Lectures

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Friday 26 June 2026 – The genius of Rene Lalique

Lecturer: Andy McConnell

René Lalique was the 20th century’s greatest glass designer/entrepreneur. Lalique’s extraordinary work was unrivalled, combining his unique visual sense with a perfect understanding of glassmaking technologies and revolutionary approach to marketing. This talk is a visual feast, covers Lalique’s early work in jewels and furniture before he dedicated the remainder of his life, c1905-45, to glass. His output spanned simple, pressed cosmetic pots through car mascots and stemware to the unique cire perdu [lost wax] vases that today can command tens and even millions of pounds.

Friday 24 July 2026 – The other Sack of Rome

Lecturer: Sarah Dunant

By the 1520s Rome, fuelled by the wealth of the catholic church, was the great centre of the renaissance. But in 1527 the unthinkable happened and for only the second time in her history, the city was invaded by an army of unpaid and half starving mercenaries. Many were German Lutherans with an intense hatred of Catholics and the Pope, who they saw as ruling over a cesspit of corruption and pornography. (Spoiler alert: they were not wrong). Palaces and homes were occupied, their owners killed and tortured to reveal treasure. Convents and monasteries were sacked, inmates raped and murdered, art and relics destroyed.

Friday 25 September 2026 – The Age of Jazz

Lecturer: Sandy Burnett

Jazz is one of music’s most important genres: a fascinating blend of rigorous structure, free- wheeling creativity, close-knit ensembles and imaginative improvisation. Drawing on his experience both as musicologist and gigging musician, Sandy can shed light on jazz from the inside. His talk covers the early years of jazz up to the Second World War, and touches on the disparate influences which lay behind the emergence of jazz. Musical illustrations range from the blues, ragtime and the very first recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the sumptuous sound of the Swing Era.

Friday 23 October 2026 – Turner and Constable: Romantic Rivals

Lecturer: Antonia Gatward Cevizli

Turner and Constable were exact contemporaries, born just one year apart. Tate Britain will be commemorating the 250th anniversary of the birth of these two giants of British art with the exhibition Turner and Constable running from November 2025-April 2026.

Friday 27 November 2026 – Antony Gormley: A Body of Work

Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte

Antony Gormley’s career spans nearly 40 years, during which time he has made sculpture that explores the relationship of the human body to space, often using his own body as his starting point. His work has been shown throughout the world, in galleries including the Tate in London and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but is also often on open display, as public art, such as Another Place at Crosby Beach, near Liverpool. As well as works that he is well known for, like the iconic Angel of the North, this lecture will look at some of his earlier and less well-known works, to give an overall view of the development of his work across his whole career, up to the present time.

Friday 22 January 2027 – A Palace at War-Evacuees and Espionage at Blenheim Palace

Lecturer: Antonia Keaney

The Marlborough family, Estate staff and even the Palace itself played a full and energetic part in the war effort.
This talk tells the story of how the Palace prepared for the worst, survived the onslaught of 400 boys evacuated to Blenheim and kept the secrets of MI5 – and how the war had an unexpected effect on the future of Britain’s ‘greatest palace’ – the effects of which are still being felt today.

Friday 26 February 2027 – Maria Callas: was it Onassis or a rare disease that stopped her singing career?

Lecturer: Alan Silman

Maria Callas was the original ‘Diva’ and one of the most famous sopranos of all time yet her singing career was cruelly curtailed by an exceptionally rare autoimmune disease. How much was known about this disease at the time, and how likely was it that it really affected her voice, or was it the consequence of the treatment. But she was a very complex personality and strongly influenced by Onassis. In this talk I will discuss her life and works and her evolving health problems, richly illustrated with clips of her singing and speaking; and attempt to answer these questions.

Friday 19 March 2027 – The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: a story of survival and music

Lecturer: Anne Sebba

In 1943, the German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Forty-seven women and girls were drafted into a hurriedly-assembled band that would play to other inmates as they left each morning and as they returned at the end of the day. They were made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and members were sometimes summoned to give individual performances of an officer’s favourite piece of music. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, the orchestra was to save their lives.

Friday 23 April 2027 – The Forensic Eye: find your inner Connoisseur

Lecturer: Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe

How do dealers, auctioneers and museum staff determine whether a piece is by one painter or another? What role does the signature play, and what are the key clues to look for when deciding who painted the picture? Artists before the 18th century usually worked with a number of assistants around them, who were trained to reproduce the style of the master as closely as possible. How can we study these workshop productions, distinguishing between master and pupil, master and copyists? In this lecture, we consider clues, weigh up their relative usefulness, and learn some of the tricks of the connoisseur.

Friday 28 May 2027 – In the footsteps of Wren: the architecture of Norman Foster and Richard Rogers

Lecturer: Brian Stater

Richard Rogers and Norman Foster are the most celebrated British architects of the last 100 years, building around the world in steel, glass and concrete.
When Rogers was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture the citation observed that he was “the rightful heir to the traditions of Wren”.
And the same could certainly be said of Foster.
The allusion to Wren is startling, but this lecture demonstrates that Wren might very well have recognised Foster and Rogers as kindred spirits.

Friday 25 June 2027 – The Echoing Scream: the Birth of Expressionism

Lecturer: Gavin Plumley

When Edvard Munch created The Scream in 1893, he was responding to an intense emotional experience. Today, we would call it a panic attack. Crippling and anxious making, this primal cry was also a rallying call: for Munch and for the wider world of art. It gave birth to a movement known as expressionism, showing life not at it is (realism) or as it might be perceived in a fleeting moment (impressionism), but as it is experienced within the unembellished core of our being. Explosive and emotive, the aftershocks of Munch’s vision were felt across the world: in art and music, literature, dance and film.

Friday 23 July 2027 – The Art of Spain

Lecturer: Ed Williams

Spain is perhaps most often associated with holidays, a land of sunshine, rioja and a relaxed pace of life, but Spain’s sometimes forgotten tumultuous history gave rise to some of the most astonishing artworks in European history.
These works, often overlooked in favour of those created by Italian and Northern European painters were often ignored, or even dismissed.