Lecture Programme

All our lectures commence at 10.45 am coffee is available from 10.00 a.m.

13December Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Making Sense of Modern Art – Val Woodgate

Time: Wednesday, 13 December 2023 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
Society changed more rapidly in the twentieth century than at any time in the previous four thousand years. So did art. This lecture will explain many modern movements and the artistic response to political and social upheavals, including both World Wars, which inspired some of the great masterpieces of modern art. Recent decades have seen […]
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10January Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Music in Art – Sophie Matthews

Time: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in […]
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14February Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Banksy – Fraud or Genius – Pepe Martinez

Time: Wednesday, 14 February 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
This lecture will trace the story of Banksy’s humble beginnings as a tagger on the streets of Bristol in the 1980’s to one of the most recognisable names in the art world.  We will examine the reasons behind his incredible rise, looking at some of his famous stunts and discuss what his influence has been on […]
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13March Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Klimt and the Viennese Secession – A Kiss for all the world – Douglas Skeggs

Time: Wednesday, 13 March 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
The fears and anxieties of Vienna in the final years before the outbreak of the Great War found expression in the writing of Freud, the music of Gustav Mahler and the haunting paintings of Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele. Shimmering portraits flecked with gold; hypnotic landscapes of vibrant brushstrokes; erotic dreams of decadence and death reveal […]
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08May Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Magnificent Mosaics: Windows into the colourful Roman world – Christopher Bradley

Time: Wednesday, 8 May 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
The Romans have left us with a remarkable artistic record of their lifestyle, beliefs, achievements and entertainment in the form of beautiful mosaics. From the best sites and museums in the world we see how they built on earlier Greek traditions; the cities in which they lived; the Gods and myths in which they believed; […]
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12June Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Midsummer Magic – Nordic Impressionists of the late 19th century – Brian Healey

Time: Wednesday, 12 June 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
Cloaked for months of the year in snow or mist, it is only in summer that the more benign character of Norway, Denmark and Sweden is revealed, providing the inspiration behind the ravishing paintings of artists such as Kitty Kieland, Anders Zorn, Elif Petersson and Peder Krøyer to name just a few. Often working in […]
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11September Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Britain’s Caravaggio? The magical works of Joseph Wright of Derby – Stella Lyons

Time: Wednesday, 11 September 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
Was Joseph Wright of Derby Britain’s answer to Caravaggio? He was a painter of light: candlelight, moonlight and fire. But he also painted another kind of light, the light of knowledge. His magical, near-photographic works give us an insight into a unique period of time: the British enlightenment. Wright of Derby painted a society on […]
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09October Wednesday
Lecture Programme

London’s Lost Department Stores – Tessa Boase

Time: Wednesday, 9 October 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’.  Starting on Oxford Street’s ‘golden mile’, we’ll set off on a cultural tour of the capital’s […]
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13November Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Eric Ravilious -Life and Work – James Russell

Time: Wednesday, 13 November 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
Eric Ravilious was only 39 when he died on active service as a war artist in 1942, yet he had already achieved amazing things. A brilliant wood engraver and designer, he is best known today for his haunting watercolours in which lighthouses, white horses, empty rooms and downland paths become marvels. Over the past decade […]
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11December Wednesday
Lecture Programme

Victoria and Albert – Art Love and Christmas – Barbara Askew

Time: Wednesday, 11 December 2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm / Mercure Preston Hotel, Samlesbury, Preston New Road, Preston PR5 0UL
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first cousins and born just three months apart in 1819. Their shared enthusiasm for art and music endured throughout the twenty-two years of their marriage and they demonstrated their love through the works of art and jewellery they gave each other for birthdays, Christmases and anniversaries. Victoria and Albert […]
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