Alfred Munnings, the son of a Suffolk miller, left school at the age of fourteen and a half when he was apprenticed as a commercial artist. Attending evening classes at the Norwich School of Art, Munnings would go on to become one of the most successful English artists of the first half of the twentieth century, ending his long career as President of the Royal Academy. This lecture looks at his amazing and extensive artistic output from his early life as a commercial artist, through the extraordinarily evocative and powerful depictions of Canadian soldiers during the First World to his mature work as this country’s leading sporting and equestrian artist. It also touches on the controversy around his views on modern art and as such acts as an accessible examination of the tensions between figurative painting and non-representational art during the early twentieth century. 

Our lecturer, Christopher Garibaldi, currently works as an independent researcher. Between 2010–2019 he was Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Horse Racing Museum). Prior to that he worked as Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections, Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum and was co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000. Christopher has also catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear. There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie Pearce takes his audience 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’eoil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few. Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried.

Bertie Pearce graduated in Drama from Manchester University before securing a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq and becoming a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. His past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, he has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard and written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

The work of art is not just a symbol of creative genius but a historical object and the result of a laborious process of creation. This lecture looks at the development of stained glass, its purpose, the process by which it was created and some of the extraordinary survivals. Concentrating on great medieval achievements from vast cathedrals to tiny chapels, we consider, too, the reasons for the decline in popularity of this once-preeminent art form and some of the projects in which it has been reconsidered and revived. 

Nicole Mezey studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Higher Education Academy. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast until 2009, working primarily with adults, managing and teaching on both the Part-Time degree and Extra-Mural programmes and conducting annual, international study-tours. She also established and was first Director of the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Nicole now lives in central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations such as national museums, universities, the National Trust and private companies. She has been lecturing for the Arts Society since 2011, including two tours of societies in Australia and New Zealand.

In the field of world class architecture, British talent has always been at the forefront, and we have much to celebrate. In this talk, Ian tours around the UK and overseas, showcasing the brilliance of some of the designers who have made huge improvements to the built environment and enhanced the lives of those around them. Famous names like Lutyens, Gilbert Scott, Foster, Hadid and Rogers are joined by several lesser known but equally creative architects. 

A Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture, Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a freelance London tour guide. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his hometown of Richmond in West London. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

Turn of the century Vienna was a melting pot of new ideas in science (Hertz and Boltzmann); philosophy (Ludwig Wittgenstein); psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud); modernist architecture (Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos) twelve tone music (Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern); modernist literature (Karl Kraus, Robert Musil and Arthur Schnitzler); and in art (Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele). Gustav Klimt led the Secession movement, which broke free from nineteenth century academic art, to create a highly decorative and potent form of art, drawing inspiration from art nouveau, symbolism, Byzantine and Mycenaean art. Klimt created a highly decorative and sensual art that explored the power of sex in the age of Freud. We will examine the ramifications of Klimt’s sexually charged images in the context of Viennese art and society.

Colin Pink has a BA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Southampton and a MA in the History of Art from Birkbeck, University of London. He specialises in twentieth century and contemporary art in Europe and North America. He lectures at Morley College London, has curated exhibitions of contemporary art and has published four books of poetry: Acrobats of Sound, 2016

Giacomo Puccini is one of the most popular of all operatic composers, though more cherished by the public than the critics. His ability to convey strong emotion through the power of the human voice and his unique handling of the orchestra earned him a place among the most important musical figures of the 20th century. His own life was as colourful as one of his operatic plots. This lecture, which is illustrated with recordings of some of the greatest opera singers of the 20th and 21st centuries, explores the life and works of this fascinating man.

Roger Askew 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.

This lecture offers an introduction to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: the collection, the building, its history and the recent 10-year renovation that brought back the splendour of architect Pierre Cuypers' original neo-gothic decorations. The collection of the Rijksmuseum includes works by Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh as well as medieval art, jewellery, musical instruments, Asian art and even an FK 23 Bantam plane from 1918. It also has Rembrandt's famous Night Watch - but only on loan! All this and much more about the most famous museum in the Netherlands.

Sophie Oosterwijk was born in Gouda in the Netherlands (home of the famous cheese!) and studied for an MA in Medieval Studies at the Universoty of York and gained a PhD in Art History from the University of Leicester, before embarking on an MA and PhD in English Literature at the University of Leiden. She has taught at the universities of St Andrews, Leicester and Manchester, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, National Trust, V&A, U3A, WEA and other organisations, and organised many study days, tours and visits. She is also a regular lecturer for Cambridge University and travel companies, and Vice President of the Church Monuments Society as well as being the author of numerous publications.

This lecture will be offered on Zoom so you can watch it with others in Christchurch Hall in Harrogate or from the comfort of your own home. 

Why isn’t Norwegian art better known? Should it be? The late 19th century marked a defining moment in Norway. For the first time romantic painters began to turn to their own land for inspiration. They painted the stormy seas, the towering glaciers and the raw, untamed nature of their homeland. Their aim? To draw attention to the beauty of their country and explore what it meant to be ‘Norwegian’. This talk looks at the artists from Norway’s ‘Golden Age’ who captured the far north with drama and romance and interpreted their wild country as a mythical, eerie entity. It will explore the stunning works of JC Dahl, Peder Balke, Nikolai Astrup and Harald Sohlberg. This is chance to discover some of art’s most underappreciated artists!

Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance Art History lecturer, speaker and writer who has lectured across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and will soon embark on a lecturing tour in Australasia. Following her History of Art degrees, 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 and 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.

‘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

This lecture will be offered on Zoom so you can watch it with others in Christchurch Hall in Harrogate or from the comfort of your own home. 

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

Dr Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, and a tutor at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She was recently an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque: Power and Illusion (2020) and 'Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain, 1520-1920' (2024). Amy has degrees in History and Literature & Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. She runs an online art dealership, and has published articles and essays on a variety of art-related topics from gothic garden monuments to female patronage.

2025 will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the international 1925 Arts Décoratifs exhibition in Paris (giving its name to the style later to become known as Art Deco). Visitors from around the world, museum curators, retailers, and the international press descended on Paris to see and buy the designs which would influence a new generation of artists and designers. We will ask such questions as – Why Paris? Was there a distinctive style? Who were the key movers and shakers? Which were the key disseminators? Using original black and white photographs set against actual colour artefacts, we will recreate the experience of walking through the stunning showcase pavilions. The exciting cornucopia will include glass by René Lalique, furniture by Ruhlman, lacquer by Jean Dunand, metalwork by Edgar Brandt, graphic poster design by Cassandre, fashions ranging from Paul Poiret, Sonia Delaunay and a very young, Coco Chanel. Attendees will also have the rare opportunity to see the original catalogue, a souvenir commemorative medallion, original fashion plates by leading couturiers and rare vintage postcards from my personal collection. 

Mary Alexander trained as an art historian and then became Assistant Curator at Platt Hall in Manchester, the Gallery of English Costume, a renowned collection of historic dress. Subsequently she has lectured in art history at the University of Leeds, the Open University, Manchester University Extra Mural Department and Christie’s Education. Mary has combined academic work with the world of design consultancy joining Pentagram Design, a leading international design consultancy, in 1985 and coordinating client presentations, publications, conferences and international special events, including the 1986 British Design event in Aspen Colorado. In 1988 she transferred to Pentagram’s New York office with the task of organising an international design conference held at Stanford University involving business, design and education leaders. 

Oriental influences on English garden making can be traced from the eighteenth through to the present century. The emergence of chinoiserie, as initially evidenced in ceramics, furniture and interior design, also found its place in the garden or landscape, through the layout, plants and ornamentation. This talk continues the story in the twentieth century, which saw a developing interest in the culture of Japan, expressed in the fashion for the ‘Japonaise’ in many forms of art, including garden design. Western designers embraced, and took inspiration from, the sensitive use of materials, and minimalistic expression of Japan’s temple and stroll gardens, and sought to emulate something of their spirit - a style still popular today. 

Marilyn Elm is an experienced course leader in garden and landscape design and history, and freelance lecturer for a variety of organisations, universities and specialist groups, including the National Trust, the Royal Horticultural Society, WEA, U3A and ADFAS. As a qualified landscape architect and interior designer, she has been involved with art and design for over thirty years. Passionate about promoting garden history, she has published articles, and broadcast for BBC television and radio, and the Discovery Channel. 

Two brilliant female artists - Tirzah Garwood and Suzanne Cooper - whose work is finally getting its due. Tirzah Garwood, wife of Eric Ravilious, was an English surrealist to whom Lewis Carroll would have felt akin. Before the age of 22, she was making bold, intricate wood-engravings. When Eric died in 1942, Tirzah began making collages and oil paintings. Colourful, fantastical, and slightly sinister, they show toy soldiers and giant hornets, tiny houses and huge kittens. As a student at the Grosvenor School in the 1930s, Suzanne Cooper was showing wood-engravings, and paintings, comparable to those of Christopher Wood, in West End Galleries. Then came the war. Cooper married and laid aside her artistic ambitions. Her first solo show, 25 years after her death, at the Fry Art Gallery in 2018, was greeted by critics as ‘revelatory’, and a ‘rare and exciting event’. It’s a joy to celebrate these two brilliant artists, especially as Suzanne Cooper was my mother-in-law. 

Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s book on the 17th century Duke of  Buckingham, The Scapegoat, will be published by Fourth Estate in October 2024. Her last non-fiction book, The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio was described in The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won all three of the UK’s most prestigious prizes for non-fiction - the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include Cleopatra and Heroes.  Lucy also writes fiction. Her novel, Peculiar Ground, is largely set in the 17th century, and narrated by a landscape designer loosely based on the diarist John Evelyn. It was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' (The Guardian) and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’ (New York Times).  In her short story collection, Fabulous, she retells fables from classical mythology, relocating them to modern Britain. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has written on books, theatre and the visual arts for publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman and the TLS. She was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize

This lecture provides a colourful introduction to the secret world of our 2000 mile inland waterway network and looks at all aspects of its 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. Only the National Trust and the Church of England have more listed buildings than our waterways! A well-known architectural historian once described our canals as a 'poor man's art gallery'. Roger's lecture will be tailored to include local and regional examples which reflect the unique distinctiveness of our inland waterways. 

Roger Butler is a landscape architect and an experienced writer, photographer and lecturer. He has a particular interest in the unique history, architecture and traditions of our canal network and worked on some of the UK’s major canal restoration projects. He has also acted as a consultant to bodies such as Waterways Ireland, Natural England and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. He regularly contributes to waterway and heritage magazines and writes and provides images for a range of countryside and outdoor titles. Roger is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute. He lives near Stratford upon Avon. 

The role of outdoor sculpture has changed substantially in recent times. This lecture considers how the concept of elevated monument and memorial, familiar since classical antiquity, has now shifted to a desire to engage the spectator in often surprising ways.  In this talk, Anna looks at different approaches to sculpture in the city; the emergence of the Sculpture Park across the globe; how artists make new works involving water; and how recent sculpture often involves exciting and unusual encounters with the public.  Among the international figures discussed are Louise Bourgeois, Antony Gormley, Simone Leigh, Maya Lin, Richard Serra and Do Ho Suh - artists who also feature in her book, 'Sculpture Now'.  

Anna is a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art. During the 1990s, she oversaw the development of the subject as the first Master’s Degree at Sotheby’s Institute and taught at other institutions in London including The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate, as well as lecturing in cities ranging from Dubai to New York and Berlin to Sydney as well as offering guest lectures on the Sotheby’s Institute MA in Contemporary Art as well and running her own courses. Her books include Abstract Art (1990, enlarged ed. 2020) and Sculpture Now (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson, and two books on the drawings of Antony Gormley. Anna aims to introduce art to audiences in a lively and approachable manner to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.

This lecture considers the role fashion and textiles played in democratising modern art through the eyes of two innovative textile visionaries - Czech emigrees Zika and Lida Ascher who left Prague in 1939. Post war, the world of fashion, interiors and modern art fused with dynamic results.  The Aschers' modernist aesthetic took London fashion by storm through their commissioning of leading modern artists from Moore to Topolski, from Derain to Matisse.  The Aschers brought modern art into the heart of fashion and joyous colours onto the street. An amazing story of courage, tenacity and success. 

Ashley Gray is a leading specialist and curator in the art discipline of Modern Textiles and their history. He is a regular vetter at international fine art fairs, lectures on the subject in the UK and the US and sits on the advisory board of The Frances Neady Collection at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. As a curator and archivist, he works with institutions and foundations on conservation and exhibition projects. Most recently he co-curated Material Textile: Modern British Female Designers’ and Material Textile: Creativity, History & Process as well as curating the acclaimed exhibition Styled by Design that celebrated the innovation of Modernist textile design. 

The brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini are among the most highly-regarded artists of Renaissance Venice. They painted Doges portraits, grand altarpieces, private devotional works, scenes of public ceremony and miracle, personal portraits, and depictions of foreign dignitaries – a panoply of paintings covering all aspects of Venetian life and of the self-image this mythical city consciously presented to the world. Through their art we will explore their visions of the public arena, the religious traditions, and the personalities and locations of political and civil life in this complex city-state, as it enjoyed its ‘golden age’ in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and as it continued to promote the ‘Myth of Venice’, even as its power began to decline.

Ian started his career as a Chartered Accountant going on to become a senior manager in multi-national IT companies during which time he gained extensive public-speaking experience  A career change led him to become an art historian with a BA from Birkbeck College in art history and an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art in medieval Spanish art history. He is now a specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia. 

Ian is now a director of an art tours company, specialising in guided cultural tours in Spain, as well as lecturing in London at institutions such as the V&A, SOAS, Christies Education, and the London Art History Society.

Join professional Rome tourist guide Stuart Harvey for a virtual stroll through the heart of Rome to discover some of the most iconic monuments of the Eternal City. 28 centuries of history can be divided into three periods - Rome of the Ancient Romans, Rome under the rule of the Popes, and Rome as the capital of a united Italy, and in an area less than a square mile we can admire monuments from all three periods. Ancient Roman temples and other archaeological remains rub shoulders with baroque churches. Splendid fountains adorn magnificent piazzas, and the 20th century monumentalism of united Italy adds a modern touch to this beautiful city. Highlights of this lecture include in-depth looks at the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and piazza Navona, with much more to see along the way. This lecture will be via zoom and you can watch in the hall or from your home. 

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

The Mauritshuis is one of the most beautiful 17th century monuments in Holland and has been the home of the Royal Cabinet of Paintings for over 200 years. The collection of 17th century Dutch paintings is considered one of the top four in the world. The fact that this top collection is found in the intimate atmosphere of a residence from the same era known as the Dutch Golden Age makes it special and explains why it is often called the smallest of the great museums and the greatest of the small museums. This lecture will be delivered by zoom and Jane will give us a live online virtual tour guiding us room by room talking about the paintings as she goes. You can watch the lecture in the hall or from home. 

Jane Choy-Thurlow is an arts lecturer based in the Netherlands who gives lectures and tours at the Mauritshuis, Prince William V gallery and Huygens Museum Hofwijck in The Hague. She received her BSc from Salem State University, USA, her MEd from Trinity College Dublin and continued art history studies at Leiden University. In 2018 she was given the honour of Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau by the Dutch King Willem Alexander of Orange for her knowledge and work in the field of the Arts especially 15th - 17th century Dutch and Flemish art.

Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high profile UK publications (The Guardian, Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal Of Wound Care). He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom. 

In 'The Art Of The Cartoonist' Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page that day! Yes, Harry will be drawing live. Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect and discover exactly what the eskimo brothers said in The Funniest Joke Ever (possibly).

Harry Venning is a cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton. For 25 years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare In The Community, about an unaware and empathy free social worker. In 2004 he developed Clare In The Community into a successful BBC Radio 4 sitcom starring Sally Philipps which ran for twelve series. When not at a desk , Harry tours his cartoon workshop around schools, theatres, arts centres, cruise ships and festivals. 

Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge has been described as “one of the country’s most intimate and spellbinding museums, the collection of one man and his unerring eye; restorative,  homely yet life-changing”. This man was H.S. ‘Jim’ Ede, curator, writer, collector and friend to artists. In1957, he opened his Cambridge home to university students as “a living place where works of art could be enjoyed … unhampered by the greater austerity of the museum or public art gallery.” His collection included works by Ben and Winifred  Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska which were  carefully placed alongside pieces of furniture, ceramics and natural objects. His curated home remains, by and large as he left it, characterised by its unique atmosphere, fascinating juxtapositions and personal connections. This lecture will discuss the life of Jim Ede, his collecting, his vision for Kettles Yard and its enduring legacy.

Sarah Burles studied History of Art at Cambridge University prior to taking a master’s degree at University College London. She went on to have a career in museum and gallery education, establishing new services in three different museums before working at the Fitzwilliam Museum for many years.  She is the founder of Cambridge Art Tours, which runs tours and courses in and around East Anglia as well as a Tour Director for a travel company leading tours to Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and America. 

What was the public reaction to jazz when it began to appear in Britain in the aftermath of the First World War? What did early jazz sound like and how did British musicians learn to play in the style? How did British artists and designers react to the new rhythms and colours of the music?

Following on from The Arts Society/Two Temple Place Rhythm and Reaction exhibition which Catherine curated in 2018, this lecture explores how jazz arrived in Britain and the impact that it had on musicians, artists and the wider public. The lecture is illustrated with examples of visual art, including works not shown in the exhibition, and recorded music examples.

Professor Catherine Tackley (née Parsonage) is a musicologist specialising in jazz. She was Head of the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool from 2016-2022 and is now working on a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship project on British Dance Bands. She has written two books: The Evolution of Jazz in Britain: c.1880-1935 and Benny Goodman’s Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert; and coedited Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and Performance.  In 2018, Catherine curated Rhythm and Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain for The Arts Society, an acclaimed exhibition in London based on her research. In recognition of this and her work with many other organisations, Catherine won 'Outstanding Contribution to Public Engagement' in the University of Liverpool's Staff Awards in 2019. She is Musical Director of Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats Big Band.

Planners and conservationists, purists all, with standards to uphold, despise pastiches. Yet the pastiche has an honourable history. The Little Oxford Dictionary defines a pastiche as a "medley of borrowings". A pastiche is an imitation, and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the more sincere the imitation ... So, in that frame of mind, sit back to enjoy:

• Portmeirion - the creation of Clough Williams-Ellis and now almost a century old, brought the Adriatic to North Wales with flair and precision 
• Poundbury - not yet quite middle-aged, is stamped by the King, when he was Prince of Wales, his answer perhaps to the doom-laden world of Thomas Hardy. It has been panned by persons of taste but those who live there like it 
• Bekonscot - the creation of a London accountant, Roland Callingham, a year or so after Portmeirion got going, and today the doyen and still the best of the thirty or so model villages which cluster from Babbacombe to Ramsgate, not forgetting Windsor's Legoland?  Bekonscot is Midsomer-in-Miniature, made famous when two small girls, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, visited it. 

Pure pastiches - but pastiches for purists.

Clyde hails originally from Kent and then spent six years in Cambridge before settling in Sheffield in 1964. For most of that time, Clyde taught in the University’s History department, becoming Head of Department for three years. He has now retired with the title of Professor Emeritus. His focus has been British history between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries involving an interweaving of politics, culture and religion and, by necessity, various international dimensions. Whilst at school, Clyde discovered Barrister Fletcher’s “History of Architecture in the Comparative Method” leading him to understand that buildings are there to be read, like documents in an archive, and to be explored, like human beings. Above all they are there to be enjoyed. Clyde has also lectured on Swan Hellenic Cruises on architects, and their buildings, and their settings - their age, their cities, their formation and their beliefs. 

From the ancient world to artists like Tracey Emin and Lucien Freud, portraits have been used to show power, status, virtue, beauty, wealth & taste. This lecture will look at how portraiture has changed throughout the ages and how the genre shows us how to communicate with the past and present in exciting and surprising ways.

Cindy Polemis is an art historian, independent lecturer and art guide. Originally graduating in Modern History from Oxford University, she returned to university later in life to study the History of Art. In the interim she worked as a radio producer and presenter for the BBC World Service in news and current affairs. Cindy has worked as an official art guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern as well as at Frieze Masters and Frieze Art Fairs in London. She is particularly keen to draw parallels with art and social history and draw out the stories of art and artists which are steeped in human emotions and experiences which we all share.

Disillusioned with the stuffiness and sentimentality of academic painting, a group of radical young painters burst onto the Glasgow art scene in the early 1880s and set in motion the stirrings of modernism in Scottish painting. Working out of doors in Scotland and France, they painted contemporary rural subjects strongly influenced by Dutch and French realism, especially the Naturalist paintings of Jules Bastien-Lepage and the tonal painting of the American artist James McNeill Whistler. This lecture introduces the characters and their works, and shows how they set the scene for what was still to come – especially the explosion of talent centred on the Glasgow School of Art under Francis Newbery, and the Scottish Colourists.

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

A keen and accomplished photographer, Roger has gained Distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society  and is currently the President of the Surrey Photographic Association. His artistic taste is predominantly 20th century and he is particularly interested in the visual aspects of art.  He has studied the evolution of photography from its earliest days in the early 1800s to becoming a major art form in the late 20th and now 21st centuries. An experienced public speaker, his talks are all richly illustrated with both his own and images from some of the leading photographers in history. 

This lecture will be a feast for the eyes and tickle the taste buds, an inspiration for your cooking and your looking. It will feature the art, anecdotes and recipes of artists who loved their food. We will discuss Toulouse Lautrec, famous in his day for his truly fabulous meals and infamous cookbook, Renoir who introduced Paris to the pleasures of Provencal peasant cooking as well as Monet, Cézanne, Picasso and many others. We have prepared a special recipe booklet that can be posted on the internet - or bring a pen! 

Ghislaine is a painter of national reputation named as a Woman of The Year 2008 for her contribution to art and society. She has published and exhibited widely, has had work in the Royal Collection and has had solo exhibitions at many prestigious venues including Manchester Art Gallery, Canterbury Cathedral and the Imperial War Museum North. 

The Edwardian era saw the new fashion in picture postcards elevated to an art form in its own right.  This was especially true for the major postcard companies such as Rotary, Philco and Beagles whose studios produced striking images of plays, musicals and the popular stars of the stage. This lecture looks at the golden age of postcards through the medium of one of the most photographed women of her day, the actress and dancer Miss Gabrielle Ray.  From her star-making role in The Orchid, the debut production of the new Gaiety Theatre in 1903, through to some of the biggest hits of the Edwardian era including The Dollar Princess and The Merry Widow, ‘Gabs’ worked alongside many of the greatest and best-loved stars of early musical theatre. Postcards of her sold in their thousands, and the main challenge for the photographers was to find ways to capture the extraordinary vitality and energy she brought to the stage. A visually stunning story of a defining age in the late history.

This lecture will be given on zoom - it can be viewed from Christchurch Hall or from your own home with a zoom link. 

Uzbekistan in the heart of Central Asia boasts glittering mosques, madrassahs and minarets in the Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. These contrast wonderfully with the brutalist Soviet buildings of Tashkent, Urgench and Nukus. This lecture is an overview of the country, and a primer for anyone thinking of visiting. We explore the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, with the second largest collection of Russian Avante Garde Art, collected at a time when these artistic styles were banned by the state. We explore the revival of Islamic miniature painting in Bukhara and the resurgence of handicrafts all over the country that ceased during the 1930s and the Soviet drive to make everything factory-based. Embroidered suzanis from Nurata, stunning ceramics from Rishton, and the production of silk and velvet in Margilan. Plus, what are the ways that tourism is helping and hindering the production of high-quality handicrafts?  

This lecture will be given on zoom - it can be viewed from Christchurch Hall or from your own home with a zoom link. 

The Albert Memorial is one of the great sculptural achievements of the Victorian era. With stunning high-definition images, you will be taken on a tour of the Memorial from top to bottom, revealing details of the artwork that the human eye could never see on a real-life tour.

The sculpture groups representing the Continents and the Industrial Arts, the statues representing the Sciences and the Virtues and, most impressive of all, the 169 figures of the Parnassus Frieze are examined close- up. The complications and strife involved in the building and completion of the Memorial are discussed as well as how it embodies the ideals and aspirations of the Victorian Age.  

Whistler’s monumental and enigmatic painting, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) is a celebrated painting. Although its size recalls traditional portraits of esteemed figures depicted on a grand scale, Whistler’s painting technique and treatment of the subject is strikingly modern. His depiction of the face and red hair of the model, Joanna Hiffernan, contrasts dramatically with his depiction of her ethereal clothing and pallid backdrop. Whistler’s treatment disrupts our reading of the painting as a straightforward representation of a young woman. So how can we interpret this painting? 

This lecture will consider the role of Joanna Hiffernan in Whistler’s art and life. Was she simply the artist’s model and lover, appearing in several key works by the artist, or was she, in fact, a key collaborator in the development of modern art? This talk will draw on themes in the Royal Academy’s exhibition in 2022, Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan (26 February-22 May 2022)

With the advent of the Arts and Crafts movement, book bindings became works of art in themselves. This lecture will show a range of different bindings made for exhibitions, competitions and even the occasional Booker Prize author.  

Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish Art Deco painter and the 'first woman artist to be a glamour star'. She had a very distinctive and individual style. Her art and her name have become synonymous with the hedonist lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties and the Art Deco Movement of which she was the leading representative across two continents.

She combined a heavy workload with a frenetic social life and much of her behaviour was considered scandalous at the time. She was a favourite artist of many Hollywood stars and she was the most fashionable portrait painter of her generation among the haute bourgeoisie and aristocracy, kings and queens. As a result of her connections, she was able to display her paintings in the most elite salons of the era. Madonna is an admirer and collector of Lempicka's art, and other notable collectors include Jack Nicholson and Barbra Streisand.  Both her lifestyle and her artwork make her a fascinating subject for a lecture.

The light filled canvases of Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot capture the pleasures of modernity: fashionable ballgowns, afternoons spent boating on a lake, children playing. Yet her contemporaries perceived a connection with the eighteenth century. Renoir declared her ' the last elegant and feminine ' artist that we have had since Fragonard.   Surveying the 1896 posthumous retrospective of her oeuvre, Paul Girard declared ' it is the eighteenth century modernised'.  Eighteenth century art fell from favour following the French Revolution, but was re-discovered in the mid nineteenth century by collectors including Louis La Caze and Hippolyte Walferdin.  Morisot copied works by Boucher: she experimented with red chalk; a technique closely associated with Rococo drawings. She also admired the English painters Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney, whose work she first encountered on honeymoon on the Isle of Wight and London. This lecture traces Morisot's engagement with eighteenth century art and culture, and highlights what set her work apart from that of her predecessors.

Dr Lois Oliver studied English Literature at Cambridge University and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and a PhD thesis on 'The Image of the Artist - Paris 1815-1855’.   Lois worked at the Harvard Art Museum before joining the curatorial team at the V & A and then the National Gallery, where she curated several exhibitions and contributed to major re- displays of the collections. Currently Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Royal Academy, Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, Lois also writes audio and multi-media tours for clients, including the National Gallery, Royal Academy, Royal Collection and the Tate, and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV.

'More than just Moonlight ' John Atkinson Grimshaw was one of the very few genuinely self-taught, working class artists to emerge during the most productive period of British Art, the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).

Overcoming the discouragement of having his paints and brushes burned by his mother, and inspired by the success of Pre-Raphaelitism, his own meticulous rendering of landscapes led to the development of his main subject - moonlight views. However, his range is much wider than is generally known and the story of his life in Leeds, Scarborough and briefly London, charts the relationship between an artist and his public: A Patron once demanded assurance that he 'never painted on the Sabbath'. In this lecture we will explore the range of Grimshaw's work with recently discovered pictures giving a fascinating insight into his life and art.

Tim's involvement in art began with the practical: For a number of years he was a professional painter and ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults. 

For the last 20 years he has been a freelance cultural art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. Tim now lectures for the universities of Cambridge, Nottingham and Hull, the WEA, the Art Fund and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

Lutyens belongs to the same generation as the American Frank Lloyd Wright and the Scotsman Charles Rennie Macintosh. More successful than Macintosh, more 'establishment' than either and increasingly different in emphasis, he was no less a genius.  His work is to be found in France, Italy the USA and India as well as Britain. It includes a doll's house, a Methodist chapel, a Cathedral, a YWCA, banks, mansions, and an embassy.   He commanded the heights of his professions with almost irritating assurance. This lecture explores the rise, fall, and rise again of his reputation and the evidence for his genius:  individual, inventive, irresponsible, witty and incorrigibly English.

Clyde is a man of Kent, Cambridge Graduate, cruise lecturer, and Professor in History at University of Sheffield. He is a straight up and down historian returning to some first and last loves: buildings - their creators and their settings. 

A live lecture at Christ Church.

The Battle for the ‘Blue Riband’ dominated Atlantic travel for many decades and the rivalry between the major shipping lines to build the biggest and best leviathans of ocean travel was intense. Ships such as the French Lines 'Ile de France' and Hapag Lloyd's ‘Imperator’ rapidly became not just floating works of art, but ships of state with stunning decor to match.  This lecture shows how they were adapted to match changing tastes: from the elegance of the French chateau and the heaviness of the Dutch renaissance to the dazzling sophistication of what became known as 'streamline moderne'. The lecture presents rare archive photographs of interiors from iconic ships such as the original ‘Mauretania’ to the magnificent but sadly short lived ‘Normandie’.

A senior Modern Languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, Brian has enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1990s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 he has been regularly appointed to a number of prestigious ocean and river cruise lines, either as resident artist, guest lecturer on art history or as a destination speaker. Most recently this work has successfully extended to art guiding through important towns and museums in France, Belgium, Holland and Spain.

This lecture will be available as a 'hybrid': Choose to watch from home on Zoom, or come along to the hall and watch on a large screen with others who want to socialise.

"We are the two great painters of the era; You are in the Egyptian style I in the modern style".  Henri Rousseau said these words to Pablo Picasso in 1908, but how did Henri Rousseau, who had no formal artistic training, come to be accepted by the avant-garde artists of his time and today have his art hang in many of the world's greatest art collections?

The lecture is full of vivid, bright and dynamic paintings which transport the audience far away to exotic lands that were developed in the artist's imagination. Rousseau was a master at convincing others he had travelled the world, both with words and art, but it is likely he never left France at all.  

This lecture is set against the backdrop of the late 19th and early 20th century Paris, and looks at the works by other renowned artists including Picasso, Leger and Gauguin.

Anna Bianco is a freelance curator, writer, lecturer, tour guide and art historian.  She has a BA History of Art and an MA in Curating from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has curated exhibitions and displays at the Wallace Collection, The British Museum, The Embankment Galleries and the Southwark Art Collection.

This lecture will be available as a 'hybrid': Choose to watch from home on Zoom, or come along to the hall and watch on a large screen with others who want to socialise.

The Pre- Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones told his friends: 'the more materialistic science becomes, the more angels I shall paint'.  His stained glass designs, tapestries and pictures were not simply beautiful - they were subversive, offering an antidote to Victorian ideals of industrialisation and progress. This lecture reveals the rich and rebellious world of Burne-Jones's imagination.

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 is now a visiting Fellow at the University of York.  Suzanne has lectured for museums, on Cunard Liners, and undertaken broadcasts and consultancies for the BBC and Channel Four.  Her publications include Pre -Raphaelite Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum (2003) The Victorian woman (2001) and Effie Gray - Ruskin and Millais (2010)

This lecture replaced the scheduled talk about Henri Rousseau, which had to be cancelled because of illness.

Walter Sickert - one of the most celebrated of English artists working at the turn of the last century, is often considered to be a ' painter's painter’ The well-known crime writer Patricia Cornwell has claimed this much loved artist was responsible for the murders attributed to the infamous Jack the Ripper. 

This lecture will attempt to untangle the truth of this claim following a trail of murder, mystery mayhem and paint.

Was this colourful and enigmatic painter Jack the Ripper? Come and judge the evidence for yourselves.

Michael Howard is President of The Arts Society Bolton and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Although retired, he continues to teach at the Manchester School of Art, and has published widely on European Art of the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries. He is a practising artist who has exhibited at the Royal Academy, and the New York Art Fair to name two. He is represented in Manchester Art Gallery and in private collections both here and abroad.

This lecture will be available on Zoom only due to the funeral of Quen Elizabeth.

John Osbourne said "Mr Coward is his own invention and contribution to this century. Anyone who cannot see that should keep well away from 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 Jones has lectured on the Victoria and Albert Museum Short Course Programme since 2009, devising and developing a range of courses on Theatre History and Practice.   He has lectured and led workshops at many drama schools including RADA. He has contributed as a speaker on theatre to many television and radio programmes and has worked with Age Exchange Community Arts since 2000 on many creative arts programmes with older people and intergenerational film and theatre projects.

This lecture asks the question- was Vanessa Bell the painter as radical as Virginia Woolf the writer!

Rupert’s adventures have thrilled adults as well as children for generations and he celebrated his centenary last year.

Dufy was a key player on 20th century avant-garde art, design, literary and musical circles in Paris.

Referred to as the ‘Master of Darkness’, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential film makers.

This lecture traces productions of the Welsh National Opera from design of costume and sets to rehearsals in studio and auditorium.

The Guggenheim family managed to amass extraordinary art collections.  The lecturer examines the celebrated museums as well as the stunning works they display.

Mary Cassatt was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists.  She was a professional artist in a predominantly male art world and produced avant-garde images of 19th century society.

From an especially rare Elizabethan embroidered folding fan to contemporary examples, discover some of the key objects in the Museum.

Caravaggio was one of the last great Renaissance artists; a man out of step with his time.

In 1685 William and Mary built Het Loo in the Netherlands, an impressive hunting lodge, and when they came to London, they asked Wren to re-build Hampton Court.