Lectures 2024
Wednesday 15th May
A CLASSIC DETECTIVE STORY: THE ROYAL GAME OF UR Lecturer: Irving Finkel The most successful board game of antiquity (2600 BC), a beautiful set of ancient rules (177 BC) and a world encompassing narrative. The game survived, unnoticed, in south-west India until modern times. Irving Finkel is a British philologist...
Find out moreWednesday 26th June
THE MARQUESSES OF BUTE; PATRONS OF OPULENCE Lecturer: Matthew Williams The Marquesses of Bute rose to prominence during the eighteenth century. The extraordinary buildings of the scholarly third Marquess include Mount Stuart, his own home in Scotland, once memorably described as being “like a head on collision between the Taj...
Find out moreWednesday 24th July
THE HOME BEAUTIFUL: PRE-RAPHAELITE INTERIORS Lecturer: Joanna Banham For Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, a beautiful home was “the most important production of art”. This lecture explores the decoration and lifestyles associated with famous Pre-Raphaelite houses. From 2006-2016 Jo Banham was Head of Adult Learning at the...
Find out moreWednesday 25th September
BRAVE NEW WORLD – THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN Lecturer: Marc Allum The 1951 Festival of Britain was an inspiring event designed to put Britain back on its feet after the ravages of the Second World War. Marc looks at its legacy and effect on post-war Britain through the development of...
Find out moreWednesday 30th October
THE FORBIDDEN CITY; THE SECRETS OF CHINA’S IMPERIAL PALACE AND MUSEUM Lecturer: Anna Haworth The Forbidden City was built in Beijing in the early 15th century. Its pavilions house vast collections of art objects, collected by the Chinese Emperors. The lecture lifts the veil of secrecy to explore the art...
Find out moreWednesday 20th November
JEAN, DUC DE BERRY, PATRON AND CONNOISSEUR Lecturer: Sally Dormer Jean, Duc de Berry (1360-1416), a younger brother of Charles V, was one of the foremost patrons of the late Middle Ages, commissioning manuscripts, reliquaries, altarpieces and pieces of jewellery. The lecture will explore his links to the foremost craftsmen...
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