Come and enjoy our spring Special Interest  Day. These days allow us to talk about, and study a subject in more depth.  It consists of  3 1hr lectures with breaks for coffee and tea (and flapjacks!) and a buffet lunch with wine.  The time of the event is 10.30 - 3pm and is held at Cerne Abbas Village Hall.

Whether you’re already a fan or have never heard of her, you’re guaranteed to be enchanted by the images and stories of the incomparable Dame Laura Knight.

Arguably the best-loved British woman artist of her day, Dame Laura Knight was an extraordinary force of nature, as well as an artist of outstanding talent in many styles, media and genres. She was the first person to be awarded a DBE for services to art; the first woman elected as a Royal Academician; portraitist of everyone from megastars to Roma labourers, and the only woman to be an official war artist in both world wars.

Lecture 1:  An introduction to the Newlyn School (1880 – 1910)
We start by exploring the story of how a small Cornish fishing village became an artistic Mecca, leading Laura Knight to move there in 1907. Sumptuous images reveal the fascinating true stories of toil, tragedy, faith and kinship. Featuring Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes, Frank Bramley, Walter Langley and Henry Scott Tuke, among many others.

Lecture 2: The Lamorna Colony (1910 – 1940)
The formation of the Forbes School of Painting in 1899 brought a new generation of artists to Newlyn, many, including Laura Knight, settling just west of the village in the Lamorna valley. This second talk focusses on these artists’ vibrant work and deep friendships, including fellow pioneering woman artist, Dod Procter; the charismatic and controversial Sir Alfred Munnings, and fellow painters such as SJ ‘Lamorna’ Birch, Harold Harvey and Frank Gascoigne Heath.

Lecture 3: Dame Laura Knight RA - Cornwall and beyond
Finally, we will her look in depth at Laura Knight’s long and illustrious career, from her earliest days in Nottingham, Staithes and then Cornwall, through her behind-the-scenes images of circus and ballet, to her work as a War Artist, including documenting the Nuremburg Trials, and finally to her late work in Malvern.

Tickets £39  to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea.  10.30am - 3pm

Booking Details if paying by BACS or Cheque- click here 

To Book via TicketSource click here

Directions to Cerne Abbas Village Hall, Kettlebridge Lane, Cerne Abbas DT2 7GY - click here

Images:  Dame Laura Knight by unknown photographer. 

 Stanhope Forbes (1857–1947), Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, The Box, Plymouth

Frank Gascoigne Heath (1873 - 1936) Last Day of the Holidays. Private Collection

Special Interest or Study Days allow us to talk about, and study  a subject in more depth.  It consists of  3 1hr lectures with breaks for coffee and tea (and flapjacks!) and a buffet lunch with wine.  The time of the event is 10.30 - 3pm and is held at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

In this study day we look at the Danish Impressionists, Norwegian Expressionism and Swedish and Finnish romantic nationalism from the early nineteenth century to today. Then we consider the delightful paintings of rural family life by Carl Larsson and the embroidery and furniture designed by Karin Larsson rejuvenating traditional Scandinavian craftwork, a comfortable, colourful aesthetic which inspired the ethos and products of IKEA. Architecture from Scandinavia and Finland is discussed in the afternoon session, Nordic architects creating a clean new look in the Modernist era, and today’s architects now in the forefront of developing ground-breaking sustainable buildings in a part of the world where climate change is becoming particularly problematic.

Morning sessions:

The Sun at Midnight: idealism and angst in Nordic painting

The Invention of Home: the art and craft of Carl and Karin Larsson

Afternoon session:

Nordic Light: modern architecture in Scandinavia and Finland

Born from a unique culture and a personal psyche responding to the presence and absence of light – almost total sunshine in summer and long dark days in winter – and to a geography which can be dramatic but also gently beautiful, art and architecture in Scandinavia and Finland have a distinctive style.

Justin Reay FSA FRHistS

After officer service in the Royal Navy, Justin entered a long career in business before retiring in 2000 to study the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford, being awarded the University’s Diploma with Distinction in 2005. Becoming a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library and teaching for Oxford’s international programmes, he also completed a doctoral thesis on medieval naval weapons systems with the University of Exeter and is a published historian.

Now retired from Oxford, is an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society, and a Fellow of two learned societies. As a frequent enrichment speaker for a Norwegian cruise line, and descendant of a 12th century Norse merchant trading in Scotland, Justin has a particular interest in Nordic history and art.

Tickets £37 ( £42 for non-members) to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea.  10.30am - 3pm

Booking Details if paying by BACS or Cheque- click here 

To Book via TicketSource click here

Directions to Cerne Abbas Village Hall, Kettlebridge Lane, Cerne Abbas DT2 7GY - click here

Image:  ‘Røros Main Street, Winter’ Harald Sohlberg  Oil on canvas, 1903 National Gallery, Oslo

  10.00 for 10.30 start until 3 pm

at Cerne Abbas Village Hall, Dorset

Booking details at the end

LECTURE ONE:  FROM CONVENT TO CONCRETE

 Covent Garden has been a popular destination for over 1500 years.  Our first lecture traces the story of the area's development, from its origins as a thriving Saxon port to Inigo Jones’ revolutionary plan for a ‘piazza', and how the world-famous fruit and vegetable market was nearly 'brutally' demolished in the 1970s!

 LECTURE TWO:  HOGARTH & HARLOTS

 By the early 1700s, Covent Garden became infamous as the 'Square of Venus'.  Our second lecture takes a deeper dive into the demi monde world of the Georgian vice industry memorably depicted by Hogarth & other artists.  We meet some extraordinary (& enterprising!) characters and open the pages of Harris's infamous list of "Covent Garden Ladies”.

 LECTURE THREE:  PUNCH, PYGMALION & PUCCINI

 In our 'finale' lecture, we raise the curtain on Covent Garden as a place of entertainment.  We examine the birth of the West End with two royal theatres that thrive today, and see how the piazza itself has attracted street performers for centuries.  We also meet some of the famous (& often forgotten) stars who have graced the stages of London's famed 'theatreland'. 

 About the lecturer

Your committee met Simon during covid when he and some Blue Badge guides in London set up walks around London on zoom. They were so successful that a few of the guides went on to become accredited Art Society lecturers. We know from this experience that this will be a wonderful day.

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature. Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

Tickets £37 to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea.

Booking Details if paying by BACS or Cheque- click here 

To book via TicketSource - click here https://theartssocietydorsetcounty.org.uk/AboutUs/TicketSource.aspx

Image:  Balthazar Nebot, Covent Garden Market. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  Tate Britain 

10.00 for 10.30 start until 3 pm

at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

Booking details at the end  (Apologies but this will not be a hybrid day)

Lecture 1: The Years of Achievement 1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was established in the autumn of 1848 in Gower Street, London. They were all very young painters whose style was just being formed, but within the next 5 years they had established an extraordinary reputation through their revolutionary work. The influence of Ruskin’s ‘Modern Painters’ in which he talks about ‘the innocent eye’ and ‘infantile sight’ is important
as was Ruskin’s letter to The Times in 1851 in which he defended the young group of artists.  The great paintings of the 1850s include works by Millais, Hunt, Madox Brown, Rossetti, and Arthur Hughes. Pre-Raphaelite paintings have different themes – literary themes include Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Dante, Mallory’s ‘Morte D’Arthur’; religious themes include the childhood of Christ, the Annunciation and comments on the contemporary Tractarian movement; social comments include the problems of prostitution, vagrancy and emigration.  The Pre-Raphaelites looked back to the period of Giotto and Bellini when shading and sophisticated painterly effects were unknown; they disliked the technique of Sir ‘Sloshua’ Reynolds and ridiculed his ‘Lectures’. They painted on white canvases often using modern chemical colours to create a luminosity and intensity which had not been seen in painting for many years.

Lecture 2: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites and Pre-Raphaelite Landscape The Pre-Raphaelites were rebels who rejected accepted standards of Victorian ‘morality’. John Millais travelled with the Ruskins to Scotland in 1853 he became dismayed at John Ruskin’s attitude towards his wife and soon John and Effie were in love. The elopement of Effie with Millais and the annulment of the Ruskin marriage led to a break-up of the Pre-Raphaelite group. Walter Deverell saw the red haired Lizzie Siddal in a hat shop off Leicester Square and asked her to model for him. She became famous as the model for Millais’ ‘Ophelia’ and was soon living with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After a fiery relationship, marriage and a miscarriage, Lizzie overdosed on laudanum in 1862. Holman Hunt met Annie Miller, a prostitute from the Chelsea slums and set about reforming her. She sat for ‘The Awakening Conscience’ but ultimately disappointed Hunt. Fanny Cornforth also worked as a prostitute before modelling for Rossetti. These young women have become icons of Pre-Raphaelite beauty.  Just as the ‘Lectures’ of Reynolds were rejected, so the Pre-Raphaelite landscape painters rejected the Claudian tradition in landscape painting, taking their motto from Ruskin’s dictum that an artist must “go to nature in all her singleness of heart…rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing”. They painted nature in great detail and focus, using a minimum of shadows and often working on the spot for hours on end. Hunt and Millais both painted wonderful landscapes in their main works such as Hunt’s ‘The Hireling Shepherd’ and ‘The Scapegoat’, but in addition a school of Pre-Raphaelite landscape painting developed with fascinating artists such as William Pryce Boyce, Thomas Seddon, John Inchbold, John Brett and John Bunney. Maybe one of the most beautiful and haunting Pre-
Raphaelite landscapes is William Dyce’s ‘Pegwell Bay a Recollection of October 5th 1858’ which is a sophisticated study of time.

Lecture 3: The Arts and Crafts Movement and The Later Pre-Raphaelites 1860-1917.  William Morris first became involved with the Pre-Raphaelites in 1857 when Rossetti and friends were decorating the Oxford Union Debating Chamber. On leaving Oxford, Morris established a company which specialised in church decorations including stained glass windows and tapestries employing Burne-Jones, Rossetti and others. With the building of the Red House Morris’ company expanded into furniture and household items such as wallpapers, curtain fabrics and domestic furniture. I examine the importance of Pugin’s ‘Contrasts’ of 1836 and Ruskin’s ‘The Stones of Venice’ as theoretical basis of the Arts and Crafts Movement.  Rossetti’s style developed in the 1860s away from his earlier watercolours to more sexually provocative oil portraits of ‘The Stunners’. Fanny Cornforth, Alexa Wilding and later Janey Morris all sat to Rossetti while Edward Burne-Jones developed his own highly individual style which became very popular amongst the avant-garde in Britain and in Europe. Is John Waterhouse the last Pre-Raphaelite whose work by 1900 was already out of date? Or is he part of the growing Symbolist Movement in Europe? Far from being an irrelevant, entirely British movement, Pre-Raphaelitism was the crucible for European Symbolism and artists such as Khnopff, Delville and Puvis de Chavannes owed much to them.

About the Lecturer:  Julian Halsby lives in Salisbury.  He studied History of Art at Cambridge. In 1971 Julian began lecturing at Croydon College of Art, eventually becoming Senior Lecturer and Head of the Postgraduate Conservation Department. When he decided to go freelance he set up an art gallery with his wife in Highgate, specialising in late 19th century paintings and Modern British. 

He’s written seven books and published many articles. Also a practising artist and an elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists, Julian exhibits at the Mall Galleries and other galleries around the country.

His special period as an art historian is from about 1850 to 1920, a period rich with amazingly talented artists.

Tickets £36 to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea.

Booking Details - click here 

10.00 for 10.30 start until 3 pm

at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

Booking details at the end  (Apologies but this will not be a hybrid day)

We look at a cross section of the many different types of garden in Cornwall including the 17th century garden at Godolphin, the Humphrey Repton inspired vistas of Antony, and the  beautifully preserved 18thC  home of the Hawkins family home Trewithen.

The Lecturer is Catherine Wallace who is a great favourite of ours.  She holds a degree in Fine Art from Canterbury College of Art, and a Masters in Museums and Gallery Studies (Art History) from St Andrews. Curator of Falmouth Art Gallery 1993-2000. Organised exhibitions including Women Artists in Cornwall 1880-1940, and on Thomas Cooper Gotch and Henry Scott Tuke. Has lectured to the Friends of Penlee House Gallery, Friends of Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Institution of Cornwall. Publications: Under the Open Sky: The Paintings of the Newlyn and Lamorna Artists 1880-1940. 

3 Lectures

1. A Place of Ancient Secrets – Godolphin House, garden and estates 
Godolphin one of the oldest houses and estates in Cornwall established in 1310 with its sheltered Elizabethan King’s Garden and extensive country estate and the history of the powerful Godolphin family and subsequent owners. We also look at the works of art in the collection by Walter and Sydney Schofield and Robert Organ   

2.     A Palace of Portraits and Repton’s landscape vision - Antony House and gardens
In this lecture we look at  the influence of Humphrey Repton who wrote a Red book for Antony and  more recent additions including a knot garden and contemporary garden sculpture. Antony has a series of champion trees which we discover and is home to the national day lily collection. We also look at the history of the Carew Pole family and discover the house with its many portraits. 

3 The Real Poldark's Home and Johnstone's garden - The story of Trewithen
This lecture begins by looking at the beautifully preserved 18thC  home of the Hawkins family home Trewithen, at Probus which was remodelled by the famous London architect Robert Taylor and includes  fine paintings by Reynolds amongst others. We also look at the development of the garden at Trewithen from George Johnstone onwards with a virtual tour of some of the gardens features.

Tickets £36 to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea. 

To book via TicketSource click the link below

 https://theartssocietydorsetcounty.org.uk/AboutUs/TicketSource.aspx

To book via cheque or Bacs please click here for full information of bank details etc.

No refunds after 27th February 2024

images from Catherine Wallace: 

1. Godolphin, engraving by  William Borlase 1758     2.  Bird’s eye view of Antony garden and house oil, 1987, by Richard Sorrell (b. 1948)   

3. George Johnstone Walk in April at Trewithen, photograph, contemporary.

Summering in Newport, Rhode Island

'cottages', celebrities and suffragettes'

Lecturer: Mary Alexander

10.15 for 10.30 start until 3 pm

at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

Booking details at the end  (Apologies but this will not be a hybrid day)

Mary Alexander, who is a particularly popular Art Society lecturer with our Society,  has thirty years' experience as a lecturer, with a BA in History and History of Art and a MA with distinction in History of Art from University College London. She is the author of various articles on design and visual awareness issues, her background combines an unusual blend of academic and visual communications skills.

Mary's lecture takes us to the Gilded Age (1880 - 1910) to the historic port of Newport, Rhode Island, which was often referred to as the 'Queen of Resorts' or 'New York By the Sea'. In the summer season, the social  elite of New York relocated to Newport to enjoy the cool breezes, the social scene with its famous balls and the sporting activities .  The new palatial mansions built for the industrial magnates including the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Oelrichs and the Berwinds were quaintly referred to as 'cottages', whereas quiet 'old money' continued its cultural activities and social exclusion alongside the new arrivistes.

Taking a carriage ride along Bellevue Avenue, using my vintage postcard collection, we will meet the movers and shakers, recreate the experience of cultural life in Newport and the role played by artists and designers. This will include watching tennis at the stunning new Casino building by celebrity architect Stanford White; planning a ball to be held in the glorious  ballroom overlooking the cliffs at Rosecliff mansion (film set location for The Great Gatsby 1974). John Singer Sargent was a frequent visitor and his international friendships and correspondence will throw light on the links between artists, designers, patrons and collectors in Paris, London, New York and Newport at this time.

We will also view the social scene through a very different lens - one of huge generational change when daughters demand the right to vote, to dine together, to play sports in radical new fashions,  to sail a boat solo, or even to bathe on a private beach without stockings!  Daring plans hatched in Newport one summer, lead to the founding of the first women only club in Manhattan.

Tickets £35 to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea. 

To book via TicketSource click the link below

 https://theartssocietydorsetcounty.org.uk/AboutUs/TicketSource.aspx

To book via cheque or Bacs please click here for full information of bank details etc.

No refunds after 19th October 2023

Capturing Real People Doing Real Things:

 1900—1950’s Britain through Film, Photographs and Advertising

Lecturer: Howard Smith

10.15 for 10.30 start until 3 pm

at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

Booking details at the end

Howard Smith has an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. His early career in graphic design was spent at national and international advertising agencies, before he set up his own design studio and printworks 40 years ago. He has featured on radio and television, has published art and social history books, and has curated exhibitions. Among his lectures for The Arts Society in his series of 'Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century' are: The GPO Film Unit, Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s Filmmaker .

Lecture 1     The GPO Film Unit The birth of Documentaries

This is the story of how documentary films started from the early French and Edwardian days of silent movies. We will look at the Soviet influence with Battleship Potemkin, to the formation of the GPO film unit by John Grierson with Albero Cavalcanti in the 1930s.

Lecture 2     Leni Riefenstahl    Hitler’s filmmaker

Leni Riefenstahl was undoubtedly one of the most creative women of the twentieth century. She was a dancer, actress and filmmaker. Her films of the 1934 Nuremberg rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympic games were award winning and used many techniques that were way ahead of their time and still used today .She lived to be over 100 and continued to make documentaries long after the war.

Lecture 3  1950s Britain through the eyes of Picture Post

Picture Post, published by Hulton press, was the first photojournalism magazine and in the 1940s, was selling nearly two million copies a week. In 1950, under the editor, Tom Hopkinson, it produced intimate and detailed articles on life in Britain. This lecture looks at 1950 Britain, the divides and how the nation lived, including the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Due to the technology being used in this series of lectures there will be no zoom link—so come and enjoy the day with friends.

Tickets £35 to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea.

To book via TicketSource click the link below

 https://theartssocietydorsetcounty.org.uk/AboutUs/TicketSource.aspx

To book via cheque or Bacs please click here for full information of bank details etc.

No refunds after 21st February 2023

The Special Interest Day will take place at Cerne Abbas Village Hall and by Hybrid Zoom to those at home.

The cost at the hall is £30 to include coffee and then lunch.  The cost by zoom £15. Guests are welcome at the hall and on Zoom.

Bookings via Ticket Source (which saves the committee members much time) -  Click HERE 

For those who need to book by cheque  - the Booking form is  found by clicking HERE.  Please send to Sue White the SID organiser.

You can also send Sue an email by CLICKING HERE

Two weeks notice is required for refunds.

GILT AND GORGEOUSNESS : A Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Reign of King George IV

Lecture One - “The Compulsive Spender” - 10.30 to 11.30 am

We trace George IV’s developing taste as Prince of Wales and Regent.
From an early age he displayed a fondness for Francophilia, food, flattery, wine, women and lavish decoration.  Carlton House, his residence as Prince of Wales, was considered to be the “finest house in England”.  His change to the Oriental style as Regent led to the transformation of his Brighton residence into his fantastical vision of an Indian Palace.

Coffee break - 30 minutes

Lecture Two - “The Greatest Royal Collector of Art” - 12 noon until 1 pm

George IV furnished his palaces magnificently with the finest furniture, clocks, porcelain and sculpture.  He was an avid collector of Dutch and Flemish paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck as well as patronising contemporary British artists such as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence and Stubbs and the sculptors Canova and Chantrey. He assembled the greatest collection of Sevres porcelain in the world and a spectacular collection of silver and gold ware.

Lunch Break - 1 hour

 Lecture Three - “The Grand Entertainment”  - 2 to 3 pm

George IV’s coronation was the most magnificent ever.
As King he instinctively understood the majesty and splendour appropriate to the monarch.  He set about transforming his parents’ modest Buckingham House and the rambling, decaying Windsor Castle into the grandiose and sumptuous palaces that have been occupied by monarchs ever since as the centre of British for court life and the glittering setting for royal entertaining and state visits.

About the lecturer:

Barbara grew up in Eton with Windsor Castle as part of her daily view.  She is an examiner and course director on Blue Badge Guide training courses and an acknowledged expert on Royalty and royal palaces.  She has been the Site Liaison Representative at Windsor Castle for the British Guild of Tourist Guides since 1990 and regularly guides tours of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

DUE TO THE LOW NUMBER OF MEMBERS WHO BOOKED ON THIS STUDY DAY, WE HAD TO MAKE THE DIFFICULT DECISION TO CANCEL IT. 

We do apologise to those who had booked, but we need to cover the cost of the lecturer's fees and the hall.  

For those who wish, there is an alternative.  Wessex Area are holding a two day event on Tutankhamun in Market Lavington Community Hall on 13 and 14th April 2022 given by the same lecturer, Lucia Gahlin. 

They write: Celebrating the centenary of the iconic discovering and exploring the art of Egypt's sun kings, our wonderful 2 day study course "Tutankhamun: his tomb, treasures and extraordinary family" will celebrate "Wonderful Things" with 6 sessions with Lucia Gahlin, an Arts Society accredited lecturer. Held in Market Lavington Community Hall, on 13th and 14th April 2022.

The cost for each day is £30.00 to include coffee, a light lunch and a glass of wine.

A BOOKING FORM CAN BE DOWNLOADED BY CLICKING HERE

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 was arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. The name of this boy-king conjures up wonderful imagery and mysterious tales of the pharaohs. In this lecture we shall explore this unusual tomb and its iconic treasures. We shall examine the design and decoration of the most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings. We shall discuss Carter’s discovery of the tomb, and explore what happened to the incredible wealth of funerary goods found inside. We shall survey these fabulous treasures, from Tutankhamun’s golden shrines to his ornate board games.

Lucia Gahlin is an Egyptologist who works in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but mostly lectures. Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology. Has taught Egyptology at several UK universities. Works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Leads tours to Egypt. Former Director of Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL. Chairs the Friends of the Petrie Museum. Publications include Egypt: gods, myths, religion

The committee always reserve the right to cancel an event if it is not viable.

THIS STUDY DAY WILL BE VIA ZOOM so the cost is £15 and may be booked HERE via Ticket Source.

Guests are welcome for the same price of £15 via Ticket Source.  The link to Ticket Source is on the Home Page.

The summary below was sent with images which can be downloaded by clicking HERE

Timings can be found be scrolling down this page.

This Study Day is designed to provide an introduction to the unique tradition of Japanese visual culture with a strong emphasis on decorative arts.  The sensibility to the beauty of nature and the changing seasons have inspired the craftsmen for centuries to create delicate and elegant designs, or bold and witty designs. The contemporary artists are still studying the traditional technique, but they have freedom to explore innovative designs that appeal to today’s audience. The distinctive Japanese aesthetics and symbolism seen in the arts of lacquer, ceramics, and woodblock prints will be examined in the historical and social context. 

Lecture 1: 10 30 – 11.30 am 
Lacquer: Design and Technique
Lacquer is the sap of a tree Toxicodendron vernicifluum which grows only in East and South-east Asia. The semi-transparent sticky liquid tapped from the tree is purified, coloured black or red, and then applied on to wooden base in many layers. It is a time-consuming and expensive method, but the lacquer objects were appreciated by the ruling class in Japan for many centuries. The decoration was achieved by sprinkling gold dust on wet lacquer, or mother-of-pearl inlay.  Many sophisticated techniques developed to create attractive and innovative designs.

 
Lecture 2: 12.00 – 1.00 pm
Ceramics: Domestic Taste verses Export Market 
Japan has a rich and long history of earthenware tradition since the Pre-historic time to the contemporary. With the spread of Zen aesthetics and the development of Tea ceremony, many kilns producing earthenware flourished all over Japan. In sharp contrast to this domestic preference for the rustic wares, the kind of Japanese ceramics popular in Europe were highly ornamental porcelain which were exported in vast quantity by the Dutch traders from the 17th century onwards. This lecture will compare and contrast these two completely different kinds of ceramics in the historical and social contexts. 

  
Lecture 3: 2.00 – 3.00 pm
Pictures of the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints
Woodblock printing technique, first developed in China, was introduced to Japan at least by the 8th century to create the multiple Buddhist texts. Woodblock printed books of secular stories with illustrations began to appear in the 16th century, followed by the single sheets with just images from the 17th century. This form of cheap and affordable art was supported by the populace during the Edo period (1615 – 1868), and came to be known as Ukiyo-e, literally “pictures of the Floating World” for their ephemeral nature. When Japan opened its doors to the west in the mid-19th century, many of these prints were introduced to Europe for the first time and received with a great enthusiasm by the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists in Paris.    

About the lecturer:

Dr Meri Arichi studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s in Kings Street, London, from 1989 to 1993. She returned to university to study Asian Art at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1993, and completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art (1994), MA (1996) in History of East Asian Art, and PhD (2003) for her thesis on Shinto-Buddhist syncretic Art. She has been teaching History of Japanese Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS as a Teaching Fellow since 2007. She has also run courses at the Birkbeck College, V&A, British Museum, and the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School. She has led tours to Japan and lectured on cruises.  

This Study Day it will be given in three online lectures to the comfort of your home through a Zoom Webinar. (Cost £15)

The architecture, manuscript illumination, the Wilton Diptych and the angel hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall are among the great achievements of English cultural history. The aim of this study day is to open a world that is still in the popular mind, overshadowed by the Renaissance and beyond.

 The first session follows the evolution of medieval cathedrals from the Norman at Durham to the Perpendicular at Gloucester and beyond.  In terms of engineering and aesthetics, as well as figures and events behind these cathedrals, it is a remarkable five-hundred-year span.

The second session, following a brief look at Anglo-Saxon illumination, concentrates on Romanesque art with reference to the York Psalter, the Winchester Bible and the Golden Age of Gothic illumination with reference to the Luttrell Psalter, the Sherborne Missal and the Bedford Hours.

The third session focuses on the Wilton Diptych, one of the most beautiful yet enigmatic paintings ever made and the angel hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall.  The session will also refer to angel roofs built up to the Reformation.

 About the lecturer:

Born on the Isles of Scilly and educated at Truro School, Cornwall, and Birmingham University. His career has been spent in education and training at home and abroad. He has lectured at Exeter College on Medieval and Tudor history, St Mark's & St John's University College, Plymouth, and at Bath University on Anglo Saxon and medieval England. Currently runs two small companies providing training and study breaks.

The day will be divided into three lectures:  10.30 to 11.30    12.10 to 1pm    2.10pm to 3.10pm

Book List may be downloaded by clicking here.

Application forms for the STUDY DAY can be downloaded by clicking here.

These lectures MUST NOT BE RECORDED for copyright reasons. 

Please do not share the link, but your friends may join us by applying.  This is also for copyright reasons. The Zoom will be sent a few days before the event.  This Study Day will not be recorded or sent on You Tube.

Anthea Streeter has problems with reliable internet where she lives, so regretfully had to cancel. 

Fortunately Vivienne Lawes is available on the same day, 6 October, to lecture on the same subject - Art Nouveau.  She's the latest lecturer in The Arts Society lectures at home series so you can watch her in action over on the Connected site

https://www.connected.theartssociety.org/talks-lectures

This Study Day will be online via three Zoom Webinar lectures. 

SPACE IS NOT A PROBLEM, SO YOUR GUESTS MAY APPLY.  Application form can be found by clicking HERE. They do not need to be members of the Society.

A link will be sent to members and guests who have booked for the Study Day.  The timings are 

10.30 to 11.30

12 noon to 1.00 pm

2 pm to 3 pm  

Application forms for ONLINE STUDY DAY can be downloaded by clicking here.

These lectures MUST NOT BE RECORDED for copyright reasons. 

Please do not share the link, but your friends may join us by applying.  This is also for copyright reasons.

Art Nouveau was the first attempt to create an international modern style. It had its fullest flowering on the European Continent during the 1890s. At this time progressive architects and designers renounced the tired formulae of historicism in favour of a ‘New Art’.

About the lecturer:

Viv Lawes is a lecturer, curator, author and journalist, with over twenty years’ experience in the art market. She works at several prestigious higher education institutions in London, leading the Modern and Contemporary unit of the Asian Art & Its Markets semester course at Sotheby’s Institute and the History of Decorative Style (c.1400-1970) course at the City & Guilds of London Art School. She also lectures for the University of the Arts and IESA (Institut d’Etudes Supérieures des Arts), London.  As Senior UK Consultant to Singapore gallery One East Asia since 2011, she has co-curated many exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art in London and Singapore. Her current project is a book is on themes in equine sculpture, commissioned by the Sladmore Gallery, London.

Sadly, the Summer Party has been cancelled for this year. We hope it can be re-arranged for another year as it is a special place to visit.

THE SUMMER PARTY will take place on the evening of Tuesday 2 June from 6.30 to 8 pm.

SUMMER PARTY 2020

Tuesday 2 June 2020 at The Old Manor, Tolpuddle, DT2 8TQ  6.30 to 8 pm

by kind permission of Julian and Philippa Frances

PARKING: To get to the house, turn right at the tree (where Liz Arkell lived) and the house is the second drive on the right, with ornate gates.  Drive a little further and members can park in a large field.  There is a little walking bridge from the field into the garden.  We will email guest a map.

THE GARDEN: Guests arrive over the little bridge and this first level area of lawn will be where food and wine will be served.  From this lower level we look up at three more glorious levels of garden (at least).  It is worth exploring the garden, to discover the beautiful sculpture. Our host, Julian Frances is interested in calligraphy, woodcuts and stone lettering.  Mounted on the very top wall between the garden and the churchyard, there are the most beautiful stones carved with Lettering. If members then turn right and go down steps towards the house, more of Letter - Carving can be found in a little courtyard between a converted garage, now a study and the house.  This is where the loo can be found, too.  Take care on these steps!  The loo can be accessed from the lower level lawn, too.

WET WEATHER: Tolpuddle Village Hall, which is just across the road, has been booked in case of rain.  If this happens the suggestion is that members explore the beautiful gardens first and then go to the hall to eat, drink and be merry. There is a separate room for coats. 

STONECUTTING:  To watch a delightful video on Stonecutting, click on this link here.

Details will be on your Programme Card.  Tickets can be obtained from the Hon. Secretary, Mrs Valentine Simson nearer the date.  There will be an application form on the website then.

The tickets for Study Days have a small increase in price to £30.  Application forms can be found be clicking HERE.

Join Susan Whitfield as she recounts stories of the arts and explorations of the Silk Road based on 25 years experience of her work in the British Library, curator of major international exhibitions, and extensive travelling and writing. The three sessions will cover: 

1. The Silk Road: Introduction to its History and Cultures
A general context-setting lecture, illustrated with maps and artefacts, giving an outline of what we mean by the Silk Road and introducing some of the major events and cultures along it in the first millennium AD.
 
2. The Silk Road: Exploration and Discovery
This tells the story of the early 20th imperial archaeologists of the Silk Road, concentrating on the British/Hungarian, Sir Aurel Stein, and how he uncovered forgotten civilisations of the Silk Road from the desert sands of the Taklamakan. His finds are now mainly in the British Museum and British Library.
 
3. Silk Road Art
This lecture introduces several wonderful pieces of art exemplifying the transmissions and interactions of peoples, faiths, technologies, materials and designs along the Silk Road. The objects include a gilt silver flask, a glass bowl, a patterned silk and a Buddhist votive plaque.

About the lecturer:

Dr Susan Whitfield is a writer, scholar, lecturer and traveler of the Silk Roads. During 25 years curating the collections of manuscripts from Dunhuang and other Silk Road sites at the British Library, she also helped found and then developed the International Dunhuang Project (IDP), now a thriving international collaboration working on the art and artefacts of the eastern Silk Road. She has lectured and written widely on the Silk Road. Her latest book, Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road, was published in March 2018. She has also curated several major exhibitions and organized field trips to archaeological sites in the Taklamakan desert.

The first lecture – Medieval will explore stained glass from 700AD to the religious reformations of the mid-sixteenth century. It explains how and why stained glass windows were made and by whom.

The second lecture – Medieval to Modern begins with the reign of Queen Elizabeth l and finishes with the final years of Queen Victoria. It ranges from the deliberate destruction in the Civil War to factory-like production in the late 19th century. It will cover the use of enamel paints and the importation of foreign glass into English churches. 

The third lecture – Modern and beyond traces the rise of arts and craft studios and the introduction of modernist ideas into stained glass and will introduce the work of artists such as Christopher Whall, Mary Lowndes, John Piper and Mark Chagall..

In each lecture Roger Rosewell will show examples of local churches.

Tickets £25 each. Because of the popularity of the Study Days, preference is given to members first, and then to spouses or partners and others who are not members.

To book a place, download the Application Form by clicking here, fill it in and send your cheque to Pat Davies, 2 Lancaster Road, Dorchester DT1 1QH.  If you need to contact Pat her phone number is 01305 267745.  Her email is eastcoombe@btinternet.com

Confirmation of your booking will be sent to you by email.  If you require it to be sent by post, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope with your application.

Please note that we regret we are unable to refund your payment after 30 September unless a replacement is found.

The Arts Society Wessex Study Days 2018/2019

‘Forgotten Heroines: Women Artists, Patrons and Collectors from the Renaissance to the Present Day’

A celebration of the contribution made by women to Art History throughout the ages

Thurs 25th Oct  2018       Paula Nuttall             

The Renaissance                                                            

Tues 20th Nov  2018       Pamela Halford         

Angelica Kauffman, Berthe Morisot & Leonora Carrington 

Tues 22nd Jan   2019       Mary Alexander           

Paris, Gertrude Stein & links with USA

Tues 19th Feb 2019        Lucy Howarth              

Marlow Moss & the St Ives School 

Tues 12th March  2019    Linda Smith   

Paula Rego, Rachel Whiteread & the YBA's              

For more details click here and an application form please click here

NORTH WESSEX AREA have decided to run the course on THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE for a second time because it was so popular last year.  For the application form download here. 

Thursday, 1st November 2018 Paula Nuttall
Northern Renaissance (introduction)
Art for the Burgundian Court (Claus Sluter etc.)
Jan van Eyck
Thursday, 15th Novenber 2018 Paula Nuttall
Rogier van der Weyden
Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling
Flanders and Italy I
Thursday, 29th November 2108 Albert Godycki
German art from International Gothic to Early Renaissance
Sculpture from Hans Multscher to Niklaus Gerhaerts
Riemenschneider
Thursday, 24th January2019 Albert Godycki
Dürer: early years
Dürer and Italy
Dürer’s prints
Thursday, 28th February 2019 Paula Nuttall
Flanders and Italy II
Bosch
Bruegel
Thursday, 28th March 2019 Albert Godycki
Art for Protestants (focus on Lucas Cranach)
German portraits from Dürer to Holbein
The rise of secular art in the North/Art Collecting

The whole day will encompass the wonders and exoticism of the East that held the West enthralled for over two centuries. The Meridian line of the Forbidden City, the pure white marble path, double hip roofs and the importance of the number 9 are all discussed, together with the Court Ritual. The first lecture will give a general overview of Chinese decorative arts, including architecture, rock gardens, porcelain, enamel and jewels.  The second session will concentrate on jade and after lunch Peter plans to touch on aspects of Japanese and Chinese art. As he has agreed to look at and comment on Chinese artworks belonging to the audience the third session has to be flexible.  If there are a large number of items he may have to select which ones he can comment on.

About the lecturer:

Dr Peter le Rossignol has degrees in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors and Fine Art Valuation as well as a DPhil in Art History. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

To download a Booking Form, please click HERE.

The image is of a vase from the Ming Dynasty.

Linda Smith is a highly experienced lecturer, and always a favourite at Dorset County. She holds two first class degrees in Art History and is also an experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and Dulwich Picture Gallery. In this intriguing Study Day, Linda examines the portraits and careers of some of history's most notorious mistresses and courtesans in order to take a generally light-hearted look at changing attitudes to sexual morality down the ages. Linda also charts the rather complex and ambiguous attitudes of art and society towards the numerous anonymous working-girls. The Day will provide a social history, placing the works of art in their historical context, and reveal many nuances and meanings, which might not be apparent to the modern eye. It is full of scandalous stories and anecdotes.

The image is a detail from a painting by Thomas Gainsborough of Giovanna Bacelli, dated 1782. It is in Tate Britain.

The Study Day will be in three sessions and will start with some of Charles ll's best-known mistresses and continue through 18th and 19th century Britain, looking particularly at the works of Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough. Session 2 starts by looking at attitudes in Britain to sex and the Fallen Woman and widens into France where works by Manet, Degas and Renoir feature. In Session 3 Linda concentrates on the 20th century when new artistic techniques were applied to this age-old subject by artists like Picasso, Vlaminck and Sickert and continues up to the present day.

For an application form please click HERE

Ethiopia: A Mysterious Land:

 Landscapes, Legends, Art and Archaeology in Ethiopia

1) Ethiopia is a mysterious and deeply atmospheric country steeped in history and legend. Its wonderful people, indomitable of spirit despite their many hardships, live a life that is truly biblical and timeless.  Around them are breathtaking landscapes inhabited by demons and spirits of local legend - inspiring wonderful works of art created by the Ethiopians themselves and by those who travelled  there to visit them over the centuries.

2) Temples, Tombs and Treasures: In Search of the Queen of Sheba

The fame of the Queen of Sheba has lasted across the many intervening centuries since she made her epic journey from her distant land to the court of King Solomon. A passage in the Bible’s Book of Kings has immortalised this Queen and the journey that she made, her camel caravan laden with gold and incense as gifts for the king of Jerusalem. In this talk Louise looks at how the Queen of Sheba has captured the imagination of great artists, inspired epic films and has led archaeologists to go in search of her land – a search that has led to discoveries of great temples, tombs and treasures in both the Yemen and Ethiopia.

3) The Rock-Hewn Churches of Tigray

 Tigray is home to beautifully painted churches hewn from the living rock of its high plateau. Devils, angels, parables and miracles are all painted on their walls - their vivid colours and striking iconography bringing to life the Christianity of Ethiopia.

About our lecturer

Louise Schofield has been working in Ethiopia since 2006, directing archaeological, conservation and development projects in that extraordinary country. Her current archaeological site – in Tigray province, north-eastern Ethiopia – is a temple, probably dedicated to a moon god and dating to the 5th century BC – a time when this area of Ethiopia formed part of the kingdom of Sheba. Excavations undertaken there in 2015 and 2016  have uncovered a rich cemetery which includes an extraordinary burial of a 2000 year old Ethiopian 'Sleeping Beauty'. 

For an application form please click here

The image shown above is of the Church of St George, Lalibela.

Further details will appear soon with a link to the application form

For application form click here

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

TUESDAY 10TH OCTOBER 2017

Cerne Abbas Village Hall 10.00 for 10.30

RIVIERA PARADISE

Art, Design and Pleasure in the 20’s and 30’s 

Please note that this day is fully booked and any further  applications will be placed on a waiting list in case of cancellations.

Mary Alexander read History and History of Art at University College London and has thirty years experience in her subject. She has lectured in museums, galleries and antiquarian societies including Christie’s Education in London.

In the 1920’s and 30’s, a heady mix of avant-garde artists, designers, writers and musicians were inspired by the extraordinary light, colours, sun and seascape, and the Cote d’Azur became an exciting experimental playground of ideas and synergy interweaving across the visual arts. Matisse, Picasso, Dufy, Poiret, Chanel, Perugia, Diaghilev and Cocteau break traditional boundaries. Cole Porter, Elsa Maxwell and Scott Fitzgerald introduce an American perspective with a different ‘smart set’ of travellers. We will recreate the romance of travel on the iconic Train Bleu or ocean liner, visit an art exhibition, go shopping for the latest designs in Nice, pop into the newly opened Palais de la Mediterranée for a cocktail whilst checking out the fashionable interiors, and later take a spin up to Monte Carlo to see Picasso’s designs for the new Ballets Russes production.

Two of Dorset County DFAS Members, Jennie Runeckles and Alison de Candole, are running the Wessex Area Winter Course of Study Days at Cerne Abbas Village Hall. You will find an application here.

The Art of Adornment: Projecting an Image

The six days focus on how artists, designers and craftsmen create and reflect style, power and beauty through visual, decorative and performing arts.  Portraiture, the moving image, the art of chivalry and armour, the history of fashion, the involvement of artists in theatre and ballet and the importance of jewellery will be explored by our experienced lecturers. All days start at 10.15am for 10.25am and finish at 3.00pm and cost £156 for the course or £28 per day and include coffee and biscuits, a light lunch with wine or soft drinks.

Please download an application form by clicking here and send it to Alison de Candole, ACE Wessex, 20 Back Lane, Cerne Abbas, DT2 7JW. email: acesouthwessex@btinternet.com 

Tues 18th October 2016
Looking at Me Looking at You: How women have been portrayed in Western art since ancient times 
Tutor: Linda Smith: experienced lecturer and guide with a special interest in British art

Tues 8th November 2016
Birth of the Silver Screen: The moving image and how it has inspired artists through the ages
Tutor: Geri Parlby: a former film PR, Head of the Visual Arts programme for Exeter University

Tues 22nd November 2016
The Art of Chivalry: Arms, Armour and Combat
Tutor: Tobias Capwell: Curator of Arms and Armour, Wallace Collection, author & broadcaster

Tues 24th January 2017
The Art of Fashion: Foundations of Fashion, The real Downton Abbey, The Art of Royal Dress
Tutor: Kate Strasdin: Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University and Museum Curator at Totnes

Tues 21st February 2017
Artists and the Theatre: The challenges of designing for drama, ballet and theatre
Tutor: Jo Mabbutt: Singer, pianist and decorative artist with a passion for opera and theatre

Tues 7th March
Jewellery: Designed for Wearing: The importance of jewellery and the image it projects
Tutor: Susan Rumfitt: Jewellery specialist on ‘Antiques Roadshow’, gallery owner and lecturer

Image: Leon Bakst Faune 1912

This event is now fully booked and applications will no longer be accepted. However Liz Carter will add names to a reserve list in case of cancellations. Her contact details appear on the application form.

For the application form please click here

Mr. Douglas Skeggs read Fine Arts at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is a writer, artist,TV presenter, lecturer to many London Art Courses, Director of the New Academy of Arts and an author of six novels.

For three hundred years Venice was the most powerful city-state in the Mediterranean, and much of its wealth was put towards ornamenting itself with works of art. Paintings were frescoed onto the ceilings of churches and the facades of palaces along the Grand Canal;canvases were set into gilded altarpieces and the ornate walls of Council Chambers. Art was the outward proof of status, the symbol of the city's prestige and influence. These golden years of Venice's history were to produce the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

Then, when the Republic collapsed and the city fell into decay, it became a treasure house for the public imagination. Painters from all over Europe came to visit Venice to paint its quiet back waters, its crumbling plasterwork, shadowed doorways and sunlit reflections, and the city was reborn as a romantic vision.

This Special Interest day looks into the artists who have lived and worked in Venice, their styles, their techniques and how each added his own unique contribution to the artistic legend of the city. 

Applications available by clicking here

In this presentation, specially devised for Dorset DFAS Special Interest Day, we meet Roland Penrose, the man who came from a family of strict Quakers and became a key figure in Modern Art in the 20th Century, and his wife Lee Miller, the American Surrealist photographer Surrealism whose work has today achieved international acclaim.

An accidental encounter began Miller’s career as a fashion model with a debut on the front cover of Vogue March 1927. She became the model for Lepape, Steichen, Genthe, Man Ray, Hoyningen Heune, Horst, Picasso and later Penrose. From her early days in Paris with Man Ray she emerged as a fashion photographer in her own right, metamorphosed into a war correspondent and finally a combat photographer, before returning to her role as a distinctive and witty photographer for Vogue and portraitist in the post war years.

Roland Penrose, a Surrealist artist in France from 1923 to 1936, brought Surrealism to Britain in 1936 and Picasso to Britain in 1960. He was a friend of Breton and Éluard and later the close friend and biographer of Max Ernst, Picasso, Miró, Man Ray and Tàpies. He founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and curated exhibitions of work by Picasso (1960) and Miró (1964) at the Tate Gallery. His work is to be found in several national collections including the Tate and the V&A.

Both Penrose and Miller were surrealists in their own right, and their connections with their many others artist friends gives us a unique and very personal insight into the Surrealist movement.

A definitive view by their son and biographer, this presentation has been acclaimed for its ability to embrace many different levels of the history of art and photography, social commentary and emotional connection with the subject.

For the past 30 years Antony Penrose has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents' work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world, and made documentaries for television. Publications include The Lives of Lee Miller, Lee Miller's War (editor), The Angel and the Fiend, The Home of the Surrealists, Roland Penrose the Friendly Surrealist and The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

Application forms may be downloaded by clicking here and also from the Special Interest Day Organiser, Liz Carter.

The term ‘landscape’ (landskip) was originally used in the seventeenth century to denote new subject matter in Dutch painting. It was used chiefly to describe natural scenery as a subject in its own right, not as a backdrop to other images. The French were great exponents of this new subject matter in the seventeenth century; Claude in particular who not only drew but painted from nature. Elements of landscape and natural features were used from early times as incidental background accessories of historical, devotional and mythological subjects. Aspects of the natural world gradually took on important symbolic meaning, for example the rainbow; landscape itself was a vital tool in the development of perspective in the fifteenth century.

This study day explores the growth of landscape; from a tiny window in the Italian Renaissance period to scientific fascination in England, culminating with the French Impressionists and their daring experiments with light and colour, which initially derived from Constable and Turner.

An excellent read is:- Kenneth Clark   ‘Landscape into Art’

Alice Foster lectured for the University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education for 15 years and organises the History of Art module for a Summer Programme at Brasenose College, Oxford for American students. A frequent lecturer on the residential courses at Farncombe Estate in the Cotswolds, she also has been a guest lecturer at the University of Bristol and New College, Oxford. Alice teaches History of Art courses in conjunction with the Oxfordshire Museum, and the Three Counties History of Art Society. She guides study holidays in Italy and other parts of Europe.

Application forms will soon be available to download from this website and also from the Special Interest Day Organiser, Liz Carter.

10.00 for 10.30 start at Cerne Abbas Village Hall. For Special Interest days, we break mid morning for coffee and home made biscuits and at lunchtime for an excellent buffet before the afternoon session.

Click here for an Application Form for this Special Interest Day.

Heraldry is all around us, not only when we visit country houses, cathedrals and castles, but also in our towns and villages. The Royal Arms appear on our newspapers, passports and outfits of sporting heroes. Councils display their arms on their offices and vehicles and sometimes even on pumps and lamp posts. School uniforms, colleges gateways and almshouses, often depict the arms of their generous benefactors and we will be exploring the origins and reasons behind them. Chloe will lead us through the topics of heraldic colours, public arms, family arms, school and college arms, the Royal Arms including Elizabeth II and her family, the new British coins and heraldic beasts from griffins to wyverns. We will also be looking at some familiar and not so familiar heraldry in our own county of Dorset.

Mrs Chloë Cockerill gained her MA at Trinity College, Dublin and a Diploma in Librarianship. Regional Development for the Churches Conservation Trust 2001-2010: a member of specialist societies including Ecclesiological, Church Monuments and The Heraldry Society. Guide at Ely Cathedral and a church tour leader.

Application forms are now available. See at bottom of this page how to find them...

We ask those attending to arrive by 10.00 for 10.30 start at Cerne Abbas Village Hall. For Special Interest days, we break mid morning for coffee and home made biscuits and at lunchtime for an excellent buffet before the afternoon session. Celts, Romans, Christians, Visigoths and Arabs have left many marks on the landscapes of Iberia. The most vivid reminder of their presence lies in their great cities, endowed with a remarkable fusion of cultures and architectural styles. This lecture or study day will unfold the many layers that make up this complex architectural and artistic history from the earliest settlements to the fall of Granada and the end of Moorish rule in 1492 with a particular emphasis on Andalucía.

Dr Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and completed his Phd in England. After a generation in University life, he now concentrates on lecturing to a wider public while conducting tours of the western world in his unique and entertaining style on architecture, fine art, history and heritage. Application forms are now available to print. Go to 'About Us' and then click on 'Documents' on left hand side. You then need to click on the document entitled 'Romans, Moors and Christians...'

Or alternatively Click Here

Ms Vivien Heffernan - Art History tutor at Cambridge and Essex Universities and Head of Art Department 1976-86. She is a long standing and widely experienced lecturer with the Open University and NADFAS worldwide.

Ms Mary Alexander read History and History of Art at University College London and has thirty years' experience in her subject. She has lectured in museums, galleries and antiquarian societies including Christie's Education in London.

Mrs Frances Hughes is Chairman of the Irving Society and of the Henry Irving Foundation, a Tour Guide at the Garrick Club, a freelance lecturer in Art and Theatre History and former head teacher.