Lectures & Events

An internationally-renowned opera dramaturge, university teacher, art historian and curator, Hamburg-based Alex Meier-Dörzenbach will give us a backstage tour of one of his productions at Glyndebourne: Pelléas et Mélisande.

Accredited paintings conservator and technical art historian Sarah Cove specializes in the conservation of the works of John Constable, and will give us insights into the painstaking processes involved in the restoration of paintings. 

The director of the National Palaces of Pena, Queluz and Sintra in Portugal will give us his expert insights into the park and palace of Monserrate, which was built by the English merchant of French Huguenot origin Gerard De Visme in the style of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill. William Beckford, the author of Letters from Italy with Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1835) lived here, and Lord Byron visited before the palace and gardens were completely remodelled by the rich merchant Sir Francis Cook during the Victorian era.

Former Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection Stephen Duffy will give us insights into how Paris was ‘discovered’ by – and through – major British artists and their early nineteenth-century watercolour views of the city. 

AGM at 6.30 pm followed by lecture at 7.30 pm

The international art scene has finally woken up to address the historical imbalances which have kept female artists far too long in the shadows. Art historian Linda Nochlin’s seminal 1971 essay, ironically titled "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" promised to be a transformative moment in art history, but male artists continued to dominate the narrative. Roll forward five decades and female artists are finally being given the attention and respect they richly deserve…It’s not that there’s been a shortage of female artists-there have been hundreds over the centuries, but while many have been influential during their lifetimes, they fell into obscurity because museums did not consider it necessary to collect their works and academic studies left them out. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, museum directors, curators and academics are making up for lost ground. In her lecture, "Let’s Hear it for The Girls", Cindy Polemis looks at some of the leading female artists working today who should be household names.

Having spent many years as presenter and producer for the BBC World Service, art historian Cindy Polemis is an official guide at Tate Modern and Tate Britain as well as many other art institutions. She will lead us on a discovery tour of contemporary female British artists who should be on our radar.