Meetings are at 7.30pm in the Wallington Hall on the first Sunday of the month, from September to June, with talks from professional speakers and occasional films.
Topics are wide-ranging; recent talks have included Caravaggio, Gothic Art and Architecture, Johnny Cash in San Quentin and the History of Travel Photography…
Entry is £3 for members and £5 for non-members.
Forthcoming Meetings
March 2018
Paul Chapman – Velasquez (with a particular focus on Las Meninas)
Diego Velasquez was the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age and his painting Las Meninas (c.1656) is regarded as the culmination of his career. It shows the artist himself at his easel, with various members of the royal family and their attendants, but is full of ambiguities and contradictions. It has been described as "big and paradoxical", "almost impossible to define", a "complex and enigmatic composition". Who better, then, to elucidate it for us than art historian and lecturer…
Find out more »April 2018
Bob Williams – Roger McGough and the Liverpool Poets
Bob will be known to a number of you as an active member of the Arts Association, having served on the Committee as the ‘member without a portfolio’ (curating the Jeanne Walpole Memorial Retrospective Exhibition, in the town, in 2012) and he has for some years been a member of the busy Outings Committee, offering a wide variety of coach based visits to venues of cultural interest. Bob was a former Deputy Headmaster and Head of Art Department, but with…
Find out more »May 2018
Film – Alex Clifton-Taylor’s English Towns: Devizes and Bradford on Avon
In the late 1970s Alex Clifton-Taylor, architectural historian, produced three books, each covering six English towns and looking in depth at their history and architecture. A successful television series followed. We will be showing the programmes on Devizes, where the castle determined its street plans, and Bradford on Avon, confined by its topography. Each town is rich in high class building of brick and stone. Together these films provide a delightful snapshot of both towns, and will no doubt revive…
Find out more »June 2018
Sarah Latham Phillips – Matisse & Picasso, the Early Years; Artists in Paris & Montmartre 1900–1914
This lecture will consider the early years of the two great twentieth century masters, Matisse and Picasso, describing their struggles, determination and development in Paris. It will also include the vivid, innovative and revolutionary movements of Fauvism and Cubism. Sarah Phillips, whose earlier career was spent at the Courtauld Institute of Art, is well-known locally as a WEA tutor and lecturer.
Find out more »September 2018
James Slater & Maud Saint-Sardos – The Wiltshire Music Centre, 20 years on
Two decades ago in December 1997, WMC opened its doors for the first time. Director James Slater shares his perspective on the past and plans for the future.
Find out more »October 2018
Hanne Dahl – Cloth and design in Trowbridge’s Weaving Mills
Trowbridge has been known for producing high quality woven cloth from medieval times right up until the last weaving mill fell silent in 1982. In this talk Hanne will share some of her recent research, including how the mills worked with iconic fashion names like Mary Quant.
Find out more »November 2018
Dr Allan Phillipson – Mary Shelley: Frankenstein at 200
Boris Karloff as 'the creature' (1931) This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This illustrated talk traces the book's progress from ghost story to cultural icon. Along the way, we will consider the revised manuscript, the input of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, and the impact of the Romantic movement and the Gothic genre. The presentation will include excerpts from some of the 120 films that the book has inspired. Dr Phillipson lectures regularly on Shakespeare,…
Find out more »January 2019
Michael Darlow – Battles Over the Box: a Veteran Programme Maker’s Account
Ever since the Selsdon Committee was set up in 1934 to ‘investigate the feasibility of launching a public television service’, television, and broadcasting in general, must have been the subject of more government reports, committees of inquiry, royal commissions, campaigns by pressure groups and attempts to interfere with it by self-appointed guardians of public morality than almost any other British institution.
Find out more »February 2019
Debbie Ireland – Hasselblad and the Moon Landing
Even in today’s image saturated world, the photography from the Apollo 11 Mission still has huge impact as a record of man’s ultimate adventure. Over fifty years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon and those square format pictures taken with the Hasselblad cameras are a beautiful and powerful reminder of their achievement. This talk tells the story of the Moon landing through the lens of the camera that recorded it.
Find out more »March 2019
John Salvat – The History of Walled Gardens
Havens of sensuous pleasure, religious sanctuaries, estate supermarkets and a lure for Elizabeth I's favours. Walled gardens have been an interesting window into social change over hundreds of years. Our visual journey will include some stunning botanical illustrations.
Find out more »