Previous Lectures We will be archiving the lectures as we go through the year, so you can look back on lectures, perhaps look at some of the links associated with them. 8th October 2026 James Smallwood The Life & Work of William Moorcroft William Moorcroft 1872 – 1945 was brought up in the back streets of Burslem, Stoke-on- Trent. He knew tragedy from an early age losing his sister when he was 8, his mother a year later and his father when he was just 12. Perhaps it was this tragic upbringing that helped develop his strength of character and resilience that saw him establish himself as the most accomplished studio potter of recent times. William trained at what was to become the Royal College of Art and could have pursued a career as an art teacher but instead chose to employ his artistic talents in the medium of pottery. He stuck faithfully to the principles of the great William Morris who stated that “nothing was worth producing if it hadn’t come from the artist’s own hands”. Whilst not unique, his skill in producing tube lined pieces with designs inspired by nature are at the very pinnacle of the potter’s art. International gold medal awards, a supplier to renowned retailers Liberty and Tiffany, a successful global export business and a Royal Appointment to Her Majesty Queen Mary in 1928 are just some of his many achievements. 10th Sept 2026 Timothy Walker Beauty in Truth - The past, present & future of botanical illustration. Many people now carry a phone with a camera capable of taking very high-quality pictures, and yet the painting of botanical specimens persists with new Florilegium Societies still being formed. Why is a drawing and painting still considered to be superior to a digital image? This talk looks at the history of botanical illustration from the early herbals 1,500 years ago to the present day, taking in the lives of both the artists and the plants immortalised in the artwork. Membership year 2025/6 Thursday 11th June 2026 Lucretia Walker 'The Powder & The Glory' Helena Rubenstein Cosmetics There are no ugly women, only lazy ones, quipped cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein, whose company made her one of the world's richest women. Business woman, art collector, and philanthropist, she was the first female millionaire. She commissioned work from avant-garde artists, Joan Miró, Picasso, Salvador Dali who was to design a powder compact for her. Her exclusive beauty salons influenced and blurred the conceptual boundaries between fashion, art galleries, and the domestic interior. Thursday 14th May 2026 Justin Reay 'Painters of Light' Caravaggio to Hockney Thursday 9th April 2026 Bertie Pearce Now you see it Now you don't. This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear. There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie Pearce takes his audience on a whistle stop tour of art which fools, surprises and amuses the viewer. Beginning and ending with the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, it encompasses Trompe L’eoil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few. Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried. Geometric Model of M.C. Escher's stellated dodecahedron. This is a model of M.C. Escher stellated dodecahedron found in his lithograph entitled 'Gravitation' that can be constructed with pentagons from a net. BPCarpenter Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Thursday 12th March 2026 Sophie Matthews Music in Art. 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 art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted. Thursday 12th February 2026 Simon Seligman Debo Mitford Cavendish - Duchess & Housewife. 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. 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. 3th 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. AGM before meeting - please be seated by 7:30 9th October 2025 Mary Harlow Shopping in Ancient Rome The October speaker is a local Historian & Lecturer. 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? 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.  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. 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.