Members’ Letter August 2023
Dear Members
I hope you will enjoy our varied programme of activities on offer during autumn 2023 and the spring term 2024. An array of new events have just been added to our programme which you will find below.
The fees for our courses and study days starting from 1 January 2024 have been increased. These higher charges were unavoidable given the increased cost of central London venues for events. We believe that our events still offer excellent value for money when compared with others.
We are committed to providing the best possible experience for our members and are always interested in your opinions and suggestions. A big thank you to all of you who completed our recent Society survey – we had an excellent response with 64% of our membership taking part. Your input is really appreciated and the results will be very useful in our forward planning as we adjust to match our offerings and methods of delivery to suit as many members as possible.
Do visit our website to find full details of all our events (the What’s On tab at the top of the home page will take you to the full listing) or you can click on individual events below. Please consider booking events as soon as you can – this allows the event organisers to make sure that the number of attendees is sufficient to cover costs, in particular for live events. If there are not enough participants four weeks before a live event it will need to be moved to online via Zoom.
The first of the new season’s lectures, Sir Christopher Wren’s Architecture, will be given by Dr Steven Brindle on Monday 9 October at 5pm online via Zoom. There is no fee for lectures but booking is required. The second lecture will take place at 6pm after the AGM on Monday 20 November, 5pm at The Art Workers’ Guild. Revd Dr Ayla Lepine will deliver the lecture Sacred Art and Women’s Visions: Julia Margaret Cameron and Paula Rego as Modern Interpreters of Renaissance Art. Booking is required – a joint ticket will be issued for the AGM and lecture. The remainder of the lecture programme will be announced at the beginning of October.
New events taking place during the spring 2024 term are:
- The Supreme Court of the UK, a study visit led by a court guide on 18 January
- Ottonian Art, a five-week course led by Dr Sally Dormer starting on 24 January
- ING Art Collection, a study visit led by collection archivists on 6 February
- Picasso: prophet or profit?, a study day led by Jacqueline Cockburn on 13 February
- A Golden Age of British Portraiture? The eighteenth century, a five-week course led by Dr Prasannajit de Silva starting on 20 February
- PwC Art Collection, a study visit led by art advisers on 18 March
There are places still available for some of our events during the autumn 2023 which have already been advertised:
- Frans Hals: Transforming the Portrait, a study day led by Clare Ford-Wille on 5 October
- Fitzwilliam Museum, a study visit led by Sarah Burles on 11 October
- Nicolas Poussin: ‘Peintre Philosophe’ in the age of the Baroque, an online five-week course led by Dr Giulia Martina Weston starting on 12 October
- Istanbul: City of Faith, Power and Beauty, an online study event over two mornings led by Dr Antonia Gatward-Cevizli on 16/17 October
- Guston Now, an online study day led by Ben Street on 30 October
- The Normans in Southern Italy, an online study event over two afternoons led by John McNeill on 22/23 November
You can always email our Secretary, or write to us via our correspondence address if you have any comments about our Society.
Best wishes.
John Dunlop
Chairman