Canberra

Tuesday 18 March 2025
FROM BISCUITS TO BLOUSES: The Art and Times of Garibaldi
Presented by Christoper Garibaldi
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was a leading figure in the unification of Italy during the 19th century. He attracted almost fanatical devotion, capturing the imagination of Italians but also the British. Interest in Britain prompted a fashion for everything from Staffordshire figurines, biscuits and blouses to the red shirts symbolising the Risorgimento (the movement for unification). Garibaldi visited Britain in 1864 when over 500,000 Londoners turned out to see him in Trafalgar Square. This lecture looks at Garibaldi through the art of the Risorgimento, using paintings, newspaper accounts and popular cultural representations of him to explain his popularity.

Christopher is an independent researcher. He was Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art) from 2010 to 2019 and previously Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections, and Senior Curator and Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle. He catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and other royal residences from 1994 to 1997.

Image: Giuseppe Garibaldi Stands Down in Capua by Gerolamo Induni (1861). Provided by Chris Garibaldi.

Tuesday 8 April 2025
THE WALLACE COLLECTION: EXCELLENCE AND ECCENTRICITY
Presented by Sylvia Sagona
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

The Wallace Collection is akin to an Aladdin’s cave brimming with sumptuous art and decorative objects. Housed in Hertford House in London, the collection was assembled by four Marquesses of Hertford from the 15th to the 19th centuries and was bequeathed to the public by Richard Wallace, philanthropist, francophile and illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess. The lecture will look at both the collection and the story behind it. The extraordinary wealth of this eccentric family was amassed through taxes from the Irish and judicious marriages. The collection is renowned for its dazzling Sèvres porcelain, armour, French cabinets and art masterpieces.

Sylvia completed her Maitrise ès Lettres at the University of Aix en Provence in France where she lectured at the University of Aix-Marseilles before becoming a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in the department of French and Italian studies, specialising in 19th century art and literature. Until 2023 Sylvia took study tours through Europe through her own cultural travel company. Sylvia has her own Youtube channel for her lectures and works as a historical consultant for television documentaries.

Image: Sèvres Inkstand, Escritoire ‘à globes’ (1759). Image provided by Sylvia Sagona

Tuesday 20 May 2025
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN: THEIR TOPSY-TURVEY WORLD
Presented by Jamie Hayes
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

This lecture looks at these two remarkable Victorians and the birth of English comic opera. Their twenty-five-year partnership began in 1871, when the pair were brought together by the remarkably entrepreneurial theatre manager Richard D’Oyly Carte, with whom they collaborated on 14 unique comic operas. Perhaps best known for The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe, Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical brilliance still impresses today. Their success was unprecedented in the history of music theatre and their creativity inspired the likes of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter as well as stimulating the growth of amateur companies.

Jamie graduated through RADA as a Stage Manager and worked for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Bristol Old Vic and the BBC. He became an Assistant Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Kent Opera and English National Opera and subsequently directed productions in the UK and overseas, including in Melbourne. Jamie was Associate Director on the original production of Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway. Jamie was also Director of Productions for British Youth Opera.

Image: H.M.S. Pinafore. Image from Jamie Hayes

Tuesday 24 June 2025
NORMAN MAGNIFICENCE IN SICILY
Presented by Kathleen Olive
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

It is often assumed that the art and architecture of Norman southern Italy should be strongly tied to the invaders’ own French or adopted Italian influences. In this lecture, Kathleen investigates the Islamic and Byzantine models for Sicily’s imposing monuments and looks at why the monarchy chose to conflate two such disparate aesthetics in its iconography. How did this reflect or advance the power and wealth of the dynasty? Considering Palermo’s glittering Palatine Chapel, for example, or the imposing cathedral of Cefalù we uncover the values and taste of the Normans in Sicily.

Kathleen’s PhD was a study of artisanal culture in Renaissance Florence, through the lens of a goldsmith’s commonplace book known as the Codex Rustici. She lived and studied in Italy for a number of years, and then taught Italian language, literature and history at the University of Sydney. Kathleen now works with Academy Travel, leading tours to Europe and, particularly, Italy.

Image: Palermo’s Palatine Chapel, ceiling detail. Photographer Allie Caulfield on Flickr. Image link from Kathleen Olive

Tuesday 22 July 2025
FRANS HALS (1582/3–1666): A DUTCH PAINTER WITH FLEMISH ROOTS
Presented by Sophie Oosterwijk
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

Frans Hals is one of the best-loved painters of the Dutch Golden Age, with his Laughing Cavalier one of the highlights of the Wallace Collection. The Frans Hals Museum is in Haarlem, but the artist was born in Antwerp from which his family fled north to escape war and persecution.
We know little about Hals’s life: he married twice and had a large family. He was popular yet constantly experienced financial difficulties. Hals specialised in people: portraits of wealthy burghers, but also merry drinkers and naughty children. His virtuoso brushwork and joie de vivre make his sitters still seem alive centuries later.

Born in Gouda (Netherlands), Sophie Oosterwijk has a PhD in English Literature (Leiden), an MA in Medieval Studies (York) and a PhD in Art History (Leicester). She has taught at numerous universities, including St Andrews and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, as well as at organisations such as the National Trust and the V&A. Sophie regularly lectures for Cambridge University, travel companies, and is Vice President of the Church Monuments Society. Sophie has published three books.

Image: Frans Hals, Married Couple in a Garden. Painting in the Rijksmuseum. Image is in the public domain and free to reuse.

Tuesday 19 August 2025
A CARPET RIDE TO KHIVA: A PERSONAL STORY OF REVIVING ANCIENT SILK CARPET DESIGNS
Presented by Chris Aslan
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

Chris tells his own story of working with UNESCO to establish a silk carpet workshop in the desert oasis of Khiva, Uzbekistan — the most homogenous example of Islamic architecture in the world. 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. He also saw the lives of women transformed and became the largest private employer in town.

Chris was born and raised in Turkey and Beirut. After studying media and journalism at Leicester University, Chris moved to Khiva in Uzbekistan and established a UNESCO workshop reviving 15th-century carpet designs. He was kicked out during an anti-Western purge and moved to Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris lived with yak herders in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, then moved to Kyrgyzstan, establishing a wood-carving workshop. His latest book is Unravelling the Silk Road.

Image: Chris Aslan with an advertisement for the Khiva silk carpet workshop. Source: Chris Aslan

SPECIAL INTEREST MORNING

Wednesday 20 August 2025
UNRAVELLING THE SILK ROAD
Presented by Chris Aslan
Venue & Time: 10.00am, 25 Forster Crescent, Yarralumla

This special interest morning will look at two of the three textile roads that tangled their way through Central Asia, changing and transforming the physical landscape, history, politics and culture of the region. It is a companion to Chris’s latest book Unravelling the Silk Road. In this SIM, Chris will cover wool and silk (the third textile is cotton).

Lecture 1: THE WOOL ROAD
Wool created the clothing and housing needed by the great nomadic cultures that were to dominate Middle Asia.

Lecture 2: THE SILK ROAD
Silk was more valuable than gold and used as currency, creating a network of trading routes that led to the first age of globalisation. The felts, carpets, embroideries, robes and veils made from wool, silk, and cotton stratified wealth, displayed religious and political entrenchments and changed the fortunes of this fascinating part of the world, a meeting place between Mohammed and the modern world

Image: Girl with a yak calf. Image provided by Chris Aslan. Source: Chris Aslan

Tuesday 23 September 2025
THE MISTRESS OF MENACE AND THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE
Presented by John Francis
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

Daphne Du Maurier and Alfred Hitchcock had much in common. Du Maurier is sometimes described as a romantic novelist, but this is completely misleading. Like Hitchcock, she dealt with themes of loneliness, gender, fear, suspense and gothic imagery. They both built compelling and complex emotional landscapes for their characters. Although they never met, the pair produced three cultural landmarks of the 20th century: Jamaica Inn, Rebecca and The Birds`. In this lecture John will explore Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), looking closely at some essential scenes in the film comparing the masterful techniques used on the page and on screen.

John is an inspirational speaker who has delivered lecturers and workshops in the US, Beijing, Malaysia and the UK. Trained as a painter, John was awarded the Max Beckmann Memorial Scholarship in painting in Brooklyn, New York and went on to be artist in residence for the state of Texas. Later, John produced and directed several short films and animations. He has taught film, art and pedagogy at universities in the UK, US and Malaysia.

Image: Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds (1963), based on the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. Image from John Francis.

Tuesday 21 October 2025
THE TREASURES OF TANIS
Presented by Eileen Goulding
Venue & Time: National Library of Australia, 6pm.

In 1939–1940 in the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis in the Nile Delta, French Egyptologist Pierre Montet discovered a complex of royal tombs— three were still intact! The treasures uncovered constitute one of the greatest, and most beautiful, archaeological discoveries, rivalling even those of Tutankhamun. But because its discovery was during World War II and as it was published only in French, it went unnoticed. This lecture covers the discovery of the tombs of the pharaohs Psusennes I, Sheshonq II, and Amenope with the gold and silver treasures, fine jewellery and artefacts now housed in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

Eileen has an MA in archaeology from the University of London. She specialises in the history and culture of the ancient worlds of the Mediterranean, South America and Australasia. While continuing her research, Eileen gives lectures to The Arts Society and other organisations. Her first book, What Did the Poor Take with Them, is a treatise on ancient Egyptian funerary goods, while her second book, Understanding Ancient Egypt, is a good introduction to the subject.

Image: Gold Face Mask of Pharoah Psusennes I. Now in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. Image from Eileen Goulding

SPECIAL INTEREST MORNING

Wednesday 22 October 2025
Presented by Eileen Goulding
Venue & Time: 10.00am, 25 Forster Crescent, Yarralumla

Lecture 1:  MESOAMERICAN PYRAMIDS — TOMBS OR TEMPLES
Colossal pyramids are scattered across Mesoamerica but are they the same as those built by ancient Egyptians? Eileen will take you on a tour of several pyramid sites, including Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza, to compare their function and design and identify the people who built them and the artefacts they left behind.

Lecture 2:  AZTEC AND MAYA CIVILISATIONS OF MEXICO
Human hearts, blood and children’s tears were all necessary to quench the hunger of the bloodthirsty gods of Mexico. If their needs were not satisfied the consequences for the nation would be catastrophic. In this lecture we discover some of their ancient gods and learn about the religious rites designed to appease them.

Image: Chichen Itza, Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan, Mexico. Image from Eileen Goulding.