The musical Miss Saigon opened at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1989.  This lecture looks at the journey, process and creativity required for a major musical production, from page to stage, and demonstrates the many tasks and talents that it takes to produce a West End hit: producing, directing, auditions, script development, set design, lighting, costumes, orchestration, choreography, advertising and even the challenge of landing a helicopter on stage.

Jamie Hayes was Associate Director on the original production of Miss Saigon inthe West End and Broadway.

Image: the original poster for the Miss Saigon musical (1989).  Public domain

This lecture reveals how the USA covertly used both Modernist design and Abstract Expressionism as Cold War tools against the Soviet Bloc in the 1950s.  In one of the most curious stories in art history, America's new artists were unwittingly weaponised by the CIA, and Mid-Century Modern design was used in European exhibitions - all in an effort to demonstrate American cultural superiority to wavering intellectuals.

James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history.  His talks now focus on understanding art through its historic, cultural and political context.

Image: Krushchev and Nixon argue over kitchen design at the American National Exhibition, Moscow (1959).  Public domain

For centuries, artists in the West were inspired by the idea of Africa.  A kind of exoticism took hold of the imagination of artists like Rubens, Delacroix and Picasso, and designers such as Bauhaus luminaries Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stölzl.  In recent years, however, African artists themselves have hit the headlines with major museum shows, and artists including El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu have become global stars.  Find out more in this lecture.

Vivienne Lawes is an art historian, curator, author and journalist with over 25 years' experience in the art market.

Installation artwork at the Artempo exhibition, Venice (2007) by El Anutsui.  Photo credit: Mattijs Visser (2007), licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0

Join Margaret for a seasonal hour of Christmas bygones and entertainment as she brings to life the joy of music throughout the ages at this time of year.  She will be delving into the history of the harp and its incredible pedal mechanism, and exploring some of the old Christmas Carols and their origins.  Margaret will play a selection of festive favourites to get us all in the mood for Christmas!

Margaret Watson is a harpist and is a Fellow of the Guild of Musicians & Harpists.  She has played for royalty and at the Garrick Club and Glyndebourne; and with her very varied repertoire and often resplendent costumes, she has delighted audiences throughout the UK.

Image courtesy of Margaret Watson (December 2024)

In this lively introduction to the tapestry – so much more than the story of Hastings – Rupert unravels some of its mysteries, places it in the context of its age and firmly establishes it as a landmark in the history of Western art.

Rupert Willoughby is a writer, researcher, lecturer, Latin-whisperer and impresario of ancient Greeks, with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past. An experienced lecturer, accredited by The Arts Society since 2011, he is known for his light, humorous touch, his love of narrative and his vivid evocations of the past. Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.

We love standing in a museum gazing at a painting by Titian or Caravaggio, but we rarely question where it was before it came to be in that museum, or who in earlier times stood in front of it and gazed, nor by what practical means it got there. When Napoleon invaded Europe, he had the best of Europe’s works of art sent back to Paris for his new Musée Napoleon. But HOW did they get four life -size bronze horses of San Marco down from their place on the basilica in Venice, over the Alps and all the way to Paris? What practicalities did shipping a painting over 15 feet high, or a statue such as Michelangelo’s David, involve?

Dr Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe gained an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh and a PhD from the Warburg Institute. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught Fine and Decorative Arts at Sotheby's Institute of Art since 1989, and is a freelance lecturer for institutions including the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection.

This talk informs people about my artist process and what was involved in making this public work of art. I start the talk with an introduction to my artistic practise, then go on to describe how I won the national competition to be artist in residence for Women’s Suffrage in Parliament. I go on to talk about the brief and how I came up with the concept for the monument and then how the artwork was created. I end with a video showing the piece being unveiled for the first time to the public.

Mary Branson is an award-winning print maker, mentor and public speaker.  She is perhaps best known for her large-scale conceptual light works and installations, particularly the iconic ‘New Dawn’ 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Women’s Suffrage movement. It is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster.

Certified Pearl Grader Laurie Wickwire takes us on a journey to the seabed floor in the hunt for the elusive natural pearl - Child of the Sea.  The Golden Age of natural pearling transformed the Bedouin city states of Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.  Pearling transformed the region, where generations of camel herders & date farmers almost entirely left their way of life, to travel to the coast to become pearl farmers.  Natural pearls were once the most prized gem in the world, with a single gram of gem quality pearl equivalent to 320 grams of gold.  It all sounded too good to last, and it was!

Laurie Wickwire is a certified grader of both pearls and diamonds.  With over 35 years in the diamond industry, she represents the industry across all sectors: mining, sorting, grading and  brokering some of the world’s key rough stones.

Few piano sonatas in the history of music can have achieved the popularity of Beethoven’s 14th Piano Sonata, The Moonlight, composed in 1801.  And yet, the opening movement – which the German poet Ludwig Rellstab claimed reminded him of moonlight falling on the waters of Lake Lucerne - should doom the sonata to failure, through its Adagio sostenuto marking and uncompromising use of triplet figurations.  Furthermore, the sonata achieves the impossible artistically, in having both the simplest and the most difficult piano music of the period, accommodated in a single sonata.  Yet, it is a work of genius, and the lecture is a rediscovery of a much-loved musical friend.

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

This talk will immerse us in some of the architectural marvels of Istanbul. It explores the iconic landmarks of Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and more. We will think about the sultans who built them and how they communicated ideas about themselves, their power and their place in the world.

Dr Antonia Gatwood Cevizli is an independent art historian specialising in both Italian Renaissance art and Ottoman art. She gained her PhD (in History of Art) from the University of Warwick. Her publications focus on cultural and diplomatic exchange between the Italian city-states and the Ottomans. Antonia has lectured for institutions including Sabancı University, Istanbul; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; the National Gallery; the V&A Academy; and The Courtauld summer school. She has also worked as a professional guide at both Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

London's history is fascinating and full of colourful characters, from William Shakespeare to Dick Whittington's cat!  In this lecture we gallop through almost 2000 years of London's history brilliantly illustrated through the stained-glass windows found in the city churches and livery halls.  Often overlooked, these provide a unique insight into the milestones which have made up London's story.  As well as 18th, 19th century and 20th century windows we look at some of the most up-to-date and contemporary glass makers.  Our speaker will also provide a list of windows and where they can be found so that you can undertake a self-guided walk if you wish!

Anna Warrilow has a passion for all things art and history, having gained a BA in History of Art & Italian and an MA in Renaissance Decorative Arts & Design. She has been a curator of sculpture at the Victoria & Albert Museum and in smaller collections such as the Henry Moore Family Trust. Anna lectures regularly for art, history and academic societies.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh reputedly said of his wife, "I had talent, Margaret had genius", but for a long time her important place in the history of art was overshadowed by her husband’s renown. Both alone and in collaboration with her friends, she produced some of the most iconic works of the much-loved Glasgow Style, the uniquely Scottish variety of Art Nouveau. This talk will tell the story of this ‘Glasgow Girl’ and member of ‘The Four’ and will look at her fascinating career as she progressed from the Glasgow School of Art to a studio with her sister Frances Macdonald and then into a marriage which was also very much an artistic partnership.

Julia Marwood has loved looking at art since discovering the work of Gustav Klimt while teaching English in Austria. She became a tour guide at Manchester Art Gallery in 2015 and since leaving language teaching in 2018 has spent all her time sharing her passion for art as a speaker - apart from when she is wild swimming or learning Scottish Gaelic!  She specialises in Scottish art from 1880 onward, and in the art of Manchester.

'Nef’ was an old French word for ship models, usually of gold or silver, that adorned princely dining tables. They took many forms and had a range of uses, from holding the prince’s personal cutlery to acting as salt cellars or ewers. But their main function was as a status symbol. This lecture charts the history of this extraordinary phenomenon and concludes with a case study of a remarkable nef that used to belong to the Knights of Malta and that had a roller-coaster history of capture by Napoleon’s forces and re-capture by the British navy.

Tim Schroder is an historian of gold and silver and has published several books and articles on the subject.  He has been a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum and a consultant curator at the V&A in London; he is a past trustee of the Wallace Collection; and he is a current trustee of several of arts-related charities.

It’s said in our theatrical history that there was a Golden Age of British Comedy. It ran from the 1970s to the 1980s and occurred as we started to drift away from theatres and radios, and found ourselves living through a wonderfully rich period of television comedy. Some say this period has never been bettered.

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent twenty five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries. Now, he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients.

Tyler previously appeared at TAS South Cambs in June 2023, when he presented his lecture An Actor's Life for Me.