Princess Louise was a daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and a well-respected sculptor. Her life and legacy has been locked away in the Royal Archives ever since her death in 1939, but her work was stunning, and her life fascinating.

Linda Hawksley is an Author, Broadcaster, Lecturer and Award winning Travel Writer. She has worked as an Interviewee, Consultant and Presenter on TV and radio shows Worldwide. She has written biographies of three female artists including Princess Louise who is the subject of this lecture. 

Image: Statue of Queen Victoria (1893) in Kensington Gardens sculpted by Princess Louise.  

In this lively introduction to the tapestry – so much more than the story of Hastings – Rupert unravels some of its mysteries, places it in the context of its age and firmly establishes it as a landmark in the history of Western Art..

Lecturer: Rupert Willoughby is an historian and classicist, a poet, a father and a wild swimmer with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the ‘Byzantine’, or medieval Greek Empire), he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village, and the whimsical, yet scholarly Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. Rupert also contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph. Accredited by The Arts Society since 2011, he is an experienced lecturer, who is known for his light, humorous touch, his love of narrative and his vivid evocations of the past. Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.

The kimono, literally meaning ‘wear’ (ki) and ‘thing’ (mono), is a traditional garment worn by both men and women in Japan. But it is so much more than that. Rich in symbolism and encapsulating the best in textile design and techniques through the ages, the kimono has a fascinating history that reflects wider aspects of Japanese life and culture. This lecture will trace the story of the kimono, its past and its present, and the place that it occupies in the world of contemporary fashion.

Lecturer: Professor Marie Conte-Helm has lectured extensively on the history, arts, and culture of Asia, the Pacific, and the wider world and is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She holds higher degrees in the History of Art and in Asian Art from the City University of New York and the East West Center of the University of Hawaii and conducted her postgraduate research on Chinese Landscape Painting at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Professor Conte-Helm has served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group and Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the largest UK charity supporting links between the two countries. She has held academic posts as Reader in Japanese Studies and Director, East Asian Developments at Northumbria University, and as Head of the Japanese Studies Division at the University of Sunderland. Her book publications include The Japanese and Europe: Economic and Cultural Encounters and Japan and the North East of England: From 1862 to the Present Day.
She was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations. In 2019 she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the Government of Japan ‘in recognition of her long-time dedication and significant contributions to the promotion of mutual understanding and cultural exchange between Japan and the United Kingdom’.

Before The Nutcracker became everybody's favourite Christmas ballet, it was staged in Tsarist Russia. With reference to the glorious history of the Imperial Ballet company in St. Petersburg, this lecture discusses how Tchaikovsky came to write his magical scoreand Petipa created its choreography, and also tells the story of the dancers who created the leading roles. It also explores Tchaikovsky's role in transforming classical ballet into the vibrant art form it is today.

Lecturer: Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, translator and lecturer.  A cultural historian with a background in Russian literature, music and art, her books include Wagner and Russia and Tolstoy: A Russian Life. She has also written a biography of Chekhov, and published translations of his short stories and letters. Her new translation of Anna Karenina was published in 2014.   

Her current interests focus on Russian and European Modernism, opera, and the intersection between politics, history and the arts.  She has lectured on these and other topics, including Tchaikovsky, Chekhov and Levitan, Matisse in Moscow, Kandinsky and The Blue Rider, and Modernist women artists, both in the UK and abroad.

MacDonald 'Max' Gill, younger brother of the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, was an architect, graphic designer and letterer, best known for his pictorial maps, especially
those for the London Underground. This illustrated talk by Max Gill’s great-niece presents a colourful overview of this versatile artist's personal life and artistic achievements. NB. Max's work can be found in many localities around Britain. Caroline will include local connections wherever possible.

 Lecturer: Caroline Walker is a leading researcher on her great-uncle, the architect and cartographer MacDonald 'Max' Gill, she is the author of MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life and frequently gives talks on his pioneering maps and the broader Gill family legacy.

FRICK: THE MAN and his MUSEUM
Just who was Henry Clay Frick? And how did this man who ditched the classroom for the soot, filth, bloodshed and danger of industry become the most prominent art
collector of his generation in America, and the benefactor of its finest collection of European paintings? We'll take an intimate look into his private life and personal
demons, and the inner-fire that drove him to collect, curate, and give away a world-class museum

Lecturer: Mark Meredith is a regular Speaker at the New York Adventure Club; and, has lectured at various societies across Europe and the States including the New-York Historical Society.His area of special interest is American social history and architecture. He says, "I don't just “give a lecture”, I like to tell a story. My lectures are richly illustrated, laced throughout with humour and, by the time we reach the end, my aim is to leave the audience buzzing with thoughts and opinion. 

In this lecture we shall trace the development of English gardens from Tudor times through to the twentieth century. Our early formal gardens owe much to the influence
of Italy and France, and although most were destroyed in the later vogue for the ‘naturalistic’ landscape park, we can form an excellent idea of their appearance through paintings and engravings. In the 17th century, the more intimate gardens of the Tudor and Stuart period give way to grandiose formal layouts inspired by Versailles and many
fragments of great formal schemes survive.

Lecturer: Barbara Peacock, architectural historian and experienced lecturer RSA also organises and leads art and architectural tours in UK and abroad. She is very much involved in the preservation of the architectural heritage of the Czech land and has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Czech government and the Points of Light Award from the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May.

WILLIAM J NEATBY: the Master of Harrod’s Meat Hall
A master of fin-de- siècle art and design in Britain. This lecture charts his career from his beginnings as a ceramic artist in Leeds to his time as Head of Doulton’s Architectural Ceramics Department, and beyond. Topics for study include his graphic work, designs for architectural ceramics, and his work as a book illustrator and wallpaper designer. One of the few designers to work in the Art Nouveau style in England, Neatby created artworks that are still a visual feast for those interested in art and design in the years around 1900.

Lecturer: Scott Anderson trained as an archaeologist at Leicester University and was a professional archaeologist for ten yearts before his interests shifted to the world of art, antiques and auctioneering. in 1994 he joined the team at Southampton Solent Unoiversity lecturing on the only BA (Hons) degree course of its kind to look at the commercial art world. Now, as a Senior Lecturer, he teaches course on the history and theory of interior design and visual culture. He has lectured to many adult audiences for a variety of University Extra-mural departments and the WEA. For the last few years he has also worked as a consultant valuer for the BBC television programme Flog it.

The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture seeks to correct that by examining the contribution of three outstanding British practitioners:
Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian pioneer; Jane Bown, a brilliant portraitist; and Fay Godwin, who excelled in landscape photography. We also explore the work of two
highly influential Americans: Dorothea Lange, who produced brilliant documentary images and Annie Leibovitz, who continues to both surprise and delight her audience.

Lecturer: Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He therefore offers lectures to The Arts Society on each of these subjects. He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. Brian is a former member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography. He works with a range of cameras, including a pre-War Leica as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others. Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

An abstract painter in the 1930s, John Piper was also a writer, critic and typographer and his love of architecture – especially medieval churches and stained glass – made him a highly sensitive observer of his surroundings. During the Second World War he became one of the best-known Official War Artists, creating powerful images of the destruction of Coventry Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and of the city of Bath, as well as recording a wide range of buildings, from derelict Welsh cottages to the grandeur of Windsor Castle.

Lecturer: Jo Walton is a freelance lecturer, specialising in Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture and in British art of the 19th and 20th centuries. She studied art history at Leicester University, then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford on the art and architecture of 15th century Italy. A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers Christies. As well as teaching adult education classes in art history she was for 12 years a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain. She now lectures for The Arts Society, The National Gallery and The Art Fund as well as on cruise liners – discovering, rather to her surprise, that she loves being at sea on very large ships.

AGM at 10.15 (coffee served from 9.45a.m.)
A jam-packed hour of information and entertainment. Take a trip with Margaret as she delves into the 5000-year history, development, design, music, and lore of this
fascinating instrument. Boasting over 1400 working parts, you will learn how the complex pedal mechanism was introduced and perfected into the instrument played
today together with slides of the extraordinary designs as the instrument developed over the centuries. Indulge in the lavishly decorated Rococo harps made for Queen
Marie Antoinette, the fashion statement that became associated with the instrument - and listen as Margaret plays her harp for you on this unique musical journey.

Lecturer: Margaret Watson is an accomplished harpist, she studied harp under the late Sidonie Goossens OBE and Sussex  harpist Helen Arnold. She holds a Diploma in Music Performance on the Harp and is also a Fellow of The Guild of Musicians and Singers. She has played in front of many royals, and given concerts at National Trust properties and many other venues.