The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

Few are aware that Rubens was not only the most influential artist of his period, but also a high-ranking diplomat & informal spy.  Rubens travelled throughout Europe & was esteemed by the mightiest kings & queens of the age.  He was intelligent, good looking & could speak several languages.  His career as an artist was an excellent cover for international travel & private meetings....

IMPORTANT: July 2026 TALK: WE ARE SORRY BUT DUE TO THE DEMAND FOR SEATS AT THIS TALK  ALL VISITOR TICKETS ARE NOW TAKEN 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

From safe, traditional, beginnings in East Sussex, Edward Burra's life & art sallied forth, encountering Parisian nightlife, the jazz clubs of prohibition-era New York & the war-torn landscapes of the Spanish Civil War.  His paintings have been described as 'vividly idiosyncratic & memorable' & became increasingly disturbing & surreal.  We look at the life & work of this highly unusual British artist & the reasons his art took the form it did.

 IMPORTANT: April 2026 TALK: WE ARE SORRY BUT DUE TO THE DEMAND FOR SEATS AT THIS TALK  ALL VISITOR TICKETS ARE NOW TAKEN 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

VERY IMPORTANT   Please note change of usual date: THIRD Wednesday of the month   

The talks start at 2pm on May 20th in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

   Richard tells the story of a major figurative art commission that he painted for the city of Cosenza, Southern Italy, where he stayed for two months in 2015, painting five pictures telling the story of the Normans in Southern Italy.  He will describe the paintings executed, the process of designing & painting them, the historical background to the scenes, & the characters that featured.  Richard will also talk about the other artists he worked with; the Calabrian way of doing things; & the difficulties - including the theft of a painting - that had to be overcome to complete the project.

IMPORTANT: Please contact Enid Jones  to find out if visitor seats are still available

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

 Pewter is a little remembered & little appreciated material but it was once at the heart of daily life all over Europe & it has a fascinating story.  This talk will explain what pewter is & how it has been worked through the ages.  It will describe the history & decorative techniques of the pewter trade, with images showing every step of the manufacturing process as well as the differences between the various national styles.  It will also explore how changing social circumstances led to the decline of the pewter trade - why it fell from favour in the 18th century, & how it managed (only just) to survive in  the 19th century partly thanks to the patronage of inns & pubs.  Members are invited to bring pewter objects for discussion after the lecture.

IMPORTANT: April 2026 TALK: WE ARE SORRY BUT DUE TO THE DEMAND FOR SEATS AT THIS TALK  ALL VISITOR TICKETS ARE NOW TAKEN 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

  This lecture explores the various ways in which potters, over the centuries, have looked to the natural world for their inspiration - from the famous Tang horses of the 17th century to the botanical plates produced at Derby in the early 19th century.  It will include dishes swarming with realistic snakes & lizards, the great animal & bird figures made for August the Strong of Saxony, tureens in the form of rabbits & chickens & the incredibly life-like bunches of porcelain flowers carried by the ladies at the court of Louis XV.

IMPORTANT: Please contact Enid Jones  to find out if visitor seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

Please be seated by 1:45 for the AGM     

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

Catholic worship was officially outlawed in the Dutch Republic from 1581. It was not legally enforced & many continued their practice in 'hidden' churches such as the museum in the heart of Amsterdam called 'Our Lord in the Attic'.  This talk will introduce you to a unique museum as a starting point to discuss the position of the Catholics during the 'Golden Age of the Netherlands', famous Catholic artists like Vermeer & Frans Halls, religious freedom, .... & so-called Dutch tolerance & liberalism. Preceded by AGM at 1.45 

IMPORTANT: All visitor places for this talk are now taken

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of John Constable.  Enormously popular & endlessly reproduced, his paintings are very familiar, perhaps over familiar, but his modern reputation masks a radical, experimental artist who pushed the boundaries of art of his time just as much as his near-contemporary (& far more successful) rival Turner.  This talk will examine Constable's career & propose that he should be considered revolutionary & Britain's greatest landscape painter.  Time to re-assess an artist who has sold more tea towels than he did canvases in his lifetime.

WE ARE SORRY BUT DUE TO THE DEMAND FOR SEATS AT THIS TALK  ALL GUEST SLOTS ARE NOW TAKEN 

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

British sculpture enjoyed a renaissance in the 20th century but who came afterwards and with what effect?  The new generation of British-based sculptors are world renowned and still working as hard as ever.  Each in their own way is innovative, inspirational and deeply human.  After looking at a range of their work, the lecture continues by reviewing the weird and wonderful sculptures that have adorned the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in recent years ....

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

Food is essential to survival – and it’s certainly one of the great pleasures of life.  No surprise artists have chosen it as motifs in their works.  But there’s a lot more to food paintings than meets the eye.  Cindy will present a veritable tasting menu for you to unravel the meaning of these images.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

The Victorians were inveterate travellers, some for pleasure, some for work, whether in the military or the colonial service, and some from economic necessity, seeking a better life elsewhere in the Empire.  Whatever their motive they all left loved ones at home to whom they wrote letters detailing their experience, often embellished with engraved views of their new countries.  From the steppes of Asia to the battlefields of the American Civil War this lecture brings their stories to life in their own words from unpublished letters in the lecturer’s archives.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

Goldsmiths and artisans working in glass, rock crystal, enamels, porcelain or precious jewels have produced small and exquisite perfume vessels to delight the senses.  They attract the eye with their sparkling beauty and brilliant colour; they tempt the sense of taste when shaped as ripened fruit and appeal to the touch with their cool sculptured hardness ...

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

This lecture explores the fascinating and enigmatic life and work of the, sometimes called, ‘primitive’ artist Henri Rousseau.  He was a master of convincing others that he had travelled the world, both with his words and his art, but it is likely that he never left France at all.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

Few are aware that Rubens was not only the most influential artist of his period, but also a high-ranking diplomat and informal spy.  Rubens travelled throughout Europe and was esteemed by the mightiest kings and queens of the age.  He was intelligent, good looking and could speak several languages.  His career as an artist was an excellent cover for international travel and private meetings....

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

The ‘architect of floors’, renowned for her ‘sculpted rugs’ this lecture will reveal Dorn’s various commissions from the 1920s to the 1960s, which included amongst others, designs for the Savoy Hotel Group in London, Eltham Palace, the London Underground and the White House in Washington DC.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

We welcome once again Martin Lloyd who had previously lectured about ‘Secret Art in the Passport’.  This time he will talk to us about Bilbao in Spain where iron had been produced for centuries and its development in the 19th century was helped by British capital and entrepreneurship.  By 1985, it was all over.  But the rise, heyday and demise of the Bilbao iron industry has been fixed in oils, water colours and bronze.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

One of the best known names today.  A man of proverbial rebelliousness, painting in a style which he knew would drop a bomb on the art world he grew up in.  He painted with startling immediacy, rejecting his peers’ obsession with highly artificial designs and stale quotations from earlier works of art.

Preceded by AGM at 1.45

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

One of the best known tile interiors in Britain is the ceramic extravaganza by W. J. Neatby in the Meat Hall in Harrods Department Store.  His designs for this remarkable building were commissioned by Doulton and Co of Lambeth, but the project is only one of Neatby’s achievements, as a leading designer in fin-de-siecle Britain.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

A booking has been made at the Sir Roger Tichbourne Pub between Alfold and Loxwood for Wednesday 4th December. Booking is now open

PRESS FOR DETAILS

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 
 

This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety. Utilising country houses from Buckinghamshire to Cumbria, tube tunnels, Welsh mines and Wiltshire quarries, a dedicated team of unlikely heroes packed up their greatest treasures in a race against time during the sweltering summer of 1939, dispatching them throughout the country on a series of secret wartime adventures, retold in this Talk.

Dr Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘microhistory at its absolute best’. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barry’s War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as "a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful". Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2017, has appeared at the Cheltenham, Hay and Henley literary festivals and on BBC radio and TV. Caroline’s third book, National Treasures, will tell the extraordinary and sometimes hilarious stories behind the saving of London’s art and museum collections in World War Two.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 
 

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.

Richard Burnip

Richard took a BA Hons in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester, followed by an acting diploma at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. He combines acting, writing and lecturing. He has lectured in many venues including the National Army Museum and the Museum of London, and is currently presenting a variety of virtual lectures online. Richard has contributed to, among others, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and the P G Wodehouse journal Wooster Sauce. A specialist in voice work, he has narrated numerous documentaries and 150 audiobooks.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

The talks start at 2pm in Jack Wagg Hall, Cranleigh Arts 

The National Trust’s collection of some 600,000 books in 170 locations is cared for by property staff, volunteers and freelance conservators, working together to maintain the libraries in good working condition. Managing the environment, tracking down pests, creating conservation techniques that are discreet, and stabilising the collections for use are the main elements. Conservation evolves as the books’ use evolves, e.g. the catalogue is now available on-line and more researchers require access. The increased wish to use the books for visitor engagement projects provides further challenges. Given that most of the books have not been restored, the collection provides a physical history of the book trade and of the interaction between books and their owners/readers that is difficult to match elsewhere, so the conservation of books as objects is as important as preserving their texts.

Caroline Bendix

Caroline Bendix is a library conservator, accredited through the Institute of Conservation, who has worked on over 500 collections in the UK and abroad, including St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, advising on all aspects of books’ care in situ. She has written three of the British Library’s guides on preservation and in 2019 was awarded the Plowden Medal for her “outstanding work in developing in-situ library conservation”. Since 1992 she has been the National Trust’s Adviser on Libraries Conservation, the adviser and trainer for The Arts Society’s Heritage Volunteers projects and is on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s advisory panel for Lambeth Palace Library.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

Walter Sickert was the most charismatic British artist of the early Twentieth Century. Ever conscious of his public image, he cultivated a variety of personae: aesthete; provocateur; sage, painter of modern life. He was drawn to shocking or notorious subjects (those more likely to garner attention), especially the sensational ‘Camden Town Murder’ of 1907. This Talk examines the series of paintings and prints Sickert produced in response to the crime and its aftermath. These are compelling images, among the most original by any British artist of the period. How was Sickert able to create great art out of murder? Why was he, and much of the British public, so fascinated by the case? What did the Camden Town Murder series do for Sickert’s reputation and career?

Steven Barrett

BA(Hons) in Fine Art, Liverpool School of Art; MA in History of Art, Birkbeck College, London. Lecturer at the National Gallery since 2004. Has lectured on the history of European art and architecture at Somerset House, taught courses on art and architecture at London colleges (The City Literary Institute and Bishopsgate Institute) and is a regular gallery and museum guide for U3A. Steven is also a painter.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

Long before cappuccinos and skinny lattes, all the world’s coffee traded through the tiny port of Mokha in Yemen. Popularised in Constantinople, Vienna and Amsterdam, the first English coffee house opened in the 1650’s and by 1700 there were 500 in London alone. Beginning as ‘sobering meeting places’ they were frequented by artists, authors and politicians where the debating of literary and political ideas was encouraged, as seen in early prints and lithographs. The marketing of coffee went through distinctive art nouveau and art deco periods and we see it included in works of the major French Impressionists.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

 Christopher Bradley

Expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. As a professional tour guide and lecturer he has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia. Has written extensively on Arabia and is the author of The Discovery Guide to Yemen, Insight Guide to the Silk Road and Berlitz Guides to Libya; The Red Sea; Oman; Cairo; Abu Dhabi and Nile Cruising. As a photographer has pictures represented by four photographic libraries. A broad range of lecturing experience, including to the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Institute of British Architects. As a film producer and cameraman he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.

In June 1520 Henry VIII and Francis I meet to ratify an Anglo-French alliance and celebrate the betrothal of Henry’s daughter Mary to the Dauphin. The two handsome ‘Renaissance Princes’ are in their 20s with similar reputations in military prowess, sport and patrons of the arts. Both have imperial ambitions and are eager to display themselves as magnificent nobleman and warrior kings. Each brings an entourage of 6,000 to a field south of Calais for 18 days of various events and entertainments staged to display the skill and splendour of each King and country. The logistics of transporting, accommodating, ordering, feeding and watering, protecting and entertaining the English contingent for this spectacular event is staggering and the supply chain, often through the City of London Guilds, is equally fascinating. 3,217 horses shipped across the ‘Narrow Sea’ to Calais; a vast quantity of wood sourced from Flanders and floated along the coast; a huge temporary palace is built on stone foundations with brick and timber-framed walls reaching to 40 feet. Royal palaces were virtually emptied of their silver, gold, tapestries and furniture to decorate the temporary palace, other principal tents and a chapel (with an organ); gold and silver cloth, velvet and sables, jewels and pearls were imported to ‘dress and impress’.

Jo Mabbutt

Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and Freeman of the City of London. Originally a trained singer, pianist and orchestra administrator, Jo is now a decorative artist who gilds antique lace and crochet.  She works to commission, sells through galleries and exhibitions and collaborates with other designers. 

Jo trained in wood graining, marbling, gilding, specialist paint finishes and interior design and was awarded the City & Guilds Silver Medal for Excellence in 2000. She taught in further education for 8 years on Art & Design National Diploma and Foundation courses then up-skilled at Central St Martin's College of Art & Design developing her own practice. She now divides her time as a designer/maker, lecturer and tutor running workshops for specialist groups.

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

Joaquin Sorolla hated darkness. Claude Monet once said that painting in general did not have enough light in it. Sorolla could not agree more. Sorolla believed painters could never reproduce sunlight as it really is, and he could only “approach the truth of it”. 

Most of us when standing in front of one of his canvases would agree he was the master of light. He managed to capture like no other the light of the Mediterranean beaches he loved and the energy of Spanish life. He painted what he saw, quickly, to capture that precise moment. As he said "I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly. Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted.” In this Talk we will look at Sorolla’s life and art, from early education to success; having been almost forgotten to be rediscovered in the last few years.

Arantxa Sardina

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

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

This talk will look at the work of André le Nôtre, royal gardener to Louis XIV and the magnificent gardens he created for the ‘Sun King ’ at Versailles. We will examine the laying out of the formal terraces, the great tree-lined walks and the vast expanses of water. We will discuss the glorification of the King through the iconography of the statues and great fountain groups; and the importance of playing water to make the gardens come alive. We will also look at the extravagant entertainments that took place within the grounds; and the summer houses and pleasure pavilions where the King was able to escape from the thronging crowds.

Jane Gardiner

Jane gained an MA History of Art, University of London and trained at the V&A and continues to lecture there. She was Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years, becoming a Deputy Director of Sotheby's, UK. Jane has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, Buckingham University, l'Institut d'Etudes Superieures des Arts in Paris, a private women's college in Saudi Arabia, on cruise ships and at antiques fairs and interior design conferences in America. 

IMPORTANT: Visitors and members' guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available. 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

Napoleon, a master of self-publicity, used an array of great artists to create and disseminate an image of himself as an omniscient Emperor.  For the English, however, Bonaparte was the 'bogey man', and caricaturists used scorn and laughter to spread defiance to the mass market.

The AGM will precede this talk

IMPORTANT: Visitors and member's guests are welcome, but must contact Enid Jones  to confirm seats are still available 

enidjonestasc@gmail.com

NICOLE MEZEY

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris.  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 including the National Museums, universities, the National Trust and private companies.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Higher Education Academy and her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

January 24th - 2pm

Eric Ravilious was an artist who combined a love of the landscape with a fascination for different types of transport - from trains, old cars and gypsy caravans to the aircraft and destroyers he depicted as an Official War Artist in his precise, dry watercolours.

JO WALTON

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.

This Talk will take us through the meteoric rise to prominence of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483–1520). James Lindow will discuss his early work in the Perugino workshop; his time in Florence in 1504 and his key commission for Pope Julius II who summoned the artist to Rome in 1508 which cemented the fame of this phenomenal talent. 1500 marks the start of the High Renaissance and the emergence of Raphael as a great Master.

DR JAMES LINDOW

James Lindow was the first Renaissance PhD from the Royal College of Art and the V&A.  He has convened and presented at international conferences, lectures widely in the UK and overseas and is currently a fine art underwriter in the City.  He has written articles on diverse aspects of the Renaissance, and his book entitled The Renaissance Palace in Florence: Magnificence and Splendour in Fifteenth-Century Italy was published by Ashgate Press in 2007 to widespread critical acclaim.

October 25th - 2pm

With the seemingly unstoppable appetite for Eastern Orthodox icons in the West, and the inevitable misunderstandings that have arisen as to meaning and function, terminology and theology, maybe it is time to address some of the key facts?  Expect a few hot potatoes!

HELEN DEJEAN

Helen combines her many years’ experience as an educator and professional artist to explain Late Medieval Italian Art and Eastern Orthodox iconography from a different perspective.  Her interdisciplinary lectures weave together (with passion and humour) art historical scholarship, technical expertise and devotional context to provide a unique narrative for understanding 13th -14th century Italian panel painting.  She has lectured, delivered art history and medieval panel painting courses for over thirty years to educational trusts, colleges, art societies, faith organisations, schools and HLF projects, as well as teaching independently and leading art pilgrimage tours in Sinai and Italy.

Helen has received numerous commissions from cathedrals, churches and private patrons and has been described as one of the UKs leading iconographers.  She is a MA graduate of the Courtauld Institute (Edmond J. Safra Scholarship) and holds a first-class BA Hons, Fine Art Diploma and Adult Education Teaching qualification.  She has worked in the museum sector at London’s leading Russian Art Auction House, MacDougall Arts and at Christie's.

September 27th - 2pm

Grace Darling's daring rescue of steamship passengers off the Northumberland coast in 1838 brought her international fame and celebrity.  This talk reveals the full extent of the artistic contribution in keeping Darling in the public eye and is part of the national events marking the RNLI's bicentenary across the years 2023-2024.

DR JAMES TAYLOR

James studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester, and is a former curator of paintings, drawings and prints, and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, also lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships.  Publications include illustrated histories of Marine Painting (1995) and yachting art Yachts on Canvas (1998), The Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin’s extraordinary adventure aboard FitzRoy’s famous survey ship (2008), Careless Talk Costs Lives: Fougasse and the Art of Public Information (2010) and Your Country Needs You: the Secret History of the Propaganda Poster (2013), Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art (2016) and Picturing the Pacific: Sir Joseph Banks and the Shipboard Artists of Cook and Flinders (2018).  Completed his PhD at the University of Sussex in 2015 on the voyager artist William Westall (1781-1850) who sailed with Commander Matthew Flinders aboard HMS 'Investigator' (1801-1803) the first ship to circumnavigate Australia.

July 26th - 2pm

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) was one of the leading figures in the fight for the unification of Italy during the 19th century and attracted almost fanatical devotion.  Christopher Garibaldi looks at the many links he had with Britain and how he fits into the contemporary artistic fashions of the period.

Christopher Garibaldi is an independent researcher.  From 2010–2019 he was Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art).  2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections.  1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000.  1994–1997 he catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

When Diaghilev created ballet in the west in the early 20th century, he brought extraordinary revolutionary energy from Russia.  The dream he created of dance joining hands with the other creative disciplines to create a total work of art changed the course of ballet forever.

JENNIFER TOYNBEE-HOLMES

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.

Ealing Studios is often hailed as the most quintessentially English of all film studios.  This talk revisits these films and reads them again, this time in the light of the postwar new waves that were beginning to emerge across Europe.

BENEDICT MORRISON

Benedict Morrison is a lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter.  He has recently published a book entitled Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema with Oxford University Press and is now producing works on post-war British comedy films, the response by the arts and humanities to Covid-19, and cultural narratives of extinction.  He spent seven years studying at the University of Oxford, but finally traded the dreaming spires for the cultural bustle of London.

Shrines, stupas, cave temples, colonial grandeur and modernist architecture - a look at the history of this beautiful island through its intriguing art and culture.

GEORGINA BEXON

Georgina is an art historian specialising in South Asian art who has lived and worked in the UK, USA and Singapore.  Her practice includes lecturing, writing, consulting and collecting and she has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India, which she visits regularly.

Consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club in London and an official tour guide at Tate Modern, Georgina is also a guest speaker on luxury cruise ships for whom she has developed a series of art talks relating to Asian and Pacific destinations.  She has been a visiting lecturer at UK universities, presents talks at leading art institutions including Christie’s Education New York and the Museum of Modern Art, Moscow and speaks at international art conferences, most recently in New York, Paris, London and Lisbon.

Georgina holds a BA in Art History from Southampton University, an MA in Arts Management and Policy from City, University of London and an MA in Art History from SOAS, University of London.  Georgina is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society.

March 22nd - 2pm

Blue and white tin-glazed earthenware has long been admired and collected for its attractive appearance, but this lecture goes further by examining English delftware with a pharmaceutical purpose.  Briony will demonstrate that delftware drug jars have an undervalued role to play in understanding medical practices in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Non-members are welcome at this and future talks.
Please contact our Membership Secretary

2pm & 7.30pm

Grace Higgens joined the unconventional Bell household aged 15.  For the next 50 years she propped up the Bloomsbury set in London and Charleston in E.Sussex.

The AGM preceded the afternoon talk

TESSA BOASE

Tessa is a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society along with other organisations such as the V&A, English Heritage and the National Trust.  She’s the author of two books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale – The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House and Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather – Fashion, Fury and Feminism, Women’s Fight for Change.  Her interest lies in uncovering stories of invisible women of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, revealing how they drove industry, propped up high society and manipulated politics.  Tessa has an MA in English Literature from Oxford University, a diploma in Art History from the British Institute of Florence, and has enjoyed a long career in journalism for national newspapers and magazines.

2pm & 7.30pm

An overview of her fascinating career and some of the remarkable achievements of her long life.

ROSALIND WHYTE

Rosalind achieved a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College.  She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich, and lectures at the Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises.  She also leads art appreciation holidays.