This talk will immerse you in some of the architectural marvels of Istanbul. It explores the iconic landmarks of Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and more. We will think about the sultans who built them and how they communicated ideas about themselves, their power and their place in the world. 

A comparison of the way in which the modern treatment of traditional genres in art is different from that of the Old Masters, the effect of these differences, and whether they add to, or change, our understanding of the subject and its message. The lecture will cover all the traditional genres, i.e. History Painting, Portraits, Genre (pictures of everyday life), Landscape and Still-Life, and we will consider the way in which the treatment of these subjects has changed over the centuries, up to the present day.  

Join award winning cartoonist Harry Venning as he escorts you through the peaks and pitfalls of his profession, supported by visual and verbal contributions from such luminaries as Matt Groening, Dr. Seuss, Charles M. Schulz and Gary Larson. Entertaining and informative in equal measure, the topics covered include rejection, procrastination, deadlines, artificial intelligence, professional envy, censorship, and the cartoon community's response to the Charlie Hebdo murders of 2015. Harry will also be drawing live on an A1 flip chart, the images filmed and projected onto screen for everyone to clearly see. 

This lecture charts the history of Tiffany & Co. and its jewellery - from its foundation on New York’s Broadway in the 1830s to the global brand of the 1980s. Initially jewellery was only a minor aspect of Tiffany’s stock, and entirely imported from Europe, but American jewellery took off with the country’s economic transformation. Charles Tiffany was a pivotal figure in this dramatic change: by the late 1870s his company was winning international awards for jewellery that was American designed and made. 

  2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the quintessential English landscapist John Constable. Enormously popular and endlessly reproduced, his paintings today are familiar – perhaps over-familiar. But his modern reputation masks a radical, experimental artist who pushed the boundaries of art of his time just as much as his near-contemporary (and far more successful) rival Turner. Tate Britain will be showing a major exhibition of their work from November 2025 until April 2026. This lecture will examine Constable’s career and propose five reasons why he should be considered revolutionary and Britain’s greatest landscape painter. 

About 18 miles west of Rome, at the mouth of the River Tiber, stand the impressive ruins of Ostia, Rome’s most important port. With wonderfully preserved streets, massive granaries and warehouses, tenement blocks (the best anywhere in the Roman Empire), grand town houses, bathhouses and taverns it was a city bustling with activity, attracting people from all over the Empire. This is shown by temples dedicated to numerous gods and goddesses, including the oriental deities Mithras, Cybele and Serapis. With many fine mosaics and wall paintings, the site rivals Pompeii and Herculaneum in its preservation.  

Find out, in this very light-hearted lecture, about the various ceremonial events that take place around Christmas time. Carol services, concerts and even Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor all play their part. How do the Chelsea Pensioners prepare and celebrate the festive season? All will be revealed so come along and feel wrapped in a blanket of Christmas loveliness 

Glimpse into the visual culture that surrounded one of Europe's most infamous queens, Marie Antoinette. We will look at the fashionable art and propaganda the surrounded the Queen, both sanctioned and unsanctioned. We will see how she used her court painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun to construct an image of a 'woman of the people', how the Queen played to pastoral trends and how she was also the subject of brutal satires. We end with images of her execution and how they turned into propaganda for and against the 'Reign of Terror'. 

Albrecht Dürer is among the stars of graphic art, of printmaking, in the Germanic lands. Based in influential Nuremberg, one of the centres of the Reformation and a hub of publishing, Dürer rose to prominence artistically and in the city’s government. Some of his prints established images which still pack a visual punch today. He went to Venice twice in his career and meeting Giovanni Bellini there changed his artistic life. Venice opened his eyes to the Italian Renaissance and guided him to have great aspirations for the art of his homeland.