Category: Past Lectures

This talk is on how magicians have appeared in art throughout the centuries, whether in paintings, satirical prints or cartoons.[…]

A fascinating lecture of how opera began, developed and spread worldwide; from 1600 to the present day. Illustrated with musical[…]

This lecture focuses on the design impact of the Great Exhibition and the need for a ‘legacy institution’ in the[…]

From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s a new craze gripped the world. Photography had just begun to be popularised[…]

  An abstract painter in the 1930’s, John Piper was also a writer, critic and typographer and his love of[…]

There were eight studios in Hollywood during its Golden Age and this lecture provides a helpful history from their early, tentative[…]

E H Shepard loved Christmas, and this lecture describes, including his own words, much of the magic and joy of[…]

Theatrical Scene design is one of the world’s most beautiful and lively art forms. In his talk, Bertie looks at[…]

Ramesses II (c 1279 -1213 BC) is known to many as ‘Ramesses the Great’. He built extraordinary temples throughout Egypt[…]

We will discover the very first memsahibs to set foot into India in 1617, and how a fair amount of[…]

Nicholas was the Greek Bishop of Myra, a 4th century port in Anatolia. Following his death, his legendary generosity established[…]

In the late Middle Ages there was a fertile relationship between art and religious theatre. This lecture tells the story[…]

Coventry Cathedral – Icon and Inspiration by Alexandra Epps This lecture tells the extraordinary story of the rebuilding of Coventry[…]

Pieter Bruegel died so young, at about forty-four, but he left a lasting legacy of outstanding designs for prints and[…]

The Magic of Prague: The City and the Czech Cultural Revival by Gavin Plumley As a part of the Hasburg[…]

The Music and Life of Johann Sebastian Bach by Peter Medhurst Claude Debussy once said of Bach (1685-1750) that he[…]