Venue: Town Hall, Stratford upon Avon

Tickets: members £45, non-members £48

This Special Interest Day will be looking at advances in porcelain making in England in the mid-1700s. Our speaker, Jane Gardiner, will be describing the techniques developed to improve both whiteness and strength and the decorative influences at play.

The first lecture will concentrate on the Chelsea and Bow factories. Inspired by the manager, Nicholas Sprimont, previously a royal goldsmith, Chelsea made table-wares and figures aimed at the most fashion-conscience clientele with many pieces having elaborate gilt decoration. Bow, by contrast, produced more practical ware directed towards the middle-classes.

The second lecture will focus on the Derby and Worcester factories. Derby produced both blue and white and polychrome wares and later introduced unglazed biscuit figures. In 1770 Derby and Chelsea factories amalgamated and their output became focussed on the aristocratic market. Worcester was in many ways the most successful of the early English factories as it was in continuous production from the mid-1700s until the early 21st century.

The final lecture will look at how the fashion for porcelain figures grew and the inspiration for the subjects portrayed.

Timetable

10.15 – 11.15 Lecture 1 Chelsea and Bow

11.15 – 11.45 Coffee

11.45 – 12.45 Lecture 2 Worcester and Derby

12.45 – 14.00 Lunch (Lunch is not provided)

14.00 – 15.00 Lecture 3 Porcelain figures

15.00    Close

To book you place, click HERE. Tickets will also be on sale at the April lecture or at the door on the day. .

VENUE: STRATFORD UPON AVON TOWN HALL

This study day looks at the work of 3 artists whose personalities could all be described as extremely stubborn!

Post impressionist artists Van Gogh and Cezanne made little impact on the public mind during their lifetimes; they followed their own stylistic paths and only became famous after their deaths. In our morning session we examine the careers of both artists, how their posthumous reputations were established and what it was about their art that made them so influential in the early 20th century.

The afternoon lecture looks at the career of a man who changed British art in an earlier period. William Hogarth’s career began in relative poverty but from a challenging start he went on to become a successful painter, engraver and cartoonist. However, he never forgot his earlier hardships and used his unique narrative style to wage war on London’s sex trade and child poverty.

Timetable

Morning session: Cezanne and Van Gogh: Death as a Career Move

10.15 – 11.15 Lecture 1

11.15 – 11.45 Coffee

11.45 – 12.45 Lecture 2

12.45 – 14.00 Lunch (Lunch is not provided)

Afternoon session: Sex and the City: Hogarth and 18th century London

14.00 – 15.00 Lecture 3

15.00    Close

To book you place, click HERE

Venue: Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Arden Street CV37 6QQ

After his unexpected elevation to the peerage, Lord Byron became known as a politician, philanderer and poet. He is also remembered as a seducer of society beauties. His friendship with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary (creator of Frankenstein) influenced his interest in the Gothic revival, Monsters and Vampires. His preoccupation with the past glories of Greece and its fate under Turkish rule at that time made him a creative force in the poetic, literary and artistic output of the Romantic period.  He relocated to Venice in 1816, where he lived in a palazzo near the Rialto bridge for three years. He is revered to this day in Greece as a hero of their struggle to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. He died of fever in Missalonghi at the age of 36.

Speaker: Elizabeth Merry

Programme of lectures:

10.15 – 11.15 Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know

11.15 – 11.45 Break

11.45 – 12.45 Wandering Outlaws – Byron, Shelley in Switzerland: Monsters, Vampires and Gothic Imagination

12.45 – 14.00 Lunch interval. Lunch will not be provided.

14.00 – 15.00 For Greece a Tear

To book online please click HERE. Booking will also be possible at the January, February and March lectures.

For further information, please contact
specialinterestdays@stradfas.onmicrosoft.com

Caroline Holmes will explore the gardens through the senses of the Impressionists from three countries – Europe, America and Australia.  She will illustrate how the artists used the light from the skies to create very different sensations.

Cost: Members £35  Non-members £40

Programme:
10.15 - 11.15  Gardens of French impressionists from Argenteuil and Giverny to the South of France
11.15 - 11.45  COFFEE
11.45 – 12.45 The garden as a canvas – American Impressionists at home and away
12.45 – 14.00 LUNCH
14.00 – 15.00 The living canvas – Australian impressionists – capturing the native landscape

 Lunch: Bring your own to eat in the Playhouse or there are plenty of places to eat nearby.

 For secure online booking using a bank card, click HERE.

Payment at the door on the day will also be accepted.

For further information, please contact specialinterestdays@stradfas.onmicrosoft.com

Peter Medhurst is a Baroque musician and travels the world as a pianist, singer and scholar.

The lectures all feature the genius of Handel, exploring the formative years in Italy before going to London where he wrote 36 operas for the London stage. He worked with a range of singers and created individual arias for each singer’s voice.

His music for The Royal Fireworks was first performed in London and has been a favourite ever since.

While Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are two of the most familiar figures in Italian Renaissance art, the antipathy that existed between them remains a story without an author.

This lecture throws light on these themes and, using select examples of their works, attempts to understand the motivations for their animosity. Particular emphasis is given to the commission bestowed upon them to undertake frescoes for the great chamber in Florence.

As usual, there will be three lectures on this day. The cost will be £40 per participant to include tea/coffee and a sandwich lunch.