Three lectures with a light lunch. £35.00.  Please contact Roger Dines or Jane Balmford.

Frida Kahlo by Chloe Sayer

Lecture 1: Frida Kahlo: Her life 

The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is regarded as one of the great artists of the 20th century. The daughter of a German photographer and a Mexican mother, she survived polio at the age of six and a devastating road accident at the age of eighteen. Her injuries would lead, after many surgical interventions, to her death at the age of forty-seven. But Kahlo lived the intervening years to the full.

Lecture 2: Frida Kahlo: Her paintings

In haunting self-portraits, Kahlo explored her dreams, desires and fears. We will also look in detail at her other work, and the key themes that inspired her. In 1929, she married the celebrated Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Kahlo, Rivera and their circle were inspired by pre-Columbian art, contemporary indigenous cultures, and the socialist ideals of the Mexican Revolution.

Lecture 3: Frida Kahlo: Her legacy 

During her lifetime, Kahlo sold very few paintings. Today, however, she has cult status. Her 'look' inspires countless fashion designers. The Blue House, where she lived and died in Mexico City, attracts over 25,000 visitors each month. She is admired by feminists for her independence of spirit, and by the disabled for her courage in the face of adversity. Contemporary artists, including Tracey Emin, continue to celebrate her legacy.

Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. Has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture. Her many publications include Mexican Textiles (British Museum Press, 1990), Arts and Crafts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1990), Focus on Aztecs and Incas  (Watts Books, 1995), The Incas - The Ancient World (Wayland, 1998), Textiles from Mexico (British Museum Press, 2002), and Mexico: Clothing and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 2015). Has also published articles in travel guides, newspapers and magazines.

THE HISTORY OF OPERA/THE HISTORY OF MUSICAL/MISS SAIGON: THE MAKING OF A MUSICAL

With Jamie Hayes

A DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST – MONDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2025

Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA

Bookings £40 per person

PROGRAMME

10.00​​​ Registration and Coffee

10.30​​​ Lecture 1

11.30​​​ Comfort Break

11.45​​​ Lecture 2

12.45 – 13.30​​ Lunch

13.30​​​ Lecture 3

Jamie trained at RADA and then worked for Kent Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the RSC, the BBC and English National Opera. He has directed many new productions for leading UK festivalsand our most distinguished musical conservatoires. His new opera productions overseas have appeared as far away as Reykjavik, Malta and Melbourne. Jamies was Associate Director on the original production of the hit musical Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway.

For more information and to make a booking please contact Megan Bashir: 

E-MAIL meganbashir@gmail.com  Mobile: 07976 602166

            STUDY DAY

                                Tuesday 28th October 2025

 New Windmill Hall, St. Mary’s Lane, Upminster RM14 2QH

10.00 for 10.30 to 15.00​

   Three lectures, coffee and light lunch £35.00​

                                            PAUL CEZANNE

1- Who was Paul Cézanne? Where did he come from, and where did he live; his training and early years with the other young rebels of the Impressionist group; his wife and son, his social circle. All of this illustrated by his paintings, paintings of fellow painters, drawings, and photographs

2- Cézanne, "the pure painter". What did Cézanne paint and how? His creative process in his mature period. In this part, there is a lot of high-quality details taken from his paintings so as to get close to his working process. 
 

3- The "father of modern art".. Cézanne's relationship to the art world: from reject to idol. His influence on a younger generation of painters such as Matisse, Braque and Picasso was essential. 

Dr Caroline Levisse is an art historian based in London. She was born in France where she studied art history before moving to Copenhagen. In Denmark, she focused on research work and completed a PhD on the relations between art and religion in contemporary Scandinavian art. After graduating in 2013, she moved to London and started teaching art history with adult education providers. She has since developed a range of courses focusing on 19th and early 20th century Western art. She has published articles in French and English in academic journals as well as magazines and newspapers, such as Church Times and Arts sacré

 New Windmill Hall, St. Mary’s Lane, Upminster RM14 2QH

10.00 for 10.30 to 15.00  

Three lectures, coffee and light lunch £35.00     

 EVERYTHING PAINTERS KNOW ABOUT COLOUR

Lecture One: Pigments and Paint Media

Paint is pigment suspended in a fluid medium. Pigment is the colour-containing part of paint specially prepared to give a consistent hue. However, many pigments appear different in oil as opposed to an acrylic or watercolour medium. Mastery of colour therefore requires a painter to understand how pigments and media work together. The first lecture looks in depth at the most important pigments and paint media used by painters from Antiquity to the present day.

Lecture Two: Colour Theory

All artists and designers learn colour theory at art school, but painters have a specialised knowledge of colour derived from working with pigments and paint media. Painters know there are six primary colours, not just the three we are familiar with from the traditional ‘colour wheel’: green, cyan and magenta are needed along with red, yellow and blue to produce a full chromatic range or gamut. The second lecture focuses on the uses and limitations of several well-known colour theories.

Lecture Three: Colour Practice

Working with pigments deepens a painter’s admiration for the great colourists of the past: the third lecture presents a painter’s view of several famous artworks from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century. We will focus of the material qualities of each painting and discover how colour has been used to generate optical and emotional effects. The paintings discussed include: Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, Het Steen by Rubens, Whistlejacket by George Stubbs, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Homage to the Square by Josef Albers.

Steven has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, Liverpool School of Art; MA in History of Art, Birkbeck College, London. Lecturer at the National Gallery since 2004. Has lectured on the history of European art and architecture at Somerset House, taught courses on art and architecture at London colleges (The City Literary Institute and Bishopsgate Institute) and is a regular gallery and museum guide for U3A. Steven is also a painter.

AN ESSEX AREA DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST MONDAY 18 November 2024

Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA

Cost £40 per person

PROGRAMME

• 10.00     Registration & Coffee
• 10.30     Lecture 1
• 11.30     Break
• 11.45     Lecture 2
• 12.45 -13.30  Lunch  
• 13.30     Lecture 3

2024 marks the bicentenary of the founding of the National Gallery. Following increasing public pressure, Lord Liverpool’s government purchased 38 paintings from John Julius Angerstein in 1824 and the National Gallery was born. Initially the collection was displayed at his town house, 100 Pall Mall, until being relocated to the purpose built gallery on Trafalgar Square designed by William Wilkins.

Please address enquiries and to book a place to:  

Mrs Megan Bashir, Kumra Lodge, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood CM15 0JX. TEL: 01277 374314

Email: meganbashir@gmail.com

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841 - 1919

The Umbrellas, made 1881 - 1886

Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917

© The National Gallery, London

THE WORLD’S GREATEST PAINTINGS: 200 YEARS OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY

2024 marks the bicentenary of the founding of the National Gallery. This Study Day tells the story of the establishment of the NG collection beginning in 1824 when Lord Liverpool’s government purchased 38 paintings for £57,000 from the businessman and philanthropist John Julius Angerstein. The paintings were initially displayed at 100 Pall Mall, Angerstein’s town house but by 1838 it was decided that a purpose built building was required, giving us the William Wilkins designed building on Trafalgar Square.

LECTURE ONE

1824 – 1838

In 1824, following increasing public pressure, Lord Liverpool’s government bought 38 Old Master paintings from the collection of John Julius Angerstein and thus the National Gallery was born. In this first lecture, we examine some of the “Angerstein 38” (including a fearsome Pope along with paintings bequeathed by Sir George Beaumont) and discover where the paintings were displayed before they found a purpose built home in Trafalgar Square.

LECTURE TWO

1838 – 1914

Now in its new location, pressure builds to create a ‘survey’ collection telling a much wider story of Western European art. We meet the first Director, Sir Charles Eastlake and some of his often controversial acquisitions (including the oldest painting in the collection). We tell the story of the Art Fund and how it saved numerous works, including a Velazquez Venus that was the focus of one of the National Gallery’s most infamous security breaches!

LECTURE THREE

1914 – Today

The final lecture sees the National Gallery under attack in two World Wars, leading to the creation of the ‘Picture of the Month’. We discuss the danger posed to a Duchess, a Duke that was the subject of the only successful theft in the gallery’s history! We conclude with the much derided design of the Sainsbury Wing expansion of the gallery, and look ahead to the next chapter in the story of the gallery’s extraordinary history.                                     

                  STUDY DAY 22ND OCTOBER 2024 WITH GAIL TURNER

NEW WINDMILL HALL, ST. MARY’S LANE, UPMINSTER RM14 2QH

                                         at 10.00 FOR 10.30

                       £35.00 including coffee and light lunch

Cities of Castile – a taste of history and art in Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, and Madrid  

 Gail Turner will take us on a journey through central Spain.  We will be travelling from pre-history to the Romans, looking at the effects of the Christian re-conquest of Castile from the Moors, and glimpsing some of the masterpieces in the great Spanish art collections. The history, art, architecture and personalities of these four very different cities should appeal to everyone.

 Lecture One:

A brief introduction to Spanish history: Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Christian re-conquest, before travelling to Toledo with its Moorish and Jewish remains, and its impressive Cathedral and the Gothic church of San Juan de los Reyes, intended as a funerary chapel for the great unifiers of Christian Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella.  Toledo was the adopted home of El Greco, and many of his best-known paintings are in its museums and churches.

 Lecture Two:

 Segovia has so much variety with a Roman aqueduct, a wealth of Romanesque churches, a fairy-tale medieval castle and a great Gothic cathedral. Salamanca on the other hand has two cathedrals, a great medieval university, elegant Renaissance buildings and a wealth of skilled “plateresque” decorations. En route for Madrid we will briefly glimpse the palaces of El Escorial and San Ildefonso de la Granja.

 Lecture Three:

 Madrid, once a Moorish outpost and today a stimulating elegant city, has its key Habsburg and Bourbon architectural landmarks such as the Plaza Mayor, the convent of the Descalzas Reales, the Royal Palace and the church of San Antonio de la Florida with its Goya frescoes. The city is rich in world famous art museums - the Prado, the Thyssen, the Academy of San Fernando, the Reina Sofia, the new Patrimonio Nacional museum and the Sorolla Museum.  We will have a taste of paintings by the great Spanish artists El Greco, Velazquez, Zurbaran, Murillo – as well as Goya’s ‘Third of May’ and Picasso’s ‘Guernica’. 

A day of great variety which should excite Hispanophiles!

ITALY AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD

With Dr Antonia Gatward Cevizli

AN ESSEX AREA DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST MONDAY 22 April 2024

Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA

Cost £38 per person

PROGRAMME

10.00

Registration & Coffee

10.30    

Lecture 1

11.30    

Break

11.45    

Lecture 2

12.45 -13.30

Lunch

13.30 -14.30

Lecture 3

Over the course of three one hour lectures we will explore the interaction between Italian cities and the Islamic World: a story of taste and status, international trade and diplomacy between the 14th – 17th Centuries, and a shared appreciation of the complex beauty of Islamic Art.

Please address enquiries and to book a place to:  

Mrs Megan Bashir, Kumra Lodge, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood CM15 0JX. TEL: 01277 374314

Email: meganbashir@gmail.com

Gentile Bellini, active about 1460; died 1507

The Sultan Mehmet II, 1480

Layard Bequest, 1916

©The National Gallery, London

Cost of day - £35 including light lunch and refreshments. Time - 10.00 FOR 10.30 TO 15.00

This day of special interest is an opportunity to explore Petra and Palmyra, two of the most fascinating ancient sites in the Middle East, and also to meet some of the intrepid travellers who 'rediscovered' these fabled cities and brought them to the attention of the Western world.  Petra, hidden away in the mountains south of the Dead Sea, was the capital of the enigmatic Nabateans, wealthy traders who carved impressive monuments from the multi-coloured sandstone of their desert stronghold and embellished the city with water courses and gardens.  Palmyra, in the Syrian desert, was capital of the infamous Queen Zenobia who controlled a virtual caravan empire and dared to challenge the might of Rome.  Today colonnaded streets, temples, tombs, theatres and villas bear witness to the elegance and wealth of these once powerful desert emporia.

Session 1: The rediscovery of Petra and Palmyra: Early Travellers

 During our first lecture we follow in the footsteps of some of the early European travellers to the Middle East and chart the rediscovery of the ancient desert cities of Petra and Palmyra.  Palmyra was first introduced to the western world in the late 17th century by merchants from the English 'factory' established at Aleppo, then an important commercial centre in Ottoman Syria.  Petra was not rediscovered until over 100 years later, in 1812, by the Swiss explorer Jean Louis Burckhardt, whose journey was funded by Sir Joseph Banks.

Session 2: Petra and the Nabateans

 In this lecture we trace the history of the Nabateans, desert dwellers of Arabian origin, who grew fabulously rich on the trade in incense and aromatics and established their capital city at Petra.  There they built their palaces, villas and temples and carved their spectacular tombs and there they worshipped their gods from remote and beautiful 'high places' in the mountains.

Session 3: The Rise and Fall of Palmyra

 From Petra we travel north to the ruins of the oasis city of Palmyra, once a grand trading emporium which lies midway between the River Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea.  The Palmyrenes used their legendary wealth to create one of the loveliest cities in the Graeco-Roman Orient, with elegant temples to their ancient gods, villas decorated with fine mosaics and a magnificent colonnaded avenue.

Sue Rollin works as a tour guide and lecturer in India and the Middle East, and as a freelance interpreter for the European Union, United Nations and other international organisations. Formerly staff interpreter at the European Commission, Brussels, and tutor and lecturer in Assyriology and Ancient History at the Universities of London and Cambridge. Has worked as an archaeologist. Publications: Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Traveller's Guide.

READING LIST

 Warwick Ball                 Rome in the East  (Routledge, London 2000)

G.W. Bowersock            Roman Arabia  (Harvard University Press 1995)

Iain Browning                Palmyra (Chatto & Windus 1979)

Iain Browning                Petra  (Chatto & Windus 1989)

John Lewis Burckhardt  Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (1822, Darf reprint 1992)

Kevin Butcher                Roman Syria and the Near East  (BM Press 2003)

Glenn Marcoe (ed)         Petra Rediscovered (Thames & Hudson 2003)

James Mather                 Pashas: Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World

                                       (Yale University Press, 2009)

Judith McKenzie            The Architecture of Petra  (OUP 1990)

Fergus Millar                 The Roman Near East 31BC-AD337  

                                      (Harvard University Press 1993)

Richard Stoneman          Palmyra and its Empire: Zenobia’s Revolt against Rome 

                                       (University of Michigan Press 1993)

Cost of day - £35 including light lunch and refreshments. Time - 10.00 FOR 10.30 TO 15.00

Morning Session ‘The Golden Age of Song’  

Two pioneering composers of popular song Richard Rogers and Hoagy Carmichael  

A tribute to the lives, words and music of two men who made a unique contribution to the Great American Songbook during the first half of the last century. Come and enjoy their beautiful songs – as fresh and inspiring today as they were when they were first written – and hear about the lives of these musical geniuses who cast their spell on us all. 

 Lavishly accompanied with slides and videos of their lives and music, with performances by some of the greatest artists of all time – and occasional illustrations on the piano. Richard Rogers songs featured include: “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, “My Funny Valentine”, “Blue Moon”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “The Sound of Music”, “Oklahoma”, “Some Enchanted Evening”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, “Do I Love You” “Hello Young Lovers” Hoagy Carmichael songs featured include: “Lazy River”, “Heart and Soul”, :Rockin’ Chair”, ‘Stardust”, “Skylark”, “The Nearness of You”, I Get Along Without You Very Well”, “Two Sleepy People”, “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”, “Lazybones”, “Georgia On My Mind”  

Afternoon Session ‘Swinging into the Sixties’  

The 60’s was a time a time when popular music was in a state of great flux – ‘rock and roll’ had arrived, putting the big bands out of business and with no intention of going away!  

During that time Pip worked as a keyboard player with bandleaders like Sydney Lipton, Joe Loss, Ken Mackintosh and Claude Cavalotti, as well as performing his fair share of rock ’n roll including - even - a concert with the Beatles.  

In this talk Pip takes an often irreverent view of this crazy time and some of the people he met and worked with 

About Pip... Pip Burley began his career as a musician playing with the big bands in the 60’s and 70’s, including Sydney Lipton, Joe Loss and Ken Mackintosh. He went on to compose and record music for commercials, theatre, film and television and, in 1990, won an Ivor Novello Award for best television theme music for The Darling Buds of May- a series he also produced, discovering Catherine Zeta-Jones in the process. His other successes on TV include one of the most watched police series of all time - A Touch of Frost created for and starring David Jason. 

Cost of day - £35 including light lunch and refreshments. Time - 10.00 FOR 10.30 TO 15.00

Lecture 1: Tapestry: the ultimate wall decoration

Tapestries were the most expensive wall decorations in the Middle Ages and beyond. Often commissioned in sets, taking years to produce, they graced some of the most significant courts of Europe from the 15th century to the 21st. This lecture will explore the making of tapestries and some landmark sets including those of the House of Burgundy, Pope Leo X and Henry VIII all made by the weavers of Flanders and those of Louis XIV and the current Queen of Denmark made by the weavers of the Gobelins factory in Paris. It will explore the changing approaches and some of the stories translated into tapestry.

Lecture 2: Every colour under the sun

This lecture looks at how textile colours developed in the 20th century. It is the story of everything from khaki to the little black dress and from day glo to colours which respond to the sun or the rain. We will look at the transformation of colour in clothing, in interiors and in the corporate world and also discover which is the most commercially challenging colour and which is the colour most commonly worn today and why.

Lecture 3: History of Embroidery

This is a whirlwind tour through some of the types and roles of embroidery from adorning royalty to the church and from military use to fashion taking us from Aristotle to the current time and from many countries of the world including India, Turkey, China, Japan and Western Europe..

Susan Kay-Williams is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience and has been invited to lecture in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Taiwan as well as for the V&A and across the UK. 

AREA STUDY DAY:  WE THREE KINGS

History, traditions, art and music inspired by the Magi

Please  click here for cost and further booking information.

SYNOPSIS

Session 1

The Bible gives us very little information about The Three Kings (The Magi) who came from the East bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for Christ at his birth. However, there is no shortage of legends, music, poetry and art inspired by the famous triumvirate. This first session explores the story of Christ’s mysterious gift bringers and considers the impact that they have had on the culture of later generations.

Session 2

In modern times the feast day of The Kings on 6th January is rarely celebrated. However, in the past it was said to be the most looked forward to moment of the Christmas jollifications, ‘it is a finish worthy of the time Christmas Day was the morning of the season, New Year’s Day the middle of it, or noon; Twelfth Night is the night, brilliant with innumerable planets of Twelfth-cakes’ – wrote Leigh Hunt in 1835. This lecture takes a look at the customs and traditions associated with Twelfth Night.

Session 3

The afternoon session is devoted to music that has been inspired by the Magi, and the repertoire to be explored includes: Epiphany hymns, The Three Kings by Peter Cornelius, The Oratorio Christus by Felix Mendelssohn, Christmas Oratorio by JS Bach, and Die heiligen drei Konige by Richard Strauss. 

Price £35 includes 3lectures for day, light lunch and tea/coffee

Tickets available in September and October lectures in hall or by contacting us via email info@tashavering.org.uk

The words ‘Russian’ and ‘Revolution’ are often thrown together and yet the region most impacted by the rise of Bolshevism was Central Asia. Within a few decades the traditional Muslim way of life was utterly transformed in this region, impacting architecture, clothing, language and culture. In this Special Interest day, we’ll explore the vast Russian Empire through the lens of colour-photography pioneer, Prokudin Gorsky. We’ll then examine the incredible treasure trove of banned works of Avante Garde art collected by Igor Savitsky, many of the paintings capturing this turbulent time of transition. We’ll finish the day with an exploration of common Soviet themes and propaganda found in public Central Asian art from the period.

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey (hence the name Aslan) and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge, and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent three years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came two years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Since then, Chris has studied and rowed at Oxford, and is now based in Cambridge and focussed on writing fiction, including Alabaster, Manacle and Mosaic, and The Broken Hexapus. He is currently working on a new book on the Silk Road that marries travel and textiles, and lectures for The Art Society. He also leads tours to Central Asia, returning whenever he can having left a large chunk of his heart out there. 

10.00 for 10.30 at the New Windmill Hall, Upminster

SPLENDOURS OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU - 3 lectures, lunch and coffees.

Ancient burial grounds in Mexico and Peru have yielded up dazzling goldwork, fine ceramic vessels, and some of the richest textiles in the world. Before the Spanish Conquest of 1519, numerous civilisations rose and fell. The Olmecs, the Maya, the Mixtecs, the Zapotecs and the warlike Aztecs all forged their own unique and splendid art styles on Mexican soil. In Peru, the Incas developed one of the greatest planned societies that the world has known. Today the descendants of these once-great peoples carry on many ancient traditions. Chloë Sayer will display contemporary textiles and other items from her collection. 

1 Ancient Mexico and the Aztecs

Few countries in the world offer such a rich and varied cultural heritage as Mexico. Before the Spanish Conquest of 1519, numerous civilisations rose and fell. The Aztecs flourished between 1325 and 1521, when they surrendered to invading Spanish forces. Although they are often described as warlike and bloodthirsty, their achievements were breathtaking. Aztec creativity found expression in miniature gold objects, fine ceramics, monumental stone sculpture, exquisite turquoise mosaics, featherwork, and pictorial manuscripts. As a late civilisation, the Aztecs were able to benefit from earlier advances made by the Olmecs, and by the founders to Teotihuacan and Tula.

2 The Maya Heritage

Mesoamerica, or Middle America, is a cultural area that includes Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and large areas of Mexico. Here the civilisation of the ancient Maya reached its peak between AD 300-900. Dozens of great cities have been located, many still buried in remote parts of the jungle. Maya achievements in art and architecture were matched by a knowledge of maths, astrology, calendrics and hieroglyphic writing. Intricately carved stone panels, ceramic figurines, and splendid mural paintings provide an insight into the religious rituals, music, warfare, textiles and courtly life of the Maya. Contemporary Maya textiles are among the finest in the Americas.

3 Peru: The Incas and their Predecessors

The Incas developed one of the greatest planned societies that the world has known. Their vast South American empire was achieved after AD 1200 through human mastery over almost incredible global extremes. At its heart lay the precipitous spine of the Andes, the world’s second highest mountain chain after the Himalayas. Inca engineers and stonemasons created magnificent cities like Cuzco, their imperial capital, and Machu Picchu.

Because the Incas were the last in a dizzying succession of cultures, they were able to take on the mantle of earlier civilisations. The Moche were great ceramic artists, whereas the Chimú dominated gold- and silver-working techniques. Burial grounds at Paracas, on the southern coast of Peru, have yielded up rich textile finds. Sumptuous garments, preserved by the desert for well over 2,000 years, display embroidered designs that include mythological creatures, animals and geometric patterning.

Today, at the start of the 21st century, textiles are still a vital part of many people’s lives. The modern Quechua carry on the textile traditions of their ancestors, giving Peru the longest continuous textile record in the world.

Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. Has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture. Her many publications include Mexican Textiles (British Museum Press, 1990), Arts and Crafts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1990), Focus on Aztecs and Incas  (Watts Books, 1995), The Incas - The Ancient World (Wayland, 1998), Textiles from Mexico (British Museum Press, 2002), and Mexico: Clothing and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 2015). Has also published articles in travel guides, newspapers and magazines.  

The Marquesses of Bute: Patrons of Opulence  

An Area Study Day on Zoom with Mathew Williams   

Monday 22nd November 2021  

Fee: £12.50 per device 

The Marquesses of Bute are an ancient Scots family, whose traditional desire for privacy has made their legacy one of the great secrets of Britain’s heritage. Their ‘stately homes’ in Scotland, England and Wales include Cardiff Castle, Mount Stuart, as well as Dumfries House, the Scottish base of HRH The Prince of Wales. 

The Butes made a vast fortune from the Victorian coal industry, but chose to spend it on the restoration and re-building of their inheritance, creating some of the most spectacular and sometimes quirky interiors of the C19th.  

During the three lectures that make up this study day, Mathew, recently retired Curator of Cardiff Castle, will introduce the Bute family and take us through three centuries of artistic patronage and the architects and craftsmen who delight and amuse.  

Registration From 10.10 

Lecture 1 10.30 – 11.30 

Lecture 2 11.50 – 12.50 

Lunch Break 

Lecture 3 1.30 – 2.30 

For more information and to book a place please contact Megan Bashir 

meganbashir@gmail.com Tel: 01277 374 314  

STUDY DAY - WEDNESDAY 27TH OCTOBER 2021

            THE ART OF POLITICS

                               by

         Dr. CAROLINE SHENTON

Please notify Roger Dines if you would like to attend. Cost to Members is £30.00 to include lunch (and two coffees !).  £20.00 for Zoom. Non-members also welcome - please contact info@tashhavering.org.uk.  

The lectures are:

JMW TURNER AND THE DAY PARLIAMENT BURNED DOWN

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it.  Based on the acclaimed book of the same name, this talk takes the audience through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire with a particular focus on the oils and watercolours produced by Turner.

MR BARRY’S WAR: REBUILDING THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

A highly topical lecture, given the current arguments about the multi-billion pound restoration planned for Westminster! The Houses of Parliament is one of the most famous and staggering buildings in the world. Its rises serenely from the Thames at Westminster, on a site which has been the centre of power and government in England from the earliest times. It is a masterpiece of Victorian architecture and a spectacular feat of civil engineering: but from the beginning, its design and construction were a battleground for its architect, Charles Barry. The practical challenges, even by the standards of Victorian invention, were immense Battling the interference of MPs and royalty, coaxing and soothing the genius of his partner Pugin, fending off the mad schemes of a host of crackpot inventors and busybodies, and coming in three times over budget and twenty-four years behind schedule, this lecture will tell the story of how Charles Barry created the most famous building in Britain.

PACKING UP THE NATION

This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety. Utilising country houses from Buckinghamshire to Cumbria, tube tunnels, Welsh mines and Wiltshire quarries, a dedicated team of unlikely heroes packed up their greatest treasures in a race against time during the sweltering summer of 1939, dispatching them throughout the country on a series of secret wartime adventures, retold in this talk.

STUDY DAY TUESDAY 27TH APRIL 2021

This study day will consist of two lectures on Zoom. The first from 11am to 12pm and then the second for an hour at 1pm to allow members to have a lunch break. The breakout rooms will be open to allow members to socialise during this period.

COST : £12

If you would like to join please contact Roger Dines  rogeralandines@gmail.com

Can We Trust the Experts - conservation and forgery?

If we could take a busload of artists from the past into a museum today, they might be far from pleased with the pictures attributed to them.  Many paintings would be transformed by age and bad restoration in the past.  A few might even be forgeries.  In this study day we discover what a minefield these questions of condition and forgery are, even for experts.

The Secret Surface - how time and earlier restorations transform the appearance of pictures.

We go on a voyage of discovery down through the surface of paintings, learning layer by layer the transformations wrought by time, to colours and materials; then we come back through the layers from canvas to surface, finding out the even more dramatic damage done by conservators’ attempts to repair the effects of ageing.  It’s a minefield even for museums.  There have been 250 years of  scandals in the past about conservation campaigns in major museums.  Today’s conservators still often disagree passionately about what to do when old damage is revealed by new conservation, sometimes on national lines.

Fine Art Forgery - craftsmanship or confidence trick?

What we see can be affected by what we expect or want to see, and every expert, curator, dealer or collector longs to make a coup, with the discovery that others have missed.  That opens the door to the forger, because the more we know, the more our knowledge can bolster false perceptions.  Not surprisingly, many forgery scandals turn out to have involved trickery in the way the forgeries were presented as much as masterful technical imitation.  But some forgers really are brilliant artists, and if so, are they as good as the great masters they imitate?  En route through the minefield, we meet a colourful cast from Han van Meegeren to Pasquale Frongia.  Who?  He’s alleged to be the forger behind the very latest major scandal to erupt, only to be put on hold by the virus, but involving some of the most deceptive forgeries ever seen.    

STUDY DAY

TUESDAY 5TH NOVEMBER

 2019

AT NEW WINDMILL HALL, UPMINSTER

10 TO 15.00

WITH SANDY BURNETT

CLASSICAL MUSIC CRASH COURSE

          This course covers three hundred years of great classical music, from the first  opera still to be performed today, Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607), through to the work that perhaps more than any other signalled the start of modernism, the ballet The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (1913). Progressing through the, Classical and Romantic eras, Sandy discusses what role music played in each, and illustrates how composers went about the process of shaping their works. A  glossary of key terms and list of essential elements of each era is provided, along with a playlist with details of the musical illustrations used.

Sandy 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 Burnett spent a decade as one  of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. Combining engaging scholarship with hands-on expertise, he devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is 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.

Where did mixer taps and fitted kitchens come from? Angle-poise lamps and  strip lighting?   The answer is The Bauhaus. This is the story of Germany's most      famous design school, bitterly attacked in its day during 1920s, but one which has had a profound effect on modern buildings and their interiors ever since.

The Bauhaus (translated literally as 'Building House') was founded in 1919.It was closed in 1933 on the orders of the Nationalist government. Its teaching promoted Modernism and, despite its short life, the school became one of the most influential sources of modern design. Leading modern painters from across Europe were attracted to teach at the Bauhaus, and with practical instruction from local craftsman too, the students received a thorough grounding in form and colour theory as well as the use of materials. The result of this in-depth teaching was the development of such iconic designs as tubular steel furniture, strip lighting and fitted kitchens, which we now take for granted yet which at the time, in the 1920s, were at the cutting-edge of design. In the years following the school’s forced closure, many of the teachers and students involved either fled abroad or were exiled. The result is that the Bauhaus has had a worldwide impact on art, architecture and design trends ever since.

TIME 10.00-15.00

Part 1 – The Beginnings

Starting with its inception 250 years ago, we will trace the beginnings of the Royal  Academy, the key figures involved and the reasons for setting up the institution.  We  will follow it from its initial temporary home to purpose-built premises at Somerset House, designed by its first Treasurer, Sir William Chambers, and some of the contributions made by founding members to the art works in those rooms.

Part 2 – The Impact of the Royal Academy

Moving on from Somerset House, we track the Academy, via a brief sojourn in Trafalgar Square, to its current home at Burlington House, including exciting new developments to the current building, which will be unveiled for the anniversary year of  2018.  We will continue to look at key names, such as Turner and Constable, and the impact the RA had on their careers.

Part 3 – The Royal Academy now

 Moving into the 20th Century, we meet more of the key artists involved and some of the issues and controversies faced.  We will also look at the Summer Exhibition in recent  years, some featured works and artists and its success within the current art world. 

 We will conclude by examining the extent to which the RA has moved into the 21st Century and embraced the contemporary, electing artists such as Tracey Emin as Royal Academicians.

Tickets - £28 to include Refreshments and Buffet Lunch

'Not Bloody Likely'

The Marketing of Covent Garden

The Study Day will be held at the New Windmill Hall.   Daniel Snowman will be doing three lectures on Covent Garden Piazza.   The cost will be £28 including lunch, teas and coffees. 

Further details of the day to follow.

The Study day will take place at the New Windmill Hall. Upminster

Time - 10.30 to 3pm. Coffee served from 10am

Cost of day - £25. Includes Buffet Lunch and Coffees

From the tradesmen of the Late Middle Ages, through the Tudor professional classes, to the revolutionaries of the 17th century, the English Middle Class proved to be the bedrock of English society. The Middle Class in the 18th and 19th centuries began to dominate all aspects of English life, from politics through The Arts, to trade and empire. From the late 18th century onwards middle class women led the fight for women’s rights. The Middle Class have proved to be the still and confident core of the nation throughout English history.