as regular columns for the Daily Mail and Homes & Antiques magazine.

What is the fascination with ivory? It has been carved for 40,000 years. It has been used by cultures world-wide, funded wars and been connected to the slave trade. Today most ivory-bearing animals are threatened by extinction. The talk will look at some of the uses of ivory around the globe, and how to recognise ivories from different species, for example elephant, walrus and whale — and their fakes -- and why ivory is so highly prized. Mention will also be made of the current trade bans covering ivories.

Maggie Campbell Pedersen is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, and an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photography. For many years she has combined her qualifications and taken them further to specialise in 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 aspects of the subject. She has given lectures and seminars world-wide, Master Classes in museums, and has appeared on television. Her photographs and articles have been published in many specialist books and magazines. She has also worked in various places as a research assistant in animal conservation, studying elephants, turtles, and other animals.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LECTURE REPLACES THE ONE LISTED IN THE PRINTED PROGRAMME

Remember when breakfast on a train tasted like breakfast? Marigolds grew on the platform. Farewell kisses at the barrier. A distant drumming, the train was coming. Mighty machines with curves and brass seduced us with the promise of their pleasures. Golden Arrows, Belles and Pullmans delivered us from the evil of wherever we lived. All along the odyssey the trains pulled on reliably, sailing the silver ribbons of Betjeman’s unmitigated England! Through the art of British railway posters, this lecture celebrates the love affair that once embraced the nation. It’s all abroad for a First Class journey!

Charles Harris had had a life-long career in advertising around the world, most of it as a Creative Director in global agencies. He has lectured extensively on design, illustration and photographic styles as they have influenced the building of brands. He has himself created posters for many major brands, including British Airways, Sony and Shell. He has also written and produced several hundred TV and Radio commercials.

Christopher Rogers is an old friend of Upper Thames DFAS, having lectured here on a number of occasions, most recently when he very kindly took the place of a lecturer who was unwell last year, and we are very pleased to welcome him back once more. Having read Geography at Oxford, he taught at Downe House School and at Marlborough College. He has been a NADFAS lecturer for many years and regularly teaches at the Marlborough College Summer School. Please note that this lecture is preceded by the Christmas Lunch. The Lunch is a ticket only event, but the Lecture is open to all Members.

Barry Venning graduated with an MA in the History of Art (Courtauld) and has been an Associate Lecturer with the Open University since 1986. His chief research interest is British landscape painting, especially the work of JMW Turner. He has worked on programmes for BBC TV and lectures at a wide range of organisations.

Martin Lloyd previously worked for HM Immigration Service. He has written a number of books, including “The Passport, The history of Man’s Most Travelled Document”, and has lectured and broadcast extensively in this country and abroad

Denise Heywood is an author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. She has worked in Cambodia and lived in France and America. Her publications include books on the Buddhist temples of Laos and on Cambodian dance. She lectures for the School of Oriental and African Studies, the British Museum, the Art Fund, and on cruise ships and is known internationally as a leading expert on the history and culture of Indo China.

Paul Faber is the grandson of the founder of Faber and Faber. He was the Managing Director of the company for four years and remains on its Board. He is passionate about the firm’s success and intensely proud of his association with it. In addition to his connection with Faber and Faber he is the author of ‘Stradivarius’ and ‘Faberge’s Eggs’, is a trustee of Yale University Press (UK) and lectures extensively in Britain and around the world. Please note that this lecture will be preceded by the AGM.

Lucia Gahlin is a specialist in the archaeology of Egypt, and an Honorary Research Associate of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She is also a visiting lecturer for the University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and teaches online Egyptology for the University of Exeter. Lucia’s research is centred on ancient Egyptian daily life rituals and beliefs, especially around purification and rites of passage. Her publications include ‘Egypt. Gods, Myths and Religion.’

Briony Hudson studied History at Cambridge University, and Museum Studies at Leicester University. Having worked at museums as diverse as Hereford Cider Museum, the V&A and Wakefield Museum, she became Keeper of the Museum Collections at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2002. Her publications include ‘English Delftware Drug Jars: The collection of the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’. She is the current President of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy, and lectures to wide-ranging audience on many topics relating to pharmacy history.

Jane Gardiner has an MA in the History of Art from the University of London. She trained at the V&A and continues to lecture there. She was a senior lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute for 17 years. She lectures for the Art Fund, the National Trust, London University, Michigan State University and on cruises. She has contributed four chapters to ‘Elements of Design and Stylistic Elements from the Renaissance to the Postmodern Era’.

Brian Stater’s chief interests lie in architecture, photography and history and he combines all three in his lecturing career. He has taught architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, since 1997. He is a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography and an exhibition of his own photographs has been staged at UCL.

Dr Stephen Kershaw has had a special interest in the world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans ever since being introduced to Homer’s Iliad by an inspirational teacher at his primary school. Since completing his PhD Stephen has taught Classics in a number of universities, and now operates principally for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He authored and teaches Oxford’s on-line Greek Mythology course. He travels and lectures extensively, currently running the European Studies Classical Tour for Rhodes College and the University of the South and acting as a guest speaker for Swan Hellenic and Royal Hebridean Cruises. He has published ‘A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths’ and ‘A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization’ and is currently working on ‘A Brief Guide to the Roman Empire’.

Sarah Deere-Jones performs, writes and lectures in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, having been a graduate and prize winner from the Royal Academy of Music. She has appeared on national radio and television in the UK and America. All her lectures include live music and songs on a variety of instruments

Well known from her appearances on the Antiques Roadshow, Joanna Hardy has over 30 years experience working with jewellery beginning her career as a goldsmith before joining De Beers as a rough diamond valuer. She then went to work in Antwerp as a polished diamond dealer before joining Philips the auctioneers in London. She then moved to Sotheby’s and for fourteen years was their senior jewellery specialist and auctioneer, where she was responsible for jewellery auctions in New York, Geneva and London. She is now an independent jewellery consultant delivering seminars, masterclasses and lectures worldwide.

Theodora Clarke is an art historian, critic and lecturer specialising in Russian art and European modernism. She studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art and at Newcastle University and lectures widely on twentieth century avant-garde painting and sculpture to audiences across the UK, including the V&A, Tate Britain, the Courtauld, the University of Bristol and Cambridge University. She edits the online magazine Russian Art and Culture and founded ‘Russian Art Week’ in London.

Daniel Snowman is a writer, broadcaster and professional lecturer, and the author of a dozen books on social and cultural history. Educated at the universities of Cambridge and Cornell, he lectured at the University of Sussex and then became Chief Producer, BBC Radio (Features). A long-time member of the London Philharmonic Choir, Daniel has always had a strong and informed interest in music and musicians. His latest book The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera has been published throughout the English-speaking world and translated into a number of foreign languages. Other titles include The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism and Historians.

We are very pleased to welcome Bertie Pearce back to Upper Thames. Bertie has a degree in Drama from Manchester University and a Diploma Internationale from the École Inernationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is also a member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. He lectures extensively in Britain, abroad and on cruise ships and has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled “All Aboard”.

Naomi Motley has a degree in History and a postgraduate diploma in the Fine and Decorative Arts, and has been involved with the art world for some 30 years in varied roles, from working in an auction house to cataloguing for the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. She has lectured for the extra mural departments of Bristol and Birmingham universities, taken a sabbatical with the University of New Hampshire in the USA and has talked to many societies interested in architecture and antiques.

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. She has a first class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate. She has been lecturing for the past ten years and now heads up the Visual Arts distance learning programme for Exeter University and is principal lecturer on NADFAS South West Area’s History of Art Foundation Course. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

We are very pleased to welcome Gillian White back to Upper Thames. Gillian specialises in the visual arts of late medieval and sixteenth-century England. She formerly worked for the National Trust as Curator/Collections Manager at Hardwick Hall, about which she then wrote her PhD at Warwick University. She now teaches part-time at Leicester University, predominantly in the Centre for the Study of the Country House, and is involved with the Continuing Education Department at Oxford University, as well as freelance lecturing.

Stephen Duffy read History and the History of Art at New College, Oxford. After working in marketing, he joined the Wallace Collection, where he is now Senior Curator with particular responsibility for exhibitions and nineteenth century paintings. He has given countless tours of the Collection to visiting groups and many lectures on its art. His latest publication is a book on the Wallace Collection’s miniatures. This lecture complements our visit to the Wallace Collection (and to the Drapers’ Hall) which is taking place on 24 February 2014.

We are delighted to welcome back Oliver Everett, who is an old friend of Upper Thames and has lectured to us on a number of previous occasions. Following service in the Foreign Office he was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, 1978-80 and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-3. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984-2002, and is Librarian Emeritus following his retirement. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, taught a course on its history and advised on a television programme about it. He has helped with two books on aspects of the Royal Collection and is advising on a possible history series for television. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad and also on cruise ships.