Dr Antonia Gatward Cevizli is an independent art historian specialising in both Italian Renaissance art and Ottoman art. She gained her PhD from the University of Warwick.  Antonia has lectured for a number of institutions including Sabancı University, Istanbul; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; the National Gallery; the V&A Academy and The Courtauld summer school.

Antonia brings us face to face with a variety of Venetian personages including Doges, Government Officials, Merchants and Courtesans. Her talk explores major developments in the genre of portraiture, taking in the work of artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Titian and Tintoretto.

Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography, exhibiting most recently at the Royal Academy Summer show in 2025.  He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. Brian is a former member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography.

 Whenever a radical building appears, someone, somewhere, insists: “Christopher Wren would be turning in his grave.”  That barb was certainly endured by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, who embraced modernism, building in steel, glass and concrete, while Wren designed in the classical style, using timber and stone.  But when Rogers was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the citation observed that he was “the rightful heir to the traditions of Wren”. And the same might very well be said of Foster.

Jacqueline Hyman gained her textile conservation experience with The Museums' Service. She established a freelance studio in 1982 and is listed in ICON's Conservation Register. She is an accredited Conservator-Restorer and has appeared on Channel 4, BBC 2 and the Discovery Channel.

Bolton’s connection to Egypt dates back to the 1860s when local cotton manufacturers began trading with cotton merchants in Alexandria.  Annie Barlow, a mill owner’s daughter, had a chance meeting with Flinders Petrie whilst he was excavating in the Nile Delta, resulting in her becoming the Honorary Secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund/Society in the North West.  She collected local subscriptions for the benefit of Bolton Museum which today houses the most important and unique collection of Egyptian textile artefacts in the UK.

Kirsty Hartsiotis was the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham from 2008 to 2023. She is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, where she also worked prior to 2008.  At Cheltenham she looked after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection, which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library. She’s curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts and Private Press Movements, including Crafting Change and Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination & Making.  Her most recent exhibition is A Very British Art Revolution at Swindon, and she's currently working on a touring exhibition about British studio pottery.  She’s currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West.  She’s also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories.

 The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of Britain’s most radical and far-reaching art movements.  It was not just about making art and craft, but how and where you lived and how you spent your time.  Many Arts and Crafts makers moved to the countryside to go Back to the Land and live a Simple Life – buzzwords of the 1890s and 1900s!  Part of the ethos of the movement was the revival of forgotten crafts, and for many makers, this also meant reviving forgotten customs and festivities to build a sense of community in the places they lived.  Arts and Crafts designers sought out wassails, and mummers plays, and carolling customs amongst others and reinstated them in the communities.

Christopher Budd is a writer, teacher, and musician, with a specialism in music for film.  His research interests range from silent cinema to electronic music via Hollywood from the studio system to the experimental ’70s, and British and European film and music of the 1960s and 70s, as well as special effects, movie posters, and fashion on film.

 Movie posters have helped us decide how to spend our hard-earned cinema money for over a century, from the art deco attractions of Metropolis, though the widescreen promises of the mid-century, all the way to the formulaic multiplex offerings of today.  Some are timeless works of art, some are downright deceptive, some are startlingly original.  And today, some change hands for half a million pounds.

Having grown up wanting to be an architect, Simon studied art and architectural history at Warwick University, which included a compulsory term living in Venice, an experience of cultural immersion from which he is still recovering!  For 19 years until 2010, he worked at the great treasure house of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, in a variety of roles, starting with a summer job and ending as Head of Communications.  During that time, he lectured extensively about Chatsworth, its collections and associated topics, throughout the UK and USA, and he continues to lecture on a range of cultural topics.

 A chronological history of the outstanding and diverse Devonshire collection told through the interests, characters and tastes of its collectors over 16 generations, from Elizabethan beginnings to the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and their family.  Each generation has left its mark on the collections, whether as connoisseurs, passionate and enthusiastic patrons and acquirers, fortuitous marriage, or the occasional benign indifference, and it is fascinating to see how these diverse personalities, linked only by family, have contributed to what is now considered one of the finest surviving family collections in Europe.

Sandy Burnett is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing.  After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3.  He is also a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

 The 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's death in March 1827 is a great time to reassess the legacy of this great composer.  Born into a family of court musicians in Bonn, Beethoven became one of the greatest and most disruptive figures in the history of classical music; by the time he died in Vienna he had completely transformed music's cultural landscape.  This talk presents an overview of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer.  Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio.

Dr Christina Faraday FSA FRHistS is a historian of art and ideas, specialising in Tudor and Stuart Britain and the wider 16th and 17th-century world.  She is an Affiliated Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Cambridge, a Trustee of the Walpole Society for British art history, and a BBC New Generation Thinker, appearing regularly on BBC Radio 3 and in other popular media.  She is the host of British Art Matters podcast, and from 2020-2025 she was a Research Fellow in History of Art at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.  She is an experienced lecturer, teaching for the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge, The Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, London, and for Professional and Continuing Education at Cambridge, where she is Co-Director of the MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture.

 Few people nowadays give more than a second thought to their clocks: practical, sometimes beautiful, devices that form the background noise of our daily lives. But from their introduction in the thirteenth century onwards, clocks have held a variety of philosophical and social meanings.  This talk explores the visual and literary uses of the clock, the varied meanings it could hold throughout the ages: as an ominous symbol of oncoming death, but also as a metaphor for the soul, for capitalism, and for the good use of time.

Jane Choy-Thurlow is a docent and enjoys giving lectures and tours at the Mauritshuis, Prince William V gallery and Huygens Museum Hofwijck in The Hague, The Netherlands.  A few of the many exhibits in the Mauritshuis she has been part of are: the legendary Johannes Vermeer exhibit, Rembrandt by Himself and Holbein, Portraitist of the Renaissance.  She received her BSc from Salem State University, USA, her MEd from Trinity College Dublin and continued art history studies at Leiden University. In 2018 she was given the honour of Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau by the Dutch King Willem Alexander of Orange for her knowledge and work in the field of the Arts especially 15th to 17th century Dutch and Flemish art.

 The mysterious but enchanting Johannes Vermeer fascinates everyone.  The poetry of Vermeer’s paintings is immediate and recognizable, yet almost impossible to describe and explain.  What is it that holds the viewer before a beautiful young girl in a exotic turban, a woman replying to a discarded letter, or a couple at an intimate music lesson, It is not the narrative, for there is hardly any, but something more universal.  In Vermeer’s hands, the stillness of a quiet street scene, a woman’s concentration on lacemaking, or the soft light that gently illuminates a scholar in his study become at once heightened and familiar, reminding us of fleeting moments in our own lives.

Rupert Willoughby is a writer, researcher, lecturer, Latin-whisperer and impresario of ancient Greeks, with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past.  He is a graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the ‘Byzantine’, or medieval Greek Empire).  He is the author of a series of popular histories of places, including the whimsical, yet scholarly Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture.

 Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.  In this lively introduction to the tapestry – so much more than the story of Hastings – Rupert unravels some of its mysteries, places it in the context of its age and firmly establishes it as a landmark in the history of Western art.

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq, and is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star.  Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, he has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard.

 This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear.  There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie 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.

With over 35 years in the diamond industry, diamond expert Laurie Wickwire represents the industry across all sectors: mining, sorting, grading and  brokering some of the world’s key rough stones.  A leader in the industry, Laurie is the On-Air Diamond Expert for the international television shopping channel QVC where her opinion is regularly sought by over a million viewers each week.  A graduate of GIA London, IGI Antwerp, and DeBeers Institute of Diamonds, Laurie is both a certified diamond grader and certified pearl grader.  Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business & Finance, and a Bachelor of Arts in French.  Laurie’s industry knowledge has included creating bespoke commissions for the Royal Family.

 Simply the word "Faberge'" conjures up images of jewelled art linked to Russian Royalty.  This talk explores the relationship between a ruler and a jeweller - The rulers- Romanov Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, and the jeweller- Carl Faberge'.  The Imperial Faberge' Eggs were delivered every Good Friday to the WInter Palace, for Russia's Tsars to give as Easter presents to their Tsarina's.  The talented House of Faberge' became the sought after jeweller to the "Glitterati" of the time.

James Campbell has a BA in History and an MA in the History of Art and a particular interest in the work of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist E H Shepard (1879-1976).  He has been a Trustee of the E H Shepard Estate since 2010, as was involved in the ground-breaking Victoria and Albert Museum 2017 Exhibition marking the 90th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh.  His books Shepard’s War and The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh were published in 2015 and 2017 respectively.  His new joint biography of A A Milne and E H Shepard - The Men Who Created Winne-the-Pooh: The Lives of A A Milne and E H Shepard - commissioned for the centenary of the Winnie-the-Pooh books was published in September 2025. 

 2024 - 2028 marks one hundred years since Winnie-the-Pooh was introduced to children of all ages in the four iconic books created by A A Milne and E H Shepard.  First seen in When We Were Very Young (1924), Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood had their own adventures in Winnie-The-Pooh (1926), with Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), giving us more wonderful poems and stories which include the introduction of both Tigger, Kanga-and-Roo and Poohsticks.  This lecture tells the story of how these much loved books were created by the genius of Milne and Shepard’s groundbreaking collaboration and why they remain embedded in our national identity.