All our meetings are held in Westerham Hall, Quebec Avenue, Westerham. TN15 1HH .The Wine Bar opens at 7.30 - talk begins at 8pm. Free to members - Visitors £5 on the door
FIFTEENTH SEASON - 2020 Membership remains £35 single - £65 couple
N. B. - COVID 19; [as of 02/07/20]
We are waiting to hear if Westerham Hall will be open and available for Public Meetings in the Autumn.
We are waiting to hear if Westerham Hall will be open and available for Public Meetings in the Autumn.
"RESTORATION & AFTER: Boobs, Bombast and Gin!"
Wednesday 2nd September 2020. Giles Ramsey is an independent Theatre Director and Producer. His directing credits are too numerous to mention! He is a Course Leader in Theatre at the V & A Museum. This talk is a fascinating slant on History - how the theatre of the day reflected this most saucy of eras.
"A Provocative Beauty - the Art of Grayson Perry"
Wednesday 7th October 2020. Grayson Perry who won the Turner Prize in 2003, is close to becoming a "National Treasure". His beautiful, finely crafted pottery, which frequently has a sting in the tail, and his colourful, imaginative and often amusing tapestries are enormously popular in the fine art world. In his lecture Frank Woodgate will look at his work in some detail, as well as considering his cross-dressing alter ego, Claire, and his fondness for his childhood teddy bear Alan Measles..
"The MOON - in Mythology, Science and Art"
Wednesday 4th November 2020 given by Dr David Whitehouse - author of "Apollo 11 -the Inside Story" - he was the "Face of Space" on British television as the BBC's Science Correspondant from 1988 - 2006, and as a science communicator he is in a class of his own! This lecture is not just for astronomers or those keen on science - there is also much to interest Art Historians.
"From Downton to Gatsby" - Jewellery & Fashion 1890 - 1929
Wednesday 9th December 2020. A "sparkling" end to our Season.
Andrew Prince is a respected craftsman, historian and lecturer and has created some of the finest crystal jewellery in the world: he was commissioned to make many of the jewels worn by the main characters in the acclaimed TV series "Downton Abbey". His lecture explores the extraordinary era when great couturiers collaborated with the finest craftsmen to produce creations of outstanding quality and glittering opulence. He promises to bring some examples of his craft for us to examine.
Andrew Prince is a respected craftsman, historian and lecturer and has created some of the finest crystal jewellery in the world: he was commissioned to make many of the jewels worn by the main characters in the acclaimed TV series "Downton Abbey". His lecture explores the extraordinary era when great couturiers collaborated with the finest craftsmen to produce creations of outstanding quality and glittering opulence. He promises to bring some examples of his craft for us to examine.
SIXTEENTH SEASON - 2021
"DAME ZAHA HADID - one of the most distinguished architects in the World"
Wednesday 6th January 2021 - Anthea Streeter tells the story of Dame Zaha before her untimely death in 2016. We move around the world to look at some of her daring and brilliant structures.
"Rooms and Views - filming in Florence with Merchant Ivory"
Wednesday 3rd February 2021 - For more than 40 years Sarah Quill has been photographing the architecture and daily life of Venice creating and a unique and ever growing photographic archive. She is a Trustee of the "Venice in Peril Fund" and a new edition of her book "Ruskin's Venice - The Stones Revisited" was published in 2018. We are fortunate that she had the opportunity to attend and photograph Florence during the making of the film "Room with a View".
"CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE"
Wednesday 3rd March 2021. This is as much English history as is it Egyptology - and it's a great yarn! Clive Barham-Carter who studied Egyptology at Cambridge and was on the staff of Charterhouse for 30 years, returns to give his fascinating talk about a 4000 year old obelisk - the one we know in London and its partner in New York. [there is one in Paris and with its pair still standing in Luxor.]
Founders and Treasures of the Wallace Collection
Wednesday 7th April 2021 - Stephen Duffy - recently retired as Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection; he will relate how this collection of paintings, furniture,porcelain, timepieces, arms and armour was brought together by five generations of the same family. This lecture tells the fascinating story of its formation and presents many of its finest treasures.
"Indians, Buffalo and Storms: the American West in 19thC Art"
Wednesday 12th May 2021. Artists were never very far behind the explorers who opened up the west of America in the 19th century. This is a story on a big scale, and who better than Toby Faber to use paintings to illustrate and chart the history of the arrival of the railroad, the confinement of the native American into reservations and the extermination of the buffalo.
"A Machine that Makes Art" from early Computer drawing to the Art of the iPad.
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Wednesday 2nd June 2021. To what extent does the hand of the artist need to be involved in the art-making? Catherine Mason will explore the use of computing and digital systems in art today and look at the numerous and amazing works currently being created.
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"Matisse - Master of Colour"
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Wednesday 7th July 2021. Matisse is known for his mastery of colour - but how did this happen? His early life and inauspicious start as an artist did not bode well! Liz Strang will take us through his life and tell us how his work flourished - so that, by the time he had completed the chapel at Vence he truly was a "Master of Colour"
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"Jennie Churchil: Style Icon,Pushy Mother and Ambitious Seductress"!
Wednesday 1st September 2021. Jenny Jerome was born in America with the belief that it was her destiny to make a great marriage and achieve something in the world. Anne Sebba has written a book about the life of Lady Randolf Churchill and feel that she has been treated unfairly in history, as a woman who took over 200 lovers; but in the 21st C, almost 100 years after Jennie's tragically premature death, surely it is time to re-evaluate her legacy.
"A Life in Music: West to East and back"
Wednesday 5th October 2021. Saxophonist Chris "Snake" Davis is a UK Solo Artist and Session Musician. His lecture will include live demonstrations of a large selection of saxophones, flutes and ethnic woodwinds. He will talk about the business, the art of music and life on the road, and how his love of music has opened the doors to Japanese Culture.
"Denys Lasdun & the National Theatre:"
Wednesday 3rd November 2021. The architecture of the National Theatre divides opinion. Famously, Prince Charles once described it as a nuclear bunker! Was he right? In this lecture Alan Read looks at the life and work of Denys Lasdun and pleads for an appreciation of the austere beauty of this architectural masterpiece.
"It's not just Tchaikovsky!!"
Wednesday 8th December 2021. Nigel Bates takes us on a wide-ranging exploration of the music chosen by ballet choreographers through the years; proving that the right piece with the right moves, and the right designs, can create modern masterpieces and timeless classics.
