Blue Mountains

Friday 7 February 2025
WILLIAM MORRIS: Writer, Designer, Socialist and Artist
Presented by Susannah Fullerton
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

William Morris’s doctor described his cause of death as “simply being William Morris and having done more work than ten men.” A man of charm and unpredictability, Morris’s legacy is alive and well. Originally best known as a poet. Today, he is remembered for his beautiful wallpapers and signature designs.

Susannah has a BA from the University of Auckland NZ and a post-graduate degree in Victorian literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She teaches literature and lectures regularly at the State Library of NSW and the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2017 Susannah was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for Services to Literature and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW. Susannah is President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, the largest literary society in the country, Patron of the Kipling Society of Australia and Lady Patroness of the International Heyer Society.

Friday 28 March 2025
PETRA AND THE NABATEANS: THE ARABS BEFORE ISLAM
Presented by Sue Rollin
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

The Nabateans, desert dwellers of Arabian origin, became rich by trading in incense and aromatics from South Arabia. Establishing their capital city at Petra, they carved tombs, cultic dining halls, and a grand theatre from the sandstone of their desert stronghold. This lecture will examine their culture, religion and incredible architectural feats.

Sue holds degrees in Near Eastern archaeology, South Asian studies and conference interpreting. She has lectured at London and Cambridge Universities and has been a staff interpreter at the European Commission. She works as an interpreter, lecturer and tour guide. As well, Sue has
lectured for the Arts Society and the V & A in the UK and ArtsNational. Sue has travelled widely for work and pleasure, has led cultural tours in Spain, Sicily, Morocco, the Middle East, Central Asia and India. She has co-authored travel guides on Jordan and on Istanbul.

Friday 18 April 2025
ART AND THE THIRD REICH
Presented by Leigh Capel
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

Leigh will look at Hitler’s background as a frustrated artist in the traditional school overtaken by modern art in the early 20th century. Hitler’s rejection fuelled his need to eradicate this new art movement once he came to power. Leigh follows Hitler’s attempt to influence trends through acquisition of classical art for his self-curated Führermuseum in Linz, as well as his plunder and destruction of modern art deemed ‘degenerate’ (the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition). Leigh will focus on some of the most important artworks lost, the search for stolen art and discuss the aftermath of WWII, including the impact of the Holocaust on post-war and migrant art in Australia.

Leigh has worked in the auction industry since 2013, employed by Menzies, Mossgreen and Sotheby’s. In 2018, became a director of Belle Epoque Fine Arts and Antiques. In 2019, he replaced Lauraine Diggins at The Sydney Fair at Royal Randwick & The Melbourne Fair at Caufield. Leigh’s projects have been featured in Vogue Australia, FilmInk magazine and The Daily Telegraph.

Friday 23 May 2025
ABOUT FACE: How to Read Portraits
Presented by Alice Foster
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines portraiture as “a representation…of a person, especially the face…”. However, this simple explanation belies the complexities of reproducing the face. Portraits are 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. This lecture will explore how portraits range from the symbolic to images where concern with identity opens up character, personality, mood, status, costume, occupation, gender and age, and the relationship between sitter and painter.

Alice Foster has lectured for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education since 1998. She lectures regularly at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Her busy freelance career includes organising History of Art study days with colleagues, and regular weekly classes in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire. In 2004 Alice joined The Arts Society and has lectured in Britain and in Europe.

Friday 27 June 2025
SIENA, CITY OF THE VIRGIN: Art in a 14th Century Tuscan Hill Town
Presented by Dr Louise Marshall
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

Less well known than Florence, Siena is home to a wealth of early Renaissance art, much of it still preserved in the buildings for which it was made. In this period, art and architecture were a crucial means of civic self-fashioning, directed outwards to citizens and foreigners and upwards to God and the saints. Above all, Sienese art celebrated the Virgin Mary, who, following her help against hated rivals the Florentines was considered Siena’s ruler and special protector. The magnificent cathedral was erected in her honour, lavishly endowed with highly innovative furnishings, including a superb marble pulpit and an enormous, unprecedented double-sided altarpiece of the Maestà, or Virgin in Majesty.

Louise has a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and specialises in Italian art. She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. She is currently working on a study of Italian Renaissance plague images. She lectures at the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of
Australia, and other galleries around Australia.

Friday 25 July 2025
THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND: The Architecture, Art and Textiles of Uzbekistan
Presented by Chris Aslan
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

Uzbekistan boasts glittering mosques, madrassahs and minarets in the Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, contrasting with the brutalist Soviet buildings in Tashkent, Urgench and Nukus. We explore the Russian Avante Garde art collection of the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, assembled when these styles were banned by the state. We consider the revival of Islamic miniature painting in Bukhara and the resurgence of handicrafts that ceased during the 1930s, with the Soviet drive to industrialisation. Finally, we consider how tourism is affecting production of high-quality handicrafts.

Chris spent his childhood in Turkey and in war-torn Beirut and is currently based in Cambridge. His career extended from the sea, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Oxford. He established a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries which became the largest nongovernment employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge and recorded his experiences in “A Carpet Ride to Khiva”.

Friday 22 August 2025
THE GENIUS OF STRADIVARI
Presented by Toby Faber
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

250 years after Antonio Stradivari’s death, his violins and cellos remain the world’s most highly prized instruments. Loved by great musicians and capable of fetching fabulous sums when sold, their tone and beauty are legendary. Every subsequent violinmaker has tried to match them. Not one has succeeded. How can that be? This lecture explores that central mystery by following some of Stradivari’s instruments from his workshop to the present day. It is a story that travels from the salons of Vienna to auditoriums around the world.

After investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Toby remains on the board of Faber and Faber, is non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music, and a director of Liverpool University Press.

Friday 19 September 2025
CELEBRATING 200 YEARS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Presented by Lydia Bauman
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

2024 marks the bicentenary of Britain’s much-loved national treasure – The National Gallery. Home to one of the greatest collections of European art, it is also a repository of headline grabbing stories surrounding acquisitions, controversial conservations, thefts, film appearances, acts of vandalism and scandals…

Lydia Bauman, a guide and lecturer at the National Gallery for over 35 years, recounts those stories against the backdrop of some of the most glorious masterpieces in the collection. Lydia was born in Poland and studied for her BA in Fine Art at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (John Christie Scholarship and the Hatton Award), and an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She has since divided her time between painting and exhibiting as well as lecturing widely to adult audiences.

Friday 31 October 2025
THE ELEGANCE OF THE OCEAN LINER
Presented by Georgina Bexon
Venue and Time: The School of Arts Wentworth Falls.  Arrive 1.30pm for 2pm start.

Experience the glitz and glamour of the ocean liner, from its 1920s heyday to modern times. Early ship design and décor was often utilised to resemble a British stately home or an Italian palazzo and intended to imbue passengers with a sense of high comfort, status and luxury. Designers embraced different artistic styles, from neoclassical and baroque to art nouveau and art deco to create ever more impressive and beautiful interiors. The talk will showcase exquisite gilded ballrooms, grand balustraded staircases and sumptuous panelled smoking rooms, whilst examining the fascinating social and design history of these ‘floating palaces’.

Georgina Bexon 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 and she has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India, which she visits regularly. She is a consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club in London and an official tour guide at Tate Modern.