Armidale

Thursday 13 February 2025
ART DECO IN SYDNEY – A PERSISTENT PRESENCE
Presented by Claudia Chan Shaw (Australia)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

From an incinerator designed by Walter Burley Griffin to the local cinema, pub and milk bar, Art Deco design was not limited to the elegant office buildings of bustling downtown Sydney of the 1930s. The city’s smart set were early adopters embracing the style at every level. This lecture will provide an exploration of Art Deco Sydney, a visual culture defined not only through architecture, but also through graphic and interior design, the decorative arts and photography. 

Claudia Chan Shaw has a multi-faceted career as a fashion designer, television and radio presenter, author, public speaker, installation artist, photo artist, and curator.   She is well known as the co-host of television program Collectors.

Thursday 13 March 2025
PETRA AND THE NABATEANS: THE ARABS BEFORE ISLAM
Presented by Sue Rollin (UK)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

This lecture traces the history of the enigmatic Nabateans, desert dwellers of Arabian origin, who grew fabulously rich on trade in incense and aromatics from South Arabia and established their capital city at Petra, hidden away in the mountains south of the Dead Sea. There in the sandstone of their remote desert stronghold, the Nabateans carved tombs, dining halls and a grand theatre. They built palaces, villas and temples in the valley with water courses and gardens.

Sue Rollin holds degrees in Near Eastern archaeology, South Asian studies and conference interpreting. She works as a freelance interpreter, lecturer and tour guide and has travelled widely in Spain, Sicily, Morocco, the Middle East, Central Asia and India.

Thursday 3 April 2025
TO PAINT A WAR
Presented by Richard Travers (Australia)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

Among all the forms of national memory and commemoration, it falls to the artists to paint a war. When war is as traumatic as the Great War, the artists’ burden is so much the greater. The Australian artists who painted World War I approached their subject personally, in ways that reflected their experience of the war. This lecture follows the artists as they leave Australia in search of inspiration and fame in London and Paris and their response to the crisis.

Richard Travers practised as a trial lawyer for more than 40 years. He is a historian and published author including books on diggers and artists on the Western Front, Australian history and the life of Hilda Rix Nicholas.

Thursday 8 May 2025
ABOUT FACE: HOW TO READ PORTRAITS
Presented by Alice Foster (UK) 
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

Portraits range from the symbolic, where a likeness was not required, to images where concern with identity opens the areas of character, personality, mood, status, costume, occupation, gender and age. The relationship between sitter and painter also needs to be considered. Portraits are complex to produce and quite distinct from other categories in art in the way they are made, the nature of what they represent and how they work in terms of display.

Alice Foster is a lecturer at Oxford University and two Oxford museums. She organizes art history study days, weekly classes and regular lectures for ArtsNational and is a tutor on study holidays.

Thursday 12 June 2025
DECORATING DOMESTIC SPACES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Presented by Kathleen Olive (Australia)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

The growth of the middle class in medieval Europe ¬– due in part to brisk trade, guild reorganisation and more sophisticated education – ensured that a new type of consumer culture had developed. Well-to-do merchants, bankers and even artisans signalled their wealth and sophistication through conspicuous consumption, much of it destined for the interior decoration of their comfortable domestic spaces. This lecture will explore the decorative style of the 14th and 15th century in Italy and France.

Kathleen Olive has studied the artisanal culture of Renaissance Florence. She lived and studied in Italy for several years before teaching Italian language, literature and history at the University of Sydney. She now leads tours to Europe.

Thursday 10 July 2025
A CARPET RIDE TO KHIVA: A PERSONAL STORY OF REVIVING ANCIENT SILK CARPET DESIGNS
Presented by Chris Aslan (UK)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

This lecture tells his own story of working with UNESCO to establish a silk carpet workshop in the desert oasis of Khiva, Uzbekistan that became the largest private employer and transformed the lives of these women. His work took him to the bazaars of Afghanistan to purchase natural dyes, and to the great libraries and museums of Europe to track down 15th century manuscripts to revive carpet designs from their illuminations.

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey and spent his childhood there and in Beirut before travelling to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to set up local enterprises. He is an author, lecturer and travel guide based in Cambridge.

Thursday 7 August 2025
FABER AND FABER – 90 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE IN COVER DESIGN
Presented by Toby Faber (UK) 
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

Faber and Faber has been one of London’s most important literary publishing houses since 1925. Its success was founded on the editorial team built by Geoffrey Faber and his successors, but also the firm’s insistence on good design. This lecture traces the firm’s history through its illustrations, covers and designs. They have employed some of Britain’s most celebrated artists as cover illustrators – from Rex Whistler and Barnett Freedman to Peter Blake and Damien Hirst.

Toby Faber, grandson of the founder, began his career at Cambridge, followed by investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of Faber and Faber. He is an experienced lecturer and published author.

Thursday 4 September 2025
PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN – FROM MONET TO MATISSE
Presented by Lydia Bauman (UK)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

Monet was perhaps the most important painter of gardens but so many other artists not only created gardens but made them the subject of their work. The modern garden, transformed by 19th century innovations such as hybridisation, glasshouses and foreign exploration, was part of a great social change to which artists responded from the 1860s onwards. This lecture traces the garden as a modern phenomenon and the development of new art movements adopting it as their subject.

Lydia Bauman has a BA in Fine Art and an MA in History of Art. She has since divided her time between painting and exhibiting, teaching at prestigious galleries and lecturing widely to adult audiences.

Thursday 16 October 2025
THE REAL PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Presented by Georgia Bexon (UK)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

For centuries pirates roamed the Caribbean Ocean creating havoc and violence for unsuspecting merchant vessels and peace-loving sailors. Piracy reached its zenith in the early eighteenth century when notorious marine outlaws like Captain Kidd and Bluebeard led crews of murderous sailors intent on plundering the high seas. While a fair amount of dramatic license has been used in the retelling of their stories over time, there is historical evidence to support many of the swashbuckling tales of terror.

Georgina Bexon has a BA in Art History and an MA in Arts Management and is an international art historian who has lived and worked in the UK, Europe, USA and Singapore. Her practice includes lecturing, writing, consulting and collecting.

Thursday 13 November 2025
GODDESS OF THE SKY: THE ART OF EVEREST AND THE HIMALAYAS
Presented by John Williamson (Australia)
Venue & time: Michael Hoskins Theatre TAS, 6pm

This lecture examines the development of the British Great Trigonometrical Survey of India and the art of both the early efforts to ascend Mt. Everest as well as the art of modern climbing on the world’s highest mountain.

John Williams has been a lecturer for 18 years, a teacher for 36 years and a tour guide. He has studied and taught about the Antarctic.