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Members’ Letter July 2024

Dear Members

You will shortly receive by post the Society’s latest issue of the Review.  You will find a wide variety of interesting subjects explored by leading art history experts on many stimulating aspects of art history: articles on Minoan wall paintings, the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Art Nouveau, one of Johan Zoffany’s Indian paintings and a history of the National Gallery from its inception to its bicentenary this year.

We hope you will also enjoy our varied programme of events on offer during autumn 2024 and that where possible you will book events as early as possible in order to ensure that the number of attendees is sufficient to cover costs, in particular for live events – if there are not enough bookings before an event it will need to be moved online or at worst cancelled.

The Byzantine Architecture course starting on 12 September will now be recorded and available to in-person participants for two weeks after each session. This will allow those who miss a session to catch up online or participants can watch again. The course will also be offered as an online only event so that members who prefer to join from home can enjoy this course at the online fee and will receive weekly recordings after each session. You can select your option when you book. We hope that this hybrid event will allow as many members as possible to enjoy this fascinating course led by Dr Cecily Hennessy. In addition we are allowing non-members to book this course now to ensure that it can run in-person. If you would like to invite anyone please contact the organiser.  This also applies to the study day on Casper David Friedrich on 18 October.

Our annual Annual General Meeting will take place on 26 November at 5pm at The Art Workers’ Guild. Further details will be available nearer the time but you may like to make a note in your diary in advance.

Below are new events we have added to the autumn programme:

In the new year we will be running two five-week online courses: High Renaissance in Rome, led by Dr Dorigen Caldwell starting on 10 January and Barbizon and the Making of Modern Landscape, led by Jo Rhymer starting on 13 February. There will be an in-person study day, God Save the King! Celebrating coronations in the Middle Ages, led by Dr Sally Dormer on 26 February. Booking is not yet open for these events but will be announced soon. In the meantime you may like to make a note of the dates.

Our 2024-25 lecture programme is as follows. Please note that the title of the April lecture differs from the one listed in the Review. The lecture now will concentrate on the Luttrell Psalter and its making and meaning. Booking is required for lectures. A joint ticket will be issued for the November lecture and AGM.

There are still places available on the following events in the autumn:

The eagle-eyed among our members may notice that the reference to Birkbeck in the Society’s logo has slightly changed. This reflects structural reorganisation at Birkbeck but it does not affect our relationship with the college’s art history resources which remains as strong as ever. The new logo will appear on all our publicity and documents in due course.

We are committed to providing the best possible experience for all our members and are always interested in your opinions and suggestions, so please email our Secretary, or write to us via our correspondence address if you have any comments about our Society.

Best wishes

Rae Richardson
Communications Coordinator