Programme Venue: Woodhouse Eaves Village Hall, 50a Main Street, Woodhouse Eaves, LE12 8RZ. 7:15pm for 7.45pm Membership year 2024/5 12th December 2024 Barry Venning Giles Cartoons: Christmas with Giles, Grandma and the Family For a great many members of The Arts Society, the cartoonist Carl Giles was as much a part of the festive season as the Christmas tree, crackers and the Queen's Speech. So popular were the Giles annuals as Christmas presents that they helped to make him Britain's best loved, most successful and wealthiest cartoonist. The talk looks at Giles's life and work with a particular emphasis on his seasonal cartoons, particularly those featuring Grandma and the Giles family. They include some of his funniest cartoons but, as the art historian William Feaver pointed out, they also demonstrate that he had few equals when it came to representing Britain in Winter. 9th January 2025 Simon Seligman Debo-Mitford Cavendish. Duchess & Housewife 1920 to 2014 Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s greatest treasure houses, Chatsworth. In the second half of the 20th century, in partnership with her husband, she imbued it with a spirit, elegance and sense of welcome that transformed it from being the worn-out survivor of decades of taxation, war and social change into one of the best-loved, most-emulated and popular historic houses, gardens and estates in the country. Deborah Mitford. CC William Acton, Public domain 13th Feburary 2025 Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe The Overshadowed Have you had this experience? You go to a gallery, an exhibition and are stopped dead by an unknown picture: you look at the label and find you have never heard of the artist. How does it come about that there can be such wonderful painters of whom we have never heard? 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. But above all it is an excuse to spend an hour gorging on beautiful paintings, finding hidden treasures. 13th March 2025 Anna Warrillow Britain as Workshop of the World. The Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Establishment of the V&A. This lecture focuses on the design impact of the Great Exhibition and the need for a 'legacy institution' in the form of the South Kensington Museum. We look at the building as a work of art and explore the work of William Morris, Fredrick Lord Leighton and other influential designers of the Victorian Age. 10th April 2025 Bertie Pearce Charles Dickens - The Man & His Life through his characters Charles John Huffam Dickens brought into the world a staggering array of wonderful characters with orphans, starving children, misers, murderers and abusive school teachers among them. People such as Mr Micawber, Fagin and Abel Magwitch remain in one’s literary psyche long after the books are put down. Largely self-educated, Dickens possessed the genius to become the greatest writer of his age with 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles. In his lecture Bertie Pearce looks at the life and places of Dickens through his characters. The talk is interspersed with readings of this works. A truly Dickensian experience. Charles Dickens in his Study (1859), painted by William Powell Frith (1819–1909) wikidata:Q955750 8th May 2025 Christina Faraday The Magic of Portrait Miniatures In this lecture, we consider the most intimate art of the Tudor age: the portrait miniature or ‘limning’. We trace the genre from its origins in illuminated books to its celebrated blossoming at the Elizabethan court. We explore the distinctive techniques and material ‘special effects’ of this peculiarly English craft, consider the lives and careers of the most famous miniaturists, and reveal how the art form inspired the most brilliant poets of the age. Portrait of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624) by Nicholas Hilliard Miniature painting, sometimes thought to have been the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets (1573-1624). Public domain 12th June 2025 Sally Hoban The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Midlands (Includes where to see them, which may prompt outing ideas) Many people are familiar with the national designers of the 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement such as William Morris and Charles Ashbee. But the Midlands made a huge contribution to the movement as well. Designers at The Bromsgrove Guild of Handicrafts for example produced the exquisite wrought iron gates for Buckingham Palace. This lecture sets the work of these Midlands designers in the context of the national Arts and Crafts Movement using examples of jewellery made by Arthur and Georgina Gaskin, stained glass by Florence Camm, ceramics from the Ruskin Pottery and more. It also reveals the best locations in the region to see examples of local Arts and Crafts Movement design.  Buckingham Palace Gates with Royal coat of arms. Photo: Elliott Brown Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 11th September 2025 Bill Powell The Day the Music Died. On February 3, 1959, rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with the pilot, Roger Peterson. Conspiracy theories abound. What really happened? Buddy Holley headstone. Photo Jeebasmoka. Public domain 9th October 2025 – TBA 13th November 2025 Julia Musgrave The Bloomsbury Group. The Art of Vanessa Bell Avant-garde painter, designer, decorator, inspired colourist, mother and muse, Vanessa Bell was the warm heart of the Bloomsbury Group, a set who Dorothy Parker once described as “living in squares and loving in triangles”. Navigating the tides of sexual and artistic revolution with tolerance, irreverence and wit she had a central role in the social and aesthetic life of Bloomsbury; alive to their love affairs, romances, passions and pleasures, and refreshingly uninterested in politics. She was the sister of the writer Virginia Woolf, wife of the critic Clive Bell, and counted the painter Roger Fry and the artist Duncan Grant among her lovers. Vanessa Bell (sister of Virginia Woolf). Photo:George Charles Beresford. Public domain 11th December 2025 Sarah Lenton 300 years of Christmas in Covent Garden Christmas spectacles, slapstick, and beanstalks have been drawing crowds to Covent Garden since 1737. John Rich, the first manager of what is now the Royal Opera House, was a fine dancer, mime, and special effects man and he (and his successors) developed all the well known features of the London Christmas season. Even now principal boys, fairies, and Harlequin are alive and well on the ROH stage. This lecture pulls together the whole performing tradition and brings it up to date with the latest Christmas offerings at the Royal Opera House. Royal Opera House, Gzen92, Creative Commons