Vicky Bailey will host this talk.

Barry Venning will host this talk.

Tyler Butterworth will host this talk.

Timothy Walker will host this talk following the Arts Society Helmsley’s summer drinks reception.

Please join us for drinks at the Helmsley Arts Centre to celebrate the summer, a lecture will be held following the drinks reception. 

Isabelle Kent will host this talk.

Tony Faber will host this talk.

Norman Tennent will host this talk.

Gavin Plumley will host this talk.

Jeremy Mainwaring-Burton will host this talk.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON EASTER ISLAND?

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is the most isolated piece of permanently

inhabited land on the planet, and yet it produced a most extraordinary Stone

Age culture: hundreds of sophisticated coastal stone platforms, more than a

thousand enormous stone statues, the richest rock art in the Pacific, and a

unique writing system. This talk will provide an introduction to the history of

the discovery of this culture; to its principal features; and to what archaeology,

oral traditions and, more recently, palaeobotanical evidence have combined

to teach us about the island’s cultural rise and decline, its environmental

crisis, and the lessons all this can teach us about how we look after the Earth

as a whole.

Paul studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge, and completed PhD

thesis (1979) on the prehistory of the French Pyrenees. Has held post-

doctoral fellowships, at Liverpool and London, plus a J. Paul Getty

postdoctoral fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities. Devotes time

to writing, editing and translating books on archaeology, plus occasional

journalism and as much travel as possible. Main research interest is

prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic

art, as well as Easter Island. Led the team which, at his instigation, searched

for and discovered the first Ice Age cave art in Britain (at Creswell Crags) in

2003.

POTS AND FROCKS – THE WORLD OF GRAYSON PERRY FROM ESSEX

PUNK POTTER TO SUPERSTAR NATIONAL TREASURE

Best known for his outlandish appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego,

Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment, a Turner

Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful

character. He’s possibly one of the world’s best-known contemporary artists.

His works of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and prints are highly sought after.

Often controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way

and holds a mirror up to society. This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s work,

his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character

inside the flamboyant frocks.

Ian Swankie

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at

Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and

gives tours around each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance

London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and

organisations. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art

lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. He is a

Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery

companies.

Per Rumberg is the Jacob Rothschild Head of the Curatorial Department at

the National Gallery. He previously held curatorial positions at the Royal

Academy of Arts and the Morgan Library & Museum. He curated numerous

exhibitions, including Charles I: King and Collector, which received the Apollo

Award ‘Exhibition of the Year’, and Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of

Milan. His exhibition Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 will

open at the Royal Academy in 2024. He studied art history in London,

Florence and Berlin and received his Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

A king’s favourite who amassed a great art collection.

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James I -

who addressed him as ‘my sweet child and wife’ - and subsequently chief

minister to King Charles I. Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded

himself with beautiful things. He enjoyed exquisite clothes, like the fabulous

white silk suit encrusted with diamonds that he wore to visit the Queen of

France. He was a superb dancer. When he cut capers during a court

masque King James startled visiting ambassadors by shouting out ‘By God,

George, I love you!’ 

He was a discerning patron. Inigo Jones renovated his houses. John

Tradescant was his garden designer.  In his great house on the Strand he

put together a collection of art works as fine as King Charles’s.  At the age

of 35 Buckingham was murdered. His collection was scattered, but

contemporary inventories allow us to reconstruct it. 

He will show you some of the magnificent paintings he owned - the Titians, the

Tintorettos, the Veroneses. But Buckingham was not just a collector of old

masters: he was also a patron, commissioning boldly innovative new work.

Most remarkable are the portraits of himself that he commissioned from

painters including Van Honthorst, Van Dyck and Rubens – images by great

artists of a man known as ‘the handsomest-bodied man in Europe’.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s  book on the 17th century Duke of  Buckingham, The

Scapegoat, will be published by Fourth Estate in October 2024. Her last non-

fiction book,  The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio was described in The Sunday

Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won all three of the UK’s most

prestigious prizes for non-fiction - the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper

Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include

Cleopatra and Heroes. She also writes fiction. Her novel, Peculiar

Ground, is largely set in the 17th century, and narrated by a landscape

designer loosely based on the diarist John Evelyn. It was described as

“almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance” (The Guardian) and “of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’.

(New York Times).  In her short story collection, Fabulous, she retells fables

from classical mythology, relocating them to modern Britain. A Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has written

on books, theatre and the visual arts for publications including The Sunday

Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman and the TLS. She

was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize. 

She lives in London and Suffolk.

Torrentius: Lost Master of the Dutch Golden Age

The extraordinary life of Johannes Torrentius reads like a Hollywood film

script.  He was the only artist in 17th century Holland to be tortured, tried and

imprisoned for heresy, before being sprung from jail by Charles I and brought

to England as a court painter. He was praised by his contemporaries as a

genius but only one of his paintings survives: a beautiful and enigmatic still-

life which was lost for nearly 300 years before resurfacing in surprising

circumstances. A detailed look at this masterpiece reveals some of the dark

secrets and mysteries surrounding this obscure but fascinating artist.

Rupert Dickens is an art historian based in south London with a special

interest in Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century painting. He works at the

Wallace Collection as a guide conducting public and private tours and

lecturing on aspects of the collection. Rupert is also a tour director for a

Cambridge-based company accompanying groups on art-themed tours to the

Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria and Italy. He has lectured to large

audiences on subjects as diverse as the game of chess in art and Madame

de Pompadour’s artistic patronage in 18th century France. He studied art

history at Birkbeck College before undertaking a Masters in Dutch Golden

Age Studies at University College London. Before that Rupert had a 26-year

career as a BBC journalist ending as an editor in radio news.

St Pancras Station is a celebration of Victorian architecture and engineering:

two contrasting, exceptional Victorian structures, the trainshed by W H Barlow

& R M Ordish (1863-5) and the magnificent Midland Grand Hotel by Sir

George Gilbert Scott (1868-74). Threatened with demolition in the 1960s,

Scott’s hotel was recognised as a major work of the Gothic Revival, and the

magnificently restored station is now the centrepiece for a spectacular revival

of a long-neglected corner of central London. This lecture shows how the

hotel, the station and their surroundings have been transformed over the past

thirty-five years.

Mike Higginbottom, formerly part-time lecturer in architectural and social history for the

Nottingham University Centre for Continuing Education, and also for the

Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Keele and Sheffield and for the WEA

East Midlands and West Mercia Districts. Freelance lecturer to local societies

in South and West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Formerly

broadcaster for BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio

Derby.

This lecture traces the story of the intrepid Victorian lady traveller, Isabella

Bird, who set out to see the world and brought glimpses of it back to her

readership at home. Isabella Bird’s fascinating written accounts of her

globetrotting adventures from the 1850s offer insights into some of the

challenges faced by women travellers in the mid-Victorian period as well as

the growth of travel and tourism opportunities that helped to make the world a

smaller place. Her photographic work and illustrations contributed to the

emerging picture of everyday life in the East.

Professor Marie Conte-Helm is a long-established Arts Society Lecturer with

a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art and is a Fellow of the Royal

Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese

Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic posts at various

UK universities. She has most recently served as Executive Director of the

UK-Japan 21st Century Group, and as a member of the Board of Governors

of the University for the Creative Arts. She is widely published and has

lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise

speaker and a Resident Historian with Viking Ocean Cruises, lecturing on

many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. She was awarded an

OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan

educational and cultural relations and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays

with Rosette by the Government of Japan in 2019.

Morocco Blues: why and how the country changed colour

This lecture draws on Elizabeth’s time in Morocco in visits spanning more

than 25 years. The lecture focuses particularly on the stories behind the blue

pigment used for the fishing boats and doorways of photogenic Essaouira on

the Moroccan coast, and the Majorelle Blue developed and patented by

French artist Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech in the 1920s. The story of

Morocco’s blues takes us from Berber veils to Yves Saint-Laurent who

restored Majorelle’s Marrakech garden, via Modernist Orientalist art and a

protected mollusk…

Elizabeth studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working

in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington. Moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there

worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas

Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects.

Speaks fluent Albanian and has translated two books (the unauthorised

biography of Yugoslavia’s longest-held political prisoner, Adem Demaci, and

the memoirs of one of the leaders of the 1912 uprising). Also the author of

four books about Kosovo – Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a

beekeeper in Kosovo (2011), Edith and I; on the trail of an Edwardian traveller

in Kosovo (2013); The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife; an unlikely friendship in

Kosovo (2015) and The Silver Thread; a journey through Balkan craftmanship

(2017). Her latest book (2022 - with Robert Wilton) is No Man's Lands: 8

extraordinary women in Balkan history. Regular contributor to Radio 4

(Saturday Live, Excess Baggage, From Our Own Correspondent) and the

BBC World Service. She has worked as a member of the advisory board of

GuideKS, the NGO for Kosovan tour guides, and of the board of Faktoje, the

Albanian fact-checking organisation.

CHRISTMAS IN BACH’S LEIPZIG: THE CHRISTMAS ORATORIO OF 1734/5

Sandy Burnett’s close relationship with Bach’s music stretches back for

decades; between 1997 and 2010 he directed a complete cycle of Bach’s

sacred cantatas in West London. In this illustrated talk he explores how Bach

brings the Christmas story alive in his Weihnachtsoratorium or Christmas

Oratorio, written for Lutheran congregations in 1730s Leipzig. An overview of

Bach’s life and achievement precedes a close look at this magnificent work

which draws on various forms ranging from recitative, arioso, aria, chorale,

and instrumental sinfonia through to full-blown choruses which are infused

with the joyous spirit of the dance.

Biography:

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, is 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.

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. A wonderful opportunity to see behind the scenes of these marvels of childhood for a hundred years.

James Campbell has a particular interest in the artist E. H. Shepard, is a Trustee of his Estate and has written a joint-biography of him and A. A. Milne which will be published in September 2024.”

Artists have always been drawn to the bright light of the South of France. This talk focusses on some of the most famous who were inspired by its beauty, such as Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin and the Impressionists. The talk will explore some of their most notable works and follow their sometimes dramatic lives in the South of France.

Elaine Hansen has studied Art History at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. Since 2009 she has been a guide at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. She splits her year between Scotland and Italy. Her specialisms include Italian and Scottish art.

This talk will look at the huge rise of interest in Irish art from the mid-1990’s, coinciding with the Celtic Tiger, and the dramatic change that took place in 2007. The lecture will be illustrated by images of paintings by Jack Butler Yeats, William Orpen, John Lavery, Paul Henry, Roderick O’Connor and others. Grant Ford will look at some of the iconic images he has handled as an auctioneer over the years and tell the stories behind some of the major consignments.

Grant Ford spent 30 years at Sotheby’s and was Senior Director and Head of British & Irish Art post-1850. Since 2007, he has been a paintings specialist for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and is particularly well-known in the fields of Victorian, Irish, Scottish and European art. 

Stephen Bird will give a lecture on a series of 21 paintings he created in 2015-16 on the Book of Genesis, a project funded by the Farmington Institute of the University of Oxford. The Genesis stories are fractured, kaleidoscopic, strange, poetic and discomfiting and the paintings explore these characteristics. The Arts Centre has kindly arranged for an Exhibition of the paintings at the same time as Stephen’s lecture. The accompanying catalogue includes commentary by the renowned biblical scholar Dom Henry Wansbrough.

Stephen Bird studied art at the Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. He was previously Head of Art and History of Art at Ampleforth College. He is now a full-time working artist living in North Yorkshire

Pieces made during the 1970’s can now fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770’s. Why has the teak sideboard you threw out become so desirable? Who is this Eames guy? Or Timo Sarpaneva? Who’s buying what and what are they doing with it? This practical and inspirational lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers and examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

Mark Hill studied History of Art and Architecture before joining Bonhams as a porter and junior cataloguer and moving to Sotheby’s where he was a Specialist in the Collector’s Department. He was a co-author with Judith Miller of the Collectables Price Guide from 2002-17 and a Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007.

For this month only the talk will start at 7pm. Doors will be open from 6.30pm

18th century England saw not only the flowering of the Industrial Revolution but also that of the self-made man. Using the paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds and others, Leslie Primo will guide us through the lives and achievements, the common interests and connections of members and guests of The Lunar Society such as James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Wright of Derby and other ‘natural philosophers’.

Leslie Primo is an author, broadcaster and graduate of Birkbeck College, London with an M.A. in Renaissance Studies. He currently teaches Art History at Imperial College and lectures for the Royal Academy, London.

In the quiet of an enclosed garden filled with symbolic plants, or glimpsed inside a sturdy house, a young woman reads, blissfully unaware that her life is about to change. Approaching her, an angel is poised to break the news, to make a great announcement. Whatever your personal beliefs, it is hard to deny the impact Christianity would have on the world so the Annunciation by Gabriel to Mary, telling her that she was to bear a son, is one of the most popular images of the Middle Ages, more popular indeed than the Nativity itself. This lecture reveals the key players in the story, dissects the symbolism of Mary and the Annunciation and examines the world-changing importance of that particular moment. It is richly illustrated with gorgeous images from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries.

Imogen Corrigan served for 20 years in the British Army before going to the University of Kent where she gained first-class honours in Anglo-Saxon & Mediaeval History and Art, followed by an M. Phil from the University of Birmingham. She lectures in Europe and had a book published in 2019, Stone on Stone: The Men Who Built The Cathedrals.

Patrick Craig will explore the rich musical traditions of Venice and the lives of musicians such as Monteverdi who not only transformed the music of the Basilica of San Marco but also led the way in the creation of a new art form – opera. We will also listen to Vivaldi, the other towering genius of Venetian music who created music both for the opera stage and the female musicians of the Ospidale della Pieta.

A Cambridge history graduate with a lifelong interest in the arts, Patrick Craig is a Vicar Choral of St. Paul’s Cathedral. For 20 years he combined this with an international career singing over a thousand concerts with the world-renowned early music consort The Tallis Scholars.

Janet Gough provides an overview of the Church of England’s 42 magnificent cathedrals, jewels in the crown of England’s built heritage. Beautifully illustrated by Paul Barker, a photographer for Country Life magazine. In addition to looking at their history, stories, evolving architecture and treasures, the talk considers the role of cathedrals over the centuries and specifically their role today.

A Cambridge graduate in History and History of Art, Janet Gough OBE was for 8 years the Church of England’s Director of Church Buildings. She has written two illustrated books to encourage greater enjoyment of these amazing buildings and produced and presented a TV series on cathedrals for PBS.

THE TRIUMPH OF LUTYENS’ NEW DELHI

In the roughly three hundred years during which the British constructed buildings in India there persisted an unresolved dialogue about the creation of an authoritative British style. The Victorians and Edwardians looked with envy at the confident, distinctive and appropriate architectural style of the buildings in India constructed in the time of the Mughal Empire. The questions - as to whether the British should impose a British style, fuse a British style with Indian or even adopt the Mughal style for their own – were never satisfactorily answered in India … That is until Edwin Lutyens penned his designs for New Delhi. This lecture gives consideration to the several styles of Indian architecture – not least the Mughal, before celebrating the masterpiece, and innovative stylistic triumph, that is New Delhi.

Anthony Peers

A freelance historic buildings' consultant, educated as an Architectural Historian at Manchester University and trained in building conservation at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York. After two years with SAVE Britain's Heritage, where he wrote Deserted Bastions, worked with the English Heritage Listing Division on the review of military buildings. In the mid 1990s was employed by the DTI in Bombay, India, setting up and running an innovative project to repair George Gilbert Scott's university buildings and training local architects and craftsmen in conservation techniques and philosophy. From 1998 until 2010, worked as Rodney Melville & Partners' historian, involved with research, analysis, assessment and conservation planning at such sites as The Workhouse, Southwell; Aston Hall, Birmingham; The Royal Institution, London and Cliveden. Published a book on the History of Birmingham Town Hall in 2012, to critical acclaim. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Deputy Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Society.

THE BLUE HOUR: PAINTING THE NORTH

From late medieval times artists from the north have visited Italy in search of classical inspiration, not to mention prestige. “But why always Italy?” asks one 19th century Swedish artist, “Doesn’t our northern nature reflect eternity? Does not our gaze embrace the sky as well – and what a sky!” In Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen visits the little town of Skagen in the north of Jutland, a place of sand, storms and sky; describes it vividly and inspires artists to paint its wild and remote landscape where the North Sea meets the Baltic. Artists include a local girl, gifted Anna Ancher, whose personality and paintings are both compared by a contemporary artist to “a burst of sunshine”. In Sweden, symbolist landscape artist Prince Eugen, youngest son of King Oscar II, finds romantic inspiration in the lakes, forests, history and vivid folk art of Dalecarlia in central Sweden. Both Danish and Swedish landscape paintings feature the Blue Hour, that half hour or so just after sunset and before sunrise, when the landscape is suffused with a bluish light, highly atmospheric and iconic of the North.

Karin Fernald

Karin is known for her entertaining lectures on writers and diarists connected with the arts from the mid-18th to 19th century, and moving forward in time with Virginia Woolf. Extensive research into diaries and letters bring lectures to vivid life. Karin illustrates them with slides of contemporary pictures and portraits from varied sources.