Stylish and colourful, Italian ceramics of the 1950s–70s reflect the many developments in ceramic design and modern art of the period. Although made in large quantities and exported across the world, until now little has been known about the companies, designers and influences behind these treasures. Major makers from Bitossi to Fantoni and the many factories on San Marino are covered and the identity of an important, forgotten factory is revealed.

Mark Hill

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. Between 2002-2017 he co-authored the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller. Founding his own publishing company in 2005 he has published over 15 books on emerging specialist subjects in the decorative arts. A "Miscellaneous" expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and the Antiques Roadtrip, he has also co-presented five primetime TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2 and lectured across the world, including at the V&A. A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and of the City of London, Mark is also a member of the British Antiques Dealers' Association and Senior Vice President at a company offering digital solutions to the antiques industry

Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian sculpture, painting, glyptic art: a survey of Mesopotamia’s contribution to the aesthetic inheritance of the world, assessed with the help of materials large and small from the British Museum collections. Art before the word ‘art’ existed.

Irving Finkel

Irving Finkel is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is currently Senior Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia. Irving is the author of academic articles and books on ancient Babylon. He also studies the history of board games and is on the Editorial Board of Board Game Studies. Among his breakthrough works is the determination of the rules of the Royal Game of Ur. Irving founded the Great Diary Project, a project to preserve the diaries of ordinary people. In association with the Bishopsgate Institute, he has helped to archive over 20,000 personal diaries.  Irving has written a number of works of fiction for children, including The Princess Who Wouldn't Come Home, Swizzle de Brax and the Blungaphone.  He is an experienced lecturer, broadcaster, teacher and presenter on You-Tube.

In this lecture, we consider the most intimate art of the Tudor age: the portrait miniature or ‘limning’. We trace the genre from its origins in illuminated books to its celebrated blossoming at the Elizabethan court. We explore the distinctive techniques and material ‘special effects’ of this peculiarly English craft, consider the lives and careers of the most famous miniaturists and reveal how the artform inspired the most brilliant poets of the age.

Christina Faraday

Dr Christina Faraday is a historian of art and ideas, specialising in Tudor and Stuart Britain and the wider 16th and 17th-century world. She is an Affiliated Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Cambridge, a Trustee of the Walpole Society for British art history and a BBC New Generation Thinker. Between 2020-2025 she was a Research Fellow in History of Art at Gonville and Caius College and now lectures at the History of Art Department, University of Cambridge, The Wallace Collection, the National Gallery and for Professional and Continuing Education at Cambridge where she is Co-Director of the MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture. Her first book, Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England, was published in 2023 and her latest book, The Story of Tudor Art, in September 2025. 

This lecture concentrates on the height of Scandinavian Modern design in the 1950s, when it took America and Europe by storm. It unpicks the machinations behind the scenes which led to the creation of modern classics.  It examines 19th century design reform, leading to the functionalist and ideological roots of Scandinavian Modern in the 1920s and 1930s.  It shows how design became a key propaganda tool of the Nordic social democratic project until well into the 1960s. 

It also explains how Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway broke away from Bauhaus and International Style to create softer, more organic furniture and graceful ceramics, glassware and textiles. But, using IKEA catalogues from the period, it shows just how resistant consumers were to the new, state-sanctioned, clean lines.  

Featuring designers such as Bruno Mathsson, Josef Frank, Astrid Sampe, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Tapio Wirkkala and Alvar Aalto, the talk explores just how ‘democratic’ Scandinavian design really was and asks whether our conception of it is based on a marketing myth, concealing hidden treasures, appalling copies and regional variations. 

The presentation revolves around three ground-breaking exhibitions: The Stockholm Exhibition (1930), Design in Scandinavia (1954-1957) and H55, Helsingborg (1955) to show how global conceptions of Scandinavian Modern became so completely different. And finally, there are tips for how to survive an afternoon in IKEA, by learning to identify what really is Scandinavian Modern and what isn't. 

James Vaux                   

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

James aims to question the underlying narratives behind artists, designers and movements to explore the 'why' and the 'how' instead of the conventional 'who', 'what' and 'when’. A truly gripping Arts Society talk needs a mystery to be solved, not a chronological series of items and events.

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

He has also studied interior design and art history at the Inchbald School, Mid-Century Modern at Sotheby’s Institute and electronic music at Point Blank. James lectures and provides study days focusing on Scandinavian Modern design, Danish design, Norse mythology, Icelandic literature, Swedish literature, the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic culture and the role of modernism in the Cold War. 

Jazz is one of music’s most important genres: a fascinating blend of rigorous structure, free-wheeling creativity, close-knit ensembles and imaginative improvisation. Drawing on his experience both as musicologist and gigging musician, Sandy can shed light on jazz from the inside. His talk covers the early years of jazz up to the Second World War, and touches on the disparate influences which lay behind the emergence of jazz. Musical illustrations range from the blues, ragtime and the very first jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the dawn of the Swing Era.

Sandy Burnett                             

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

From the moment they bonded over bad accommodation at Oxford, William Morris and Ned Jones became firm friends. They came from very different backgrounds – Morris had never wanted for anything; Jones’ family was poor – but their shared love of medieval literature and art bound them together. Over the more than 40 years of their friendship they weathered personal storms, tragedies and political disagreements to create beautiful art and craft, collaborating on book design, stained glass and many other decorative projects. This talk charts the peaks and troughs of Topsy and Ned’s long and fruitful friendship. 

Kirsty Hartsiotis        

Kirsty was the curator of decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham from 2008 to 2023. She is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, where she worked prior to 2008.  At Cheltenham she looked 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, including Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination and Making. 

Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, Kirsty is 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 has been an oral storyteller for over 20 years and has published several collections of stories. Kirsty is the Editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies and was the newsletter editor for Society of Decorative Art Collections. She is a regular columnist for Cotswold Life and writes for a range of other publications on art history and folklore.

The lecture will trace the story of Banksy’s humble beginnings as a tagger on the streets of Bristol in the 1980’s to one of the most recognisable names in the art world.  We will examine the reasons behind his incredible rise, looking at some of his famous stunts and discuss what his influence has been on the art market today and what his legacy, if any, might be. 

Pepe Martinez                             

Pepe qualified as a London Blue Badge tourist guide in 2011 and was honoured to receive the award for Best Overall Practical Guide. Since qualifying as a guide, he has specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London. Prior to becoming a London Blue Badge guide, he was a tour manager for 15 years, travelling extensively, all over the world

Alfred Lord Leighton was a bastion of the Establishment and Academic Art in the later 1800s, but he was also an experimental artist who explored the possibilities of the radical Aesthetic Movement which adopted the critic Walter Pater’s idea that ‘All the Arts aspire to the condition of music’. We shall look at his Academic Paintings, his Aesthetic Movement works and his pioneering work in raising the status of the decorative arts, by collecting Islamic tiles which we see so beautifully displayed in his purpose-built studio-home – itself a work of art. 

Sarah Ciacci                 

Sarah has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries. Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery. She is a gallery educator and Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University (since 2008) where she teaches the History of British Art, the History of Museums in London and the History of London and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.    

This lecture will introduce you to 19th century palaeontologist Mary Anning to discover how she searched the Jurassic rocks of England's south coast to unearth what were believed to be sea dragons but are now referred to as marine reptiles. We will look at the social history and influences of Mary and the 19th century scientists with whom she worked. We will look at these spectacular fossil remains, and the ways in which palaeontologists have revealed how these ancient, extinct animals lived.

The journey will take us into a distant past, from Southwest England to Southern Germany where the shallow seas were inhabited by fish lizards, marine crocodiles and floating islands of tree trunks with ancient starfish like animals attached to them. We will finish by looking at the animals that ruled the land for millions of years, the dinosaurs, and how the first palaeontologists discovered, reconstructed and named these amazing creatures from the Jurassic World.

 Aaron Hunter                               

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

Venice is known for Pizza, Pasta, Palaces and Popes, and for VETRO VENEZIANO...Venetian Glass.  The lecture explores how Murano became the epicentre of excellence for glassmaking across the world.    We begin by exploring the origin of Venice and the building of 189 canals to create the floating city of Venice, before taking a short gondola ride to the tiny island of Murano.  Here we learn of the many enduring styles of Murano glass and delve into the lives of these ancient artisans. 

Laurie Wickwire        

With over 35 years in the diamond industry, Laurie represents the industry across all sectors: mining, sorting, grading and brokering some of the world’s key rough stones.  

A graduate of GIA London, IGI Antwerp, and DeBeers Institute of Diamonds, Laurie is a certified diamond grader and pearl grader. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business and Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in French.   

Whether presenting diamond shows on national channels, hosting diamond master classes, filming jubilee specials or creating the historical jewellery range for both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle gift shops, Laurie’s love of the diamond industry is apparent.  Her industry knowledge has seen her guest on numerous internationally streamed podcasts, lecture on luxury cruise lines and create bespoke commissions for the Royal Family. 

The history of Britain is intricately woven with the history of textiles. Following World War II there was a desire for change, colour and inspiration in the home. This energy and innovation was led by female textile designers destined to revolutionise design internationally from the 1950s to the 1970s. This lecture celebrates their vision, their influences and their determination that successfully brought modern and contemporary art into the home through their designs and thereby democratising modern art for the first time by making it literally a part of the furniture.

Ashley Gray                   

Ashley is a leading specialist and curator in the key art discipline of Modern Textiles and their history. He is a regular ‘vetter’ at international fine art fairs and served on the Fair Committees of BADA, The Works on Paper Fair and the BADA Council. He is regularly invited to lecture on the subject both in the UK and the US and sits on the advisory board of The Frances Neady Collection at FIT, New York. As a curator and archivist he works with institutions and foundations on conservation and exhibition projects: most recently as co-curator of Material Textile; Modern British Female Designers’ and Material Textile; Creativity, History & Process, both with Messums Gallery, Common Thread at New Art Centre and From Bauhaus to our House at Cromwell Place. He also curates the acclaimed exhibition Styled by Design that celebrates the innovation of Modernist textile design alongside a comprehensive lecture programme that accompanies the exhibitions.

‘Welsh Art’ and Wales as an artistic destination are perhaps not subjects which have been given serious attention in the past. Welsh artists are often considered to be, at best, minor figures within the wider canon of British Art. Similarly, depictions of Wales are often little appreciated when considered alongside more ‘exotic’ locations.

This lecture seeks to enlighten audiences as to the key role Welsh artists have played commencing with the father of British landscape art, Richard Wilson. We will consider the enduring influence of the Welsh landscape in the emerging Romantic period (as captured by JMW Turner) through the later 19th Century with the establishment of the Betws y Coed artists’ colony. Then move on to the artists of the 20th century who have offered a very different interpretation to the vision of the ‘Land of my Fathers’. 

Ed Williams                  

Ed is based in the Northwest of England, as an Oxford educated Art Historian, who was tutored by Dr Janina Ramirez and Mary Acton, he is passionate about sharing his love of the History of Art to a range of audiences. He works at TATE Liverpool, delivering tours and talks of the collection and special exhibitions. He is also an official Green Badge Tour Guide for North Wales.

Ed teaches the History of Art at the University of Liverpool, where he specialises in teaching adult learners at the Department of Continuing Education. He regularly gives lectures to specialist interest groups and societies as well as U3A and WI groups.

He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics, and his work has been published in several journals and online publications.

The Old Testament book of Psalms is full of exhortations to worship God with song. But for the majority of history music has been shared without it ever being written down. Patrick will trace the origins of chant, the birth of polyphony and the invention of notation. He will feature some of the most imaginative and spectacular pieces of music that are based on a foundation of Gregorian chant. He will also reflect on his recent experience of leading his all-female professional choir Aurora Nova through a full 24 hour marathon of chant, recreating the monastic services of the Divine Office.

Patrick Craig

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

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

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

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

Sarah Dunant

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

Frank Matcham (1854-1920) was the architect of many of Britain’s best-known theatres, including the Hackney Empire, Buxton Opera House, Belfast Grand Opera House, Bristol Hippodrome, The Gaiety Theatre in Douglas, Isle of Man, and the London Coliseum. Simon Rees has worked in many of these theatres and gives an insider’s view of Matcham’s architectural legacy. The lecture is illustrated by present-day and period photographs, postcards from the turn of the century, and Matcham’s own fascinatingly detailed architectural drawings.

Simon Rees

Simon studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a BA and an MA in English Literature. He has taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. From 1989 to 2012 Simon was Dramaturg at Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. Now a freelance writer and lecturer, Simon lectures widely on opera, art history and literature, travelling extensively with travel companies. He has published several novels, including the award-winning The Devil's Looking-Glass, poems and opera librettos.

Joaquin Sorolla hated darkness. Claude Monet once said that painting in general did not have enough light in it. Sorolla could not agree more. Sorolla believed painters could never reproduce sunlight as it really is, and he could only “approach the truth of it”. Most of us when standing in front of one of his canvases would agree he was the master of light. He managed to capture like no other the light of the Mediterranean beaches he loved and the energy of Spanish life. He painted what he saw, quickly, to capture that precise moment. As he said "I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly".

Arantxa Sardina

Arantxa Sardina is an official volunteer guide at Tate, covering the permanent collection and some of the temporary exhibitions at both galleries, Modern and Britain. She completed her MA in Art History at the Open University in 2019, where her dissertation focused on fellow Spaniard Joaquin Sorolla, the master painter of Mediterranean light and a friend of John Singer Sargent. She is also an enthusiastic amateur musician, playing the cello and the piano and a lover of opera and ballet.  

A member of The Arts Society in Bromley, she takes every opportunity to learn about art and to find out more about the stories behind artworks. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and continuously learning from others.

Zen Buddhism has exerted a profound influence on the formation of Japanese visual culture since its introduction in the 13th century to the present day. Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on the practice of meditation, self-discipline, and the austere lifestyle appealed to the patrons from the warrior class, and the Zen teaching became the dominant philosophical basis that supported the development of the distinctive aesthetics of the 15th and 16th centuries. Many of the art forms, such as ink painting, dry landscape gardens and Noh drama developed during this period.

Dr Meri Arichi

Dr Meri Arichi studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s in Kings Street, London, from 1989 to 1993. She completed Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art (1994), MA (1996) in History of East Asian Art, and PhD in Japanese Art (2003) at SOAS. She taught History of Japanese Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS as a Senior Teaching Fellow from 2007 to 2016. She worked as a tutor for the Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art course at the British Museum from 2001 to 2007, and at SOAS from 2008 to 2016. She contributes to the Diploma course at SOAS as a guest speaker now. She has run course at the V&A, Birkbeck College, the British Museum and the Coutauld Institute Summer School. She is Trustee of the Japanese Women’s Association in Great Britain and the Chair of the Circle of Japanese Art London.

The commission to produce jewellery for the series and film Downton Abbey inspired Andrew to create a talk based on this unique period. Jewellery and Fashion are often seen as two entirely separate and distinct fields of design, but this is very far from the case. In his talk, Andrew guides you through the extraordinary decades and events between 1890 and 1929, where the great couturiers collaborated with the finest of jewellers to produce jewels and clothes of outstanding quality and glittering opulence. Along with this, he illustrates the clients and patrons who commissioned the jewels and shows how they were worn with their sumptuous gowns.

Andrew Prince

Andrew Prince has had a passion for jewellery since he was a small child. In fact his enthusiasm can be traced back to the time when, at the age of three, he swallowed one of his mother’s pearl earrings having found her jewel box hidden from him in a cupboard. The very first piece of jewellery he created was a ring made of copper wire pulled from the back of a television. He presented it to his grandmother (it turned her finger green and gave her a rash). He then created a necklace for his mother using beads taken off her wedding dress (she was not at all happy).

In 1980, when he was nine, Andrew's mother took him to the Princely Magnificence exhibition at the V&A, exhibiting Renaissance jewels dating from 1500 to 1630. It proved a revelation. Dazzled by the splendour and opulence of the jewels on show, Andrew decided then and there that creating jewellery was what he wanted to devote his life to. His passion for jewellery grew when, in 1984 on his first ever visit to Bond Street, Andrew viewed an exhibition by Castellani and Giulianoe at Wartski & Co’s. While there, he was allowed to handle beautiful 18th century gold boxes and magnificent imperial Russian pieces by Fabergé. In 1987, just before leaving school, he took time off to visit Geneva to view the astonishing Sotheby’s auction of the Duchess of Windsor's jewellery collection. Here, for the first time, he held pieces created by some of the world's greatest jewellers, fashioned from only the finest of stones and set in designs of outstanding quality. For the young Andrew, it was a life-changing experience.

In August of that year, two weeks after his 16th birthday, Andrew started work in London’s Bond Street, working for The Antiques Roadshow expert Ian Harris. Under his guidance, Andrew developed an appreciation for jewels that were valued for their quality of design and craftsmanship, rather than for how much the stones in the piece were worth. He then joined the renowned contemporary jeweller Elizabeth Gage and worked with her on the design and production side. Through her and her private collection, Andrew was able to see and handle rare and extraordinary stones with names such as Sphene, Andalusite, Spinel and Dioptase, many of which are far rarer than diamonds. Elizabeth Gage was to have an enormous influence on Andrew's sense of what was possible within the realm of jewellery design.

Andrew's taste for fine 'costume jewellery' can be traced back to an antique market, where he came across a late Victorian brooch set with what he initially thought were emeralds and diamonds. They were, in fact, crystal and green glass set in silver and gold. He realised that beautiful jewellery didn't require expensive stones, and that it was the elegance of the design and the quality of the workmanship that truly mattered. Private commissions then started to trickle in. The trickle turned into a flood, as celebrities such as Michael Jackson (a large crystal and pearl shoulder jewel) and Shirley Bassey (necklaces) were seen wearing Andrew's creations.

In 2002, the V&A commissioned a collection of jewels to accompany the resplendent Tiaras, Past and Present exhibition which became one of their most popular exhibits. The exposure gained by the show then led to Andrew's jewellery appearing in film.

In 2005, he was asked to make tiaras and jewellery for Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judy Dench. In 2009, pieces were commissioned for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson. In 2012, he was chosen by the creators of Downton Abbey to supply a large collection of jewellery for the third series. The characters played by Maggie Smith, Shirley Maclaine, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery were all adorned with elegant tiaras, combs, earrings and necklaces designed and created by Andrew Prince.

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

Gavin Plumley

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

The ancient Egyptians had extremely elaborate burial practices and funerary beliefs. In this lecture Lucia sheds light on the mysterious world of the Ancient Egyptian afterlife by exploring the art on the walls of tombs. She will focus on the tombs of the New Kingdom period (c1500 – 1000 BC), when Egypt was at the height of its power and prosperity under pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. She will explore the scenes on the walls of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the nearby tombs of their high officials, and the small but colourful tombs of the artists responsible for all funerary art on the west bank at Luxor during this time. She will also introduce you to the stunning array of funerary goods with which high-status ancient Egyptians chose to be buried – both a feast for the eyes, and of much religious significance.

Lucia Gahlin

Lucia is an egyptologist who has worked in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but these days mostly lectures. She is a former Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, and Lecturer in Egyptology at several UK universities. Lucia works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. She is the former Director of Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL, Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum, and Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society. Her publications include Egypt: gods, myths, religion.

Based on James' book Paul Nash in Pictures: Landscape and Dream, this lecture tells the story of Paul Nash's life through a selection of his finest paintings, supported by photographs and other material. From his own writing we learn that Nash was witty, playful and passionate. Investigating paintings like Event on the Downs we discover a world of love and struggle and realise that he was both clever and emotionally driven. A war artist in both World Wars, Nash defied chronic illness to paint until the last day of his life, leaving us with a unique vision of the British landscape.

James Russell

Having studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, James Russell enjoyed a lengthy stint selling contemporary paintings and sculpture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an experience that inspired him to begin writing and lecturing on 20th century art. Of his dozen or so books, one was a Sunday Times book of the year, while his writing has been described by critics as 'insightful', 'informative' and 'enjoyably readable'. James has curated major exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery and for museums around the country. He bases his lectures on wide-ranging original research into the subjects that fascinate him.

Sargent’s life is full of movement – born in Italy, he studied in Paris, painted portraits in London, produced oils and watercolours in Venice, was a First World War artist, and spent the later years of his life painting murals in Boston. My lecture looks in depth at his amazing portraits analysing just how he captured the character of his sitters and looking back to Van Dyck and Gainsborough. I look in detail at his Venetian oils and sparkling watercolours and outline the Anglo-American society in the Palazzo Barbaro that he frequented while in Venice. I look at his paintings done in the Alps with his friends while travelling down to Venice, and show his wartime watercolours. This is a sparkling lecture full of colour which shows that Sargent is a master in both oils and watercolours, as well as being a charming, musical and cosmopolitan man.

JULIAN HALSBY 

Julian studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. Publications include Venice - the Artist's Vision (1990, 1995), The Art of Diana Armfield RA (1995), Dictionary of Scottish Painters (1990, 1998, 2001, 4th edition 2010), A Hand to Obey the Demon's Eye (2000), Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940 (1986, 1991), A Private View - David Wolfers and the New Grafton Gallery (2002). Interviews artists for the Artist Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

The speaker has written over 100,000 words in the Financial Times Weekend on craftspeople: their passions, skills and materials. Some of them believe they are the last practitioners of their craft. How and why do people transform raw materials into works of art? How do their hands and tools transform raw materials into works of utility and beauty? And how do they see their prospects as inheritors and conduits of hand-crafted tradition in an industrialised world of mass production?

DR JONATHAN FOYLE 

Dr Jonathan Foyle is not an 'establishment' academic, but uses the original research he has gained over a 25-year practical career in the world of historic buildings and applied arts to inform architectural conservation projects, broadcasts, books, articles, and talks for groups including the Arts Society. A former Curator at Hampton Court, and Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years, he has authored seven volumes on great cathedrals and castles, and is best known for presenting series such as BBC2's Broadcast Award-winning Climbing Great Buildings and contributing to series like Channel 4's Time Team and currently Channel 5's Secrets of the Palaces. His talks combine humour with personal insights to offer in-depth and fresh analyses of architecture, furnishings, sculpture, paintings and their all-important symbolism, through which we can better understand them.

Contained in every work of art is a world of secrets – a coded language which locks the artwork into its own time and place in history. Added to this, artists have often deliberately obscured the true meanings of their work in symbols and iconography – complete worldviews and philosophies denied to the casual observer, often used at times when telling the real meaning might have resulted in disaster or even death. This lecture looks for the clues which reveal the truth – the keys which unlock the secrets of the great artists and their greatest works, as well as the personal secrets which humanise the myths. It examines, in depth: Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, Picasso’s Guernica, Botticelli’s Primavera and a small group of other world-changing pictures. 

ADRIAN SUMNER

Adrian has been lecturering at universities and higher education institutions since 1973. He has held the following roles: Director, Development of the Arts in Northwich (1984-1990); Arts Development Officer, Chester City Council (1990-2009); and Arts Development Officer, Cheshire West and Chester Council (2009-). He was a professional painter and illustrator (1973-2001), has undertaken tours and study weekends in UK and Europe, and has organised exhibitions for Chester City Council.

You may not have heard of her but from the early 1960s a young student called Margaret Calvert began working with designer Jock Kinneir and their work utterly transformed the entire face of modern Britain. They designed the road sign system from the typeface to the colours and shapes. They created the look of British Rail. Their signage was used by every hospital and NHS building. They created the yellow and black wayfinding system of British airports. And all of their ideas were copied around the world. Celebrate Calvert & Kinneir in this revealing lecture and you’ll never look at the UK the same again.

MARK OVENDEN

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit.

His first book Metro Maps of the World published in 2003 is a guide to the diagrams, plans and maps of underground rapid transit system including images ranging from photos of the systems to rare and historical maps. Paris Metro Style in map and station design was published November 2008. Railway Maps of the World was published in May 2011 in the USA, a British edition was produced in September 2011. London Underground by Design was published by Penguin Books in January 2013. A celebration of the Johnston typeface centenary and 90th Anniversary of Gill Sans was published in 2016, and in July 2017 Mark fronted a television documentary for BBC Four on the subject of Johnston and Gill and in November 2018 he presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4 on skyscrapers. Others works on graphic design and transport systems are in preparation.

The fears and anxieties of Vienna in the final years before the outbreak of the Great War found expression in the writing of Freud, the music of Gustav Mahler and the haunting paintings of Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele. Shimmering portraits flecked with gold; hypnotic landscapes of vibrant brushstrokes; erotic dreams of decadence and death reveal a society in search for salvation at a time when mankind had lost faith in its future. The lecture traces the course of this brief, often dark but always dazzlingly inventive period of art.

DOUGLAS SKEGGS

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

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

The Blitz that caused both ruin and deprivation in numerous British cities during the Second World War was a subject for both artists and photographers of the period. Bert Hardy, Lee Miller, John Minton and John Piper all captured in different ways the mood of war torn Britain. Following the aftermath of war The Festival of Britain in 1951, focused on representing a new moment of regeneration and initiative. Leading artists such as Peter Lanyon, Barbara Hepworth, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore all showed their work in the 1951 exhibition that drew people from across the world to celebrate and reflect on this new historical moment. The lecture will examine photographs, sculpture, painting and design, all a testament to the creative initiatives of the exhibitions' organizers and their desire to project British design prowess onto an international stage.

TRICHA PASSES

BA from the Courtauld Institute and MA from Bath Spa University; her thesis examined the work of Roger Fry and Roland Penrose. Research posts include work on 150 years of the Bristol School of Art (2003), Peace Gardens of the 1980s (2005) and Stanley Spencer: Journey to Burghclere (2006). Taught in the Art History Department at Bristol University since 2005 and in 2009 won the Teaching and Learning prize for the Faculty of Arts. Has also taught in the Visual Culture Department at the Faculty of Creative Arts at Bristol UWE since 1998, the Department for Continuing Education at Oxford University since 2008, and for American Studies Programmes in London since 1999. In 2019, Tricha won a Best of Bristol Lecturer Award for the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol.

(Please note this is a change to the published programme.)

Few tourists were seduced by the scenery of Wales before the late C18th, when Gilpin’s paintings and publications spread a fashion for the ‘picturesque’. In the 1770s Thomas Pennant wrote the first major travelogue to lay bare his country’s charms and make it attractive to the rest of Britain. The Napoleonic wars made ‘staycations’ fashionable, with the Welsh mountains christened the ‘British Alps’. British tourists expected Welsh natives to look and sound ‘odd’, and sought differences in dress. The origin and development of the ‘ancient Welsh Female Costume’ will be examined, as tourists declared Wales ‘a foreign country within our own’.

JACQUI ANSELL

Jacqui read History of Art and Theory at the University of Essex before going on to gain an MA in History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute. Formerly an Education Officer at the National Gallery, London, and a tutor and writer for the Open University, she has a wide range of teaching experience. She continues to lecture regularly on the public programmes of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and to publish on court dress, Grand Tour portraiture and Welsh Costume as well as dress as a cultural marker and indicator of class, gender, national and professional identity. Jacqui is a senior lecturer at Christie's Education, London.

Painted Illusionistic architecture has been used to enrich private and public interiors since ancient Rome. Inspired by a variety of Roman originals, Renaissance Italians developed decorative schemes that influenced the courts of Europe for generations - with results that can still be seen in today’s homes. Panelling, fixtures and fittings were integrated within architectural designs, and the introduction of movable oil paintings into these schemes shaped the evolution of picture hanging.

Artists and Houses include : Fresco styles at Pompeii; Nero’s Golden House; Palladio and Veronese at the Villa Maser;  Mantegna & Giulio Romano at the court of Mantua; Inigo Jones at Wilton House & a selection of modern trompe l’oeil artists.

STEPHEN TAYLOR 

Stephen is an artist and art historian. He studied John Constable as a post graduate at Essex and Yale, taught art at Felsted School and went on to became Head of Painting at The Open College of the Arts and course director for the Inchbald School of Design. In 2000, Stephen turned to landscape painting with early shows at King's College Cambridge, Meisel’s New York and Vertigo in London. Now has pictures in private collections world-wide and his book Oak: One tree, three years, fifty paintings was featured in The Guardian, The New Statesman and on Oprah Winfrey’s website.

Mankind has exploited the medicinal properties of plants for thousands of years, yet the role of plants in modern medicine is still considered to be peripheral by many people. This talk attempts to put the record straight and to show that plant products are used every day by all of us to relieve pain and suffering, to heal wounds and cure diseases. This is a talk with a very wide appeal and relevance.

TIMOTHY WALKER
From 1988 to 2014 I was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.  Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms and my lectures often investigate this relationship.  Since 2014 I have been a college lecturer and tutor in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College Oxford. 

This lecture focuses on the design impact of the Great Exhibition and the need for a 'legacy institution' in the form of the South Kensington Museum. We look at the building as a work of art and explore the work of William Morris, Fredrick Lord Leighton and other influential designers of the Victorian Age.

ANNA WARRILLOW

Anna graduated as a Blue Badge Guide early in 2013 and won an award for the best new guide at Westminster Abbey. Since then she has been conducting bespoke private tours for discerning visitors to London. She established her own guiding company Canvas and Stone Tours in 2018 (www.canvasandstonetours.co.uk)

Her background and passion is Art & History. She studied for her BA in History of Art & Italian at the University of Sussex and did her MA in Renaissance Decorative Arts & Design at the Royal College of Art. 

Anna worked for 6 years as a curator in the Sculpture Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum as well as in smaller collections such as the Henry Moore Family Trust. As well as guiding she is an adjunct lecturer at Richmond The American International University in London where she teaches undergraduates The History of London. 

I lecture regularly for art, history and academic societies as well as providing training courses and Continual Professional Development courses for students and guide members of the Institute of Tourist Guides.

This lecture looks at how JMW Turner articulated the dramatic changes taking place in the age of the Industrial Revolution with landscapes which created a new aesthetic of an industrial sublime.

CINDY POLEMIS

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

William Randolph Hearst had an obsession: In 1935, Forbes Magazine called him “quantitively the world’s number one collector of Objets d’Art” and when he died The New York Times stated that during the 1920s and 30s, he alone had accounted for 25% of the world’s art market activity. But to where was this king’s ransom headed, and hoarded? Some of you will already know of Hearst Castle in California, but lesser known is his 5-story Gothic castle hidden within a Manhattan apartment block; his weekend home on Long Island that inspired the castle in The Wizard of Oz; his sprawling 12th century castle in Wales with its own ghosts; and, the Bavarian village he built around his mother’s 7-story schloss deep in the forests of Northern California. Through the unparalleled extravagance of the places he lived in and loved, we’ll take a dive into the extraordinary life of the man who Orson Welles famously satirized as Citizen Kane - the same man who changed the face of journalism forever and built 'the greatest publicity machine in history', but died paying rent to his creditors.

MARK MEREDITH

Mark is a writer, the founder of HouseHistree.com, and lectures regularly at societies, festivals and clubs in both Europe and the United States. After leaving Stowe School, Mark worked for twenty years as a plumber in London. However, his real passion has always been for history, particularly the history behind houses through the characters that conjoin to create them. His special interest lies with the great American houses and their relationships with those in Europe, both socially and architecturally. 

Born in the years between the World Wars, Romantic Modernism continues to inspire 21st century designers and painters like Mark Hearld and Emily Sutton. This lecture offers a vibrant alternative vision of Modernist art, from a British perspective. 

SUZANNE FAGENCE COOPER

Suzanne studied History at Oxford University and Art History at the Courtauld Institute, and at Christie's Education. She was a Curator and Research Fellow at the V&A Museum for 12 years and now is a Visiting Fellow at the University of York. She has lectured extensively for museums and on Cunard liners, and undertaken broadcasts and consultancies for the BBC and Channel Four. Suzanne was the Historical Consultant to Ralph Fiennes for The Invisible Woman, a film about Charles Dickens, and for the BBC drama The Living and the Dead. Her publications include Pre-Raphaelite Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum (2003), The Victorian Woman (2001), and Effie Gray, Ruskin & Millais (2010). She was the Research Curator at York Art Gallery for the exhibition Ruskin, Turner & the Storm Cloud (2019) and her most recent book is To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters. Suzanne is currently working on a new book: At Home with Jane and William Morris. 

While championed by princes and rich merchants from an early age, the work of Rembrandt in his later years found few admirers. Characterised by brooding figures in ever-somber settings, many of his figurative paintings from this period also had few artistic followers or imitators; yet this intensely penetrating work was to inspire a much later generation of artists and cultural figures as it continues to do today. Following, in part, the conception of the major exhibition staged at the National Gallery, London, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, in 2014, this lecture looks to understand the nature of Rembrandt’s late work, the reasons for the changes in its critical acclaim, as well as the possible motivations behind Rembrandt’s persistence despite these changes.

DR ALBERT GODETZKY

Albert Godetzky’s research concentrates on Northern European art of the early modern period. He is currently Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute where he received his PhD with a thesis on ‘Haarlem Mannerism’. Before joining the Courtauld, Albert was Visiting Lecturer at The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Harry M. Weinrebe Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, London, where he contributed to exhibitions including Rembrandt: The Late Works and Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure. Albert also works as a cultural advisor to several international corporate institutions and private individuals, drawing on his experience in the field and using education to widen understanding of and participation in the study of art history.

An introduction to Islamic art and architecture, this lecture takes us on a journey across the greater Middle East, from mediaeval Andalusia and North Africa to Persia. There’s a sense that while we might struggle to define Islamic art and architecture we’d recognise it if we saw it.  

This lecture opens with a practical definition of the subject. After that, we’ll turn our attention to an exploration of the four main features common to the vast majority of Islamic art and architecture: calligraphic; geometric; vegetal; and figurative. To do this, we’ll look at the finest examples of Islamic art and architecture from the Middle East and in collections across Europe and North America. 

Rather than, “I don’t know much about Islamic art and architecture, but I know what I like”, this presentation will allow you to say, “I know quite a lot, and have seen much that I love!"

EAMONN GEARON

Eamonn Gearon is an author, historian, and recovering journalist, who lived and worked across the greater Middle East – from Kabul to Casablanca – for more than 20 years. As well as living in the Sahara with the Bedu, Eamonn conducted a number of solo, camel-powered expeditions … and has never lost money when re-selling a camel! 

The author of three, multi-million selling lecture series on Middle Eastern history and culture for The Great Courses, in addition to entertaining general audiences, Eamonn also designed, and is responsible for delivering Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area studies training for both the British and American governments, at the US Department of State and FCDO (ex-FCO) respectively.

Eamonn’s a highly experienced speaker who has spent years delivering entertaining and educational presentations to audiences of all shapes and sizes, including the universities of Oxford and Harvard, scientific and geographical societies, aboard Queen Mary 2, and in scores of other venues on both sides of the Atlantic and across the Middle East and North Africa. 

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

DAVID WRIGHT

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

Please note that, very appropriately, we will be having a drinks reception in Chapter after this lecture to welcome everyone back in person and to say hello to new members.  We hope that many of you will be able to join us.

When Henry VII arranged the marriage of his favourite, Sir Charles Somerset (a descendant of John of Gaunt), to his ward, the Welsh heiress, Elizabeth Herbert, in 1492, it heralded the meteoric rise of the wealthy and politically savvy Somerset family dynasty (Dukes of Beaufort from 1682). Elizabeth brought the Herbert’s main residence of Raglan Castle in Wales to the marriage. This lecture covers the Somerset family’s transition of Raglan from fortress to Renaissance palace. It deals with the fall of Raglan in the Civil War and the family’s subsequent move to Troy ‘Palace’ near Monmouth, where they enriched Troy’s architecture and gardens to reflect the family’s national importance. Finally, following the first Duke of Beaufort’s astute reclamation of the family’s wealth and position during the reign of Charles II – and his wife’s design and botanical skills ‒ Badminton became the main family seat, famous for its palatial buildings and cosmologically inspired gardens.

DR ANN BENSON

Dr Ann Benson FSA FRHistS is a writer and lecturer on Garden, Landscape and Architectural History specializing in the Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian periods. She teaches and lectures for the Society of Antiquaries, the Gardens Trust, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and many local history groups. Ann has also taught garden history at the Institute for Historical Research. She has degrees in Garden History (MA, Distinction), Learning and Assessment (MEd, PhD) and Science (BSc, Hons). Ann was first a teacher and then an academic at the universities of Oxford, Bristol, and the Open University whilst serving as a consultant for the UK’s Cabinet Office. She has published three ground-breaking history books, one commissioned by the Duke of Beaufort, and many peer-reviewed articles on garden and architectural history. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians of London, Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow for her garden history research, an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates, and Beaufort Visiting Fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. She has forty years’ experience of being an educator and continues to love sharing her knowledge and experience with others.

Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century is the theme of a series of lectures and Study Days by retired graphic designer Howard Smith. All are possibly in living memory or near living memory. Each lecture lasts an hour and is an in-depth fully researched exploration of extraordinary creativity sometimes in unbelievable circumstances.

Graphic Art is art for a purpose no different to the portraiture of Sir Thomas Lely or Rembrandt’s The Night Watch which were pure commercial ventures. Because subjects are recent there is a wealth of actual information to support the stories, which are both nostalgic and entertaining. All lectures are lavishly illustrated and contain vintage film clips.

HOWARD SMITH

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International advertising agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. His website on http://www.howardsmith.me.uk has full details. He was delighted to become an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society in 2017.

His lectures mainly cover an extraordinary fifty-year period which saw immense change, ingenuity and creativity and set the theme of 'Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century'. A full colour 20pp brochure is available on request with no obligation.

The flower paintings of Cedric Morris (1889 - 1982) capturing plants around the Mediterranean, the Canaries and beyond reveal him as a consummate botanist. After a fire in 1940, Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines were forced to relocate their East Anglia School of Painting and Drawing to Benton End near Hadleigh, in Suffolk. This was not just a school but a vibrant eclectic artistic hub in a setting of Morris’s horticultural genius. He lived in Benton End until his death, enjoying national stature as an artist and plantsman whose legacy included over 99 new irises.

CAROLINE HOLMES

Has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe, Japan and on cruises to the Baltic, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Indian Ocean. In 2017 she returned to The Arts Society in New Zealand. Lectures for the University of Cambridge ICE (Course Director for International Summer Programme), the Royal Horticultural Society, museums, and specialist travel companies. Consultant designer specializing in evoking historic, artistic and symbolic references. Author of 11 books including Water Lilies and Bory Latour-Marliac, the genius behind Monet’s water lilies; Impressionists in their Gardens; Follies of Europe: Architectural Extravaganzas; Monet at Giverny and Icons of Garden Design. Theatre productions: How does your garden grow Mr. Shakespeare and Impressionists in their Gardens: living light and colour. Presenter and contributor on television and BBC Radio 4. 2017 recipient of the Herb Society of America ‘Elizabeth Crisp Rea Award’.

Who really was Caravaggio?  So much has been written about Caravaggio the man, the artist, his impact and influence. Publications, films and articles have proliferated over the last forty years, sometimes creating confusion rather than clarification.  The lecture will be an opportunity to look at what has been recently discovered and a chance to reappraise his life and work, in the context of his contemporarys and followers.

CLARE FORD-WILLE

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

Encouraged by photographer and gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe abandoned her teaching career to eventually become one of America’s most popular artists, with an international reputation.  She is best-known for her dramatic, and sometimes controversial, pictures of flowers in which she enlarged the smallest of petals to fill the entire canvas and arrest the viewer’s attention.  Her legacy of some 900 paintings, also embraces New York’s skyscrapers, her almost abstract treatment of Lake George’s landscape and the sun-bleached animal bones depicted against the rugged New Mexico landscape.  After visiting New Mexico regularly from 1929 it became her permanent home from 1949.  Here she worked right up to the end of her life; she died at 98.  Throughout this long and productive career, she was conscious of European avant-garde trends in art, but remained faithful to her own unique vision of the natural world.

Bernard Allan

Bernard has a BA (Hons) in History and an MA in History of Art. Having taken early retirement, he commenced a new career as an art history tutor for the WEA. He has taught French and British art of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as women's art, for the past eight years. He has lectured to various societies, and guided parties around galleries in London and Paris. In addition to teaching, he is currently researching artists working in Sussex in the 19th century, with a view to publication.

Mexico has a vast range of visually splendid festivals, many featuring lavish processions and masked dances with richly decorated costumes. After the Spanish conquests of 1521, priests used theatrical representation as the method of instruction. Traditionally there are very elaborate nativity scenes in Mexican homes and the Christmas story is acted out in towns and villages; adults and children perform as shepherds and shepherdesses, hermits and devils. Other important celebrations include All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day and Carnival.

CHLOE SAYER

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

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

DR GILLIAN WHITE

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

Mobile number is provided for use on the day of lecture.

As a pioneer of literary modernism, T.S. Eliot inevitably influenced his counterparts in the visual arts. He was friends with several artists. Edward McKnight Kauffer and David Jones illustrated his work; Wyndham Lewis painted him; Jacob Epstein sculpted him. There are paintings inspired by his poems and the reverse is also true. ‘The Waste Land’ famously employs techniques borrowed from modern art. This lecture will explore some of these connections, whilst also taking the chance to display some of Eliot’s own artistic creations; the jokey little sketches he included in letters to children.

TOBY FABER

Toby is an experienced lecturer and public speaker who has been accredited by The Arts Society since 2012. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press.

Toby has written three narrative histories: Stradivarius – Five Violins, One Cello and a Genius; Faberge’s Eggs; and Faber & Faber – The Untold Story, as well as a novel, Close to the Edge. Of these, only the obvious one is published by the family firm.

This lecture will look at the history of the chair and of “sitting solutions”. It will chart the humble to high design, from antiquity to the 21st Century. Never again will you take a seat for granted!

MARC ALLUM

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

Grace Higgens joined the unconventional Bell household aged 15 and for the next fifty years propped up the ’Bloomsbury Set’ in London and at Charleston. Vanessa Bell couldn’t live without her housekeeper’s cooking or her regular posing as an artist’s model. Virginia Woolf tried to poach her for her baking. Grace’s candid diaries paint a picture of bohemia rather different to the official narrative

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. 

Are portraits supposed to look like the sitter or are they a way of probing something deeper? Portraits form part of a collection of almost every art gallery in the Western world. They are created for a myriad of reasons - money, power, propaganda, death, life and love. But what makes one ‘great’? From El Greco’s mysterious ‘Lady in a fur wrap’ to Vermeer’s iconic ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’, to Norman Rothwell’s entertaining yet self-deprecating ’Triple Self Portrait’, this talk will explore the secrets behind some of the most famous portrait paintings.

STELLA LYONS

‘Without sacrificing scholarship, Stella Lyons has a most engaging way of hooking an audience into sharing her passionate interest in art history, drawing three dimensional human stories and experiences from the two-dimensional canvas’ – Maev Kennedy, writer and Arts correspondent for The Guardian

Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance Art History lecturer, speaker and writer accredited with The Arts Society. She has lectured across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and will soon embark on a lecturing tour in Australasia.

Stella gained her BA in the History of Art with a 1st class in her dissertation from the University of Bristol (2007-2011), and her MA in History of Art from the University of Warwick. She spent a year studying Renaissance art in Italy at the British Institute of Florence, and three months studying Venetian art in Venice. In addition, she attended drawing classes at the prestigious Charles H. Cecil studios in Florence, a private atelier that follows a curriculum based on the leading ateliers of nineteenth century Paris.

Stella runs her own Art History lectures both in person and online. She is a regular lecturer in the UK and Europe for The Arts Society, Tour companies, and the National Trust, amongst others. Stella is also a part-time lecturer for the University of South Wales.

She has written about art for several publications and her article on Norwegian art was recently featured on the front cover of The Arts Society magazine.

In addition to her lecturing work, Stella works as an artist’s model for the internationally renowned figurative artist, Harry Holland.

Colours are radiant energies that affect us positively and negatively, and red is the most forceful of all. The lecture will look at the way artists have used red to express these opposing energies, for example, landscape painters will often use a dab of scarlet on a figure’s clothing so that the figure does not get lost amidst all the greens and browns. The history of red pigment will be explored in conjunction with the analysis of painting’s formal qualities.

ALEXANDRA DRYSDALE

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

The role of sculptures has changed substantially in recent times.  This lecture will consider how the concept of monument and memorial shifts towards other concerns.  Sculpture now plays a vitally important role in terms of site in the city; how the sculpture park came into being in the mid-twentieth century, thanks to the effects of Sir Henry Moore.  The work of Anthony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Richard Long will be explored and how sculpture has become a challenging and exciting space for social encounter.

ANNA MOSZYNSKA

I am a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art. During the 1990s, I oversaw the development of the first British Master’s Degree in the subject at Sotheby’s Institute. I have also taught at institutions including The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate London, as well as lecturing in cities ranging from Dubai to New York. I currently teach at academic institutions in London and Paris and run my own courses. My books include Abstract Art (1990, enlarged ed. 2020) and Sculpture Now (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson. I enjoy introducing art to audiences in a lively and approachable way to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.