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)
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