Lectures Membership year 2024-25 Doors will open at 10.15am when free tea/coffee and biscuits are available. The meeting is called to order at 10.50am for the chairman’s welcome and notices followed by the lecture from 11am-12noon. 4 June 2025 Sue Jackson The Cultural Heritage of the Huguenots The Huguenots came to England in huge numbers in the late 17th century bringing a wide variety of skills - as silk weavers, silversmiths, clock makers, opticians, bankers, gilders, iron workers, horticulturists etc. Names such as Paul de Lamerie, Samuel Courtauld and Jean Tijou spring to mind. In virtually all areas, they were innovators and more advanced than the English who were forced to improve their own skills or go out of business. Although the majority settled in London, others found their way to East Anglia, Macclesfield and Canterbury. This talk examines their lasting legacy. Photo: Copyrighted Sue Jackson 2 July 2025 Georgina Bexon Australian Indigenous Art – 50,000 years ago to the present day The Australian indigenous people possess probably the oldest continuous culture on our planet. From the extraordinary early rock and cave art to the modern oil painting, these artists are great storytellers, passing their mystic culture and sense of the sacred nature of the landscape down the generations. This talk investigates the early beginnings of this fascinating art and traces its development to the modern day where it is exhibited in international galleries and sells for high prices on the world art market. Photo: Copyrighted Georgian Bexon (AGM: please be seated by 10.30am ) 1 October 2025 Jo Walton Eric Ravilious and the Lure of the Everyday Ravilious has been described as the greatest English watercolourist of the 20th century and his images of the landscape and of everyday objects attract passionate devotees. A prolific painter, printmaker and designer, he became an Official War Artist in 1939, and was killed in 1942 but his legacy is a body of work reflecting deep delight in the world in which he lived. This talk looks at his work and that of some of his contemporaries working on the Home Front in the Second World War. 5 November 25 Anthony Peers Strictly Classical: The Style of the East India Company By looking first at Madras, and then Calcutta – there is an opportunity to look at the very best of the buildings constructed in the heyday of the East India Company. This lecture touches on the early 17th century origins of the East India Company and considers the tentative architectural endeavours of the amateur architects and engineers working at the Company’s behest.  Study is made of Company’s magnificent late 18th and early 19th century classical buildings, as well as of the stunning late flowering of the Indo Saracenic in Madras and the remarkable Edwardian Baroque of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta. 3 December 2025 Sally Dormer The Christmas Story in Medieval Art It was during the Middle Ages that many of the familiar images associated with the Christmas story were devised and popularized: including the stable in Bethlehem inhabited by the ox and ass. What were the sources for these images? Are they always of biblical origin? This lecture, illustrated by images taken from sources as diverse as illuminated manuscripts, church portals, liturgical vestments, stained glass windows and goldsmiths’ work, will tell the stories surrounding Christ’s birth and investigate the often surprising sources for certain aspects of this well-known narrative.  7 January 2026 Eileen Goulding The Knights Crusaders: their exploits and legacies The Orders of knights who helped keep the Kingdom of Jerusalem safe for Christians settled and prospered on islands in the Mediterranean such as Rhodes. Learn of the exploits of the Hospitallers and Templars, their legacies and the notorious Assassins. 4 February 2026 Raymond Warburton Modern British Sculpture: Moore, Hepworth, Caro, Frink and others This lecture focuses on the work and achievements of, and challenges faced by leading sculptors based in Britain in the 20th century. They comprise Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Caro, Elisabeth Frink and Antony Gormley. In their different ways, they all embraced modernism, but some more than others. Some looked to African, Oceanic and pre-Columbian cultures, while others looked to Paris. Some embarked on direct carving, while others modelled or shaped their materials. Some embraced social and humanitarian themes, while others opted for abstraction. 4 March 2026 Paula Nuttall Urbino: A Renaissance Palace and its Treasures The ducal palace of Urbino is the most perfect of Italian renaissance palaces. It was the creation of the cultivated soldier-prince, Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, a showcase for his prodigious wealth and impeccable taste, and the setting for the ideal renaissance court described in Castiglione’s renaissance bestseller, The Book of the Courtier. This lecture takes us on a tour of the palace, from the exquisitely proportioned courtyard and vast throne room, to the gemlike private study and functional apartments such as the ducal bathroom and indoor riding school. We also look at treasures that once adorned the palace, notably paintings by Piero della Francesca.    1 April 2026 Scott Anderson Dale Chihuly and the American Glass Movement American pioneers in glass technology from the late 19th century onwards provided much of the innovative tradition that was to bring about the birth of the Studio Glass Movement in the USA in the 1960s. Glass manufacturers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany developed new blown shapes and technologies to create new surface effects and an appearance of movement in glass that was to be continued in the work of studio glass makers such as Dale Chihuly. The Studio Glass Movement dates from 1962, with its emphasis on the aesthetics of form and colour now influencing studio art glass makers everywhere. 6 May 2026 John Osborne Behind the Veil: the Arts of Islamic Persia Iran has a sophisticated cultural heritage ignored in the headlines. The main part of the lecture illustrates the development of the spectacular architecture in the mosques and palaces of Persia through the Islamic period, with an emphasis on their brilliant tilework and painting, including the splendid buildings of Shah Abbas' early 17th century Isfahan. Persia’s classic gardens are mentioned, and beautiful examples of manuscript illustration (‘miniatures’) are included. The lecture explains how the Shi'a form of Islam originated and became the ruling creed in the late 20th century Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini. 3 June 2026 Imogen Corrigan The Topsy Turvey World of Misericords This lecture takes the audience on a tour of some of the extraordinary images that exist in some 400 churches in England. The art form was in vogue mainly from C13th – C15th and rarely includes religious images despite the misericords being positioned so close to the high altar. The secular, sometimes bizarre and often profane nature of their subjects meant that many survived the Reformation and later religious enthusiasts. Much social comment can be gleaned from these carvings even though there are no records describing why particular images were chosen and very often it is not possible to date them accurately.  1 July 2026 Twigs Way Impressions of Gardens: Gardens of the Impressionists Planting and painting, cultivating and creating: inspired and influenced by their dedication to painting ‘en plein air’ artists of the Impressionist movement had an especial relationship with gardens and landscape, most famously expressed by Claude Monet (1840-1926) at Giverny. This talk explores that relationship drawing on the wide range of gardens created and depicted by artists including Gustav Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and Pierre Bonnard, placing Giverny and Monet in a wider perspective. NOTE: 2026 is the centenary of the death of Claude Monet  (AGM: please be seated by 10.30am)