Past Lectures
2026 Lectures
September 8: Fashion, Fury and Feathers: Women’s Fight for Change
To all ticket holders, please check into the Gallery at the Arts Centre Stamford by 10.45am at the latest, this will enable you to take your seat in the lecture theatre by 10.50am.
June 9: 160 Years of London Underground Design and Architecture
In the 1860s and 70s, during the expansion of the London Underground, there was a need to create some cohesion between the different operating companies, Leslie Green’s architecture and the Arts & Crafts movement, Frank Pick, Edward Johnston’s typeface, Charles Holden’s architecture and the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco movement. The lecture also touches on the New Works Programme, post-war austerity/design, the Victoria Line, the loss of Johnston & rescue by Kono, the Jubilee Line Extension/architecture, the creation of TfL, recent schemes and future works including the Elizabeth Line/Northern Line extension to Battersea etc.
May 12: Stamford Raffles, Art Collector and Founder of Singapore
Raffles, whose name is synonymous with a luxury hotel rather than the greatest Buddhist temple in the world, was the enlightened colonial administrator of Java, Indonesia.
April 14: Death by Wallpaper: Colourful Stories of Chemical Pigments and Dyes
Was Napoleon killed by his wallpaper?
March 10: Anthony Gormley: A Body of Work
Antony Gormley’s career spans nearly 40 years, during which time he has made sculpture that explores the relationship of the human body to space, often using his own body as his starting point. His work has been shown throughout the world, in galleries including the Tate in London and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but is also often on open display as public art, such as ‘Another Place’ at Crosby Beach, near Liverpool.
February 10: The Italian High Renaissance: Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo
La Pietà di Michelangelo, Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome (photo courtesy of Dr Valerie Shrimplin)
January 13: Banksy – Fraud or Genius
This lecture will trace the story of Banksy’s humble beginnings as a tagger on the streets of Bristol in the 1980’s to being 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 the art market today and look at what his legacy, if any, might be.
2025 Lectures
December 9: AGM & A Tudor Christmas
We might assume that our modern Christmas owes much to the Victorians. In fact, carol singing, present giving, mulled wine and mince pies were all just as popular in Tudor times.
December 2: Christmas Lunch: A Dickens of a Christmas and God Bless Everyone
Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as ‘the man who invented Christmas’ and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”
November 11: So they do cook after all! Ravilious, Bawden and the great Bardfield artists
In 1932 the artist Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved into Brick House, in the Essex village of Great Bardfield, initially sharing the house with another artistic couple, Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood. It was to be the beginning of a fascinating artistic community.
October 14: Britain versus The Bauhaus: Modern design in the 1930s
Staatliches Bauhaus was an art school founded under the Weimar Republic by the architect Walter Gropius. From 1919 to 1933 its tutors combined crafts and the fine arts in a radical new approach to design education.
September 9: The architecture of Mughal India: Palaces, mosques, gardens and mausoleums
Before the British arrived in India, the Indian subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal Emperors. The stunning buildings and gardens they constructed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century have left an indelible stamp on India’s architectural and cultural landscape.
June 10: Caravaggio, painter extraordinaire, a flawed genius and…a murderer! How I became a ‘Carravaggisiti’
Keith Bonser
This lecture tells the life of Caravaggio through his art. Following a passionate interest in Caravaggio, Keith’s lecture tells of his travels throughout Europe to see Caravaggio’s paintings in situ alongside the backdrop of the life and times of the artist.
May 13: Pots and frocks – The world of Grayson Perry – from Essex punk potter to superstar national treasure
Ian Swankie
This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s work, his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.
April 8: J M W Turner (1775-1851): From Covent Garden to Rome – out of the shadow into the light
Leslie Primo
This lecture will trace the life of the boy genius from his early beginnings selling works in his dad’s barber shop to his metamorphosis into a painter of the sublime and the romantic as his paintings melt into abstraction.
March 11: Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism
Lois Oliver
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was a central figure in the Impressionist movement that revolutionised modern art with swiftly brushed images of contemporary life.
February 11: Music in Art
Sophie Matthews
Sophie explores historical instruments found in selected artworks and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.
January 14: Monet, Japonisme and the Legacy of Giverny’s Floating World
Caroline Holmes
This talk traces the development of Monet’s interpretation of Japonisme from canvas to horticulture, and how impressionism and his arguably unique water gardens attracted both influential Japanese collectors and budding artists.
2024 Lectures
December 10: A Very Ceremonial Christmas
Dr Graham Jones
This light-hearted lecture shone a spotlight on the various ceremonial events that take place around Christmas time. Carol services, concerts and even Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor all play their part. How do the Chelsea Pensioners prepare and celebrate the festive season?
November 12: Sir Stanley Spencer: an Autobiography in Pictures
Carolyn Leder
Endlessly autobiographical, Spencer (1891-1959) noted, ‘my longings became pictures’. One of Britain’s greatest painters, he was a visionary artist whose name became synonymous with Cookham.
October 8: The Culture of Ukraine
Rosamund Bartlett
This lecture tells Ukraine’s story through the shared culture which binds its proud people together. We will explore the sacred art and architecture of Kyiv and its links to Byzantium, as well as the distinctive characters and ethnicities of Odesa and Lviv.
September 10: Tulip Mania in Golden Age Holland
Tom Flynn
The story of Tulip mania.
June 11: Wild Men of the North: Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven
Ross King
This illustrated lecture introduces the ‘Group of Seven’ painters – including their talismanic colleague Tom Thomson, who died in 1917 – and examines how they stormed the conservative bastions of Canadian art to establish themselves on the international stage as practitioners of a distinctive avant-garde.
May 21: Visit to Richard III Visitor Centre and Leicester Cathedral
The King Richard III Visitor Centre explores the unbelievable historical detective story. It unfolds over two floors from the story of King Richard III and his rise and sudden dramatic fall from power to the research, archaeological dig and scientific analysis to confirm the remains as those of the King. Not to be missed – the King’s original grave site on the ground floor protected under a glass floor.
May 14: Morals in Hogarth’s London
Lars Tharp
How moral, or how moralistic was Hogarth, either in person or in his art? What do we learn of the man from his paintings and prints?
April 9: The Overshadowed
Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe
This lecture will consider some of the many reasons for a good artist’s obscurity, from the brevity of his life to the misfortune of his being born and working in the shadow of a larger reputation, such as Leonardo or Rembrandt.
March 12: The Sign of the Fish: Catacombs and the Classical Roots of Christian Iconography
Hilary Guise
This is the dramatic story of the survival of the new Christian faith in Imperial Rome, against a backdrop of persecution and illiteracy, when hundreds of kilometres of tunnels were dug outside the city for the burial of saints and martyrs.
February 13: The Hidden World of Canal Architecture
Roger Butler
This lecture examines the unique buildings and structures associated with the UK’s canal network, with a vast array of distinctive designs, landmark features and unusual artefacts.
January 9: The Scoliotic Knight: Reconstructing the Real Richard III
Tobias Capwell
The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact. How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth.
2023 Lectures
December 12: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh: Why those Gifts?
Tom Duncan
This lecture will look at gold, frankincense and myrrh within not only those cultures, but as reflection of contemporary religious beliefs, not least in early Christianity and its emerging imagery.
December 7: Christmas Lunch – The Cuisine of Art and the Art of Cuisine
Ghislaine Howard
This lecture will look at anecdotes and recipes of artists who loved their food. A feast for the eyes including paintings by Toulouse Lautrec; Monet, Cézanne, Picasso and many others.
November 14: A Photographic Odyssey: Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition captured on camera
Mark Cottle
On Ernest Shackleton’s third Antarctic expedition in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and eventually crushed in the pack ice. The aim of the lecture is to capture Hurley’s achievements as a photographer of the Antarctic in the first flush of human contact when it was still essentially terra incognita.
October 10: Through a Glass Darkly – Vermeer and the Camera Obscura
Rupert Dickens
One of the most hotly debated topics in Vermeer literature is his supposed use of the camera obscura. We will tackle this controversy head on by investigating the history of optical devices in art and examining the latest theories on Vermeer’s technique.
September 12: From Downton to Gatsby: Jewellery and Fashion from 1890 to 1929
Andrew Prince
For the series and film Downton Abbey, Andrew was commissioned to make many jewels for the main characters, and this inspired him to create a talk based on this unique period.
June 13: Cambodia: The Sacred Art of Angkor and the Living Arts
Denise Heywood
The Hindu temple complex of Angkor in Cambodia is the greatest archaeological site in Asia. This illustrated lecture will focus on the artistic heritage and religious symbolism of Angkor.
May 9: Albrecht Dürer
Imogen Corrigan
Albrecht Dürer (1471- 1528) was a German painter and printmaker. He is renowned for his exquisite altarpieces, detailed woodcuts and was the first to draw nudes from life.
April 11: A Brief Story of Wine
David Wright
Wine has been part of our global society for over 7,000 years, and the story tells of its origin and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and through Europe.
March 14: The Luttrell Psalter: England on the Verge of the Black Death
Michelle Brown
This is one of the most unusual and insightful of English medieval artworks. Made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of the manor of Irnham (Lincs) in the 1330s, on the eve of the Black Death. Meet the Luttrells and their world by exploring their great artistic epitaph.
February 14: Dazzling Dufy: An invitation to a luminous feast with Raoul Dufy
Mary Alexander
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was a key player in early twentieth century Avant Garde art, design and literary/theatrical circles in Paris. This talk looks at his life, imagination and technical virtuosity – across a range of media.
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