September 11th 2025 Tom McGuiness, his life, his art and interpretation of his work. Lecturer: Robert McManners Tom McGuinness was born in Witton Park, Bishop Auckland, County Durham in 1926; the year of the General Strike. He did not choose to become a miner; he was conscripted to the collieries as a Bevin Boy in 1944 working as a collier until made redundant in 1983. Tom was a master of technique, painting and sculpting in eclectic media with a trademark expression style of elongated figures bowed by their wearisome work. 12th June 2025 2pm Tessa Boase London’s Lost Department Stores London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’. 8th May 2025 2pm Hilary Guise The Courtauld Collection: From Fra Angelico to the Impressionists. Unique in England as a collection that was formed entirely in the 20th century, the Courtauld Collection, housed in Somerset House, combines the finest examples of early Italian and Netherlandish gilded altarpieces with some of the greatest works of the French Impressionists and Post Impressionists. From the deeply expressive early Flemish and Italian masters, to the great Renaissance painters, Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Lucas Cranach, we study his vision of The Garden of Eden and Pieter Breugel’s haunting Woman taken in Adultery. 10th April 2025 2pm Lydia Goodson Mighty Madonnas and Wild Women “Oh, do not be born a woman in Florence, if you want your own way” sighed Nannina Rucellai in 1466, expressing her dissatisfaction at the restricted life of the wife of a wealthy merchant. Nannina’s complaint ricochets down the centuries replete with frustration at the limited freedoms available to her. Yet the art of Renaissance Italy is full of images of powerful women. The talk explores this contradiction through the multi-faceted depictions of feminine power in Renaissance Italy and uncovers what these tell us about the women in the paintings and the world they lived in. 13th March 2025 2pm John Vigar 1000 Years of Cats in churches Which animals are found depicted in churches has always fascinated me. From mythical beasts to faithful dogs, elephants and bats, our parish churches are full of carvings, paintings and stained glass. In this new presentation I will be looking at cats - domestic cats remembered with their owners, mousers earning their living, big cats in heraldry and even Queen Mary`s cuddly toy cat are all waiting to be discovered. Did you know that in the medieval period there was a Papal Bull dismissing cats as Evil - of course you did, just think of the witches familiar, so delightfully portrayed on a misericord at Great Malvern Priory. 13th February 2025 2pm Sophie Matthews The Book, the Devil and my Uncle’s Bagpipes This lecture looks at the story of a remarkable book published in 1539 called In Chaldaicam Lingua. It was published by Theseo Ambrogio who had been the Pope’s enforcer of doctrine, with the Lord’s Prayer and selected psalms translated into multiple languages for missionaries to use. However Ambrogio also had an eccentric uncle who was an inventor and had invented a brand new kind of bagpipe….that no one wanted to make, so he died with his vision mostly unrealised. Feeling that his uncle’s legacy shouldn’t be forgotten, Ambrogio included the designs for his Uncle’s Bagpipe in his new book of prayers. 12th December 2025 A buffet lunch is available from 12.45 at a cost of £7. Sarah Pearson The Art of Celebrating Christmas The celebration of Christmas brings together a broad range of traditions which are now regarded by many as integral to Christmas as a whole. Using a wide range of artworks and covering the output of many well-known and lesser known artists including Giotto, Caspar David Friedrich and Norman Rockwell this talk examines the elements of Christmas in their artistic setting. From the Christmas feast to Christmas Cards, holly and ivy, trees, crackers, gift giving and of course lots and lots of snow, this lecture is guaranteed to put you in the Christmas spirit. 14th November 2024 Tim Stimson Gustave Klimt Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), the leader of the Vienna Secession learned his skills adorning the new buildings of the Ringstrasse with majestic murals, yet at the height of his fame he found that he was pushing too far into the avant garde for most of his bourgeois patrons. His images of the femme fatale are definitive encapsulations of turn of the 19th century decadence and sensuality, and have retained an enduring fascination. Above all his works are gloriously decorative, exuberantly anticipating Art Deco. This lecture seeks to locate Klimt within the social milieu of Vienna and investigate his charming personality and idiosyncratic art. 10th October 2024 A buffet lunch is available from 12.45 at a cost of £7. Sandy Burnett From Preludes to Passions: Johann Sebastian Bach’s music and its timeless appeal. More than any other composer, Johann Sebastian Bach’s music has transcended the passage of time. Sandy examines the enduring appeal of this astonishing composer’s work, traces the evolution of his life and career from his early days at Eisenach and Arnstadt through spells at Weimar, Cöthen and finally Leipzig, and looks at the shifting perception of Bach’s music over the years since his death in 1750. Illustrations include a selection of musical highlights great and small, ranging from tiny keyboard preludes through to some of the earth-shattering moments from the mighty John and Matthew Passions. 12th September 2024 Christopher Garibaldi From Biscuits to Blouses: Garibaldi and the British The amazing life of an heroic and romantic figure who captured the British imagination, inspiring a huge range of everyday artefacts. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was one of the leading figures in the fight for the unification of Italy during the nineteenth century. During his lifetime he attracted almost fanatical devotion. He was a romantic and heroic figure who captured the imagination of Italians but also of the British. His interest of the British prompted a fashion for everything from Staffordshire figurines, biscuits and blouses to the famous red shirts that became symbols of the Risorgimento and Italy's fight for freedom. This fascination on the part of the British culminated in a triumphant visit in 1864 when over 500,000 Londoners turned out to see him in Trafalgar Square. This lecture looks at his amazing life. 13 June 2024 Caroline Holmes American Impressionists in the Garden “It is sunshine, flowers in the sunshine, girls in sunshine”. Three generations of American artists sought the greater freedom of France and the comforts of the Hôtel Baudry in Giverny. Thursday 16 May 2024 Visit by Coach to Newby Hall With Guided Visit of the Hall and time to enjoy the gardens. 9 May 2024 Suzanne Fagence Cooper Love Is Enough: At Home With Jane & William Morris William Morris wrote:’The secret of true happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.’ This lecture looks at the houses and works of art that Jane & William made together, from the Red House to Kelmscott Manor. Through newly revealed letters & diaries, furniture, wall-hangings & beautiful books, we can explore the pioneering life they embraced with their artist friends. 14 March 2024 Susan Kay-Williams 150 Years of The Royal Society of Needlework. Established in 1872 it had two missions: to support educated women who would otherwise have been destitute by enabling them to earn their own living and to present hand embroidery as an art form worthy of being seen alongside fine art in galleries. But what has helped the RSN to stay alive is for it to repeatedly change its activities while keeping to its purpose, as well as having some formidable supporters. In the 1890s it started to train women so they could go on to earn a living teaching hand embroidery in schools and technical colleges, sending graduates all over the world. In the 1960s the RSN changed to having an apprenticeship. Then in the 2000s the RSN brought in a degree course and changed the apprenticeship to the Future Tutor programme and in the last year, in response to the pandemic it has started teaching online, opening up the RSN approach to hand embroidery to many more people worldwide. It can simultaneously offer high quality technical tuition and classes for mental health and wellbeing. This lecture gives a flavour of how the RSN has survived and thrived and is a fascinating look into social history of the last 150 years. 8 February 2024 Caroline Shenton National Treasures: Saving the Nation’s Art in the Second World War. 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. 14 December 2023 Sarah Burles ‘Fear Not’: The Annunciation In Art The story of the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Virgin Mary as told in St Luke’s gospel, has inspired some of the most beautiful images in Western Art. These include Simone Martini’s altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, now in the Uffizi Gallery and Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the monastery of San Marco in Florence. The earliest depiction of the Annunciation is thought to date back to the 2nd century AD. Since then, the narrative has been re imagined by numerous artists including Van Eyck, Botticelli, Dürer and Rossetti. This lecture will take you on a journey through a range of different depictions of the Annunciation and explore the ways in which artists have captured this pivotal moment of the Christian story. Buffet Lunch available 9 November 2023 Patrick Craig Resurgam: Music In St Pauls Cathedral The last time St Paul’s Cathedral was deprived of music for a long period was after the devastating Fire of London in 1666. But in 1697 Christopher Wren was able to triumphantly declare RESURGAM as the phoenix rose from the ashes. Patrick will look at music from either side of this momentous event. He will also guide us through the finest repertoire from across the Cathedral’s liturgical year. Escorted by a selection of his favourite photographs, music and videos he will aim to convey the glories of twenty-five years of singing in this extraordinary building. 12 October 2023 Paul Bahn The Shock of the Old: An Account of the Discovery of Britain’s First Ice Age Cave Art at Creswell Crags An account of the search for, and discovery of, Britain’s first Ice Age cave art at Creswell Crags (Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire) in 2003 - how my 30-year dream was fulfilled in a single morning! The engravings and bas-reliefs discovered have been dated to around 13,000 years ago, and are thus by far the oldest known artistic depictions in the country. Buffet lunch available 14 Sept 2023 Tobias Capwell The Scoliotic Knight: Reconstructing the real Richard lll The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact. But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim? Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth. In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral. Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, including Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011; Apollo Magazine Book of the Year 2012); The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520-1630, ex. cat. (2012); Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015; Military History Monthly Illustrated Book of the Year 2017); and most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television, most recently on A Stitch in Time (2018; BBC4); as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014; C4), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012; BBC4) Followed by ‘Welcome Back ‘ Tea and Cake Photo: The lecturer is one of the knights in armour. Reinterment cortege of King Richard III Digital-Designs Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 . .