The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Dürer: Graphic Artist of Pure Genius by Hilary Williams on Tuesday 16 June at Newbury Rugby Club. Review by Alan Childs.

Most people come back from Venice with a little glass ornament or a tiny gilt gondola. Albrecht Dürer went home to Nuremburg with the Italian Renaissance, according to British Museum expert Hilary Williams.

Not only was he the first person to take the 15th Century Renaissance north over the Alps, said Miss Williams, admitting she was making a sweeping claim, but he also brought back the Italian idea that artists should be respected and admired.

And he also invented watercolour painting.

Dürer, born in 1471 in Nuremberg, was the impoverished but talented young son of a goldsmith when he set off in his early twenties to make the perilous journey over the Alps to learn from the great works in Venice. He soon picked up other aspects of Italian life – a 1498 self-portrait shows him with luxuriant ringlets, a natty beard and a chemise edged in gold – all to say “I am an artist, I’m special – and hey, how good looking I am”.

This was not how Nuremburg viewed painters, woodblock makers and copper engravers. In a letter home Dürer said: “In Venice I am treated like a prince, at home I am a parasite.”

To his “phenomenal” skills as a craftsman, and his genius as a draughtsman, Dürer added the elements of the Venice Renaissance, perspective and foreshortening, and the rediscovery of Roman and Greek sculpture. 

His range as an artistic entrepreneur was enormous. In Nuremburg in the middle of the Reformation he provided small woodcuts of the Madonna for Catholics and Christ for the Protestants, and larger and expensive copperplate engravings for wealthy clients of both congregations. Following the Italians, the figures from the Bible were all placed in a local setting. He was no slouch as a painter, either.

Oh yes, the watercolours. Perhaps not “invented”, said Miss Williams, just found a way to give it depth and body colour. 

“Dürer” she summed up “was the right man, in the right place, at the right time.” 

Next lecture: Impressions in the Rain: Gustave Caillebotte, Patron and Painter of Real Life at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 21 July. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Students of The Castle School in Newbury have a new dimension to their creativity following a donation from the Arts Society Newbury.

The school, which caters from youngsters aged 4 to 19 with complex learning difficulties, is using the £1000 to buy a 3D printer so that they can use their imagination to plan and make solid objects.

It won’t be just an artistic endeavour, either. They can create and make items ready to sell online or at local markets. Katie Morley, the assistant head teacher at the Post-16 college section of the school, said the printer would help students engage with the world and be creative.

“We currently run a stall at Christmas in Newbury High Street” she added, ”so I am sure they will love to create some enterprising opportunities with the money donated. Any surplus can go on the materials and supporting the selling of the items.”

The money was given to the Friends of Castle School, a registered charity, which helps the school, whose motto is Curiosity, Creativity, Communication and Community, to offer pupils experiences such as a sensory garden or museum trips.

Ms Morley said:  “We’re very grateful for the donation. All of our learners have a range of needs and receive support. Friends of Castle itself is a registered charity and run by parents and staff volunteers. We run events to fundraise money for the charity , and our next event is Castle Fest on  Saturday (June 20) at our Love Lane site. There will be a range of fun filled activities, music, BBQ and many prizes to be won. Everyone is welcome to come along.”

Stephen Howis, chair of the arts society, said: “As an arts society we support all forms of creative endeavour. The Castle School is a prime example of how creativity is not just limited to the great names of art but is something that everybody can take part in and enjoy. We are delighted to be able to support a school that develops artistic skills and creative enjoyment, and helps bring the Newbury community together.”

Welcome to our June Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Hilary Williams' lecture 'Dürer: Graphic Artist of Pure Genius'

Below is Hilary's further reading recommendation:

Norbert Wolf, Albrecht Dürer

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

IT'S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Annual Subscription fees (September 2026 to July 2027)

Our annual subscription is unchanged at £60 per person or £115 joint membership for two people living at the same address. Our service recharge fee for 2026-27 to Head Office is £17. This fee is included in your annual subscription.
 Click here for the renewal form to renew your subscription. You only need to fill in the form if your address, email, or phone number has changed. If there are no changes you just need to pay. Please enter your own last name in the reference field on the bank account otherwise we do not know who has paid. Cheques are accepted. If you wish to pay by cheque please put your postcode on the reverse and send to: Membership Secretary, 2 Valley Road, Burghfield Common, RG7 3NF

TASN AGM 2026

Tuesday 21 July at 10.30am
Live at Newbury Rugby Club
and on Zoom

Click here to view the Agenda and Draft Accounts

Self-drive visit to Gilbert White's House and Garden after the AGM

Tuesday 21 July

Join us on this self-drive visit, after the AGM and lecture, to Gilbert White's House and garden in Selborne.

Gilbert White (1720-1793) was one of the world's most influential naturalists, and a great nature writer whose 1789 book The Natural History of Selborne changed the way we look at the natural world.  He was also a passionate and innovative gardener, who delighted in growing melons and recording his gardening activity for almost 50 years.

Booking is now open
Details available on the website 

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Wednesday 30 September 2026

This is the trip that was cancelled last year when we were notified that extensive work to the roof of the house was due to take place.
Booking is now open.
Full details on the website

Trip to Castille
Wednesday 14 - Thursday 22 October 2026

There are a few places left on a trip being organised by The Arts Society Goring on Thames.   Click here for more details, and here for the brochure.

Special Interest Day

Tuesday 3 November 2026

The Changing Face of Fashion 1890-1959

Lecturer:  Andrew Prince

Click here for details

Next Lecture

Tuesday 21 July

Live at Newbury Rugby Club and on Zoom after the AGM

The morning lecture is followed by the visit to Gilbert White's House. There is no afternoon lecture.

'Impressions in the Rain: Gustave Caillebotte, Patron and Painter of Real Life'

Lecturer: Justin Reay

Rarely mentioned today, Gustave Caillebotte was one of the most important artists in late 19th century France. Trained as an engineer but studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Caillebotte brought a keen eye to perspective and a painter’s appreciation of colour, tone and light.

From a wealthy Parisian family, Caillebotte did not need to sell his own artworks but produced some of the most iconic paintings of the period, his innovative composition involving the viewer in the scene, and his subject matter extending beyond the main styles of the era.

He used his wealth to support other avant garde artists, organising and funding the exhibitions of the Impressionists from 1876, and buying many works by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Morisot and Cézanne early in their careers. His personal collection of Impressionist paintings forms the heart of the Musée d’Orsay today.

Welcome to our May Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Gavin Plumley's lecture 
'The Echoing Scream: the Birth of Expressionism'

Below are Gavin's further reading recommendations:

Karl Ove Knausgaard, So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch

Rainer Metzger, Munich: Its Golden Age of Art and Culture 1890 - 1920

Anthony Storr, Freud: A Very Short Introduction

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

London Coach Trip to the Neasden Hindu Temple and
Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery

Thursday 25 June 

Last few places available to book

Details on the website

Self-drive visit to Gilbert White's House and Garden after the AGM

 Tuesday 21 July

Join us on this self-drive visit, after the AGM and lecture, to Gilbert White's House and garden in Selborne.

Gilbert White (1720-1793) was one of the world's most influential naturalists, and a great nature writer whose 1789 book The Natural History of Selborne changed the way we look at the natural world.  He was also a passionate and innovative gardener, who delighted in growing melons and recording his gardening activity for almost 50 years.

Booking is now open

Details available on the website 

The Delights of Western Sicily & Palermo

Friday 11 September - Wednesday 16 September 2026
Last few places available

Join us on this 6-day cultural tour of Western Sicily, which includes:

• A guided tour of Erice and its Duomo
• Trapani
• A guided tour of Segesta and its doric temple
• A guided tour of Palermo
• A guided tour of Monreale cathedral
• A guided tour of the Valley of the Temples
• Marsala
• A wine tour and tasting
• A boat trip to Mozia island and the museum of Mozia

Click here for more details.

If you require any further information contact Kay Sutton or Rosie Braithwaite (clicking on either of their names will generate an email for you)

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Wednesday 30 September 2026

This is the trip that was cancelled last year when we were notified that extensive work to the roof of the house was due to take place.
Booking is now open.
Full details on the website

Next Lecture

Tuesday 16 June
at Newbury Rugby Club and also on Zoom

'Dürer: Graphic Artist of Pure Genius'

Lecturer: Hilary Williams

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.

Although known for his stunning drawing of The Praying Hands, he was massively important as a printmaker in woodcut and engraving: he invented etching and drypoint in printmaking. Larger than that, he knew all of the key movers of his day, including Erasmus and was on talking terms with the Holy Roman Emperor. A fascinating character who represents the inner turmoil of Europe in transition.

The Echoing Scream: The Birth of Expressionism: Gavin Plumley at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday, May 19

Review by AMANDA HOLLIDAY

“If you went to the very pit of your stomach, what would you cry out so that everyone could hear?” So began this thought-provoking lecture given by the erudite cultural historian Gavin Plumley on Tuesday morning.

The fin de siècle saw a shift from a romanticised objective reality to the inner life and subjective emotions. Creatives, including painters, playwrights, dancers, filmmakers and composers, flexed their Expressionist muscles and encouraged us to join the club.

Munch’s masterpiece The Scream had a formative influence on the Expressionist movement and has been described by Januszczak as a ‘one picture pictorial revolution’. Art movement brings the inside out.

Through this painting, he recorded the effects of his surroundings and state of mind on his physiognomy and imagination. Munch created hundreds of versions using different media throughout his life.

After initial rebuffs by Berlin society, Munch’s reputation as an artist spread quickly. In his groundbreaking 1903 exhibition, he set up the ‘Frieze of Life’, described as an interconnected series of paintings exploring the human psyche.

Other followers of the movement, like Christian Krohg, sought to disrupt the status quo and encouraged his students to go out into the world to see life as it was lived.

Kandinsky led change at the Munich Academy: He realised it was not the subject that was important, but the way you painted and the feelings it invoked as you did so. 

Change, however, was not easy. Bringing the inside out made people feel uncomfortable. Schoenberg embraced emotional experience through his composition Verklärte Nacht. Audiences didn’t like it.

Ibsen’s later works influenced the Expressionist movement, but these controversial plays were not premiered in Oslo – audiences loathed them.

Plumley also highlighted the psychologically charged works of Egon Schiele, the rejection of academic conventions by Die Brücke, and the attempts of dancers like Isadora Duncan to reverse the lie about how we present ourselves to the world.

In a society where honesty is considered a weakness by some, this lecture reminded us of the beauty of and struggle for Expressionism, and the importance of bringing the inside out.

Event organised by The Arts Society Newbury.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: The History of Kew Gardens: The World's Garden by Cindy Polemis on Tuesday 21 April at Newbury Rugby Club. Review by Alan Childs.

When Princess Caroline and Princess Augusta decided in the 18th Century that what British Royalty needed was a garden designed on the philosophy of the Enlightenment, it’s unlikely that they envisaged the need for a bomb-proof seed bunker.

But they did see Kew Garden as a home for both aesthetic enjoyment and scientific research, containing all the plants then known, and designed to give the appearance of a natural landscape – an English Arcadia.

So from 1759 Kew – which became plural in 1772 with the addition of Richmond Garden – has developed and grown to reflect the concerns and culture of the times, Cindy Polemis told the Arts Society Newbury.

The vast range of plants from around the world in the 18th Century, she pointed out, were the embodiment of British power overseas, as collectors brought home the riches of other countries. By the 19th Century the focus was on keeping plants alive and the technology of glass and steel brought the Temperate House, a window into the British Empire.

The gardens opened to the public in 1840 as the social rigidities if the Georgian era blurred around the edges.

Even the grass reflected changing times. In the 18th Century it was cut by livestock, in the 19th the lawns were groomed by newly-developed industrial equipment. And of course the look of the gardens has changed to reflect the cultural developments of the times, from the winding paths and Romantic grottoes, lakes and follies of Enlightenment – so different to the formalism of the Continental thought - through the wide vistas of Victorian optimism to the modern bomb-proof bunker representing 25 per cent of plant species, held, said Ms Polemis as “the world bank for future survival of the planet”.

“Kew really is the world’s gardener” she said, “helping to save precious flora, trees and fungi. It’s also, she added, “a wonderful place for a picnic”.

Next lecture: The Echoing Scream: The Birth of Expressionism at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 19 May. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

The Marwell International Wildlife Art Society (MIWAS) is delighted to announce the return of its much-loved Wildlife Art Exhibition, taking place at Marwell Zoo from Friday 1 May to Monday 4 May 2026.

Set within the stunning, Grade I listed Marwell Hall, this unique exhibition brings together over 70 talented wildlife artists from across the UK and beyond, showcasing more than 250 original works of art inspired by the beauty, diversity and fragility of the natural world.

Visitors can explore an inspiring collection spanning paintings, drawings and sculpture, with every piece available to purchase—offering a rare opportunity to take home a truly original artwork while supporting both artists and conservation.

Alongside the main exhibition, guests can enjoy a vibrant Art Market in the Secret Garden marquee, where artists will be on hand to meet visitors, share their creative processes, and offer prints and additional works—perfect for collectors and first-time buyers alike.

The exhibition is included with standard zoo admission, allowing visitors to combine a day of artistic discovery with an unforgettable wildlife experience. Every visit helps support Marwell Wildlife’s global conservation work, protecting endangered species and habitats around the world.

MIWAS, relaunched in recent years by a passionate team of artists, continues its mission to create a welcoming and high-quality platform for wildlife art—bringing together artists, collectors and nature lovers in a truly unique setting.

Welcome to our April Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Cindy Polemis's lecture 
'The History of Kew Gardens: The World's Garden'

Below are Cindy's further reading recommendations:

Kate Teltscher, Palace of Palms: Tropical Dreams and the Making of Kew

Polly Nicholson, The Tulip Garden: Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

TASN donates £1,000 to Fair Close Centre

There was an Easter treat for the jolly hatters at the Fair Close Centre for the over-65s in Newbury when the Arts Society Newbury presented the organisation with a £1,000 cheque.  Read more

London Coach Trip to the Neasden Hindu Temple and
Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery

Thursday 25 June 

Booking for this trip is now open
Details on the website

Self-drive visit to Gilbert White's House and Garden after the AGM

Tuesday 21 July

Join us on this self-drive visit, after the AGM and lecture, to Gilbert White's House and garden in Selborne.

Gilbert White (1720-1793) was one of the world's most influential naturalists, and a great nature writer whose 1789 book The Natural History of Selborne changed the way we look at the natural world. He was also a passionate and innovative gardener, who delighted in growing melons and recording his gardening activity for almost 50 years.

Click here for more details.

The Delights of Western Sicily & Palermo

Friday 11 September - Wednesday 16 September 2026

Join us on this 6-day cultural tour of Western Sicily, which includes:

• A guided tour of Erice and its Duomo
• Trapani
• A guided tour of Segesta and its doric temple
• A guided tour of Palermo
• A guided tour of Monreale cathedral
• A guided tour of the Valley of the Temples
• Marsala
• A wine tour and tasting
• A boat trip to Mozia island and the museum of Mozia

Click here for more details.

If you require any further information contact Kay Sutton or Rosie Braithwaite (clicking on either of their names will generate an email for you)

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Wednesday 30 September 2026

This is the trip that was cancelled last year when we were notified that extensive work to the roof of the house was due to take place.
Booking is now open.
Full details on the website

Trip to Castille

Wednesday 14 - Thursday 22 October 2026

There are a few places left on a trip being organised by The Arts Society Goring on Thames. Click here for more details, and here for the brochure.

Next Lecture
 Tuesday 19 May
at Newbury Rugby Club

NO ZOOM FOR THIS LECTURE

'The Echoing Scream: the Birth of Expressionism'

Lecturer: Gavin Plumley

When Edvard Munch created The Scream in 1893, he was responding to an intense emotional experience. Today, we would call it a panic attack. Crippling and anxious making, this primal cry was also a rallying call: for Munch and for the wider world of art. It gave birth to a movement known as expressionism, showing life not at it is (realism) or as it might be perceived in a fleeting moment (impressionism), but as it is experienced within the unembellished core of our being.

This year's Berkshire Historic Churches Trust Englefield Lecture will be held in the Long Gallery, Englefield House RG7 5EN, on Monday 20 April. The lecture will be given by Dr Adrian Ailes FSA, and will draw on his recent and highly-acclaimed edition of Elias Ashmole's 'Church Notes' of Berkshire, compiled in 1665-1666. The lecture will commence at 7.30 (doors open at 7.00).

Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), Windsor Herald of Arms, politician, astrologer and student of alchemy, is perhaps best remembered today as an antiquary and collector. His extraordinary collection of artifacts – his ‘cabinet of curiosities' – was bequeathed to the University of Oxford, where it formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum.

Less well known are the church notes of Berkshire, his other ‘cabinet of curiosities’, which he compiled during his heraldic visitation of Berkshire in 1665-and 1666. In these notes he recorded, and sometimes made drawings of, local monumental brasses, sculpted effigies of men, women and children, tombs, incised slabs, wall monuments, carved shields and badges, roof bosses and stained-glass windows They form an extremely valuable record of these monuments and of the appearance of the interiors of churches in the mid-seventeenth century.

In his lecture, Dr Ailes will look at what Ashmole found, highlighting his more interesting discoveries, many of which no longer exist.

Dr Adrian Ailes was formerly Head of Early Modern Records at The National Archives and is currently an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Bristol. An authority on heraldry, he has lectured widely and has an extensive list of publications to his name, most recently an acclaimed edition of the Church Notes, published by the Harleian Society in 2024.

Cost per person, £17, to include a glass of wine

Click here to buy a ticket via Ticket Source

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: National Treasures: Saving London's Museums and galleries in the Second World War by Caroline Shenton on Tuesday 17 March at Newbury Rugby Club. Review by Alan Childs.

One was a lanky oddball obsessed with railways, another an eccentric art expert who always carried a string bag of oranges. Together with a pompous mediocrity who rose to the occasion, and women liberated by the war to work, they were the cast of Caroline Shenton’s entertaining explanation of how Britain’s art was saved from Hitler.

By 1939 a top-secret Whitehall committee had a plan to protect art and collections from bombing and even invasion, and to hide museums’ objects, sculptures and artworks. It was, said Ms Shenton, nothing less than a campaign to save Britain’s identity and memory from the Nazi hatred of anything not deemed Aryan art.

So mild-mannered civil servants and aesthetes – often figures of fun – stepped out of the shadows to become a front line against Hitler.

At the National Gallery, the 6ft 6ins Ian Rawlins, the bespectacled Chief Scientific Officer who the gallery director called the most boring man he had ever met, used his encyclopaedic knowledge of railways and his skills in calculating to organise the evacuation of 2000 paintings to a quarry in North Wales under armed guard and under low bridges And then again, with the orange-toting Martin Davies, to a specially constructed cavern further from the bomb target of Liverpool.

At the British Museum, the pompous  director John Fosdyke not only organised the transfer of thousands of artefacts and hid the Elgin marbles in the Underground but heroically took personal charge of the firefighters in the Blitz.

At the Victoria and Albert Museum Muriel Clayton led a team of young women curators proving their mettle shifting and cataloguing tonnes of artefacts to stately homes.

Meanwhile, the Crown Jewels lay hidden in a biscuit tin beneath the desk of the Royal Librarian, who had secret instructions from the King to grab the tin and flee to Canada if the Germans invaded. 

It was, said Ms Shenton, a secret triumph of the most unlikely people.

Next lecture: The History of Kew Gardens: The World's Garden at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 21 April. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

There was an Easter treat for the jolly hatters at the Fair Close Centre for the over-65s in Newbury last week when the Arts Society Newbury presented the organisation with a £1,000 cheque.

The donation will enable the Centre to expand the arts and crafts it offers to people living with dementia and allows them to enjoy activities in a safe and supportive environment. The cheque was presented while visitors to the Centre put their minds and hands to an Easter Bonnet competition in the Camellia Club, helped by staff and volunteers.

The money will help the Activities Co-ordinator, Daniela Vargas, bring in new materials and art skills.

The Arts Society Chair, Stephen Howis said "Last year, The Arts Society Newbury made a donation to City Arts Newbury towards its Art Shed 'make and take' sessions for younger children.

“This year, we are  delighted to have been able to make a donation to The Fair Close Centre, which provides ‘Fun, Food and Friendship’ to Newbury's older residents. We support artistic endeavours of all kinds for all ages. "

The Arts Society has been bringing arts education and culture to a network of over 64,000 members worldwide for more than 50 years. The Newbury Society is a friendly group with a shared curiosity for the arts. It provides monthly lectures and day trips with art experts and volunteers and provides grants to encourage people in our local community to appreciate art and develop their creative abilities.  

Visit www. theartssocietynewbury.org.uk for more information on the society

Photo: Arts Society Newbury chair Stephen Howis and vice chair Kate Harwood present the cheque to Louise Davies, the centre manager, watched by Camelia Club Easter bonnet makers and activities co-ordinator Daniela Vargas

Welcome to our March Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Caroline Shenton's lecture 
'National Treasures: Saving London's Museums and Galleries in the Second World War'

Below are Caroline's further reading recommendations:

Caroline Shenton, National Treasures. Saving the Nation's Art in World War Two 
 
James Stourton, Kenneth Clark. Life, Art and Civilisation 
 
Lynn H. Nicolas, The Rape of Europa. The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

The Arts Society Trustee Elections 2026

There will be two vacancies on the Trustee Board at the AGM 2026, which will be held on 25 June 2026. The Board is therefore inviting interested applicants who are members of local societies to submit their nominations.

For more information Click here

Trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum
Tuesday 24 March 2026
Last few tickets available

Book here or contact Anna Manners (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Join us on this trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum, home of the Codebreakers.

We will travel by coach leaving Douai Park Recreation Ground, Cods Hill, Upper Woolhampton, Reading RG7 5TA at 9am. We should arrive back around 5.30pm.

Click here for more details

Don Quixote Ballet at the Mayflower Theatre
Thursday 16 April 2026
This trip is fully booked.   Waiting list only. 

Join us on this trip by coach to see the colourful ballet Don Quixote at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. The Arts Society Newbury has secured good stalls seats for a matinee performance on Thursday 16th April commencing at 2pm. Our coach will leave Douai Park Recreation Ground, Cods Hill, Upper Woolhampton, Reading RG7 5TA at 11am returning around 6.30pm.

Birmingham Royal Ballet performs the first revival of Director Carlos Acosta’s joyful production of Don Quixote inspired by Miguel de Cervantes classic novel.

Click here for more information.

The Englefield Lecture: Elias Ashmole’s Church Notes of Berkshire 1665-66: His other Cabinet of Curiositie

Monday 20 April 2026

This year's Berkshire Historic Churches Trust Englefield Lecture will be held in the Long Gallery, Englefield House RG7 5EN, on Monday 20 April. The lecture will be given by Dr Adrian Ailes FSA, and will draw on his recent and highly-acclaimed edition of Elias Ashmole's 'Church Notes' of Berkshire, compiled in 1665-1666. The lecture will commence at 7.30 (doors open at 7.00).

Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), Windsor Herald of Arms, politician, astrologer and student of alchemy, is perhaps best remembered today as an antiquary and collector. His extraordinary collection of artifacts – his ‘cabinet of curiosities' – was bequeathed to the University of Oxford, where it formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum.

Less well known are the church notes of Berkshire, his other ‘cabinet of curiosities’, which he compiled during his heraldic visitation of Berkshire in 1665-and 1666. In these notes he recorded, and sometimes made drawings of, local monumental brasses, sculpted effigies of men, women and children, tombs, incised slabs, wall monuments, carved shields and badges, roof bosses and stained-glass windows They form an extremely valuable record of these monuments and of the appearance of the interiors of churches in the mid-seventeenth century.

Cost per person, £17, to include a glass of wine

Click here to buy a ticket via Ticket Source

The Historic Houses, Art & Heritage of Northumbria
Sunday 10 May - Thursday 14 May 2026

Join us on this 5-day cultural tour of Northumbria, which includes:

• A visit to Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, home to England's best collection of Chippendale furniture
• A walking tour of Durham with a Blue Badge Guide
• A guided tour of the Bowes Museum, home to a large collection of fine and decorative paintings
• A tour of Alnwick Castle, the second largest inhabited castle in England, and Cragside House and Gardens, accompanied by our Blue Badge Guide
• A visit to the remains of Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island with our Blue Badge Guide

Click here for more details.

London Coach Trip to the Neasden Hindu Temple and
Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery
Thursday 25 June 

Booking for this trip will open shortly
Details on the website

The Delights of Western Sicily & Palermo
Friday 11 September - Wednesday 16 September 2026

Join us on this 6-day cultural tour of Western Sicily, which includes:

• A guided tour of Erice and its Duomo
• Trapani
• A guided tour of Segesta and its doric temple
• A guided tour of Palermo
• A guided tour of Monreale cathedral
• A guided tour of the Valley of the Temples
• Marsala
• A wine tour and tasting
• A boat trip to Mozia island and the museum of Mozia

Click here for more details.

If you require any further information contact Kay Sutton or Rosie Braithwaite (clicking on either of their names will generate an email for you)

Wednesday 30 September 2026

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

This is the trip that was cancelled last year when we were notified that extensive work to the roof of the house was due to take place.
Booking is now open.
Full details on the website

Next Lecture

 Tuesday 21 April
at Newbury Rugby Club

'The History of Kew Gardens: The World's Garden'

Lecturer: Cindy Polemis

From 18th century royal pleasure gardens to the most bio-diverse place on earth today, Cindy Polemis digs into the history of Kew Gardens. We’ll look at Kew’s early role as a beacon of historical landscape aesthetic, its crucial part in the advancement of science, colonialism and trade, and how today it drives international  efforts to combat the effects of climate change and the threats of  extinction in the natural world.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Tales from Vienna by Emma Johnson on Tuesday 17 Febuary at Newbury Rugby Club. Review by Alan Childs.

From Mozart to Brahms, Beethoven to Schoenberg, the two Strausses to Mahler, Vienna was for 200 years the epicentre of Western classical music.

But how, Emma Johnson asked the Arts Society Newbury, did one city cultivate an unparalleled flourishing of musical genius?

Not only was it a cosmopolitan city at the heart of an empire, where many different languages were heard and traditions followed, but it also had an aristocracy prepared to support culture with cash.

Ms Johnson lavishly illustrated her lecture with musical examples, such as Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, which he wrote after he moved there. Mozart’s success meant Beethoven thought he “must conquer Vienna”, sponsored by two princes – frustrating for him because it meant he was beholden to aristocrats.

Brahms adored Vienna, and the Hapsburgs’ tolerance of different cultures of the Empire meant traditions such as Hungarian folk music were widespread and easy to assimilate.

The legacy of Napoleon, though, terrified the Hapsburgs and meant censorship under a police state, which music mostly escaped. The middle classes retreated into salons, which were ideal for the chamber music of Schubert. 

And of course there were the waltzes of the Strausses – although few audiences clapping along to the  Strauss senior’s Radetzky March realise it is a tribute to a general returning from a brutal campaign to put down a liberal uprising. Nevertheless, the city was also a ferment of art, philosophy and architecture in the galleries, coffee houses and the streets.

The clouds darkened as the 19th Century turned to the 20th. Among the anti-semitic crowds protesting at the appointment of Gustav Mahler as the  director of the Vienna Opera was Adolf Hitler. By 1914  the glory days were over.

Vienna’s legacy is a golden age for Romantic music, driven by its setting and  its cosmopolitan variety, as well as a ruling family that – whatever their other faults – revered music, and an aristocracy prepared to support musical genius.

Next lecture: National Treasures: Saving London’s Museums and Galleries in the Second World War at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 17 March. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our February Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Emma Johnson's lecture 
'Tales from Vienna'

Below are a couple of Emma's further reading recommendations:

Alice Hanson, Musical Life in Biedermeier Vienna

John Suchet, The Last Waltz:  the Strauss Dynasty and Vienna

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Here is her complete list, which also includes all the audio tracks from the lecture

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

The Arts Society Trustee Elections 2026

There will be two vacancies on the Trustee Board at the AGM 2026, which will be held on 25 June 2026. The Board is therefore inviting interested applicants who are members of local societies to submit their nominations.

For more information Click here

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

Secrets behind the Silver Screen: Magic, Myth and Movies of three Hollywood Greats: Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock

Lecturer: John Francis
Tuesday 03 March 2026
Stockcross Village Hall

Click here for further details

Private viewing and talk at Dreweatts

Monday 9 March 2026

Dreweatts has pleasure in welcoming TASN members to Donnington Priory in Newbury on Monday 9 March from 6-8pm for a private view and talk prior to the public view of the following auctions:

Dame Stephanie Shirley CH: A Legacy shaped by Technology, Philanthropy and Art on 10 March

To read about Dame Stephanie Shirley's extraordinary life Click here

Modern & Contemporary Art on 11 March

For more details, visit our website

Trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum
Tuesday 24 March 2026
This trip is fully booked.   Waiting list only. 
To join the waiting list contact Anna Manners (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Join us on this trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum, home of the Codebreakers.

We will travel by coach leaving Newbury Rugby Club at 9am. We should arrive back in Newbury around 5.30pm.

Click here for more details

Don Quixote Ballet at the Mayflower Theatre
Thursday 16 April 2026
This trip is fully booked.   Waiting list only.

Join us on this trip by coach to see the colourful ballet Don Quixote at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. The Arts Society Newbury has secured good stalls seats for a matinee performance on Thursday 16th April commencing at 2pm. Our coach will leave Newbury Rugby Club at 11am returning around 6.30pm.

Birmingham Royal Ballet performs the first revival of Director Carlos Acosta’s joyful production of Don Quixote inspired by Miguel de Cervantes classic novel.

Click here for more information

The Historic Houses, Art & Heritage of Northumbria
Sunday 10 May - Thursday 14 May 2026

Join us on this 5-day cultural tour of Northumbria, which includes:

• A visit to Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, home to England's best collection of Chippendale furniture
• A walking tour of Durham with a Blue Badge Guide
• A guided tour of the Bowes Museum, home to a large collection of fine and decorative paintings
• A tour of Alnwick Castle, the second largest inhabited castle in England, and Cragside House and Gardens, accompanied by our Blue Badge Guide
• A visit to the remains of Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island with our Blue Badge Guide

Click here for more details

The Delights of Western Sicily & Palermo
Friday 11 September - Wednesday 16 September 2026

Join us on this 6-day cultural tour of Western Sicily, which includes:

• A guided tour of Erice and its Duomo
• Trapani
• A guided tour of Segesta and its doric temple
• A guided tour of Palermo
• A guided tour of Monreale cathedral
• A guided tour of the Valley of the Temples
• Marsala
• A wine tour and tasting
• A boat trip to Mozia island and the museum of Mozia

Click here for more details.

If you require any further information contact Kay Sutton or Rosie Braithwaite (clicking on either of their names will generate an email for you)

Next Lecture

 Tuesday 17 March
at Newbury Rugby Club

'National Treasures: Saving London's Museums and Galleries in the Second World War'

Lecturer: Caroline Shenton

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. 

There will be two vacancies on the Trustee Board at the AGM 2026 which will be held on 25 June 2026. The Board is therefore inviting interested applicants who are members of local Societies to submit their nominations. 

Please click here to download the note confirming the Trustee vacancies and elected Trustees nomination process for 2026.

Please see the following information on the Trustee role, supporting information and nomination form:

• The Arts Society information for Trustee applicants
• The Arts Society Strategy 2025
• The Arts Society Trustees Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024
• The Articles of Association
• The Charity Commission Essential Trustee guidance
• Trustee Nomination Form (downloadable Word document)

Any Society members who are interested in the Trustee role should ensure they read and understand the requirements of the role (as supplied in the above information) and are eligible to be a Trustee. If there are queries about the Trustee role, there will be a drop-in session over Zoom with some of the current trustees on 19 March 2026 or you may contact: jeremyt@theartssociety.org or lesleyj@theartssociety.org.

The deadline for nominations to be submitted is 16 April 2026.  

The election results will be announced at the AGM on 25 June 2026.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: The Medieval Paradise Garden: Nature in Art and Architecture c. 1250-1500 by Dr Jonathan Foyle on Tuesday 20 January at Newbury Rugby Club. Review by Alan Childs.

For the medieval imagination the garden was more than a place of flowers and food plants.

It was a reflection of the Eden from which Adam and Eve were expelled – and conversely a symbol of the heaven and eternal life promised by the Church. And always in these two gardens the reminders of who to blame and who to praise – Eve the problem, Mary the solution.

That, Dr Jonathan Foyle told the Arts Society Newbury, illustrating his fascinating talk with the glories of Medieval Church Art, gives us the language to read the flower and fruit symbolism of medieval art as their viewers would have understood it. Paintings and church carvings are invitations and guides to meditation and prayer.

Central to the language, he said, was the image of the enclosed garden. The walled garden was for 500 years the very image of Mary’s undefiled womb. Within it, the Virgin offered the peace of Heaven, surrounded by symbols. The trefoil iris is her blue gown or cloak but also of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It becomes the Fleur de Lys, incorporated into royal coat of arms. The strawberry – heart-shaped and with seeds on the outside for purity and honesty. 

The paintings become legible with the consistent language of flowers and plants, said Dr Foyle. There are no allotments in Heaven, no need to earn bread by sweat.

There are marigolds – Mary’s gold – whose dew is the tears of lamentation, cowslips – St Peter’s five keys. If you see a goldfinch, its red head is a symbol of the Crucifixion.  

And the Tudor Rose – the symbol  of England – is more properly understood as the Mary Rose, and England as Mary’s island, with deeper resonance for the medieval mind than any secular branding of a dynasty. 

Something to think about as you sharpen the pruning shears.

Next lecture: Tales from Vienna at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 17 Febuary. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our January Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Jonathan Foyle's lecture 
'The Medieval Paradise Garden: Nature in Art and Architecture c. 1250-1500'

We apologise for the poor screen visibility for this lecture, and can assure you that there will be additional screens in future.

Below are Jonathan's further reading recommendations:

Celia Fisher Flowers of the Renaissance  

A little heavier, but rewarding, is John Williamson The Oak King, the Holly King and the Unicorn: Myths and Symbolism of the Unicorn Tapestries

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

TASN SECRETARY

The Arts Society Newbury is looking for a member to take on the role of Secretary from Gwynedd Roberts who will stand down next summer after four years in the role. It isn’t a particularly time consuming role; it mainly involves preparing the agenda and taking the Minutes at our 10 monthly committee meetings. By taking on the role early, Gwynedd’s replacement will be able to learn what’s involved by working alongside her up until next July’s AGM. Perhaps this may appeal to one of our new members? If this is something you’d like to find out more about, please contact the Chair, Stephen Howis, to find out more. Clicking on Stephen's name will generate an email for you.

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

Secrets behind the Silver Screen: Magic, Myth and Movies of three Hollywood Greats: Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock

Lecturer: John Francis
Tuesday 03 March 2026
Stockcross Village Hall

Click here for further details

Private viewing and talk at Dreweatts
Monday 09 March 2026

Dreweatts has pleasure in welcoming TASN members to Donnington Priory in Newbury on Monday 9 March from 6-8pm for a private view and talk prior to the public view of the following auctions:

Dame Stephanie Shirley CH: A Legacy shaped by Technology, Philanthropy and Art on 10 March

To read about Dame Stephanie Shirley's extraordinary life Click here

Modern & Contemporary Art on 11 March

For more details, visit our website

Don Quixote Ballet at the Mayflower Theatre
Thursday 16 April 2026

Join us on this trip by coach to see the colourful ballet Don Quixote at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. The Arts Society Newbury has secured good stalls seats for a matinee performance on Thursday 16th April commencing at 2pm. Our coach will leave Newbury Rugby Club at 11am returning around 6.30pm.

Birmingham Royal Ballet performs the first revival of Director Carlos Acosta’s joyful production of Don Quixote inspired by Miguel de Cervantes classic novel.

Click here for more information.

The Historic Houses, Art & Heritage of Northumbria
Sunday 10 May - Thursday 14 May 2026

Join us on this 5-day cultural tour of Northumbria, which includes:

• A visit to Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, home to England's best collection of Chippendale furniture
• A walking tour of Durham with a Blue Badge Guide
• A guided tour of the Bowes Museum, home to a large collection of fine and decorative paintings
• A tour of Alnwick Castle, the second largest inhabited castle in England, and Cragside House and Gardens, accompanied by our Blue Badge Guide
• A visit to the remains of Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island with our Blue Badge Guide
• Click here for more details.

Exhibition at Whitchurch Silk Mill: Jane Sanders - Visible Threads
6 December 2025 - 22 February 2026

Textile artist Jane Sanders brings her captivating new exhibition, “Visible Threads”, to the historic Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire, England. Known for her intricately stitched portraits of iconic musicians, Sanders uses her vintage 1960s Singer sewing machine to create a fusion of music, mixed media and textile craftsmanship. 

For more information click here

Trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum
Tuesday 24 March 2026
This trip is fully booked.   Waiting list only. 
To join the waiting list contact Anna Manners (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Join us on this trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum, home of the Codebreakers.

We will travel by coach leaving Newbury Rugby Club at 9am. We should arrive back in Newbury around 5.30pm.

Click here for more details

Next Lecture

 Tuesday 17 February
at Newbury Rugby Club

'Tales from Vienna'

Lecturer: Emma Johnson

Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Schoenberg – it reads like a list of the great and good in classical music – but the amazing thing is that every one of these musical geniuses lived and worked in Vienna. 

With slides showing Viennese art and architecture as well as audio excerpts by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Johann Strauss and Mahler, this lecture brings Vienna in its heyday to life.

Textile artist Jane Sanders brings her captivating new exhibition, “Visible Threads”, to the historic Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire, England. Known for her intricately stitched portraits of iconic musicians, Sanders uses her vintage 1960s Singer sewing machine to create a fusion of music, mixed media and textile craftsmanship.  

“Visible Threads” showcases Sanders’ unique style of blending appliqué, embroidery and beading, portraying various musical icons through textiles. Each piece is a vibrant, tactile tribute that captures not only the spirit of the musician but also tells their story.  

A graduate of The Salisbury College of Art and Design and Northumbria University, Sanders has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally. Her work has been featured in Mojo Music Magazine, Be Creative Magazine, Grayson Perry’s Art Club, Channel 4, BBC Look North, and more. She was shortlisted for the Fine Art Textiles Award (FATA) IN 2022 and has a portrait in the permanent collection of The Tenby Museum and Art Gallery.  

The exhibition is hosted at Whitchurch Silk Mill, the UK’s oldest working silk mill, nestled on the River Test. With over 200 years of weaving heritage, the Mill provides a fitting backdrop for Sanders’ contemporary textile art. Visitors can explore the exhibition within the Mill’s historic setting, where 19th-century looms are still in production, and enjoy the riverside café and gardens.  

Whether you’re an art lover, music enthusiast, or simply curious about textile art, “Visible Threads” promises an inspiring and unforgettable experience in one of Hampshire’s most treasured heritage sites.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism became a Cold War Secret Agent by James Vaux on Tuesday 18 November Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

Control glared at Smiley. “Tell me, George” he  said. “Are our Central Intelligence Agency cousins really funding this modernist art to convince Europe’s Lefties to vote for capitalism?”

Smiley hesitated. “Research thinks it likely, Control, though the evidence is patchy. They certainly covertly funded one of the art exhibitions in what they call “The battle for Picasso’s mind."

Control grunted. “This is the Fifties” he said. “Even so, I can’t see Karla enjoying  this Pill….”

“Pollock” corrected Smiley. “Jackson. Abstract expressionist. Plus a whole range of ‘isms’ trying to express the tragedy of the times,” he added. 

“To sum up,” said Control. “America thinks World War Three is coming any second, US artists are going ‘abstract’ to hide any Lefty past, and the place is in a funk about Reds.

“The CIA wants to convince the European artists still clinging to Stalin – despite his belief that a bullet is art criticism – that America is a cultured country where an artist can paint what he likes, rather than state-endorsed rosy-cheeked girls in billowing wheatfields…” 

“Socialist realism” interjected Smiley “…but they can’t do it openly because 1) Euro-lefties would run screaming back to Uncle Joe if they thought they were being conned by Uncle Sam 2) the artists - ex-Communists, fellow travellers and drunks - would kick up a stink and 3) a McCarthyite Congress would scream about how their tax dollars were spent. So the cousins use philanthropists as a front.”

Smiley nodded. “But probably” he said “it’s the mass-produced modernist furniture and the clean lines of the International Style in architecture and the home that’s going to win over Russians."

“From now on” he added, “we must check the hidden hand behind any exhibition, to ask who’s funding it, and why.”

Control smiled mirthlessly. “Modernism as a secret agent” he said. “Excellent. Much better than that Bond chap."

Next lecture: The Medieval Paradise Garden: Nature in Art and Architecture circa 1250-1500 at Newbury Rugby Club on Tuesday 20 January. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our November Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed James Vaux's lecture 'Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism became a Cold War Secret Agent' Below are James's further reading recommendations:

Anna Moszynska, Abstract Art 
Greg Castillo, Cold War on the Home Front – The Soft Power of Midcentury Design
Joes Segal,  Art and Politics. Between Purity and Propaganda
Serge Guilbaut, How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art. Abstract Expressionism, Freedom and the Cold War

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Don't forget that we will be moving to Newbury Rugby Club in January 2026!
All lectures will be at Newbury Rugby Club, Monks Lane, Newbury RG14 7RW.   
There is parking for up to 350 cars on level ground. 
We will continue to offer lectures via Zoom as well as in person at the Rugby Club 

TASN SECRETARY

The Arts Society Newbury is looking for a member to take on the role of Secretary from Gwynedd Roberts who will stand down next summer after four years in the role. It isn’t a particularly time consuming role; it mainly involves preparing the agenda and taking the Minutes at our 10 monthly committee meetings. By taking on the role early, Gwynedd’s replacement will be able to learn what’s involved by working alongside her up until next July’s AGM. Perhaps this may appeal to one of our new members? If this is something you’d like to find out more about, please contact the Chair, Stephen Howis, or Gwynedd Roberts, to find out more. Clicking on either name will generate an email for you.

Seasonal Gathering at St Mary’s Church, Speen

Tuesday 9th December at 2pm

Join us for festive readings and carols at St Mary’s Church, with wine and mince pies afterwards.

The afternoon will commence with a short talk on the role of the church recording team who are currently working at St Mary the Virgin, Speen. This will be followed by a selection of festive readings and carols.

For more information Click here

The Historic Houses, Art & Heritage of Northumbria

Sunday 10 May - Thursday 14 May 2026

Join us on this 5-day cultural tour of Northumbria, which includes:

• A visit to Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, home to England's best collection of Chippendale furniture
• A walking tour of Durham with a Blue Badge Guide
• A guided tour of the Bowes Museum, home to a large collection of fine and decorative paintings
• A tour of Alnwick Castle, the second largest inhabited castle in England, and Cragside House and Gardens, accompanied by our Blue Badge Guide
• A visit to the remains of Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island with our Blue Badge Guide 
• Click here for more details

Exhibition at Whitchurch Silk Mill: Jane Sanders - Visible Threads

6 December 2025 - 22 February 2026

Textile artist Jane Sanders brings her captivating new exhibition, “Visible Threads”, to the historic Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire, England. Known for her intricately stitched portraits of iconic musicians, Sanders uses her vintage 1960s Singer sewing machine to create a fusion of music, mixed media and textile craftsmanship.

For more information Click here

Trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum

Tuesday 24 March 2026

This trip is fully booked. If sufficient members join the waiting list we will try to obtain more tickets
To join the waiting list contact Anna Manners (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Join us on this trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum, home of the Codebreakers.

We will travel by coach leaving Newbury Rugby Club at 9am. We should arrive back in Newbury around 5.30pm.

Click here for more details

Next Lecture

 Tuesday 20th January

at Newbury Rugby Club

'The Medieval Paradise Garden: Nature in Art and Architecture

c. 1250-1500'

Lecturer: Jonathan Foyle

Have you noticed how many medieval paintings are set in May? The language of plants evolved over the centuries to create a lexicon of creation that paved the way to Paradise, a perennial early summer where all the flowers and all the fruits emerge at the same time - but each tells us something different.

This lecture explores paintings, tapestry, manuscripts, and architectural sculpture to re-learn a lost language that spans the medieval arts.

The Arts Society Newbury Team wish all our Members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
We look forward to meeting up again on 20th January 2026 for our first lecture at Newbury Rugby Football Club

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Artemisia Gentileschi: Daughter of Rome, Painter of Europe by Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe on Tuesday 21 October at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

She didn’t paint kittens or flowers, Artemisia Gentileschi. Pictures of the biblical Judith, hacking off the head of her people’s enemy Holofernes, certainly, several times. A woman driving a tent peg into the head of a defeated sleeping general, check. But not kittens or flowers.

Famous just after her death – probably shortly after 1564 -  Gentileschi was written out of art history, Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe told The Arts Society Newbury in an exuberant tour of her life and work. Some of her skilled paintings were attributed to Caravaggio, other critics just refused to believe a woman was capable of such power until she was recovered by the feminist 1970s as an icon.

Born in 1593 in Rome to a painter father, she worked in his studio and became far better than him and her brothers, despite being limited by strict Papal rules to her house and the nearby church. When she was raped by her mentor – another painter – she defied convention and sued him, not for the rape but because her family honour had been reduced. Tortured in court, (a kind of cross examination with thumbscrews), she won her case.

Married off to a minor painter - another ne’er-do-well – she moved to Florence, and flourished, learning to read and write, and becoming a friend of Galileo. 

Back to Rome in 1621 – without husband – where she painted the astonishingly detailed Judith and her Maidservant – another headless Holofernes. With a wicked chuckle Ms Brotherton-Radcliffe suggested that the desire for a dominatrix was the reason men kept buying pictures by a woman of women hurting men.

A late portrait of her shows a matronly figure with a double chin, said Ms Brotherton-Radcliffe, with a dull end to of her career. She ran a huge studio, painting without drama “but was only asked to do women with not many clothes on”.

Next lecture: James Vaux: Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism became a Cold War Secret Agent on Tuesday 18 November. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

The Mayor of Newbury has issued an invitation to the membership of The Arts Society Newbury to submit a design for the 2025 Mayor of Newbury’s Christmas card.

The Mayor of Newbury’s Christmas card is sent to those who they have worked closely with throughout their time in office, as well as charities, organisations, twin towns and civic dignitaries. This year the Mayor of Newbury, Cllr Andy Moore, would like his Christmas Card to capture the spirit of Newbury at Christmas.

The design will be produced as this year’s mayoral Christmas card and will be sent to more than 300 recipients.

If any member would like to submit a design, please can they do so by Friday 21st November. Designs can be sent to mayor@newbury.gov.uk

The criteria for the design is:

The size of the card must be A5

A design which depicts Newbury and Christmas

Appropriate for printing and distribution to important dignitaries

The design must be for the front of the card only; no requirement for the inside or the back of the card to be created

All mediums can be used to produce the card, although we ask for no glitter or any mediums that give a foiled reflect, relief or cut-outs.

The Mayor wants to give credit to the designer; so please provide your name and email address or contact number. Please also specify if you would be happy for your name to be included on the back of the card.

If you require any further information please contact the Mayor's office (clicking on this link will create an email for you)

Welcome to our October Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe's lecture on
Artemesia Gentileschi

Below are Chantal's further reading recommendations:

Artemisia by Alexandra Lapierre

Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art by Christopher R. Marshall

Artemisia Gentileschi (Illuminating Women Artists) by Sheila Barker

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

TASN SECRETARY
The Arts Society Newbury is looking for a member to take on the role of Secretary from Gwynedd Roberts who will stand down next summer after four years in the role. It isn’t a particularly time consuming role; it mainly involves preparing the agenda and taking the Minutes at our 10 monthly committee meetings. By taking on the role early, Gwynedd’s replacement will be able to learn what’s involved by working alongside her up until next July’s AGM. Perhaps this may appeal to one of our new members? If this is something you’d like to find out more about, please contact the Chair, Stephen Howis, or Gwynedd Roberts, to find out more. Clicking on either name will generate an email for you.

Thursday 13th November 2025

Comic Confusion! Charley's Aunt at the Watermill Theatre

Sold out - waiting list only

Click here to join waiting list

Seasonal Gathering at St Mary’s Church, Speen

 Tuesday 9th December at 2pm

Join us for festive readings and carols at St Mary’s Church, with wine and mince pies afterwards.
 
The afternoon will commence with a short talk on the role of the church recording team who are currently working at St Mary the Virgin, Speen. This will be followed by a selection of festive readings and carols.

For more information Click here

Donation to the Old Library Campaign

The Arts Society Newbury has made a donation of £500 in support of the Corn Exchange Newbury's campaign to transform the Old Library on Cheap Street into a vibrant accessible hub where people of all ages can participate in projects designed to reduce social isolation, build confidence and improve mental health - all through the power of the arts

Click here for more details (you will need to scroll down in the left-hand column to find this item)

Trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum

Tuesday 24 March 2026

Join us on this trip by coach to Bletchley Park Museum, home of the Codebreakers.

We will travel by coach leaving Newbury Rugby Club at 9am. We should arrive back in Newbury around 5.30pm

Booking will open in early November

Click here for more details

Next Lecture

 Tuesday 18th November

'Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism became a Cold War Secret Agent'

Lecturer: James Vaux

This lecture reveals how the USA covertly used both Modernist design and Abstract Expressionism as cold war tools against the Soviet Bloc in the 1950s. In one of the most curious stories in art history, it explores how America's new artists were unwittingly weaponised by the CIA and how Mid-Century Modern design was used in European exhibitions...to demonstrate American cultural superiority to wavering intellectuals. 

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Sir Anthony Van Dyck by Rosalind Whyte on Tuesday 23 September at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

When a group of apprentices in Peter Paul Ruben’s studio damaged one of the great painter’s work with after-hours high jinks, there was a bit of a panic before one of them was called on to fix the damage.

The young Anthony van Dyck did it so well the great man didn’t spot it before the apprentices confessed, and Rubens was so impressed he forgave them all, lecturer  Rosalind Whyte  told the Arts Society Newbury in the inaugural lecture of the season.

And so was launched the career of the a Flemish painter destined to become one of the first superstar artists in England when, in 1632, he was lured by King Charles I to settle permanently as a court painter for 10 times the salary of the incumbent, although, said Ms Whyte, there is doubt as to whether he got paid that much. He did get a house and knighthood.

The cost to van Dyck, born in 1599, may have been too high, though, because his death in 1641, is often attributed to overwork, as his job included providing material for court masques as well as paintings for an art-obsessed king.

There was also, perhaps, the strain of making the very short king look regal and commanding in poses that were royal propaganda. His amazing skill with materials – particularly silk – was prized in an era when the Quality posed in finery. He was popular with the aristocracy also, said Ms Whyte, for presenting  the vitality and spirit of his sitters. Their hands, even, were not always anatomically correct so the lengthened fingers implied elegance and grace.

His impact on British painting and portraiture was phenomenal, said Ms Whyte, as she showed a series of his works, including the famous “Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart” in their foppish dress, and illustrated van Dyck’s influence with works by Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent.

Next lecture: Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe: Artemisia Gentileschi: Daughter of Rome, Painter of Europe on Tuesday 21 October. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Wessex Downs Gallery Launch

Saturday 4th of October from 11.00am-4pm

The Arts Society Newbury has been asked to promote this event to which its members are invited.

Wessex Downs Gallery is artist run and led, and will showcase local talent allowing art lovers to access excellent local art on their doorstep. This not for profit gallery launch takes place at Westridge Studio, Highclere, RG20 9QS 

The gallery will be serving tea/coffee, cold drinks and some sweet treats, and art lovers are very welcome to come and browse and enjoy the atmosphere of the beautiful converted former chapel which is the perfect backdrop for the exhibition.

Seven artists will show, with contemporary works in a range of styles and mediums. Each artist has been selected and their art curated to ensure an excellent show.

The Arts Society Newbury has made a donation of £500 in support of the Corn Exchange Newbury's campaign to transform the Old Library on Cheap Street into a vibrant accessible hub where people of all ages can participate in projects designed to reduce social isolation, build confidence and improve mental health - all through the power of the arts.

The Newbury Free Library opened in May 1906, one of thousands worldwide funded by Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and public subscription. For almost 100 years it was the town's refuge for readers.

When the library finally closed in 2000 it was reborn as a Prezzo restaurant until it fell quiet again in 2018 when the restaurant left.

However, the building never stopped belonging to the people of Newbury. The Greenham Common Trust purchased the Old Library and leased it to the Corn Exchange, spending money renovating the building, including new windows and guttering, a refurbished roof and making it watertight.

The intention is to offer opportunities for people to connect with others, explore creativity and learn new skills to support mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Thanks to generous supporters, the campaign has raised £1.1m so far, but the Corn Exchange is continuing with its campaign to raise the final £100,000 to fit out the building.

The Old Library will have two engagement spaces, one of which will be a flexible studio theatre and a cafe bar. When complete, the mezzanine will have fixed seating for 40 in addition to the 60 retractable seats in the main space below.

For our donation of £500, The Arts Society Newbury will have a plaque engraved with its name fixed to one of the brand new seats (C6 in the stalls) in the Old Library studio theatre. This plaque wiill remain in place for 5 years.

The Arts Society Newbury is delighted to offer support to this campaign to reopen an historic building as a space devoted to using creative activity to improve the emotional, physical and mental wellbeing of the community.

Welcome to our September Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Rosalind Whyte's lecture on
Sir Anthony Van Dyck

Below are Rosalind's further reading recommendations:

Robin Blake: Anthony Van Dyck: A Life 1599-1641

Christopher Brown: Van Dyck 1599-1641

Karen Hearn: Van Dyck and Britain 

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Programme Card for 2025/26

The Arts Society Newbury is very grateful to Dreweatts for generously agreeing to continue its sponsorship of the printing and distribution costs of the Programme and Membership Card for 2025/2026

Established in 1759, Dreweatts is a leading UK auction house renowned for its leadership in Single-Owner collections and Country House sales, with specialist departments covering Furniture and Works of Art, Old Masters, Modern and Contemporary Art, Asian and European Ceramics, Jewellery, Silver, Luxury Accessories, Wine and Clocks.

Dreweatts is holding two arts-based auctions this autumn:

Modern & Contemporary Art on 29th October

Old Master, British and European Art on 4th November

Auctions go on view at their picturesque country house salerooms at Donnington Priory usually from the Sunday before the auctions.

Visit dreweatts.com to view the auctions online, including a page turning catalogue.

Enquiries: pictures@dreweatts.com Tel: 01635-553553

Dreweatts offers free valuation services, including online valuations, virtual appointments, valuation days in Newbury and London, and home visits by appointment

For further information on the services offered by Dreweatts Click Here

Saturday 4th October 11am-4pm

New Art Gallery & pop-up art exhibition for Newbury and North Hants

For more details of this event at the Wessex Downs Gallery Click here

Tuesday 21st October 2025

New Members Meet & Greet

Please join The Arts Society Newbury Team for tea, coffee and biscuits on the mezzanine floor at Arlington Arts Centre  

We shall be there to welcome new Morning Members from 9.45am and new Afternoon Members from 1pm

Donation to City Arts Newbury

The Arts Society Newbury has made a donation of £500 to City Arts Newbury towards the organisation's Arts Shed Make-and-Take sessions for younger children

For full details Click here

Thursday 23rd October

Trip by coach to see Sir Grayson Perry's Delusions of Grandeur exhibition

Join us on a trip to The Wallace Collection to see this exciting exhibition, which marks the artist's 65th birthday

Waiting list only

For more information Click here

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Special Interest Day

King Charles III his Forbears and their Artistic Tastes

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

This Study Day, held at Stockcross village hall, examines the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 13th November 2025

Comic Confusion! Charley's Aunt at the Watermill Theatre

Join us on this self-drive visit to the Watermill Theatre to see a matinee performance of this riotous farce. Lunch before the performance is included

Last few tickets available. These can be booked via Ticket Tailor or at October's lecture

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 21st October 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Artemisia Gentileschi: Daughter of Rome, Painter of Europe

Lecturer: Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe

This lecture considers Artemisia's training in the very male world of the roman studio, and explores her skills in painting in a style which is both individual but which also put her in the forefront wherever in Europe she found herself working.

From Old Masters to young talent, the Newbury arts community is enjoying a double celebration.

The Arts Society Newbury, which has just had its 50th anniversary, has donated £500 to City Arts Newbury, which is this year marking 10 years of delivering art in the heart of the community.

This donation will go towards the organisation’s Art Shed Make and Take sessions, an after-school activity that provides an opportunity for younger children to get creative, try something new, and create something to take home.

The Arts Society each year gives away £500 to a local group, with the focus on arts-based projects. It has made donations to schools, and last year enabled the Newbury branch of Mencap to purchase a 3D printer.

The Arts Society’s Chair, Stephen Howis, and Treasurer, Lanna Childs, visited City Arts recently and were hugely impressed by the range of activities the Hampton Road charity offers and its outreach into the local community. 

The Arts Society Newbury, whose grant of £250 is matched by a £250 contribution from its head office, is delighted to see the funds put to such good use.

One of the founders of City Arts Newbury Isabel Carmona Andreu, said: “City Arts thanks The Arts Society Newbury for their generous grant, making our Autumn 2025 Art Shed Make-and-Take sessions possible. Their support enriches creative opportunities for children in a welcoming, inspiring environment. We value this collaboration with a like-minded arts-focused society, enabling us to keep offering affordable sessions for youngsters”.

The sessions being funded run from September 12. They include an autumn themed session, two ceramic based sessions with different artists to coincide with our September ceramics event, a mosaic Hallowe’en-themed session, and one making large Christmas stars.

Full details can be found at https://cityartsnewbury.org/2025/08/12/art-shed-at-city-arts-sep25-july26/

The Arts Society Newbury programme can be found at the artssocietynewbury.org.uk

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: The De Beers Diamond Cartel: Romancing the Stone by Laurie Wickwire on Tuesday 15 July at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

Diamonds, sang Marilyn Monroe, are a girl’s best friend. But their elevation to a symbol of eternity and love is a far murkier and less romantic story.

From being a genuinely rare jewel that adorned empresses and queens, diamonds suddenly became plentiful – but kept their value because of one controlling company, diamond expert Laurie Wickwire told the Arts Society Newbury in a fascinating final lecture of the season.

The discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1866 triggered a “Diamond Stampede”, attracting 50,000 fortune hunters, sending the price plummeting.

Enter one Cecil Rhodes - imperialist. Backed by the Rothschilds he persuaded most of the miners to sell only to him. By 1888 he had 90 per cent of the diamond production and a new company, De Beers, named after two South African brothers who were fed up trying to keep the miners off their farm and were looking to make money another way. De Beers became a monopoly, buying up the production and controlling the release of diamonds to keep the price high. 

Then Henry Oppenheimer persuaded the company to sell to wealthy Americans with the message that diamonds were not only a symbol of love, but an indication of how good a provider they were, as well, crucially, as a sign of timelessness.

The advertising slogan “Diamonds are Forever” changed the rules of romance, said Ms Wickwire. Young people Japan and India were wooed into giving up their traditional rituals of courtship by a Western company.

But the days of control, when any complainers were punished with exclusion or duff diamonds, is ending, said Ms Wire, as antitrust laws and lab-grown diamonds dig away at De Beers’ monopoly. Recently the company made jewellery for the first time as it diversified.

The romantic legacy lingers on, even if that diamond engagement ring you just bought for love is really more a symbol of an imperialist, a monopoly capitalist and an inspired advertising copywriter.

Next lecture: Rosalind Whyte: Sir Anthony Van Dyck on Tuesday September 23. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our July Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Laurie Wickwire's lecture: The De Beers Diamond Cartel: Romancing the Stone

Below are Laurie's further reading recommendations:

The Last Empire: De Beers, Diamonds, and the World by Stefan Kanfer

Diamonds: Their History, Sources, Qualities and Benefits by Renee Newman

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

IT'S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Annual Subscription fees (September to July) 

Our annual subscription is unchanged at £60 per person or £115 joint membership for two people living at the same address 

Our service recharge fee for 2025-26 to Head Office is £16.20. This fee is included in your annual subscription

Click here for the renewal form to renew your subscription. You only need to fill in the form if your address, email, or phone number has changed.

If there are no changes you just need to pay. Please enter your own last name in the reference field on the bank account otherwise we do not know who has paid.

Cheques are accepted. If you wish to pay by cheque please put your postcode on the reverse and send to: Membership Secretary,
2 Valley Road, Burghfield Common, RG7 3NF

Thursday 18th September 2025

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Join us on a grand day out by coach to Boughton House, near Kettering, one of Britain’s finest stately homes.

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 23rd October

Trip by coach to see Sir Grayson Perry's Delusions of Grandeur exhibition

Join us on a trip to The Wallace Collection to see this exciting exhibition, which marks the artist's 65th birthday

For more information Click here

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Special Interest Day

King Charles III his Forbears and their Artistic Tastes

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

This Study Day, held at Stockcross village hall, examines the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 13th November 2025

Comic Confusion! Charley's Aunt at the Watermill Theatre

Join us on this self-drive visit to the Watermill Theatre to see a matinee performance of this riotous farce. Lunch before the performance is included

Tickets for this event have to be paid for or returned to The Watermill Theatre by 21st August. If you wish to book tickets it would be appreciated if you could do so ASAP via Ticket Tailor

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 23rd September 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Sir Anthony Van Dyck

Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte

This lecture looks at the life and works of Van Dyck, focusing particularly on works produced during his period in England

The team at TASN wish all members a very enjoyable summer break and look forward to meeting up again in September

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Treasures of the Turf: The fine and decorative arts of horseracing by Christopher Garibaldi on Tuesday 17 June at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

Three thousand years of horse racing went past at a gallop as expert Christopher Garibaldi led the Newbury Arts Society through the art it has inspired since ancient days up to the first Newbury race card in 1905

The Greeks made it part of the Olympics and a prize vase from 648 BCE shows the jockeys riding naked and bareback without stirrups. A stunning bronze from 323-1 is so detailed it highlights the hair around the hoof. The Romans coped the Greeks with the sport – although with clothes - and created races in Colchester, York and London.

It was towards the end of the 1500s that modern racing began, Mr Garibaldi said: one strand with  sponsored prize money, and the other as private wagers. The courses were long – often 8 miles – and had heats, so the horses often ran them at least twice.

Charles II – a race-winning rider himself – established Newmarket to ensure a supply of cavalry horses. Politics occasionally intruded – Cromwell banned racing because it could be a gathering place for Royalists, and paintings of meetings after the death of Charles II subtly pictured the new king as a Catholic sympathiser.

Fine art paintings of the best horses commissioned by proud owners still grace museums and stately homes, and a trade grew up in portraiture, particularly through the work of George Stubbs. The question of whether all four hooves left the ground in a gallop was correctly answered, said Mr Garibaldi, by a French anatomist, but his explanation was so convoluted that Stubbs misunderstood it to mean that front and back legs were extended. Everybody else followed his example.

Steeplechasing was late on the scene as enclosures put more obstacles into the countryside, and Mr Garibaldi showed drawings of midnight point-to-points with riders in nightshirts and top hats jumping hedges by lantern light. But at least they were wearing clothes.

Next lecture: Laurie Wickwire: The De Beers Diamond Cartel: Romancing the Stone on Tuesday July 15. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

The Arts Society Newbury is on the move in 2026!

Message from the Chair

If you attended our June lectures or listened via Zoom you will know that we are on the move. However, for those that were unable to attend, we want to let you know about our exciting plans for 2026.

As some of you may know Mary Hare School have plans to redevelop their site and they informed us earlier this year that they would not be able to renew our contract as of January 2026 unless we could arrange to hold all our lectures during school holidays and evenings. This is not a viable option.

We have therefore arranged to re-locate to Newbury Rugby Club, which many of you will be familiar with as our coach trips depart from there. It is on the south side of Newbury on Monks Lane. The rugby club hire out their facilities to several other community groups and we are delighted that they can accommodate us in the Wickens Suite. This is a great venue with parking for up to 350 cars on level ground, which I know will please many of you! We will continue to offer lectures via Zoom as well as in person at the Rugby Club. Click here for a map of the location of Newbury Rugby Club.

Amazingly, we have held our monthly lectures at Arlington Arts Centre for some 17 years, but in view of Mary Hare’s redevelopment plans and also the difficulties in parking, particularly over the winter months, it is time for a change.

Just to recap; the first 3 lectures of the new membership year i.e. September, October and November 2025 will continue to be held at Arlington but from January 2026 we will hold our lectures at The Newbury Rugby Club.

If you have any questions about the move please contact us via the following email: info@theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Kate Harwood
Chair

Welcome to our June Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Christopher Garibaldi's lecture: Treasures of the Turf: The fine and decorative arts of horseracing

Below are Christopher's further reading recommendations:

David Oldrey, Tim Cox and Richard Nash, The Heath and The Horse (London: Philip Wilson, 2016)
•
Roger Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing (London, Macmillan, 1972)
•
John Fairley, Great Racehorses in Art (Phaidon Press, 1984)
•
Nicholas Clee, Eclipse, The Horse that Changed Racing History Forever

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Tuesday 15th July 2025

Self-Drive Visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens Post AGM

Join us, after the AGM and lecture, on this self-drive visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens situated in the heart of the Test Valley and only five minutes from the local market town of Stockbridge.

Waiting list only

For full details on the website Click here

IT'S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Annual Subscription fees (September to July) 

Our annual subscription is unchanged at £60 per person or £115 joint membership for two people living at the same address 

Our service recharge fee for 2025-26 to Head Office is £16.20. This fee is included in your annual subscription

Click here for the renewal form to renew your subscription. You only need to fill in the form if your address, email, or phone number has changed.

If there are no changes you just need to pay. Please enter your own last name in the reference field on the bank account otherwise we do not know who has paid.

Cheques are accepted. If you wish to pay by cheque please put your postcode on the reverse and send to: Membership Secretary,
2 Valley Road, Burghfield Common, RG7 3NF

Thursday 18th September 2025

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Join us on a grand day out by coach to Boughton House, near Kettering, one of Britain’s finest stately homes.

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 23rd October

Trip by coach to see Sir Grayson Perry's Delusions of Grandeur exhibition

Join us on a trip to The Wallace Collection to see this exciting exhibition, which marks the artist's 65th birthday

For more information Click here

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Special Interest Day

King Charles III his Forbears and their Artistic Tastes

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

This Study Day, held at Stockcross village hall, examines the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 13th November 2025

Comic Confusion! Charley's Aunt at the Watermill Theatre

Join us on this self-drive visit to the Watermill Theatre to see a matinee performance of this riotous farce. Lunch before the performance is included

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 15th July 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom after the AGM

The morning lecture is followed by the visit to Houghton Lodge. There is no afternoon lecture

The De Beers Diamond Cartel: Romancing the Stone

Lecturer: Laurie Wickwire

This lecture looks at how one company came to control the world's flow of diamonds into the marketplace for over a century

Welcome to our May Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Amanda Herries' lecture: Opium: Seduction, Greed, Art

Below are Amanda's further reading recommendations:

Smoke and Ashes: Amitav Ghosh

Opium and Empire: Richard J Grace

Opium, a history: Martin Booth

Milk of Paradise: Lucy Inglis

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Friday 6th June 2025

Private viewing and talk at Dreweatts

Dreweatts, our sponsor, has very kindly invited TASN members to Donnington Priory, Newbury, on Friday 6th June from 6-8pm for a private view and talk prior to the public view of the following auctions:

 Old Master, British and European Art on the 11th June
Fine Jewellery on the 12th June

There is no charge for this event

Waiting list only

For full details on the website Click here

Tuesday 15th July 2025

Self-Drive Visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens Post AGM

Join us, after the AGM and lecture, on this self-drive visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens situated in the heart of the Test Valley and only five minutes from the local market town of Stockbridge.

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 18th September 2025

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Join us on a grand day out by coach to Boughton House, near Kettering, one of Britain’s finest stately homes.

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 23rd October

Trip by coach to see Sir Grayson Perry's Delusions of Grandeur exhibition

Join us on a trip to The Wallace Collection to see this exciting exhibition, which marks the artist's 65th birthday

For more information Click here

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Special Interest Day

King Charles III his Forbears and their Artistic Tastes

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

This Study Day, held at Stockcross village hall, examines the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 17th June 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Treasures of the Turf: The fine and decorative arts of horseracing

Lecturer: Christopher Garibaldi

This lecture looks at the development of horseracing in this country through its associated cultural material.

There will be two vacancies on the Trustee Board at the AGM 2025 which will be held on 16 September 2025. The Board is therefore inviting interested applicants who are members of local Societies to submit their nominations. 

Please Click here for the note confirming the Trustee vacancies and elected Trustees nomination process for 2025.

Please see the following information on the Trustee role, supporting information and nomination form:

• Click here for information for Trustee applicants
• Click here for The Arts Society Strategy 2025
• Click here for The Arts Society Trustees Annual Report and Financial Statements 2023
• Click here for The Articles of Association
• Click here for The Charity Commission Essential Trustee Guidance
• Click here for the Trustee Nomination Form 

Any Society members who are interested in the Trustee role should ensure they read and understand the requirements of the role (as supplied in the above information) and are eligible to be a Trustee. If there are queries about the Trustee role, please contact: jeremyt@theartssociety.org or lesleyj@theartssociety.org.

The deadline for nominations to be submitted is 7 July 2025.  

There will be a drop-in session on Zoom on 28th May to enable any member interested in standing for election to meet some of the current trustees. Please contact jenny@theartssociety.org for more details. 

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Betty Joel: Glamour and Innovation in 1930s Design by Clive Stewart-Lockhart on Tuesday 15 April at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs.

There was no nonsense about Betty Joel. When her carpenter husband failed to sell some furniture he had made, she told him it was because it wasn’t very good. So she designed some herself.

From then on, Betty Joel was at the forefront of the British Art Deco movement in furniture, rugs, interior design of all kinds – for banks and churches, homes and offices, Clive Stewart-Lockhart told the Arts Society Newbury.

The Great War was over and things were changing for women. There were fewer housemaids, and middle class women needed different things for their home – such as electric fires to replace the girl who carried the coal.

In 1925 art deco was, Joel wrote “a whole new world”.

She brought fabrics and colours from Paris, she was the first person in England to sell Chanel No 5 perfume, her factory  produced an enormous amount of furniture, and she designed sets for film and theatre, as well as for individual clients. Her attention to detail was “almost mad” said Mr Stewart Lockhart, such as the rounded inside corners of drawers, so dust would not collect.

Although surrounded by men – she employed 80 at her factory – she was always in control. Her stands at the Ideal Home exhibitions were sited and designed to attract women, and a small gift was sent to every girl whose engagement was announced in The Times.

Although she is almost unknown now, 1000 people went to see the flat she furnished for advertising, and her name was used to sell other products – such as the “Betty Joel designed “ radiogram. 

Then the world changed again. In 1939 she left the business  and never designed another thing. 

Even in her long retirement, Betty Joel remained the feisty modern woman. Aged 80 and invited to tea at the Victoria and Albert Museum, she harangued the director for 20 minutes because one of her rugs on display had been cleaned incorrectly.

Next lecture: Amanda Herries: Opium: Seduction, Greed, Art on Tuesday May 20. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our April Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Clive Stewart-Lockhart's lecture: Betty Joel: Glamour and Innovation in 1930s Design. Below are Clive's further reading recommendations:

Betty Joel: Furniture Maker, Designer and Businesswoman in 1920s and '30s Britain: Clive Stewart-Lockhart

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback 

The password is Arlington

Friday 6th June 2025

Private viewing and talk at Dreweatts

Dreweatts, our sponsor, has very kindly invited TASN members to Donnington Priory, Newbury, on Friday 6th June from 6-8pm for a private view and talk prior to the public view of the following auctions:

Old Master, British and European Art on the 11th June
Fine Jewellery on the 12th June

There is no charge for this event

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 19th June 2025

Trip by coach to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum

Join us on this trip to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum, created by Lord and Lady Heseltine over many years. Thenford is a must see for every gardener and is a garden of major importance.

Waiting List Only

For full details on the website Click here

Tuesday 15th July 2025

Self-Drive Visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens Post AGM

Join us, after the AGM and lecture, on this self-drive visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens situated in the heart of the Test Valley and only five minutes from the local market town of Stockbridge.

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 18th September 2025

Trip by coach to Boughton House and Estate

Join us on a grand day out by coach to Boughton House, near Kettering, one of Britain’s finest stately homes.

For full details on the website Click here

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Special Interest Day

King Charles III his Forbears and their Artistic Tastes

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

This Study Day, held at Stockcross village hall, examines the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 20th May 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Opium - Seduction, Greed, Art

Lecturer: Amanda Herries

Opium is a hypnotic bringer of sleep, delightful lethargy and relief from pain. It is also highly addictive. Its use, often by those with troubled minds, led to the creation of great works of art in music, art and literature. Social and art history meet as this lecture unfolds.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Wilde About Oscar: Famous for being Famous (& Infamous) by Simon Whitehouse on Tuesday 18 March at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

For Oscar Wilde, who said: There is one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”, his descent from celebrity to death in a garret in Paris, and fearing obscurity, was a bitter blow.

His wit did not desert him, though, Wilde expert Simon Whitehouse told the Arts Society Newbury. “The wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death” he said, as he lay dying in 1900. “One of us has to go.”

He was born in Ireland in 1854, Mr Whitehouse said, as he described Wilde’s life. At Oxford he gravitated to the Aesthetic movement, and its philosophy of “art for art’s sake”.

In London he quickly became a celebrity, well known enough to be caricatured in Punch.

By 1886 he was married with children and life was getting dull. A paying guest introduced him to “the love that dare not speak its name”. In 1891 Wilde became enthralled by “Bosie” - Lord Alfred Douglas – beginning a “capricious, volatile relationship “ that would lead to his downfall.

First, though, he became the talk of the town for his satirical plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest.

Bosie’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury, accused Wilde of being a “sodomite”. Wilde, said Mr Whitehouse, would have done better to ignore the taunt but sued for libel. He lost, was bankrupted and was then jailed for two years hard labour for gross indecency. In prison he taught inmates to read and helped the poorest.

He was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Far from him being forgotten, his tomb had to be protected from admirers, whose lipstick ate into the statue over it. His plays are second only to Shakespeare’s as the most studied and translated from English. “A kind, generous, very funny man who held up a mirror to nature and showed us who we are”, said Mr Whitehouse.

Next lecture: Clive Stewart-Lockhart: Betty Joel: Glamour and Innovation in 1930s Design on Tuesday April 15. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations

Welcome to our March Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Simon Whitehouse's lecture: Wilde About Oscar: Famous for Being Famous (& Infamous) 1854-1900

Below are Simon's further reading recommendations:

Oscar Wilde: Robert Mignall (Ed)

The Life of Oscar Wilde: Hesketh Pearson

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

Thursday 19th June 2025

Trip by coach to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum

Join us on this trip to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum, created by Lord and Lady Heseltine over many years. Thenford is a must see for every gardener and is a garden of major importance.

Waiting List Only

For full details on the website Click here

Tuesday 15th July 2025

Self-Drive Visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens Post AGM

Join us, after the AGM and lecture, on this self-drive visit to Houghton Lodge and Gardens situated in the heart of the Test Valley and only five minutes from the local market town of Stockbridge.

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 15th April 2025

50th Anniversary Lecture

The lecture on Tuesday 15th April 2025 celebrates 50 years since the founding of The Arts Society Newbury in 1974. We will be marking this special occasion with a celebration cake so do come and join us

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Betty Joel: Glamour and Innovation in 1930s Design

Lecturer: Clive Stewart-Lockhart

Betty Joel, born Mary Stewart Lockhart, ran a furniture making and design business. With no formal training, she created, through a flair for branding and marketing, the leading furnishing company of the day in London.

To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself

Local artist Helen Orton is pleased to present an exhibition of her new paintings at The Base Gallery, Greenham, Newbury RG19 6HN from 18-30 March 2025. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition.        

Helen Orton is a figurative painter who translates photographs and art historical references into paintings that explore the complexities of living in a chaotic and uncertain world. Helen responds to source images of the human form by transforming them into paintings with evocative titles that invite the viewer to contemplate the tension between the figure's inner and public selves.

The exhibition, titled, “To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself”, explores the fragmented experience of self-knowledge and public perception of the self in an image saturated world. Using photographic and art historical sources, the work explores the themes of observing and being observed with the consciousness of being seen or being looked at, sometimes without consent. The title of the exhibition, “To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself”, draws on the philosophical writing of the Danish 19th century writer Søren Kierkegaard who explores the idea of the mirror as a metaphor for self-examination.

The work in the exhibition draws on this idea of the mirror metaphor, often placing the viewer in the position of the figure depicted and invites the viewer to consider the complex interplay between the perceived self and the public self.

Helen Orton was born in Melton Mowbray in 1973 and currently lives and works near Newbury. She has a degree in Business Operation and Control from the University of Salford and the University of Toledo in the USA. Formerly a Software Designer and Developer, Helen made a career change in 2020 to concentrate full-time on painting after studying portrait painting and life drawing for many years.

Helen has exhibited locally, and in 2024 her painting ‘To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself’ was included in the Women in Art Fair at the Mall Galleries in London during Frieze week. Also in 2024, she was shortlisted for the Visual Arts Open UK and International Emerging Artists Awards.

If you require any further information contact Helen Orton (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: The Stirling Prize: British Architecture's Oscars by Brian Stater on Tuesday 18 February at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

Architecture, said the German polymath Johann Walter von Goethe, is frozen music. But not everybody has liked the melodies.

To try to revive the reputation of architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects created the Stirling Prize, British Architecture’s Oscars, in 1996 to make the public think about architecture more warmly, expert Brian Stater told the Arts Society Newbury. 

To illustrate the kinds of work – which include houses, schools, offices, sports facilities, public buildings and railway stations - that won the award, Mr Stater presented his own Juke Box Jury selection of Hits, Misses and Should Have Been Number Ones.

Among the Hits was The Gherkin, the radical glass and steel skyscraper in London whose tapered elegance and remarkable star quality epitomised the excitement generated by contemporary architecture.

A different sort of success was the 2013 winner, Astley Castle in Warwickshire, where a new house was built inside the ruined walls of a 12th Century manor house, showing how sympathetic design could let history breath and survive with the new.

The Misses, as winners with – in retrospect - flaws, were as varied. The winner of the 2017 prize was Hastings Pier, a reimagining of the traditional as an enormous public platform. The trust that owned it went bust soon after. The 2005 winner, the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, Edinburgh, Mr Stater said, looked splendid from King Arthur’s Seat but not so good from closer to it. The Media Centre at Lord’s cricket ground, the 1999 winner, while radical in its design and construction, brought grumbles from journalists that it lacked atmosphere and they couldn’t hear the crowd or bat on ball. 

Then, as always, were the ones who didn’t get a prize but should have, said Mr Stater, such as the Eden Project, the British Museum redesign and the Olympic Velodrome.

Sadly, even if the music is frozen, someone still has to play second fiddle.

Next lecture: Simon Whitehouse: Oscar Wilde: Famous for being Famous (& Infamous) on Tuesday March 18. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Peder Severin Krøyer: Painter of Northern Light by Kathy McLauchlan on Tuesday 21 January at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

At the end of the 19th Century and the very beginning of the 20th, Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer was celebrated in Europe as the pre-eminent artist of the school of Northern Light.

Yet within a few years his style had fallen so far out of critical fashion that today his name is hardly mentioned. His particular interest was in light, lecturer and specialist Dr Kathy McLauchlan, told the Arts Society Newbury.

Krøyer trained in the classical manner in Copenhagen, and in 1877 moved to Paris, working at first in the classical, refined style. The art world was changing, though, to naturalism. Krøyer chose not to follow Impressionism, but a more traditional form of naturalistic painting from life, real people, real fields, said Dr McLauchlan, although still highly finished. His real interest was in capturing light, manipulating it to focus on his figures and landscapes.

On his return to Denmark he became part of Rural Art Colony movement, which saw artists all over Europe retreating with their comrades to country communities to capture local life and its people.

In 1882 Krøyer settled on work in the village of Skagen, the northernmost point of Denmark, accepting the invitation of a colleague leading the local Colony who was, Dr MacLaughlan said, put out when he accepted the offer and proceeded to take over.

The effects of light were still his focus but he began to overlay the realism with harmonies of silver and blue, “aestheticizing the real world”.

Yet, she explained, his success became problematic, and there was a “time limit” on the beautiful world he created. Critics and the art world turned to Modernism and its successors, and one of his last works on a Skagen beach has a melancholy air, as he and his wife gaze in different directions. Even their dog looks unhappy.

Nevertheless, Dr McLauchlan said, Krøyer is a painter who deserves to be better known.

Next lecture: Brian Stater: The Stirling Prize: British Architecture's Oscars on Tuesday February 18. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations

WELCOME TO OUR FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

We hope you all enjoyed Brian Stater's lecture: The Stirling Prize: British Architecture's Oscars

Below are Brian's further reading recommendations:

Big Jim: The Life and Work of Sir James Stirling, by Mark Girouard

The Stirling Prize: Ten Years of Architectural Innovation, by Tony Chapman

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

Tuesday 4th March 2025

Jane Austen: Beyond the Bonnets

Lecturer: Annalie Talent
Stockcross village hall

We all think we know Jane Austen, but do we? Beyond the bonnets and romance of the film and TV adaptations, there is so much more to be discovered about her work. This Special Interest Day will highlight aspects of her life and writing with which you may not be familiar.

Click here for further details

Thursday 19th June 2025

Trip by coach to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum

Join us on this trip to Thenford Gardens and Arboretum, created by Lord and Lady Heseltine over many years. Thenford is a must see for every gardener and is a garden of major importance.

For full details on the website Click here

Saturday 27th September 2025

Valencia: From Medieval to Modern. A five day cultural tour

Join us on this five day cultural tour to Valencia from Saturday 27 September to Wednesday 1 October 2025.

A handsome, vibrant city on the Mediterranean seaboard, Valencia is renowned for its variety of art and architecture.

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 18th March 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Wilde About Oscar: Famous for being Famous (& Infamous) 1854-1900

Lecturer: Simon Whitehouse

This lecture examines the extraordinary life and dramatic times of Oscar Wilde, from his Irish roots to his days as a student at Oxford and his meteoric rise to the heights of celebrity

Dreweatts, our sponsor, has a modern and contemporary art auction in March, which may be of interest to members:

Wednesday 12 March: Modern and Contemporary Art

The sale offers a wide variety of works, including paintings, works on paper and sculpture, comprising traditional and post-war Modern British art, alongside Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and international contemporary art.

The auction will be available to view at Dreweatts' Donnington Priory salerooms from Sunday 9th March.

Click the link above or visit dreweatts.com to view the auction online, including a page turning catalogue.

Enquiries: pictures@dreweatts.com Tel: 01635-553553

Dreweatts offers free valuation services, including online valuations, virtual appointments, valuation days in Newbury and London, and home visits by appointment

For further information on the services offered by Dreweatts Click Here

WELCOME TO OUR JANUARY NEWSLETTER

We hope you all enjoyed Kathy McLauchlan's lecture: Peder Severin Krøyer: Painter of Northern Light. Below are Kathy's further reading recommendation

Northern Light: The Skagen Painters (Gyldendal, 2001) Lise Svanholm

Harmony in Blue: P S Krøyer’s Poetic Paintings from the 1890s (Skagens Museum 2011) Annette Johansen et al

Krøyer: An International Perspective (Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen, 2011-12) Marianne Saabye et al

Krøyer and the Artists’ Colony at Skagen (NG Ireland, Dublin 1999) Bente Scavenius ed.

P S Krøyer: Tradition, Modernity (Aarhus Kunstmuseum 1992) Jens Erik Sørensen

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

Tuesday 04 March 2025

Jane Austen: Beyond the Bonnets
Lecturer: Annalie Talent

Stockcross Village Hall

We all think we know Jane Austen, but do we? Beyond the bonnets and romance of the film and TV adaptations, there is so much more to be discovered about her work. This Special Interest Day will highlight aspects of her life and writing with which you may not be familiar.

Click here for further details

Wednesday 26 March 2025

Trip by coach to the Wormsley Estate and Hughenden Manor

Please note: Waiting List Only

Join us on this trip to Garsington Studios and the Getty Library on the Wormsley Estate after which we will visit Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire.

Price per person: 

£60 for National Trust Members
        or £75 for non members

For full details on the website Click here

Saturday 27th September 2025

Valencia: From Medieval to Modern. A five day cultural tour

Join us on this five day cultural tour to Valencia from Saturday 27 September to Wednesday 1 October 2025.

A handsome, vibrant city on the Mediterranean seaboard, Valencia is renowned for its variety of art and architecture.

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 18th February 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

The Stirling Prize: British Architecture's Oscars
Lecturer: Brian Stater

The Stirling Prize has celebrated the very best contemporary buildings since 1996. This entertaining lecture looks at some of the hits, some of the misses, and several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn’t.

Dreweatts, our sponsor, has a fine art auction
in February, which may be of interest to members:

Tuesday 11 February: Old Master, British and European Art

The sale presents an eclectic selection of museum-quality works from prominent private collections, alongside unique artist collections that have never been offered on the market. These artworks have been passed down through generations of the artists' descendants.

The auction will be available to view at Dreweatts' Donnington Priory salerooms from Thursday 6th February.

Click the link above or visit dreweatts.com to view the auction online, including a page turning catalogue.

Enquiries: pictures@dreweatts.com Tel: 01635-553553

Dreweatts offers free valuation services, including online valuations, virtual appointments, valuation days in Newbury and London, and home visits by appointment

For further information on the services offered by Dreweatts Click Here

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Alchemy and Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments by Lynne Gibson on Tuesday 19 November at Arlington Arts Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

We take the vibrant colours around us for granted but it was not so long ago that death, heresy, slavery and extinction were the price of bright art.

Historically, dyes – water based and mostly used for clothing - were frequently poisonous while pigments – powders that could be used for painting – were often so deadly that licking a brush could kill, artist and art historian Lynne Gibson told The Arts Society Newbury.

It was alchemists – taking a money-making break from trying to turn lead into gold or discovering the Philosopher’s Stone – who mixed the ingredients. To keep their monopoly on a colour, as well as to avoid being burnt as heretics who were messing around with God’s creation, they often wrote in code. So, said Ms Gibson, the ingredients for the yellow called Moorish gold included a mythical basilisk and blood from a red-headed man.

To create Orpiment – the yellow next best to gold – convicts and slaves were used to mine the basic ingredient of arsenic sulphide because the mortality rate was so high. King’s yellow had to be carefully mixed so it didn't eat through vellum or attack the other colours. So obviously it was also sold as a hair restorer.

Cinnabar red was mercury sulphide, another death sentence to mine. Women used it as lipstick, presumably to look drop dead gorgeous.

Tyrian purple didn’t actually kill anybody – although clothing laws meant you could be executed for wearing it - but it used so many molluscs crushed for their mucous that the species became extinct. 

As trade routes expanded other substances became available – cochineal from South America, Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan – but always the ingredients and alchemy skills were so expensive that painters tried do-it-yourself, with the inevitable result.

Then came real chemistry which managed to create dyes and colours without necessarily poisonous bases.

But even in Victorian times the colour called Mummy brown was still just that – dead Egyptians embalmed in bitumen and ground up, said Ms Gibson. At least nobody was actually killed for it – or by it.

Next lecture: Kathy McLauchlan: Peder Severin Krøyer: Painter of Northern Light on Tuesday January 21. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations

Welcome to our November Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Lynne Gibson's lecture: Alchemy and Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments

Below are Lynne's further reading recommendations: 

Ball, Philip, Bright Earth, The Invention of Colour, Vintage Books, London 2008

Bomford, David and Roy, Ashok, A Closer Look at Colour, National Gallery Co. Ltd. 2009

Bucklow, Spike, The Alchemy of Paint: Art, Science and Secrets from the Middle Ages, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. 2009

Butler Greenfield, Amy, A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Colour of Desire, Black Swan 2006

D’Andrea Cennini, Cennino, The Craftsman’s Handbook, (transl. Daniel V. Thomson), Dover Publications Inc. 1954 (second edition)

Delamare, François and Guineau, Bernard, Colour, Making and Using Dyes and Pigments, Thames and Hudson 1999

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

Donation to West Berkshire Mencap

This November The Arts Society Newbury has made a donation of £500 to West Berkshire Mencap to enable the charity to buy a 3D laser printer

For full details Click here

West Berkshire Mencap is running the following events that may be of interest:

Wreath making workshop on 26th November at 7pm at West Berkshire Mencap Centre and Mulberry Garden. The cost includes all materials and festive refreshments. Places can be booked by calling Suzie Empson on 07778-778126 or by clicking on the link below

Christmas Concert at St Nicolas Church, Newbury on 11th December at 7pm and afterwards for mulled wine, mince pies and the Christmas raffle draw

For full details and to book Click here

Wednesday 26 March 2025

Trip by coach to the Wormsley Estate and Hughenden Manor

Join us on this trip to Garsington Studios and the Getty Library on the Wormsley Estate after which we will visit Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire.

Price per person: 

£60 for National Trust Members
        or £75 for non members

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 21st January 2025

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Peder Severin Krøyer: Painter of Northern Light

Lecturer: Dr Kathy McLauchlan

This lecture explores Krøyer's life and work in Skagen, and evaluates the paintings that made him into one of Europe's most celebrated artists by the end of the 19th century.  

The Arts Society Newbury Team wish all our Members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We look forward to meeting up again on 21st January 2025

NEWBURY’S oldest arts society has donated funds to a local charity to buy new equipment.

The Arts Society Newbury, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has donated £500 to West Berkshire Mencap, which turns 70 this year. The funds have been used to buy a new printer for Mencap’s Link Up service, a sheltered work skills training workshop for adults with learning difficulties based at The New Slater Centre in Bone Lane, Newbury.

The printer can print on to vinyl, glass and fabric and will be invaluable for users producing works of art to sell at upcoming local crafts fairs, explained head of adult day services Paul Harris. The service, running since 1995, currently attracts 30 users per day.

The Arts Society chairwoman Kate Harwood said: “If we make a surplus, each year we give away £500. “In the past, we have helped schools, always with art as the primary focus. “This year, one of our committee members said ‘well, I think Mencap needs this machine’. And we looked into it. “What could be better than helping a small organisation where the money really matters? “Our members like to give money where it’s needed. “I’m on the lookout for next year.”

The committee came up with the idea earlier this year. And after months of planning and matching a £250 contribution from their head office, they are pleased to see the funds put to good use.

West Berkshire Council and Newbury College initially supported Link Up. Today, West Berkshire Mencap is the sole supporter of the service.

The Arts Society Newbury enjoys monthly talks at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore.
https://www.theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

This article has been reproduced with the kind permission of the Newbury Weekly News

Image: Copyright Newbury Weekly News

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: The Body as a Place: The Sculpture of Antony Gormley by Anna Moszynska on Tuesday October 22 at Arlington Arts, Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

It’s amazing the things people do for their art.

Sculptor Antony Gormley had himself repeatedly wrapped in plastic film, then covered head to toe in Plaster of Paris to create the moulds for many of his works, trapped unmoving for three hours while it dried – despite the fact that he suffered dreadfully from claustrophobia. He managed by immersing himself in meditation that he had learned on his travels to India and Sri Lanka, where he nearly become a Buddhist monk, the lecturer and author and Anna Moszynska told the Arts Society Newbury on October 22.

His body became the core of his work, a representative of life, with flocks of meanings – meditative, political, environmental - arising from particular locations, forms and in sizes that range from the actual to the gigantic.

As well as the body being a place, the selection of place is important, Ms Moszynska said.

The Angel of the North, near Gateshead, Tyne and Wear is on the site of an old pit and offers protection and regeneration. Much visited are the 100 iron men on the coast near Liverpool which remain permanent while the sea and skyscape environment alters around them.

Other works reveal the body as a place where life happens internally – from the early body casts with holes recalling stigmata to the later open-frame body sculptures, or the reclining giant with its dark openings.

Gormley’s works evoke contemplation of deep issues: where do we fit in the universe? what is the role of consciousness in space and time? He continually quotes science, from the use of radiation-resistant lead up to the open, see-though constructions that reflect the energy field that is both us and everything else, and how we exist suspended in a universe expanding in the 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang.

From that perspective, a few hours claustrophobia doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Next lecture: Lynne Gibson: Alchemy and Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments on Tuesday November 19. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations

Welcome to our October Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Anna Moszynska's lecture: 'The Body as a Place': The Sculpture of Antony Gormley

Below are Anna's further reading recommendations:

Caiger-Smith, Martin, Antony Gormley, Rizzoli, 2022

Caiger-Smith, Martin, Antony Gormley, Tate, 2010

Gormley, Antony, On Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, 2019

Gormley, Antony and Martin Gayford, Shaping the World, Sculpture from Prehistory to Now, Thames & Hudson, 2020 

Moszynska, Anna, Antony Gormley Drawing, British Museum, 2002

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Tuesday 5th November 2024

Special Interest Day

The History of Embroidery

Lecturer: Dr Susan Kay-Williams

Clicking on the above title will take you to the full details on the website. The History of Embroidery is a fascinating story that is told mostly by the surviving work rather than the names of the makers. This will be a highly visual day and no prior knowledge of embroidery is needed to enjoy it.

Thursday 12th December 2024
 
A Magical Christmas outing to Waddesdon Manor

Join us on this Christmas outing by coach to Waddesdon Manor. Inspired by the tale of Sleeping Beauty, from mid-November up until Christmas the house is transformed for a magical experience. Enjoy a new light projection on the Manor façade, as well as a glittering light trail and popular Christmas market.

Price per person:
£40 for National Trust members or £55 for non-members

Waiting list only

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 19th November 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Alchemy and Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments

Lecturer: Lynne Gibson

Please note that, in a change to the programme, the planned November lecture has been swapped with the January 2025 lecture

This lecture tells the stories of alchemy and adventure behind some of our most colourful Old Master paintings.

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Banksy: Fraud or Genius? by Pepe Martinez on Tuesday September 24 at Arlington Arts, Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

Lying under a train he had been “tagging”, oil dripping on his face as he hid from the police, the young graffiti artist wished he had a way to make his mark and get out more quickly. Then above him he saw the stencilled train number.

And so the Banksy phenomenon was born, with its serious jokes, protests, artworld subversions, hint of rebellion, millions of fans, and more money than the still-anonymous artist expected, or even wants.

The desire to make a personal mark on a wall can be seen in the cave paintings of 30,000 years ago, Banksy expert Pepe Martinez told the Arts Society Newbury. Graffiti art’s real origin, though, was in Philadelphia in the late Sixties, but became the image of the meanest streets of New York. Banksy’s work, though, owes more to French street artist Blek Le Rat rather than the elaborate or ugly scrawl of most graffiti.

The stencils meant work could be up on walls in seconds and he became a “massive” news story, Mr Martinez said. Images became iconic – the teddy bear with a Molotov cocktail, the rioter throwing flowers – to the point where his “Girl with a red balloon was voted the UK’s most popular picture in a 2017 Samsung poll, ahead of Constable’s Haywain. Art critics were furious. It was “proof of our stupidity,” wrote one. 

So, asked Mr Martinez, is Banksy an important artist of our time? His 30-year body of work – much of it destroyed or painted over - has made him immensely popular and his works sell for millions in galleries. His events attract thousands of visitors and raise money for the councils he works with. He works to support refugees and Palestine. His most recent “gifts” that appeared in London attracted hordes of visitors - and thieves.

Who is Banksy? Fraud or Genius? His anonymity is part of the legend – partly because, technically, his work is vandalism, and partly because “everybody loves a mystery”. And, said Mr Martinez: “He doesn’t care if he’s not recognised as a great artist.”

Next lecture: Anna Moszynska: The Body as a Place: The sculpture of Antony Gormley on Tuesday 22 October. Full details of all lectures: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our September Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Pepe Martinez's lecture: Banksy: Fraud or Genius?

Below are Pepe's further reading recommendations:

Banksy The 
Man Behind the Wall by Will Ellsworth-Jones

Banksy - Wall and Piece by Banksy

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

Programme Card for 2024/25

The Arts Society Newbury is very grateful to Dreweatts for generously agreeing to continue its sponsorship of the printing and distribution costs of the Programme and Membership Card for 2024/2025

Dreweatts, based at Donnington Priory in Newbury, is a leading UK auctioneer and holds regular sales covering a wide range of objects, including Fine Art, Furniture, Sculpture, European and Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Modern Design, Jewellery, Watches, Silver, Clocks, Wine, Manuscripts and Books

Dreweatts has two fine art auctions in October:

Wednesday 9 October | Old Master, British and European Art

Wednesday 23 October | Modern and Contemporary Art

The auctions go on view at their picturesque country house salerooms at Donnington Priory, which is just down the road from Arlington Arts Centre, from the Sunday before the auctions.

Click the links above or visit dreweatts.com to view the auctions online, including a page turning catalogue.

Enquiries: pictures@dreweatts.com Tel: 01635-553553

Dreweatts offers free valuation services, including online valuations, virtual appointments, valuation days in Newbury and London, and home visits by appointment

For further information on the services offered by Dreweatts Click Here

Tuesday 22nd October 2024

New Members Meet & Greet

Please join The Arts Society Newbury Team for tea, coffee and biscuits on the mezzanine floor at Arlington Arts Centre  

We shall be there to welcome new Morning Members from 9.45am and new Afternoon Members from 1pm

Tuesday 5th November 2024

Special Interest Day

The History of Embroidery

Lecturer: Dr Susan Kay-Williams

Clicking on the above title will take you to the full details on the website. The History of Embroidery is a fascinating story that is told mostly by the surviving work rather than the names of the makers. This will be a highly visual day and no prior knowledge of embroidery is needed to enjoy it.

Thursday 12th December 2024

A Magical Christmas outing to Waddesdon Manor

Join us on this Christmas outing by coach to Waddesdon Manor. Inspired by the tale of Sleeping Beauty, from mid-November up until Christmas the house is transformed for a magical experience. Enjoy a new light projection on the Manor façade, as well as a glittering light trail and popular Christmas market.

Booking now open

Price per person:
£40 for National Trust members or £55 for non-members

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 22nd October 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

'The Body as a Place': The Sculpture of Antony Gormley

Lecturer: Anna Moszynska

This lecture examines Antony Gormley's continuous fascination with the body as a place - both of experience and of interaction with its surroundings

The Arts Society Newbury is very grateful to Dreweatts for generously sponsoring the printing and distribution costs of the Programme and Membership Card for a second year.

Dreweatts, based at Donnington Priory in Newbury, is a leading UK auctioneer and holds regular sales covering a wide range of objects, including Fine Art, Furniture, Sculpture, European and Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Modern Design, Jewellery, Watches, Silver, Clocks, Wine, Manuscripts and Books

Dreweatts offers free valuation services, including online valuations, virtual appointments, valuation days in Newbury and London, and home visits by appointment.

For further information on the services offered by Dreweatts Click Here

The Arts Society Newbury Lecture: Le Théâtre de la Mode: The Renaissance of French Fashion, by Connie Gray on Tuesday July 9 at Arlington Arts, Newbury. Review by Alan Childs

Among the German aims of the Second World War – cowing Europe, destroying the Soviet Union, building a Reich to last a thousand years, there was one that seems - at first glance – frivolous. Moving the centre of the fashion world from Paris to Berlin.

Not so frivolous, expert Connie Gray told The Arts Society Newbury. There were more than 30,000 workers in Paris in the fashion and associated industries, and couture was vital for the economy. 

Central to the defence of the industry in the face of occupation was the Syndicate Nationale de Haute Couture – which then, as now, decrees its members are the only couturiers. Its headquarters were stormed early in the invasion and its archives and customer lists seized. Its head, Lucien Lelong, convinced the Germans that their plan to move the couture industry would only destroy it. The shadow of collaboration still hangs over the fashion houses, but Lelong’s argument was that it provided continued employment, even for some Jewish workers.

French women had their own resistance. While British women had uniforms, Ms Gray said,  French women had hats. Hats and turbans became more and more extravagant to show that women had not bowed under occupation. 

Then came Liberation, but the country had no money and no fuel in the worst winter in history. Lelong organised the astonishing Théâtre de la Mode. Sculptors made 200 71cm high mannequins, each with sculpted heads. Couturiers used the scraps of material that were available to design the year’s fashion in miniature. Tiny shoes were carved out of wood and  the seamstresses made the exquisitely small decorations on clothing where the pockets opened and the buttons worked. Artists and set designers drew and built elaborate backdrops from the vistas of Paris. Le Théâtre de la Mode provided work, hope and purpose.

All Paris flocked to see it at the Louvre, in admiration and joy, said Ms Gray. There were a million visitors in the first month. It toured the world to show French couture was back. And the designs? They became the still famous and international New Look. And Berlin never did become the centre of fashion.

Next lecture: Pepe Martinez: Banksy: Fraud or Genius? on Tuesday 24 September. Full details of all lectures: theartssociety.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

The Arts Society Newbury's 50th Anniversary: Report by Alan Childs

From the tombs of Ancient Egypt to the street art of the 21st Century, from the Aboriginal dream time of Australia to the Swinging Sixties, and from the Impressionist glories of Arles to the Hell of medieval Europe, The Arts Society Newbury has spanned history and the globe in its 50-year dedication to spreading the joys of all forms of art.

Since its founding among ten friends in 1974, and its first meeting in the unlikely surroundings of what is now a funeral parlour, the Society has heard hundreds of lectures, visited historic houses, galleries, gardens, museums and significant artistic locations at home and abroad, and has grown to a membership of 460.

Among those who will be celebrating the 50th anniversary at historic Shaw House, Newbury, today (Thursday July 18) is 91-year-old Sue Pring, a founder member still active as the Guest Secretary, who welcomes new members and the curious to every lecture.  “We needed 100 people to get started in Newbury” she recalled. “Ten of us were asked to ring up ten people.  But we all rang up the same ten because were all friends. So we had another try.” 

The Society was the brainchild of Evelyn Smith, who had moved to Newbury after being a member elsewhere of what was then the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies.  As the newspaper report on the founding put it “it is likely that the members will be drawn principally from the ranks of housewives or retired menfolk.”

And while the attitudes might have changed – the “housewives” are now as likely to have had demanding jobs as running a home – the ambition to inform, delight and entertain everybody with a love of art in all its forms is still at the heart of what the Society does – along with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits. It hosts events throughout the year, with lecturers sharing their knowledge. 

The subjects  of the annual 10 monthly lectures have ranged from Caravaggio and his followers to the history of the tulip, from an analysis of Picasso to “Irish Follies (Mad buildings for Madder People)”, from the 12th Century composer and abbess Hildegard of Bingen to Punch and Judy. This year alone has heard about the development of baroque music,  the great British paint-off between Constable and Turner, and the dash to save some of the world’s most beautiful mosaics from the rising waters of a Turkish dam. 

The Society is part of the national Arts Society, which changed its name from the unwieldy NAFDAS in 2017, with 90,000 members and branches across the world. The Newbury society, which attracts members from across the Berkshire and Hampshire region, has access to the Arts Society Directory, a compendium of more than 350 specialists who are, says the Society Chair Kate Harwood, rigorously vetted for their knowledge, as well as for their ability to be engaging and articulate.

Sometimes they may need a little help, though. Sue Pring recalls one  who didn’t sparkle.  “He was so bad in the morning lecture, so boring we could hardly sit through it” she said, with a mischievous smile “We thought ‘We’ll fill him up at lunchtime with endless glasses of white wine’.  And the afternoon lecture was brilliant.”

Nowadays the – sober – lecturers take advantage of the state-of-the-art presentation equipment at Arlington Arts Centre in Mary Hare School, Newbury. The morning and afternoon lectures are also usually on Zoom, so there is no longer a need for the waiting lists for membership that often sent the Society hunting for larger premises.  Not everywhere was suitable.  A Committee minute from 1984 remarks sniffily: “The Secretary had visited the … Hall and reported that it was unsuitable due to an all-pervading smell of alcohol.”

There have also always been Special Interest Days, which cover the whole range of arts from individual artists to architecture, music, sculpture, jewellery, couture and much more. There are visits to historic and beautiful houses, gardens and galleries, and trips such as this year’s based in Arles, Provence. 

Through Community grants it supports its Young Arts projects to encourage children to engage with the arts. Local school children have in recent years enjoyed theatre trips to see how a play is produced, and funds have paid for a visiting arts teacher.  This year there was a grant to West Berkshire Mencap based in Newbury to buy a special cutting machine for use with arts-based activities, to encourage creativity and produce items for sale to help raise funds.

The Society also supports  Church Recording – not a selection of music, but a project to make a record of every bit of local churches in photographs and text, from the ceilings to the wall plaques to the hassocks. 

Getting ready to mark the Golden Jubilee, Kate Harwood said: “We are proud to be celebrating our 50th year. We are building on a wonderful foundation, and we have put together an eclectic, entertaining and thought-provoking programme of lectures and trips for the forthcoming year. We’re always keen to welcome new members, so come for a coffee and a chat before the lecture."

And after 50 years Sue Pring is still enthusiastic.  “I think the main thing is that I’ve made lots of lovely friends” she says. “And I’ve been to  places I would never otherwise have been to, and I’ve learnt things I would never otherwise have learnt.”

The Arts Society Newbury is very grateful to the Newbury Weekly News for publishing this article and reports of the monthly lectures. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our July Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Connie Gray's lecture: Le Théâtre de la Mode: Paris Haute-Couture 1945-46
Below are Connie's further reading recommendations: 

Theatre de la Mode: Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture

Paris Fashion and World War Two: Global Diffusion and Nazi Control

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Click here to watch the Dior short film that looked at the history of the Théâtre de la Mode for the Autumn/Winter 2020/21 collection during the pandemic. Connie referred to this film but there was no time to play it at the lecture

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 2.30pm

Exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, Cheyne Walk, London

Join us on this exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, the most important surviving domestic medieval building in London. The 3 hour tour will be led by the owner, Dr Christopher Moran, and includes tea in the dining room afterwards.

Price per person £87 including tea after the tour

For full details on the website Click here

IT'S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Annual Subscription fees (September to July) 

Our annual subscription is unchanged at £60 per person or £115 joint membership for two people living at the same address 

Our service recharge fee for 2024-25 to Head Office is £14.40. This fee is included in your annual subscription

Click here for the renewal form to renew your subscription. You only need to fill in the form if your address, email, or phone number has changed.

If there are no changes you just need to pay. Please enter your own last name in the reference field on the bank account otherwise we do not know who has paid.

Cheques are accepted. If you wish to pay by cheque please put your postcode on the reverse and send to: Membership Secretary,
2 Valley Road, Burghfield Common, RG7 3NF

Tuesday 5th November 2024

Special Interest Day

The History of Embroidery

Lecturer: Dr Susan Kay-Williams

Clicking on the above title will take you to the full details on the website. The History of Embroidery is a fascinating story that is told mostly by the surviving work rather than the names of the makers. This will be a highly visual day and no prior knowledge of embroidery is needed to enjoy it.

Next Lecture

Tuesday 24th September 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom

Banksy: Fraud or Genius?

Lecturer: Pepe Martinez

This lecture will trace the story of Banksy's humble beginnings to one of the most recognisable names in the art world

The team at TASN wish all members a very enjoyable summer break and look forward to meeting up again in September

The Arts Society Newbury lecture: Misshapen Pearl: An overview of the music of the Baroque Period at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore, on Tuesday, June 18. Review by Alan Childs

It was the Italians, of course, who broke the rules.

By the end of the 16th Century the Renaissance form of music had been encoded and understood by composers, musicians and singers alike.

It was rule-based and intellectual, musician and Radio Three broadcaster Sandy Burnett told The Arts Society Newbury at the Arlington Arts Centre. Its ideals were balance, beauty, order and regulation, with blended voices in euphony and not dissonance, all working together.

Then in 1589 in Florence, the role of music in drama through the rediscovery of Greek theatre meant composers decided that they could put on a show to enhance the action. In 1607 Claudio Monteverdi premiered the opera L’Orfeo which changed everything in style because the drama required the music to make an impact, and to accompany and illustrate extremes of emotion.

For singers such as the diva Barbara Strozzi the new style allowed them to express strong – perhaps even overwrought – feelings, and the style swept through Europe.

It came to be called the Baroque after the Portuguese for a misshapen pearl, highly prized by Renaissance jewellers as unique and natural forms.

In Venice Antonio Vivaldi polished the Baroque with his concerti such as Le Quattro Stagioni. In France, dance became an important element of the Baroque, with stylised and dramatic gestures. Louis XIV celebrated coming into his majority – and power – at 14 by appearing in a Baroque production as Apollo, the Sun King.

In the 1720s George Frederic Handel travelled to Italy and learnt the style, and eventually moved to London, becoming a German composer making Italian music in England.  

Then came Johann Sebatian Bach, who pushed his Lutheran vision of it as far as it could go in an intellectual direction.

Overall, said Mr Burnett, the Baroque was many things – vivid and dramatic, sometimes vulgar, but also elegant and dance-like. It was underpinned by Christian faith, but by 1750 the rise of Enlightenment philosophy was paving the way for another style, one which was to give us Mozart and Beethoven.

Next lecture: Connie Gray Le Theatre de la Mode; The Renaissance of French Fashion on July 9. Full details of all lectures: theartssociety.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our June Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Sandy Burnett's lecture: Misshapen Pearl: An Overview of the Music of the Baroque Era. Below are Sandy's further reading recommendations: 

John Eliot Gardiner, Music in the Castle of Heaven (Allen Lane, 2013)
 Peter Williams, J S Bach: A Life in Music (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
 Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Jonathan Keates, Handel: The Man and His Music (Gollancz, 1985)
 H C Robbins Landon, Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque (University of Chicago Press, 1993)

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

 The password is Arlington

Thursday 18th July 2024

Please come and join us to celebrate our 50th Anniversary

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Arts Society Newbury in 1974. To mark this important occasion we are organising a drinks reception to be held at Shaw House, Newbury on Thursday 18 July from 6-8pm. There will be a short talk about the history of this Grade I Elizabethan building.

Tickets are limited to 100 

Price per person £25

For full details on the website Click Here

Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 2.30pm

Exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, Cheyne Walk, London

Join us on this exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, the most important surviving domestic medieval building in London. The 3 hour tour will be led by the owner, Dr Christopher Moran, and includes tea in the dining room afterwards.

Price per person £87 including tea after the tour

For full details on the website Click here

IT'S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Annual Subscription fees (September to July) 

Our annual subscription is unchanged at £60 per person or £115 joint membership for two people living at the same address 

Our service recharge fee for 2024-25 to Head Office is £14.40. This fee is included in your annual subscription

Click here for the renewal form to renew your subscription. You only need to fill in the form if your address, email, or phone number has changed.

If there are no changes you just need to pay. Please enter your own last name in the reference field on the bank account otherwise we do not know who has paid.

Cheques are accepted. If you wish to pay by cheque please put your postcode on the reverse and send to: Membership Secretary,
2 Valley Road, Burghfield Common, RG7 3NF

Tuesday 5th November 2024

Special Interest Day

The History of Embroidery

Lecturer: Dr Susan Kay-Williams

Clicking on the above title will take you to the full details on the website. The History of Embroidery is a fascinating story that is told mostly by the surviving work rather than the names of the makers. This will be a highly visual day and no prior knowledge of embroidery is needed to enjoy it.

Next Lecture

Tuesday 9th July 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and on Zoom after the AGM

There is no afternoon lecture

Le Théâtre de la Mode: The Renaissance of French Fashion

This lecture will examine how the phoenix of Parisian fashion rose from the ashes of war to reclaim its dominance on the world stage.

Lecture to The Arts Society Newbury: Monica Bohm-Duchen: Marc Chagall: Wandering Jew or citizen of the world? At Arlington Arts, Snelsmore on Tuesday May 21st. Review by Alan Childs

For most people the image of the Fiddler on the Roof is inextricably linked to the film and stage play.

But much earlier, another Jewish artist had used the image in his paintings as part of his long – and often tragic - journey from his birth in 1887 in the Yiddish-speaking fringes of western Russia to his death 97 years later in the South of France.

Marc Chagall was a complicated individual who presented himself as self-tutored, a law unto himself, lecturer and writer Monica Bohm-Duchen told The Arts Society Newbury.

He came from Vitebsk (now in Belarus) and, despite his claims to be sui generis, his influences show through, including the fiddler on the roof, offering an insight into the complexity of his mental processes. The fiddler contains at least two references – Jews often had to hide on their roofs to avoid armed assault, but also sometimes chose to get away from the hubbub in the streets. The violin, Ms Bohm-Duchen noted, was a portable instrument for a people who often had to flee.

He set off for Paris and the avant-garde, developing only seemingly childlike images, but a return to Vitebsk caught him up in the First World War, and he was stuck in Russia for eight years. Then came the Revolution. He became Arts Commissar for the region until forced to resign, then to Moscow. In the early 1920s he was back in Paris, via Berlin; in 1940 he moved to the South of France, where he was arrested by the Gestapo, then over the Pyrenees and away to New York in 1941.

In 1944 his wife died, and in 1948 he returned to his beloved Paris and then settled in the South of France. Massive canvasses are filled with intense and complicated imagery, citing Genesis and Exodus, and the crucified Christ as embodiment of the suffering of the Jewish people. He also emerges as a printmaker, sculptor, potter, and stained-glass designer.

To answer her own question, Ms Bohm-Duchen says: “Wandering Jew? Yes, by force of circumstance. Russian Jew, honorary Frenchman, also a Citizen of the World. He wanted his art to speak to everybody.”

Next lecture: The Misshapen Pearl: an overview of the music of the Baroque era, Arlington Arts, June 18. Full details theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our May Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Monica Bohm-Duchen's lecture: Marc Chagall: Wandering Jew or Citizen of the World?  
Below are Monica's further reading recommendations:

Marc Chagall: My Life. Penguin Modern Classics 2018

Chagall: Love and Exile by Jackie Wullschlager. Allen & Lane 2008

Chagall: Monica Bohm-Duchen. Phaidon Press

Chagall: Monica Bohm-Duchen. Tate Publications

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Tuesday 9th July 2024

Self-Drive visit post AGM to Rooksnest Garden, Lambourn Woodlands

Join us on this visit to Rooksnest Garden, home to the Sackler family

Price per person £18

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 18th July 2024

Please come and join us to celebrate our 50th Anniversary

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Arts Society Newbury in 1974. To mark this important occasion we are organising a drinks reception to be held at Shaw House, Newbury on Thursday 18 July from 6-8pm. There will be a short talk about the history of this Grade I Elizabethan building.

Tickets are limited to 100 

Price per person £25

For full details on the website Click Here

Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 2.30pm

Exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, Cheyne Walk, London

Join us on this exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, the most important surviving domestic medieval building in London. The 3 hour tour will be led by the owner, Dr Christopher Moran, and includes tea in the dining room afterwards.

Price per person £87 including tea after the tour

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 18th June 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre only 

NO ZOOM

The Misshapen Pearl: An Overview of the Music of the Baroque Era

Lecturer: Sandy Burnett

The Baroque era produced music of great brilliance and emotional depth. Sandy's lecture is an in-depth exploration of this fascinating period of classical music.

Lecture to The Arts Society Newbury: Gavin Plumley: Bruegel: The Seasons and the World, at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore on Tuesday April 23rd. Review by Alan Childs

When Pieter Bruegel the Elder was much younger he moved to Antwerp. Possibly 13, probably a farm boy, certainly talented, he arrived in the early 16th century when the city was in a ferment of change, amid a rapid expansion of world trade.

As Bruegel progressed through the painter’s guild, the world was getting wider, broadcaster and art historian Gavin Plumley told The Arts Society Newbury.

Countries previously unknown to Christendom were being reached by ships, trade was exploding and a different way of thinking about the world – Humanism – was growing among the philosophers and the newly rich merchants and bankers who were becoming the patrons of artists.

Among them was Bruegel’s patron Nicolaes Jonghelinck, who ordered a series of works in 1565 to illustrate the seasons, in the new style of landscape with a revolutionary focus on ordinary people – harvesters, villagers, peasants. The viewer of the time would have recognised the seasonal style based on religious chapbooks and the illustrated Labours of the Month. But Bruegel, explained Gavin Plumley, dared to look beyond that tradition into a more secular world.

The paintings – five of them extant, a sixth missing – are popular today for their depiction of rural life. Often, they now appear amusing and bucolic, with little jokes – a woman walking to the harvest looks directly out at us, one labourer has overdone the drink, his codpiece has slipped and his mates are bring more cider from the village. But even as we now see the scenes as a celebration of the individual, Bruegel forces us, on closer inspection, to see the world as it is. 

Winter is a miserable time, even as it comes to Christmas. Europe is in the grip of the little ice age, glaciers loom, food is scarce, hunters come home almost empty-handed, soldiers kick down village doors to massacre the Innocents.

February and March are the gloomy months, and even amid the glory of the harvest and the bread to come, at the bottom left of the painting, the reaper, his face shaded by a hat, sharpens his scythe, the memento mori, the reminder that however wide the world becomes, there is the same fate awaiting wheat, peasant, all of us.

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our April Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Gavin Plumley's lecture 'Bruegel: The Seasons and the World'.   
Below are Gavin's further reading recommendations: 

Bruegel: The Complete Paintings 
by Jürgen Müller (Taschen)

A Home for All Seasons
by Gavin Plumley (Atlantic Books)

Headlong
by Michael Frayn (Faber)

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Tuesday 9th July 2024

Self-Drive visit post AGM to Rooksnest Garden, Lambourn Woodlands

Join us on this visit to Rooksnest Garden, home to the Sackler family

Price per person £18

For full details on the website Click here

Thursday 18th July 2024

Please come and join us to celebrate our 50th Anniversary

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Arts Society Newbury in 1974. To mark this important occasion we are organising a drinks reception to be held at Shaw House, Newbury on Thursday 18 July from 6-8pm.  

Tickets are limited to 100 and for this reason it will be a MEMBERS ONLY event. 

Price per person £25

For full details on the website Click Here

Monday 9th - Friday 13th September 2024

Art and Architecture of Yorkshire:
a five day tour based in York

Booking for this trip is now open

Price: £975 per person sharing a twin/double room

£160 single supplement

Click here for the details on our website

Click here for the brochure

If you require further information,
contact Tsa Palmer our Away Trips Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 2.30pm

Exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, Cheyne Walk, London

Join us on this exclusive visit to Crosby Moran Hall, the most important surviving domestic medieval building in London. The 3 hour tour will be led by the owner, Dr Christopher Moran, and includes tea in the dining room afterwards

Price per person £87 including tea after the tour

For full details on the website Click here

Next Lecture

Tuesday 21 May 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre and via Zoom transmission for both lectures

 Marc Chagall: Wandering Jew or Citizen of the World
Lecturer: Monica Bohm-Duchen

This lecture will trace Chagall's long, chequered and colourful career

What was it like to go to church in medieval England? What did churches look like? Were there seats? What were the services like, and how did congregations respond? And what about the clergy? 

In his recent and highly-acclaimed book, Going to Church in Medieval England, (it was a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year in 2021), Professor Orme explored all these questions and more, with a wealth of vignettes that brought the story vividly to life – examples of often colourful but sometimes dingy churches, mostly (though not always) educated and conscientious clergy, and congregations of variable attentiveness.

Some folk, it seemed, ‘come only for the manner [i.e. the fashion] and for no devotion, nor for no profit of their soul, and such fall soon asleep’, though for many, attendance was more than a duty; there was evidently a strong and widespread belief in keeping the Sabbath holy, and people attended out of a genuine piety.

Professor Orme, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Exeter, is an acknowledged expert on the medieval church.

Venue: St Mark’s church, Englefield, Reading RG7 5EL at 2:30pm on Saturday 13 April, 2024
Tickets £15 including tea after the lecture

Book online at www.TicketSource.co.uk/Berkshire-Churches-Trust
or phone Marion Elly (01628 482637)

An exhibition displaying works in the West Berkshire Museum collection by local artist Marjorie Heather (1905-1989).

Marjorie was a painter of semi-caricature figure groups in oil and watercolour who was born and lived in Newbury.

As a mature student she attended Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford from 1945–8, and then Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting from 1948–50. Marjorie was a founding member of Newbury Art Group in 1947. For over 30 years her work has been regularly selected for display locally and abroad.

Runs 10 April 2024 – 6 April 2025.

The Museum is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am – 4pm. Entry to West Berkshire Museum is free but donations are most welcomed.

Lecture to The Arts Society Newbury: Louise Schofield: Rescuing Zeugma from the Floodwaters of the Euphrates, at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore on Tuesday March 19th. Review by Alan Childs

An urgent phone call from “Indiana Jones”, a desperate flight to Turkey, feuding archaeologists, thieves and a race against the rising waters of a new dam to save an ancient lost city were just some of the elements of a dramatic tale told to The Arts Society Newbury members.

The Roman twin cities on the Euphrates known collectively as Zeugma – the Greek for bridge – had been lost for a century when Turkish workers digging the dam in the south of the country came across it. It had been sacked, buried in a landslide, leading archaeologist and curator Louise Schofield explained. The waters for the dam were rising inexorably when an American philanthropist heard of the beautiful and complete mosaics, and gave $9million to fund the rescue.

And so Ms Schofield was hurriedly recruited to lead the attempt in a race against time. “Mechanical diggers were clawing at the riverbank while we were trying to excavate below” she said. It was not all plain sailing. “All the nation groups hated each other” she said. French and Turkish archaeologists had to be assigned to separate trenches, the dam's work boss had to be persuaded by guile and threats to slow the water, and guards had to be persuaded not to look the other way while thieves hacked out parts of the mosaics. Working by day in heat up to 55 C, and by night under arc lights the teams raced to save as much of the city as they could, some of it just three hours before it was drowned.

Zeugma had been incredibly rich in its prime, from taxes on shipping passing the only bridge of the Euphrates for 1000 miles. The inhabitants had hired the best mosaic artists to design the floors of their villas with scenes from mythology and contemporary plays. Many of the mosaics were still complete – “the best mosaic in the world” said Ms Schofield. Many were carefully lifted in a complicated and time-consuming process. They are now in a nearby museum, but others are still underwater – perhaps awaiting future recovery in a more leisurely way.

Next lecture: Bruegel: The Seasons and the World,  April 23 Arlington Arts Centre
Full details theartssocietynewbury.org/uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our March Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Louise Schofield's lecture 'Rescuing Zeugma from the Floodwaters of the Euphrates'.   
Below is a further reading suggestion: 

Mosaics Of Zeugma - A Turizm

Clicking on the book title will take you to Amazon Books

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Wednesday 29th May 2024

Trip by coach to Kelmscott Manor and Buscot Park House and Gardens

Following January's lecture on 'The Many Faces of William Morris' we have planned a visit to Kelmscott Manor and Buscot Park House and Gardens

Full details can be found on the website

PRICE PER PERSON including lunch £67

Click here to book
Bookings can also be made at the monthly lectures

If you require any further information contact Anna Manners (Clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Monday 9th - Friday 13th September 2024

Art and Architecture of Yorkshire:
a five day tour based in York

Booking for this trip is now open

Price: £975 per person sharing a twin/double room

£160 single supplement

Click here for the details on our website

Click here for the brochure

If you require further information,
contact Tsa Palmer our Away Trips Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Next Lecture

Tuesday 23 April 2024

Live at Arlington Arts Centre only for both lectures: NO ZOOM

'Bruegel: The Seasons and the World'
Lecturer: Gavin Plumley

This lecture explores how Bruegel pioneered a whole new way of thinking about the environment and our individual places within a shifting cosmos

This Spring, as the flowers along the towpath start to bud and bloom, an exhibition of lino prints, paintings and contemporary quilts will be unfurled at Gallery 5 of the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury.

Maria Harryman is a Wiltshire based artist whose current work finds inspiration in florilegium, books dating back to medieval times which recorded the plants of a particular place or garden. In this exhibition her specific place of interest is the Kennet & Avon Canal. 

Starting in March, as older nature-based calendars did, the work will be curated working around the gallery walls through the months and seasons, depicting the wild plants growing in the reedbeds and hedgerows. Sketchbooks and printmaking tools showing her artistic process will also be on display.

This will be the first time the complete body of work will be shown together and is accompanied by a booklet of illustrated pen portraits describing wider aspects of life from the towpath.

All artworks are for sale. Prints and a booklet to accompany the exhibition will be available through the museum shop.

Open Wed – Sun 10:00-16:00 admission free

Lecture to The Arts Society Newbury: Daniel Robbins: Frederic Lord Leighton: Eminent Victorian Artist, at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore on Tuesday February 20th. Review by Alan Childs

Having your first major painting bought by Queen Victoria on the recommendation of Prince Albert might look like the start of a glittering art career. 

But despite his Flaming June painting - with its unnaturally long-thighed, dozing redhead in an orange dress - being one of the most recognizable and most reproduced of the era, Frederic Leighton is better known now for his services as a collector, as president of the Royal Academy, for raising the status of artists, and for his remarkable house, restored as a museum of art.

His reputation has diminished since his day, Daniel Robbins, an expert of 19th Century art and senior curator responsible for Leighton House in Holland Park, London, said in a lecture to the Arts Society Newbury.

Born into money – his grandfather amassed a fortune as doctor to the Tsar – Leighton is the only British artist to be ennobled as a baronet, then a baron (mere knights don’t count) as Frederic Lord Leighton just before his death in 1896 – he worked in the classical tradition with big processional pictures.

As a sculptor he revived interest in the Greek and Roman style but his remarkable painting skills and draughtmanship seem not to have survived his era. Even at the time, he was not universally admired as an artist, although none doubted his labours to have art and artists taken seriously.

His legacy is best regarded in his house, built not as a home – although he did live there - with its Arab Hall, paintings by other Victorian artists, and sculptures, collections and its exhibitions. Leighton himself would often conduct tours. Photographs show the studio and modest bedroom on the first floor and a table laid for one in the dining room.

Although he gave many interviews to the Press to further his cause of art, he remained a private person. The group that now runs the house has begun to search out and reassemble some of his collections that was sold after his death  and can be viewed and enjoyed just a train and tube ride from Newbury. 

Next Lecture: Rescuing Zeugma from the Floodwaters of the Euphrates
Arlington Arts March March 19. Full details: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our February Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Daniel Robbins' lecture 'Frederic Lord Leighton: Eminent Victorian Artist'.   
Below are Daniel's further reading recommendations: 

Lord Leighton, Richard and Leonee Ormond, Yale, 1975

Frederic, Lord Leighton, Eminent Victorian Artist, Stephen Jones et Al, Royal Academy, Abrams, 1996

The Holland Park Circle, Caroline Dakers, Yale, 1999

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books

 Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Tuesday 5th March 2024

Special Interest Day

British Sculpture in the 20th Century and Beyond
Lecturer: Ray Warburton

Click on the above title which will take you to the full details on the website

This special interest day looks at six sculptors in detail, and a few more in passing, who have been at the forefront of sculpting in Britain from the early 1900s to the present day

Click here to book your ticket

Monday 8th April 2024

London Visit to Leighton House
and Sambourne House

Self-drive or Public Transport

Following our February lecture on the eminent Victorian Artist Frederic Lord Leighton, we have planned a visit to Leighton House and Sambourne House

Full details can be found on the website
Price £53 per person including lunch
To book Click here

Bookings can also be made in person at the lectures

If you require any further information,
contact Anna Manners (Clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Wednesday 29th May 2024

Trip by coach to Kelmscott Manor and Buscot Park House and Gardens

Following January's lecture on 'The Many Faces of William Morris' we have planned a visit to Kelmscott Manor and Buscot Park House and Gardens

Full details can be found on the website

PRICE PER PERSON including lunch £67

Click here to book
Bookings can also be made at the monthly lectures

If you require any further information contact Anna Manners (Clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Monday 9th - Friday 13th September 2024

Art and Architecture of Yorkshire:
a five day tour based in York

Booking for this trip is now open

Price: £975 per person sharing a twin/double room

£160 single supplement

Click here for the details on our website

Click here for the brochure

If you require further information,
contact Tsa Palmer our Away Trips Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Next Lecture

Tuesday 19th March 2024

'Rescuing Zeugma from the Floodwaters of the Euphrates'
Lecturer: Louise Schofield

This lecture tells the story of the extraordinary archaeological rescue excavation to save fabulous mosaics and wall-paintings from rising floodwaters

Lecture to The Arts Society Newbury: Jo Banham: The Many Faces of William Morris, at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore on Tuesday January 23rd. Review by Alan Childs

And you thought your life was hectic.

Even by the standards of the busy Victorians, William Morris really put in the hours, The Arts Society Newbury discovered last week.  Most people today know him through his wallpaper designs, explained Morris expert Joanna Banham in a lecture on The Many Faces of William Morris at the Arlington Arts Centre, but he was man of “herculean energy, prolific talent and versatility”.  He was an artist, novelist, poet, illustrator, businessman, weaver, embroiderer, designer, conservator and Socialist campaigner with “a love of making and a hatred of the inequalities of Victorian society”.

From his exploits as a young boy – he was born in 1834 - riding through Epping Forest in his pretend suit of armour, re-enacting tales of medieval chivalry, to his love of the age and antiquity of Oxford, where he went to study, he was drawn to the creativity and skill of Gothic craftsmen.  A friend and partner of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – and a colleague of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and a lifelong friend of painter Edward Burne-Jones – he worked incessantly to recreate the craft and beauty of that era.

He wanted to do embroidery, so he taught himself how to sew. Later he needed medieval-style wall hangings, so he learned how to revive the techniques of the 14th and 15th centuries. He disliked modern chemical dyes, so spent most of 1870 elbow deep in vegetable dyes, rediscovering how to make natural ones, and to apply it to huge tapestries: “an incredibly laborious and difficult process” Ms Banham said. When he decided to set up book printing he designed three typefaces as well as 400 illuminated initials and decorations for his collected Chaucer.

He died in 1896, said his doctor, “of being Wiliam Morris and doing the work on ten men”. His work is still around us today; in the Arts and Crafts movement, his advocacy of a work-life balance for the masses, in the buildings he saved from zealous redevelopers.  Morris, said Ms Banham, was “not simply a man of many faces, he was a man for many and all times.”

Next lecture: Frederic Lord Leighton: Eminent Victorian Artist, Arlington  Arts Centre, Newbury, February 20. Full details: theartssocietynewbury.org.uk

Our reviews of the Society lectures regularly appear in the Arts Section of the Newbury Weekly News. The newspaper supports The Arts Society Newbury and many other local arts and cultural organisations.

Welcome to our January Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed Jo Banham's lecture 'The Many Faces of William Morris'.   
Below are Jo's further reading recommendations:

 'Art, Enterprise and Ethics: Essays on the Life and Work of William Morris'

'William Morris's Kelmscott Landscape and History'
by Alan Crossley

'William Morris Textiles, V&A London' by Linda Parry

Clicking on the book titles will take you to Amazon Books
For a complete bibliography follow this link: www.morrissociety.org

Please click here to submit your feedback

The password is Arlington

Monday 8th April 2024

London Visit to Leighton House
and Sambourne House

Self-drive or Public Transport

Following our February lecture on the eminent Victorian Artist Frederic Lord Leighton, we have planned a visit to Leighton House and Sambourne House

Full details can be found on the website
Price £53 per person including lunch
To book Click here

Bookings can also be made in person at the lectures

If you require any further information,
contact Anna Manners (Clicking on her name will generate an email for you)