On Saturday November 22nd, 1913, Mrs. Edith Britten of Lowestoft, Suffolk, gave birth to her fourth child, a boy.  She said, “Today is St. Cecilia’s Day, - the Patron Saint of Music - he must be a musician” – and she imagined that he would become the fourth “B”, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms …. and Britten.  2026 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the death of one of this country’s most original and versatile composers, Benjamin Britten.  There’s to be a new statue of him as a boy erected on Lowestoft seafront this summer, 2025.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

The Impressionists were an innovative and radical group of artists whose took Paris by storm in the 1870s. Using new colours and techniques, they created paintings of modern life which shocked and horrified the art establishment. From the start the group included women artists but their contribution to Impressionism has often been overshadowed by their male contemporaries. Marie Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt all exhibited regularly at the Impressionist exhibitions alongside artists such as Monet, Renoir and Degas.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

This lecture is a biography of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, with a particular emphasis on the development of his rheumatoid arthritis and how that affected his life and his art.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain rose as the great European superpower with an empire spanning the globe. This vast wealth, alongside the renewed catholic fervour of the counter reformation kickstarted the Spanish siglo d’oro – literally the century of gold - the great flourishing of painting, sculpture, literature and music. The lecture explores this period, looking at the historical moment and vast array of art before focusing in on the work of the greatest painter of the age, Diego Velázquez.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

From hotels, restaurants and tube stations to apartment blocks, offices, picture houses and lidos, the British public fell in love with Art Deco architecture of the 1920s and 1930s and embraced it whole-heartedly.

After decades of closure, 2022 marks the unveiling of the restored and instantly recognisable Battersea Power Station which commenced its construction in 1929.

This is TASHA's Free February lecture; guests may book online free of charge using the following link: Free February Guest Booking

A musical biography of the composer of the Blue Danube and his family.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

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 Pollock evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should be.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

Sandro Botticelli is one of the most popular painters of the Italian Renaissance. His beautiful 'Birth of Venus' and elegant 'Primavera' are amongst the best known images from the Florentine Golden Age, but the times he lived in were volatile and dangerous and his art masked political turmoil and religious unease. As Florence moved from the luxurious era of the Medici to the religious austerity of Savonarola, Botticelli and his painting became part of this great change - but was he on the side of the angels or the devils? 

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

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.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

Sandy Burnett will play his double bass in the auditorium before the lecture.

Bridge the Thames as people have been doing since the Bronze Age - 1,500 years before the Romans built London Bridge. In the 1,700 year wait for the next bridge, other crossings relied on watermen and horse ferries, as traffic jammed on London Bridge. The last 200 years have seen over 50 new crossings over and under the river. Some are great feats of engineering, some are architecturally elegant. Every crossover changes the city’s genetic code. Even now a newly designed bridge awaits a start on site. This lecture explores the way we have connected up across the Thames and what that tells us about the culture of the capital through time.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

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.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

This lecture explores the idea of marriage as the cornerstone of Florentine society - set to shore up dynastic and economic unions.  We look at the exquisite furniture associated with the marriage ceremony.  Wedding chests or Cassone - painted, gilded and carved chests for the purpose of containing the bride's dowry.  These magnificent chests, like the bride would have been paraded through the city streets for all to see - and only guess at the luxurious contents contained within!! 

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

Most people love watching and listening to birds, from colourful jays and peacocks to the tuneful songs of blackbirds and thrushes.  In this lecture we will see them depicted in Aboriginal rock decorations, millennia ago, then as the attributes of gods, such as Juno’s peacocks or Minerva’s wise owl in classical times, right up to the present day.

 Paintings by artists as diverse as Dürer and Picasso and sculptures by Brancusi and Elisabeth Frink, amongst others, show birds of many different shapes and sizes, as both hunters and the hunted.

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

This is our Free Taster!
Book your Guest ticket here

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? There are many fascinating examples from the strong-willed business women, Artemisia Gentileschi and Maria van Oosterwyck to the portraitist Elizabeth Vigée Lebrun, who fled the French Revolution and whose memoirs describe all this and more.  

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

We are still living amongst the infrastructure created by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 19 th century. He changed the face of the English landscape with his ground-breaking projects including railways, bridges, tunnels, ships, and grand buildings such as the magnificent Paddington Station. He merged art with engineering and science and was a pioneer and a revolutionary. And he was brilliant. We'll look at the man, his background, his work, and his legacy.

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

This lecture looks at the story of a remarkable book published in 1539 called In Chaldaicam Lingua. It was published by Theseo Ambrogio who had been the Pope’s enforcer of doctrine, with the Lord’s Prayer and selected psalms translated into multiple languages for missionaries to use. However Ambrogio also had an eccentric uncle who was an inventor and had invented a brand new kind of bagpipe….that no one wanted to make, so he died with his vision mostly unrealised. Feeling that his uncle’s legacy shouldn’t be forgotten, Ambrogio included the designs for his Uncle’s Bagpipe in his new book of prayers. As well as the details of a seance he held with the devil…complete with the devil’s answer.  Sophie Matthews is a musician and her interest in this book came through the musical side. As part of the lecture she has a reconstruction of the Uncle’s Bagpipe to play for you, as well as an original copy of the book.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

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

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

This lecture is in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the birth in 1874 of Gustav Holst.

“The Planets” by Gustav Holst is one of the most popular and most recorded work in English music.  Yet, apart from the tunes for the hymn “I Vow to Thee, My Country” and the carol “In the Bleak Midwinter”, most of Holst’s other music is neglected, unjustly so.  Holst was an unconventional man who led something of a double life.  He was a vegetarian and spent most of his working life as Director of Music in a girls’ school, but he embraced Hindu philosophy and taught himself Sanskrit.  One holiday he lived in a street of brothels in Algiers and cycled into the Sahara Desert.  He believed that music should be available for everyone and was appointed conductor of a Socialist choir and Director of Music in Morley College, an institution set up for the educational benefit of working men and women.  He championed the amateur musician and famously said, “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly”.  In fact he was a talented conductor and produced performances of real quality. After the success of “The Planets”, first performed in 1917, he never wrote a similar orchestral work, and dedicated himself mainly to vocal and choral music, much of which was based on Sanskrit texts for which he provided his own translation. He was also working at a time when musicians were beginning to wake up to the huge wealth of English folk music, and many of his compositions are imbued with that folk-song quality which gives them great charm. 

This lecture will examine Holst’s life, the creation of “The Planets” and will explore many of his other works, including his ‘Oriental’ suite “Beni Mora” which was inspired by hearing a flute-player in Algiers, his “Choral Symphony”, a marvellous piece which sets poetry by Keats, and the settings of the Rig Veda, some of the most important Hindu texts.  His so-called serious orchestral works do not follow convention.  For example, his concerto for oboe and flute suddenly breaks into a nursery rhyme. It will be a surprising and revealing lecture, which is richly illustrated with musical examples.

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Guests may book online using the following link: Guest Booking

The lecture covers the career, style and impact of the Renaissance master painter, from his prodigious childhood in Urbino, to the Princely reputation he enjoyed in Rome. Helen will explore early works of the artist, as well as discussing the vast frescos in the Vatican and his other major work. Discover the truth behind his competition with Michelangelo, his shocking death, and how this artist became the celebrated Prince of painting, honoured with a burial in one of the most remarkable buildings in the world.

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

In Greek legend, Pandora was created with the express purpose of causing trouble to men which, by opening her box, she achieved. This lecture looks at the original sources for the story, draws parallels with both Eve in Genesis and Galatea in Ovid before showing how ballets, operas and plays from Coppelia to My Fair Lady and The Winter’s Tale to Educating Rita have developed the theme of a creation that runs out of control. 

Lectures start at 10 30 prompt,  please arrive in good time from 10:00 to have a free tea or coffee and chat.

Colour theory underpins the visual world. Today there is a sense of thinking there is one colour theory, but actually over history many people have contributed from Aristotle to Goethe, from Newton to Joseph Albers. This is a very colourful lecture which will explore some of the theories and the wonderful colour charts they produced giving a visual feast.

The Royal Collection of Art comprises more than 7,000 works. All these paintings have been acquired by previous monarchs and passed down over the centuries. At his coronation, Charles III promises to care for these gorgeous paintings and to pass them on to the next monarch in as good a condition or better than that in which he inherited them. Charles I was perhaps our most avid collector of Italian Renaissance pieces and it is largely these works that we shall be looking at today. Leonardo da Vinci, Agnolo Bronzino, Artemisia Gentileschi, Andrea Mantegna and Caravaggio among others will feature in this stroll through the glorious colours and fantastical stories that make up the Italian Renaissance section of our present day Royal Collection.

An American artist in London, James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a leading proponent of the idea of "art for art's sake". He signed his paintings with stylized monogram of a butterfly with a long stinger for a tail – as much a symbol of his love of Japanese art as his assertive and sometimes combative nature.

Having lived and worked with the Paris avant-garde he settled in London in 1859 having created a distinctive Post-Impressionist style at a time when many of his British contemporaries had yet to come to terms with Impressionism. Whistler’s art moved painting towards abstraction, sparked a renaissance in printmaking and gave us the Peacock Room, a masterpiece of interior design.

Inspired, influential, and infuriating, his art was full of subtle delicacy, he had a wide social network of friends and family and yet, if crossed, could be a formidable opponent. He mastered the art of making enemies.

The world of opera is full of remarkable contributors, great game changers who leave the stage in a completely different place from the one they found. In the 19th century three such men revolutionised the art form; in three very different ways; Verdi, Wagner and Puccini. From the romantic heart-breakers of La Traviata and Rigoletto via the mystery and magic of the The Ring Cycle to the breath-taking melodramatic tear jerkers of Tosca and La Bohème. Enjoy their remarkable journeys and innovative, dynamic and thrilling theatricality which highlights so much of their work. This illustrated lecture will highlight the great opera productions which have graced the worlds opera houses.

Jamie Hayes (Director)

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. (RADA)

 Recent new productions include: Carmen, La Bohème, La Traviata, Il Seraglio, Tosca & Macbeth; Icelandic National Opera, Reykjavik. Faust and Les Pêcheurs de perles; Victoria State Opera, Melbourne, Il barbiere di Siviglia. National Opera of Malta, Aida; Opera Northern Ireland, Il barbiere di Siviglia & La Cenerentola; Garsington, Zaza & La rencontre imprévue; Wexford, L’italiana in Londra, Le Huron & L'italiana in Algeri; Buxton Festival, The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream & The Gondoliers; Covent Garden and Hampton Court Festivals, Benvenuto Cellini & Dick Whittington & I Lombardi; University College Opera. For Opera Holland Park; La Bohème, L’Arlesiana, I Pagliacci & Carmen. The Gondoliers for Carl Rosa Opera. La Vera Costanza, Royal Academy of Music.

Jamie enjoyed a long and rewarding association with British Youth Opera as Director of Productions; 1995-2000.

Jamie was also Director of Productions for Clonter Opera in Cheshire. Productions include La Traviata, La Bohème, La Cenerentola, L’Elisir d’Amore, Carmen, Il Tabarro and Don Giovanni. His La Traviata was awarded The Manchester Evening News Award for Best Opera (2006) and his Don Giovanni of the following year received a nomination.

Jamie has directed many productions at leading conservatoires: The Royal Academy of Music, The Royal College of Music, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, The Royal Northern College of Music & The Guild Hall School of Music and Drama. 

Musicals include Associate Director to Nicholas Hytner on the original production of Miss Saigon in the West End and Broadway. For the Musical Theatre Academy, based in the midlands, Jamie has directed new productions of Oliver! Anything Goes, Singin’ in the Rain, Me and My Girl, The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Scrooge, Footloose, Beauty and the Beast & Working.

In recent years Jamie has been engaged as Guest Speaker on the Carnival Line Cruise Ships, Saga, Fred Olsen, P&O and Viking; his talks specializing upon theatre, opera and music. In 2022 Jamie became an accredited lecturer for the Arts Society.

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

The temple complex of Angkor is the greatest archaeological site in Asia. There are dozens of temples, many covered in jungle, but the most important is Angkor Wat. Built in the 12th century, it is the biggest religious monument in the world, a recreation on earth of the Hindu cosmos, aligned with the sun and moon and covered with exquisite carvings. 

 This lecture will focus on Angkor’s artistic heritage and religious symbolism. It will reveal the history of the Khmer empire and its flowering of sculptural art. Other temples will features, such as the mysterious Bayon and Banteay Srei, carved in pink sandstone. 

 It concludes with contemporary Cambodia and the living arts, especially classical dance, performed at the temples in celebration of the gods. Gorgeous dancers in shimmering silk costumes re-enact the Ramayana as the setting sun turns everything from red to gold. 

A jam-packed hour of information and entertainment. Take a trip with Margaret as she delves into the 5000-year history, development, design, music, and lore of this fascinating instrument.

Boasting over 1400 working parts, you will learn how the complex pedal mechanism was introduced and perfected into the instrument played today together with slides of the extraordinary designs as the instrument developed over the centuries.

Indulge in the lavishly decorated Rococo harps made for Queen Marie Antoinette, the fashion statement that became associated with the instrument - and listen as Margaret plays her harp for you on this unique musical journey.

The saints of the Christian Church begin in the Bible itself, but many favourites have separate, later stories of their own. St George and St Katherine may still be familiar, but what about St Apollonia or St William of York? St Zita or Little St Hugh of Lincoln? Each has their unique tale and their importance to the lives of the faithful.  

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. Not just a School but a vibrant eclectic artistic hub in a setting of Morris’s horticultural genius. He lived at Benton End until his death, enjoying national stature as artist and plantsman whose legacy included over 90 new irises.

How was one of the most important books in the English Language created by Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors seven years after his death? How was the book put together, what was missing and without it would we have truly have lost eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays? This lecture looks at the creation of the book, its structure and design, the people involved in the extraordinary project and the subsequent history of some of the copies and their distribution across the world.

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

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

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

For more than three centuries Sadler's Wells has been a place of entertainment and a part of London's theatrical history with a reputation known across the world. Surviving many highs, lows and rebuildings, the theatre has hosted and nurtured an impressive array of performing companies over the years. We follow the unique story of The Wells which includes pony racing, naval warfare, Shakespeare with Sir John Gielgud as well as the strongest connections with the worlds of opera and dance and the roots of today's Royal Ballet companies. A fully illustrated talk with audio & video clips.

For many centuries the Four Seasons have acted as reminders of the passage of time and the Ages of Man.  But more than that, the sheer beauty and variety of subjects which come under this title demonstrate the extent to which it has inspired artists, both ancient and modern, and how spiritual and allegorical meaning is so often embedded in the images.

Through the skill of the artist we can experience the torrid heat of an Australian Summer, the cool mists of an English Autumn, the beauty of a snow-bound Winter and the bright freshness of Spring.  Even torrential rain can be thrilling in art. As Ruskin said, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of weather.”

How should we look at animals? – one of the eternal questions intriguing artists. Are they our friends and servants, to be depicted for their beauty, and for the credit they reflect on their owners? Or are they brute beasts, represented to remind us of the threat they may pose? Most important, are they really so different from us? From the animal-headed gods of the Egyptians to the sinister hybrids of BritArt, by way of Botticelli’s centaur, Rubens’ tiger hunts, Stubbs’ race-horses, Goya’s bullfights, Turner’s whales, Landseer’s dogs, Seurat’s circus, Picasso’s Minotaur and Hockney’s cat Percy, this talk looks at what artists, in portraying animals, have been trying to tell us about ourselves.

The past decade has seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile young British designer with his acclaimed Olympic Cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for a spectacular new HQ building for Google. Over the last twenty years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world. This talk looks at the problems presented, and the wonderfully creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded.

An overview of Britain’s ‘Big Four’ postwar glass companies, comprising Whitefriars, King’s Lynn (Wedgwood), Caithness and Dartington. As well as company and designer histories, special slides examine, compare and contrast ‘Good, Better, Best’ examples from each company. The emergence of these factories is put into context and major influences behind them are discussed. The current glut of Whitefriars fakes are covered, including tips on how to spot them.

One of the remnants of the great lost estates, Cassiobury Park is the largest park in Hertfordshire, and of Watford. But this is no ordinary town park.

In 1661, Arthur, the 2nd Baron Capel, was made the Earl of Essex and, by 1668/69, he had moved to Cassiobury. By 1707, Cassiobury was a significant estate, and Bridgeman was employed at Cassiobury in the 1720s. In 1800, the 5th Earl of Essex employed James Wyatt to rebuild the house. Humphry Repton was employed at Cassiobury, and the landscape was captured by J. M. W. Turner.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, large areas of the park had been sold off for public parkland. By 1927, Cassiobury House was demolished. Much of the remaining land was bought by the council becoming further parkland for the expanding Borough of Watford. This lecture tells the significant story of a remarkable estate, family and parkland.

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

We firstly look at how the National Gallery came about, why it came into being and where the paintings originally came from. We then start with early Italian paintings (for whom the patron was generally the church) before working our way through time to Impressionism and their secular sponsors.

 I also like looking at framing and how it affects the way we see a painting - and a little bit on the conserving of pictures and the tricky decisions that often need to be made. 

This talk informs people about my artist process and what was involved in making this public work of art. Mary Branson is best known for her large scale conceptual light installations, particularly the iconic New Dawn 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement and is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster.

Illustrated with many wonderful works of art, this lecture tells the extraordinary story of the rise of the son of a lawyer in Ajaccio, Corsica, to become Emperor of the French before finally being defeated and sent into exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. It also attempts to explain the nature of his genius as an administrator and a military commander, assessing his achievements and his failures, his strengths and his weaknesses. Among the topics covered will be his marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais, his relationship with the Duke of Wellington, and his place within history. It is in some ways a very human story, but one which focuses on one of the most remarkable men who has ever lived.

The “Star” of Bethlehem apparently did exist. But what it was exactly, and when it shone in the night sky are questions that for two thousand years people have taken on trust.  Astronomers and astrophysicists can now recreate the night sky at any given moment historically, and we can actually see an intense light, when looking South from Jerusalem towards Bethlehem one November night in 7BC – the year Jesus is thought to have been born.  The “Star” signalled a new King for Israel and for the West because of the ancient astrological meanings attached to the planets and the signs of the Zodiac that defined the constellations. These are the constellations of the Fish and the Lion – The fish being  the earliest symbol for Christ and the lion being the Lion of Judah..                          

Deep space photos from NASA confirm the wisdom of the Magi who read the night skies accurately, astrologically, so many centuries ago. The question is why would the Magi, if Persian, as has always been assumed, set out to find the Saviour? Why would gentiles set out on this perilous journey across the desert? Would it not make more sense if the wise men were in fact Jews?  The source of the three gifts that the ‘three kings’ brought to Bethlehem lead us to the discovery of a Jewish kingdom from which they may well have set out to find a Jewish saviour.  The extraordinary correlation between the astrology of those ancient times – and the findings of today’s astrophysicist and the photos from outer space – confirm the long-held belief in a cosmic guide that led the Magi to the stable.

Hilary Hope Guise lectures in the main museums in London, for American universities, and has toured widely in the USA and lectured for the Smithsonian Institution. Has also worked for the Art Fund, taught courses for Cambridge University, has been a guest speaker on cruises. Trained as a painter at Central St Martin’s, she exhibits abroad, most recently in Berlin and France. Lives in London and in Provence.

The fame of the Queen of Sheba has lasted across the many intervening centuries since she made her epic journey from her distant land to the court of King Solomon. A passage in the Bible’s Book of Kings has immortalised this Queen and the journey that she made, her camel caravan laden with gold and incense as gifts for the king of Jerusalem. In this talk Louise looks at how the Queen of Sheba has captured the imagination of great artists, inspired epic films and has led archaeologists to go in search of her land – a search that has led to discoveries of great temples, tombs and treasures in both the Yemen and Ethiopia.

Louise Schofield has been working in Ethiopia since 2006, directing archaeological, conservation and development projects in that extraordinary country. Her current archaeological site – in Tigray province, northeastern Ethiopia – is a temple, probably dedicated to a moon god and dating to the 5th century BC – a time when this area of Ethiopia formed part of the kingdom of Sheba. Excavations undertaken there in 2015 and 2016  have uncovered a rich cemetery which includes an extraordinary burial of a 2000 year old Ethiopian 'Sleeping Beauty'.

Suggested Reading

Stuart Munro-Hay, Ethiopia: an Unknown Land (2002)

St John Simpson (ed), Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen (2002)

Please note that this lecture will be held in our new home, The Eric Morecambe Centre. Coffee and tea will be available from 10:00; the meeting will start with notices at 10:30 followed the lecture at about 10:40.

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

Nicola Moorby

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

Born in Bonn in December 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven became one of the greatest and most disruptive figures in the history of classical music. This talk presents an overview of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer, someone who tore up the rule book of classical music; Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a ‘poet in sound'.

A modern logo for a radical artist

The absence of vowels in the logo, BTHVN2020 shown on the right, gives a modern twist to the composer's famous name. "Beethoven is a brand." As trendy as the idea appears, it actually comes from the composer himself: That's the way he signed some of his works, shortening his name to Bthvn. The famous Beethoven portrait painted by Joseph Karl Stieler appears behind the capitalized letters.

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 spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on 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, is a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

As part of the Habsburg Empire, Prague was beloved of kings and princes. During the 19th century, however, the Czechs sought to reclaim the city for their own. Looking back at ancient mythology, they imagined a new future by means of art, architecture, literature and music. From Romanticism to cubism, the Czechs re-conceived various artistic movements in specifically patriotic ways. Looking at painter and decorative artist Alfons Mucha, artist Karel Svoboda and composers Bed?ich Smetana and Antonín Dvo?ák, this talk shows how the Czechs created a capital that was fit for a new independent nation.
 

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

Objects have always been present in paintings but the necessary clutter of daily life came to be used by artists as a language of its own, symbolising complex and invisible ideas. This lecture charts the rise in popularity of independent still life paintings from the Renaissance to the present day, paying particular attention to its apotheosis in the 17th century. 

Aliki Braine

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

If Donald Trump thinks it was he who invented the concept of Fake News then he is sadly mistaken.

Fake News has been around since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and art has always been one of its favourite media.

In this lecture I will be uncovering the subtle art of spin and propaganda in art.  Starting in ancient Egypt we will travel across to Mesopotamia then to Rome and Byzantium before leaping forward to the Norman Conquest, Renaissance Italy, Tudor England, the French revolution and Georgian and Victorian England before ending up in the dark days of the Second World War and the sublimely clever art of 21st century graffiti. 

Every picture tells a story—whether it is true or not is an entirely different matter.

Dr Geri Parlby 

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 from Roehampton University in London. She has been lecturing for the past 16 years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on the South West Area Arts Society History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University.

Henry VIII came to the throne with a rather weak line of Royal blood , but what he lacked in pedigree he more than made up for with the splendour of his palaces. We look at Tudor images – for example the depictions of Henry before the reformation associated Henry with the Catholic Church in order to show substance and power. When Henry broke away from Rome and formed himself as head of the Church of England, the Tudor image makers were presented with a problem. 

Linda Collins

Lecturer Historic Royal Palaces & National Trust. Freelance lecturer Tate Modern & National Gallery, London. Independent lecture organiser. Member of the Association of Art Historians. President of The Arts Society Harpenden Area.

  A tiny section of the Seine to the West of Paris which would have represented the perfect antidote to the claustrophobia of mid 19th Paris has been termed the Cradle of Impressionism. It was here to 5 neighbouring riverside villages that the artists who would later become known as the Impressionists, became frequent visitors. In some cases they even set up home for a while. The lives and early works of Monet, Renoir, Pisarro. Sisley and Morisot will be explored in this lively and entertaining lecture. Their desperation to gain recognition and make their mark is apparent and both the painting styles adopted, and subject matter depicted were to cause a Revolution in the Art World. 

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

St Paul’s Cathedral has become one of the icons of Britain; from the paintings of Canaletto to photographs of the Blitz, it rises above London. In this lecture we look at the remarkable genius of its creator, Sir Christopher Wren: scientist, anatomist, mathematician, architect and urban planner. Set amidst the lively and vibrant period of the Restoration and the Great Fire, find out how he transformed the skyline of London and created a new language for architects in England. 

Jo has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and local art societies.

Exhibition History: The history of Great Exhibitions, Expos and World’s Fairs, 1851 to Present, the British Contribution

From the very first Great Exhibition in London held in the magnificent Crystal Palace, to the awe-inspiring events in Paris, New York and across the world there have been many exhibitions that we would consider Great Exhibitions or World’s Fairs. We won't consider all of these events in this talk, but we will consider the most important exhibitions such as London 1851, Paris 1900 and 1925, Brussels 1958 and New York 1964.  

Tracing the development of Great Exhibitions from their birth in London in 1851 at the heart of a thriving Empire, to Europe, in particular Paris where many wonderful events were held, across the Atlantic to America and New York in the post-war period and further East to China, Japan and beyond in recent times. These events all tell of a city and people at a certain moment in history holding a huge and elaborate fair for the world to attend.

Matthew has worked with the fine and decorative arts all his life. He has worked as an auctioneer and valuer with a number of firms. He is currently a senior valuer and head of department at Lawrences in Crewkerne, one of the countries leading provincial auctioneers. Matthew has also worked in Higher Education as Course Leader and a Senior Lecturer on the no longer extant Fine Arts Valuation Degree at Southampton Solent University. He taught on a range of subjects including furniture, silver art and design history. He completed a PhD in the Arts and Crafts Movement and has written on design history for a number of publications. He has current research interests in ‘Great Exhibitions’, ‘Post War Design and Architecture’ and ‘The Crafts in Post War Britain’. 

Matthew loves to give talks to all sorts of different groups on the fine and decorative arts, his interests in the various Great Exhibitions since 1851 and Post War architecture and design are amongst his current favourite talks which have been well received by a number of groups over recent months.

These lectures will be full length (one hour long) and broadcast on The Arts Society’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/theartssociety). They will only be available to watch live, at the advertised time.

The Story of Indian Modern Art 

At the birth of Indian Independence in 1947, a group of talented and determined artists set out to create a new art for a new country. They drew on ancient artistic traditions but also had a radical view of how Indian art could speak to its audience. This movement, known as the Bombay Progressives Artists' Group, created an art very much for and of its time – acting as witness to a country in turmoil and relating the fascinating story of transition and growth of the new India. This talk offers an exploration of how art in the subcontinent threw off the yoke of colonial influence to create modern masterpieces and a thriving global business. 

Georgina is an art historian specializing in South Asian art who has lived and worked in the UK, USA and Singapore. She discovered and developed her passion for art history whilst working as a researcher at the National Museum of Singapore. Since then she has expanded her practice to include collecting and consulting and has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India, which she visits regularly. 

An official tour guide at Tate Modern in London, Georgina is also a guest speaker on luxury cruise ships for whom she has developed a series of art talks related to Asian and Pacific destinations. She also enjoys talking on a range of modern and contemporary art subjects based on her research and talks given at Tate Modern.

Georgina holds a BA in Art History from Southampton University, an MA in Arts Management from City, University of London and an MA in Art History from the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London. She has been a visiting lecturer at UK universities, presents talks at leading art institutions and museums including Christie’s Education New York, Sotheby’s Institute London and the Museum of Modern Art, Moscow and gives academic papers at international academic institutions, most recently in New York, Paris, London and Lisbon. Georgina is a member of the Association for Art History and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society in the UK.

These lectures will be full length (one hour long) and broadcast on The Arts Society’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/theartssociety). They will only be available to watch live, at the advertised time.

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

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

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

We are invited by The Art Society Harpenden Evening to a lecture  described as 'the most maritime of counties' Cornwall's centuries of fish connections are more than just tin and fish. 
 

Helen  is a historian and a speaker with a particular love of maritime subjects. It is people, often the ordinary and, sometimes unsung, heroes and heroines that attract her attention.She has published extensively on subjects such as 19th century sail, women in the maritime world, and is currently working on a series of books on Isambard Brunel's shipping ventures. She has appeared on radio and television, and is a regular maritime expert for programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are?  Prepare to learn some unexpected facts.

We are invited to join TASHE for their evening lecture at 7.30pm  

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear. There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie takes you on a whistle stop tour of art which fools, surprises and amuses the viewer. Beginning and ending with the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, it encompasses Trompe l’Oeil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few. Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried.
This is an in depth look at the profound mystery of perception. There is an eternal fascination with the unfathomable, the weird ambiguous state of seeing things which are not there – yet are there. It carries us back into that long gone deeply missed period of our childhood when magic was common place and when the boundary between the possible and the impossible was very blurred. In the same way as a magic trick surprises and delights us there is a primal enjoyment in being deceived by optical illusions. Since Roman times illusions have been used in art. The stretching  and distortion of perspective has been highly developed by artists to create a range of effects on the viewer. Can you be deceived?

Bertie is an Arts Society Accredited Lecturer who has toured the country extensively. He is also a Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. He has performed all over the world in weird and wonderful places including: The Magic Castle in Hollywood; The Kulm Hotel in St Moritz and The Bertie and Boo Cafe in Balham,London. An evening with Bertie never fails to enlighten, educate and entertain.

From the Saxons to Mary Berry: A Visual History of the English Cookbook

Across a thousand years of manuscripts and over five hundred years of publishing, English recipe books have reflected the eating habits of Kings and courtiers, the merchant classes, inn-keepers and restaurant owners, as well as home cooks and even the paupers who visited the soup kitchens of Victorian London. Cookbooks are full of extraordinary food but also extraordinary illustrations from medieval illuminated manuscripts, via the engravings of the eighteenth century and the colour lithographs of Mrs. Beeton, to the high-end life-style images of the modern TV cook. This lecture tells the story of the development of the cookbook and along the way will tempt you, or indeed disgust you, with a few choice recipes.  

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.  

The lectures will be broadcast live on the Arts Society’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/theartssociety) and will only be available to watch at the advertised time.

Princess Ksenia’s father, King Nikola, was nicknamed ‘The Father-in-Law of Europe’ having successfully married off his daughters to the royal houses of Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia. His eighth daughter – Ksenia - chose a different route, carving out a place for herself as secretary and valued advisor to her father, becoming the first woman in Montenegro to drive, and developing a particular talent for photography (though a contemporary also described her as ‘a courageous and skilled shot with a pistol’).

 The lecture shares the photographs she took during her years in what contemporary British traveller William Le Queux described as ‘the little city in the sky’, the brand-new Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, where the royal family had their palace before they were exiled to France in 1916. Despite her privileged life of garden parties and tennis, Ksenia’s photographic record also shows how she drove out to take beautiful photographs celebrating ordinary life in Montenegro among its schools, soldiers, fishermen, cooks, horses and villages.

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

Studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington. Moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects. 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). 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). Regular contributor to Radio 4 (Saturday Live, Excess Baggage, From Our Own Correspondent) and the BBC World Service.

The Fall into Knowledge: the story of Prometheus and how his plight has captivated and influenced writers and artists over the years

Prometheus was a Titan who, according to Greek legend, created the human race and then famously incurred the wrath of Zeus by stealing fire from the gods to preserve it. The punishment that Zeus devised was both cruel and ingenious. This lecture goes back to original sources to re-tell the story, explore the remarkable parallels with Adam and Eve and trace its influence from Reubens to Henry Moore and from Frankenstein, through Great Expectations to the Alien movies. Mary will explore our enduring interest in the ideas that thread their way through the numerous adaptations and reflect on what they reveal about our changing attitudes to religious belief.   

Mary is an experienced broadcaster and teacher with particular expertise in literature and drama. She worked for many years for BBC Radio 4 producing some of its most popular programmes including Start the Week and Woman’s Hour before joining the senior management team as a Commissioning Editor. Mary has subsequently worked as a teacher and Director of Sixth Form at a leading girls’ grammar school. She now runs her own company 'Opening Up Literature' which offers literature courses for adults including studies of Shakespeare and Creative Writing. Her most popular course is 'Telling Tales' which explores how writers and artists have reinvented classical stories. She is also a professional bridge teacher and lecturer.    

These lectures will be full length (one hour long) and broadcast on The Arts Society’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/theartssociety). They will only be available to watch live, at the advertised time.

This lecture examines Hogarth’s ‘Marriage à la Mode’ other ‘modern moral subjects’. It looks at how the artist used his work to wage war against London’s sex trade and child poverty as part of his personal crusade to establish modern urban life as an appropriate subject for high art. Insights into the darker side of life in 18th century London are blended with the story of how Hogarth worked his way up from an apprenticed engraver to successful painter and philanthropist.

One reviewer wrote: “A very dark period of London history was illuminated by Julia – a hugely informative tour of Hogarth’s pictures and of London. She was able to bring out some unexpected humour in that savage world.”

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 where she is researching the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1937.

She teaches Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit) and is Co-Director of The London Art Salon. She is also an accredited Art Society lecturer.

Julia is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and UK Trustee for Masiphumelele Trust Ltd (Masicorp) an NGO that provides educational resources for the township of Masiphumelele in South Africa.

Cinematic images are art forms. In the ‘golden age’ of cinema – before CGI technology – film-makers had to construct sets to represent landscapes, townscapes and interiors.

Drawing on new insights from the archaeology of cinema, this lecture will use the films of renowned British director David Lean, to explore the art of cinema. How do the ‘artists’ – in this case formed of large collaborative teams (directors, screenwriters, production designers, costume designers, camera crews, fixers etc.) - choose locations, construct sets, dress actors and more generally, ‘imagine’ the world they seek to represent? How much is authentic and how much preconception and prejudice? What are the influences on the way the cinema depicts the world?

DR NEIL FAULKNER

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

Thomas Heatherwick is a British Designer. He has won many awards and honours. In 2004 he was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry; he won a Gold Medal for his British Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and in the same year he was designer of the year in Japan. Sir Terence Conran spotted his talent early on and has described Heatherwick as ‘the Leonardo da Vinci of our times’.

Heatherwick and his Studio team bring craft, design and urban planning together in a single work space. Their Olympic Cauldron with its breath taking giant ring of fire was a memorable sight at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Thomas Heatherwick’s innovative approach is now in demand all over the world and the lecture will highlight the broad range of designs from this most creative of British designers.

Grayson Perry, who won the Turner Prize in 2003, is close to becoming a ‘National Treasure’. His beautiful, finely-crafted pottery, which frequently has a sting in the tail, and his colourful, imaginative and often amusing tapestries are enormously popular in the fine art world.

Initially considered as something of a rebel, he is now an acknowledged member of the Establishment. He has exhibited in the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, was appointed a Royal Academician and delivered the Reith lectures for the BBC in 2013. In this lecture, we will look at his work in some detail, as well as considering his cross-dressing alter ego, Claire, and his fondness for his childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles. 

What do we mean by jewellery?

What does it mean to different societies across time and across the world?
This lecture takes a number of themes in order to expand the concept of jewellery and examine the different reasons why people wear it. Everyone decorates the body, but there are different notions of how to do so and which parts to decorate. In many societies jewellery serves as vital protection against evil spirits. It can be a powerful vehicle of communication, indicating the wearer’s preoccupations, their religion or ethnic group. It can be a keepsake of a loved one, or a memorial to the dead. And it can also be a work of art in its own right harnessing all the skills of the goldsmith, gem-setter, or enameller.

Based on the collections of the British Museum, where the speaker has worked for 40 years, this new thought-provoking lecture reveals how jewellery has been worn and used and takes you from ancient burial ornaments by anonymous masters to the big names of the modern world.

Over 2,500 years in the making the great British pantomime is a very potent brew indeed. Mix the earliest Greek and Roman drama with commedia dell'arte and medieval morality plays, then stir in a sprig of 17th century  masque, a dash of 18th century harlequinade and a hefty shot of Victorian music hall and, hey presto, you have the modern Christmas pantomime.

(Oh no you don't!).

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

At the turn of the 20th century, the British Empire held sway over approximately one quarter of the total population of the world. British imperial
power was projected through a variety of artistic mediums, from fine portraiture and grand imperial buildings, to more popular forms of imagery. British artists also produced countless images of people from all over the globe who had become subjects of British rule .

Through considering a variety of paintings, buildings and objects from across the Empire, this lecture provides a fascinating insight into the ways in
which the British viewed themselves and their subjects in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Dr John Stevens is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and a member of academic staff at the SOAS South Asia Institute. His PhD in History is from University College London. He teaches British Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language, and is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh. He publishes widely in the fields of British and Indian history. His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen will be published by Hurst in 2018. He appears regularly in the Indian media, and was recently a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore. 

John Osborne said 'Mr. Coward is his own invention and contribution to this century. Anyone who cannot see that should keep well away from the theatre.'
From fairly humble beginnings, Noel Coward went on to establish himself as the most astonishing theatre animal of the 20th century.
 Playwright and composer, performer and director, Noel Coward created some of the most memorable songs and plays in theatre history and some very witty quotes along the way.

Malcolm studied at University of London and King’s College, London and 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  and   has lectured on the V&A Short Course and Year Course Programme on Theatre.

He has taught at Rose Bruford College, Mountview Theatre School, The Actors Centre and National Theatre Education Department.

He also teaches an acting course at New Wimbledon Theatre.

Tantrums and Tiaras is a look at backstage life at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the pressures faced by performers, be they singer, dancer, conductor or musician. We see how the building copes with the demands of modern productions and examine audience expectations both inside the theatre and out. We also look at some of the highs and try to understand some of the lows that have been the fortune of the Royal Opera House over the years. The lecture is fully illustrated, and includes audio and video clips.

Nigel Bates is Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet and has been a performer for almost forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  

In the course of over 6000 performances, broadcasts and recordings he has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry. He began his musical career in the Regimental Band of the Scots Guards before joining the Orchestra of Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet and working as a freelance player with most of the London orchestras and ensembles.

He was Section Principal Percussion of the ROH Orchestra from 1993-2009 and joined the The Royal Ballet Music Department in 2012. He has given lectures and presentations for many years both in the UK and abroad. He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the Royal Opera House and was also a producer for BBC TV's documentary series ‘Maestro at the Opera’ and ‘Pappano's Classical Voices’.

Iconoclasm, defined as the destruction of images and items for religious reasons, has shaped the English Church over a long period.

This lecture considers four major periods of destruction and change:-

• The 5C
• The demise of the Romano-British Church
• Henry VIII's destruction of shrines and monastic foundations 
• The 17C period of the English Civil War and finally
•  The Victorian programme of rebuilding and alteration

Rev'd Dr Nicholas Henderson

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

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.

In the early 18th century, Nice was just a small town relying on fishing, fruit -growing and flowers for its income, until it was ‘discovered’ by English travellers on the Grand Tour. It was an English clergyman, who, in 1820, provided the funds for the construction of a Promenade. Such development encouraged the fashionable people of the time, including Queen Victoria, to visit.

By the twentieth century, the brilliant light and climate attracted many artists to live there and by considering the works of Matisse, Dufy and others, this lecture looks at the ways in which Nice influenced their work.

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

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

Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869 -1944) is often described as England’s greatest architect since Sir Christopher Wren. He was influenced early on by the Arts and Crafts movement and later by what he called the ‘High Game’ of classicism.

This lecture will consider Lutyens’ prolific career of over half a century, demonstrating the sheer variety and extent of his work: his country houses; the London Cenotaph and other work for the Imperial War Graves Commission and perhaps Lutyens’ greatest achievement of all, his contribution to the laying out of New Delhi and the palatial Viceroy’s House there.

Alongside all the honours and commissions that were showered upon this pre-eminent architect, we shall touch on Lutyens’ private life. His passionate and prolific correspondence with his wife Lady Emily, written during his extensive travels, gives a detailed account of his day to day work. It also reveals a difficult marriage on account of Emily’s heavy involvement with Theosophy.

As an outsider with minimal formal training Edward Burne-Jones rose to be one of Bratain's most influential artists of the 19th Century and with his friend Willilam Morris he was a pioneer of the arts and crafts movement, which aimed to bring beautiful design to everyone.

The lecture will consider his range of artistic achievements including both painting and decorative design.

Using David Hockney’s commentaries, sketches and photographs of the work in progress, the lecture explores the characters and their stories. The sitters, Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, were leading fashion celebrities and close friends of the artist. The role of London will be explored as a magnet for attracting creative young art and design talent, especially designers from the north of England such as Hockney, Clark and Birtwell.

In Hockney’s own words, ‘In the 1960s you felt a freshness that was exciting. You didn’t let the commercial side interfere with things in film, music, painting and fashion. It was an energy driven by the bohemian world.'

The operas of Gilbert and Sullivan are rich in contemporary satire and witty personal allusions. This lecture tells how each of the 14 operas, on which the partners collaborated, drew inspiration from the world in which they lived by drawing on celebrities, politicians, social mores, manners, artistic taste, the class system.

The lecture explains how the then First lord of the Admiralty, WH Smith, became the model for Sir Joseph Porter KCB in HMS Pinafore, how Oscar Wilde inspired Bunthorne – the fleshy poet – in Patience and how Gilbert himself was the model for the judge in Trial by Jury.

MR PETER MEDHURST

Peter 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.

A look at the reception their plays had in their own day and the legacy they have left to our own.

The end of the C19th saw a revolution in European drama as the theatre began to address new and controversial topics such as sex, class and social unrest.
Out of this age of upheaval, emerged three of the greatest playwrights the world has ever known.

GILES RAMSEY

Giles Ramsay is a British theatre director, producer and playwright known for working to bring artists from developing countries to international attention. He is Artistic Director of the theatre company Trident Theatre, Director of the charity Developing Artists, and a Fellow of St Chad's College, Durham.

A look at his work which was often controversial, and challenged ideas on what was appropriate subject matter for public artworks. 

MS LINDA SMITH

Holds two first-class degrees in Art History. Experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies.

Dumfries House in Ayrshire was acquired for the nation following a last minute rescue in 2007, largely through the involvement of HRH the Prince of Wales. Never before opened to the public, Dumfries House is a forgotten Georgian gem, designed by Adam and furnished by Chippendale and others.

Once the home of the Marquesses of Bute, Matthew Williams has known and admired Dumfries House for twenty years. The story of its controversial rescue is both fascinating and entertaining.

MATTHEW WILLIAMS

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

Who says? Can we trust the experts on Good and Bad in Art?

Art critics and experts are often hilariously lampooned; we focus on the bafflingly mysterious Polish Rider in the Frick to evaluate a decades-long project to settle which paintings Rembrandt did. That’s ended up as much a study of the trickiness of attribution, as of Rembrandt. Right now, world Leonardo authority Martin Kemp, is utterly convinced he has discovered a new work by the master – but many specialists beg to differ.
We review a number of controversies and feel the fury of the judges listening to connoisseurial assertions, when questions of quality come to court. But the minefield facing experts need not deter the rest of us from making artistic judgements just based on the life experience we all have.

MR DAVID PHILLIPS

Studied History at Oxford, and from 1968-82 worked for Nottingham Castle Museum. From 1982-98, Lecturer in Museum Studies and Art History at University of Manchester. Published a book about museum practice with Manchester University Press,Exhibiting Authenticity 1997. 

Is the legend a myth? Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan? Or does the legend reflect reality? 

On the basis of new evidence from archaeological fieldwork, Neil will contrast the legend of Lawrence of Arabia with the true story of what happened in the famous desert war of 1916 to 1918. Is the legend a myth? Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan? Or does the legend reflect reality? Was he in fact, a brilliant military commander and a sincere advocate of the Arab national cause?
Neil will analyse the invention and re-invention of the legend from 1919 onwards through memoirs, photos, films, paintings, biographies and documentaries.

DR NEIL FAULKNER

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