Raymond Warburton has had a life-long love of art. However having studied social sciences at the London School of Economics he took up a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. But all that changed in 2011, when Ray became a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. From 2014-2017 he studied art history and gained an MA in the History of Art. In 2017 he became an Art Society lecturer.

Barbara Hepworth took British and world sculpture to new levels of expressive and lyrical abstraction. While we can look for meanings in them, her sculptures can be enjoyed and experienced simply for their look and feel. These days her sculptures have a timeless quality to them, which was a deliberate ploy as she sought to combine antiquity and mythology with the cutting-edge present. She also , early on, admired the Cubist and blockish Return to Order paintings of Picasso, and some of her figurative sculptures of the 1920s and 1930s reflected his influence. But from the 1930s, abstraction took a firm hold on her art making, and with few exceptions she maintained this approach for the rest of her life. The lecture will cover all the above aspects of Hepworth and her sculptures, with the aim of clearly explaining an intense person and the full range of her sculptures.

Frank Vigon has been a head teacher of both an inner-city school and a highly successful and popular Media Arts High School. He is currently an education consultant lecturing on education and examinations to teachers and sixth form students. He lectures extensively on a variety of topics including Politics, History, Education, Art History and Literature. 

The problem with Gustav Klimt is that his work is so well known that the fame of paintings like “The Kiss” colour our imagination, and rightly so. But the blazing glory of this work can eclipse all that is so magnificent about this artist such that we really know little about the range and extent of his work and many skills. This talk will introduce his wider work spanning theatre design, interior decor, portraits, posters, furniture as well as his painting.

Roger Butler is a landscape architect and an experienced writer, photographer and lecturer. He has a particular interest in the unique history, architecture and traditions of our canal network and worked on some of the UK’s major canal restoration projects. He has also acted as consultant to bodies such as waterways Ireland, Natural England and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Roger is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute. 

This lecture introduces the extraordinary world of our canals - only the National Trust and the Church of England have more listed bodies than our waterways. It provides a colourful introduction to the secret world of our 2000 mile inland waterway network and looks at all aspects of their exceptional artistic, architectural and engineering vernacular. Features range from sweeping aqueducts to tiny bollards, from colourful historic narrowboats to ‘Roses and Castles’ artwork, from grand World Heritage Sites to quirky listed buildings. A well known architectural historian once described our canals as a ‘poor man’s art gallery’.

Janusz is a freelance lecturer and researcher in English furniture history and also an antique dealer. His interest in collecting was such that he became known as the dealer who bought, but never sold! He is now retired from a 35 year long career in Higher Education. He has been a lecturer for the Arts Society since 1982 and lives in Whalley Range. He is also President of the Bowden Society. 

English furniture reached a near-unrivalled degree of excellence by the mid 18th Century largely thanks to the influence, from the late-17th century onwards, of new methods of construction and decoration from the Netherlands, Low Countries and designers from these countries. By the mid-18th century, English cabinet makers and designers were producing furniture which set a new standard in terms of both design and craftsmanship. Central to this was the way in which cabinet makers exploited the properties and characteristics of Mahogany, which became regarded as the ‘king” of cabinet making wood. This golden age encompasses the work of great designers and cabinet makers like Kent, Vile, Cobb and, of course, Chippendale.

Nick Hutchison is a theatre director, actor and lecturer. He has directed at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, Wilton’s Music Hall and many others. He is Associate Drama tutor at RADA, LAMDA and Shakespeare’s Globe and has directed, lectured and taught widely. As an actor he worked with the RSC, the National Theatre and BBC and ITV and now lectures worldwide on Shakespeare. 

A lively, interactive lecture/workshop looking at how Shakespeare’s company produced the plays in the 16/17 century. Highlighting the differences between early modern and modern theatre practice, including repertoire constraints on rehearsal, cue scripts, embedded stage direction, visible audience, universal lighting and touching on textual clues, this talk will change the way you look at Shakespeare’s texts forever

Antonia returns to us after her popular lecture on “Shopping on the Rialto" last year. She is an independent art historian specialising in both Italian renaissance art and Ottoman art. She gained her PhD from the University of Warwick. Her interests are wide ranging and she has worked as a professional guide at both Tate Modern and Tate Britain. She has lived in Siena, Venice and Istanbul. 

In 1971 Linda Nochlin wrote her famous essay “ Why have there been no great women artists?” Since then, much has been done to insert women into the canon and uncover their lives and works. This talk looks at the obstacles that women faced and how they managed to overcome them. From the Dominican nun Plautilla Neilli in Florence to Judith Leystet in the Dutch Republic, we will see how differences in family background, place of birth and time period affected their chances of success.

Charlotte Rostek is a curator, heritage manager and consultant who has worked in the Scottish Arts and Heritage sector since 1997. Currently working for Buccleugh Estates she has previously been Director of Collections at the Mount Stuart Trust.  She has commercial experience in the auction world and was Curator during the restoration of Dumfries House for the Trust headed by King Charles. She remains Dumfries House Curator Emeritus and is a trustee of the Charles Rennie Macintosh Society. 

Drawing on her own deep involvement with the recent restoration of this remarkable 18th century country house, Charlotte takes us on a journey from the creation of Dumfries House in the 18th century to its recent renaissance under the visionary leadership of HRH King Charles. The project, whose origination is every bit as fascinating as its subsequent evolution and emergence as a model for heritage-led regeneration, has all the ingredients of a fairy tale, both traditional and modern. The lecture gives a real sense of the energy behind this landmark project.

Clare gained an honours degree in the History of Art from Birkbeck College, London. She has regular commitments at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, the National Gallery and the V&A Morley College, the Art Fund and the National Trust. She also leads study tours abroad. 

This was a rich and varied period during which Rembrandt and Hals push portraiture to new heights of characterisation and emotional intensity, while Jan van Doyen and Jacob van Ruisdael explore skies and atmosphere in their landscapes. Still life and the subjects of everyday life emerge as subjects in their own right. The Golden Age culminates in the exuberance of the flower pieces of de Helm and van Huysum and the paintings of everyday life reach an outstanding conclusion in the serene domestic interiors of Vermeer.

For a number of years Tim Stimson was a professional painter and ceramist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to University to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults. For the last 30 years he has been a freelance cultural art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. 

In Northern Europe landscape painting has a powerful hold on our visual culture - and none more so than in Scandinavia, where northerly folk have found a kinship with nature to be indispensable. The 19th century paintings of snow and sun, rock and forest, mountain and fjord helped confirm their differences from Mediterranean culture and shaped national identity. They are confident affirmations of Northerness.