Our Speaker Nick Salmond joined the BBC as a trainee Studio Manager in Radio. What followed was a 33-year career in BBC News, in both Radio and Television where he helped cover some of the great events of History, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the terrible events of 9/11, from the death of Diana, Princess of Wales to the celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. He will explain how the BBC Newsroom works and how stories get on air and look at why things sometimes go wrong. 

For feedback and voting purposes only.

See Whats On/Special Events for details

November 1918 saw the end of an international conflict that saw the highest casualty rate to that date. Every nation had to decide how to honour and remember its dead.  Our speaker Sophie Matthews will explore the powerful art and design behind the memorials that mark the landscapes of the Western Front. From the solemn minimalism of Edwin Lutyens’ Thiepval Memorial to the poignant symbolism of the Menin Gate and the artistry of battlefield cemeteries and examine how architecture, sculpture, and landscape design were used to express grief, sacrifice, and national identity in the aftermath of unprecedented loss.

The lecture explores how Antarctica was carried home-not in crates of specimens, but in images. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, during the Heroic Age of polar exploration, watercolourists, oil painters, photographers and early film makers translated the whole vastness of the ice for the wives and mothers at home. Katherine MacInnes will be asking us to imagine ourselves as ‘1st footers’ stepping into that frozen Continent.

This talk will consider how magicians have appeared in art throughout the centuries, whether in paintings, satirical prints or cartoons. Early artists used the magician to symbolise the mysterious and the unknown, associating them with astrology. In the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch produced two of the most famous and striking pictures of the conjurer performing the Cups and Balls trick. The 18th and 19th century saw a proliferation in engravings and lithographs showing the magician both indoors and on the streets. Our speaker Ian Keable, a professional musician, is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle and in 2024 was appointed the Circle’s Archivist.

Our lecturer, Dr James Wright will look at ways in which ancient buildings have been studied and conserved. Using case studies drawn from his career he will explore the puzzling ways that some buildings become listed whereas others have been overlooked. How can we really understand the age and development of a structure. All this with an emphasis on local buildings.

The lecture is devoted to an exploration of colour, our appreciation of it and how we see it at the very core of our common interest in art and the arts. Sometimes colour is referred to as ‘the secret influence’ and our lecturer John Ericson will ask the questions, what is Colour? Do we experience colour similarly? What is a colour scheme and why do some colours go well together and others not.

The Camden Town Group was an innovative circle of painters united by the desire to paint works of a modern character. They combined the techniques and visions of European Post-Impressionism with the changing modernity of Edwardian London. This lecture introduces the core members of the group, led by Walter Richard Sickert, and tells the story of their brief but significant association. It will examine the key themes addressed within their work: urban life, popular entertainment and the lower social classes, as well as Sickert’s infamous series of paintings inspired by the notorious Camden Town murder.   Our Speaker Nicola Moorby, Curator of British Art, 1790-1850 at Tate, last visited our Society in 2019 when she presented the Great British Paint-off between Turner and Constable.

The 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in March 1827 makes it a great time to reassess the legacy of the great composer. Born into a family of court musicians in Bonn, Beethoven became one of the greatest and most disruptive figures in the history of Classical music: by the time he died in Vienna he had completely transformed music’s cultural landscape. Sandy Burnett will reflect on this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer.