Mudgee

Monday 2 March 2026
POTS AND FROCKS: The World of Grayson Perry
Presented by Ian Swankie​
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

Best known for his outlandish appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Sir Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment, a Knight of the Realm, Turner Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character. Possibly one of the world’s best-known British contemporary artists, his ceramics, textiles, tapestries and prints are highly sought after. Often
controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty manner and holds a mirror to modern society. This talk will examine Sir Grayson Perry’s work, his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.

A Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a freelance London tour guide. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. Ian is an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City of London’s famous livery companies.

Monday 30 March 2026
FLAPPERS, SPEEDOS AND THE NEW LOOK – FASHION IN AUSTRALIA IN THE 20s, 30s AND 40s  
Presented by Claudia Chan Shaw
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

In the 1920s there wasn’t an Australian style in women’s dress. David Jones in 1921 advertised its “modestly priced reproductions and adaptations of Paris fashions.” Almost overnight, the arrival of an economic depression brought a serious tone to society. Women’s hemlines dropped, and the carefree age of the flapper was over. By the time Australia entered the Second World War, the traditional role of women shifted with many joining the Australian Land Army. Rationing was brought in and women were taught to make ‘New Clothes from Old’ and ‘Make Do and Mend’. By 1947 Christian Dior’s New Look had restored femininity to both the fashion industry and women worldwide. While all the fuss was being made about the Parisian fashions, two local designers were quietly paving the way for an Australian look and the beginnings of the Australian fashion industry. Enter Beril Jents and Hall Ludlow. Join Claudia Chan Shaw to discover the story of fashion in Australia from the twenties through to the forties.

Sydney born creative 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.  With a BA in Visual Communication Design from Sydney College of the Arts, she is co-designer and director for the internationally acclaimed Australian fashion label, Vivian Chan Shaw. The label is renowned for its exquisite handmade knitwear and jewellery. The designs are represented in the permanent collection of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Monday 4 May 2026
NEW VISIONS: Paris and Impressionism
Presented by Joanne Rhymer
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

During the reign of Napoleon III, Paris expanded and transformed. Some areas of the city were demolished to make way for new boulevards, apartments, and public buildings. Department stores evolved and entertainments including theatres and bars burgeoned, providing employment and leisure opportunities. Paris was a dynamic city and international appeal. Joanne will discuss how, for the newly emerging Impressionist painters, it provided novel motifs for modern paintings. Our view of Paris will be seen through the artistic lens of Manet, Renoir, and Caillebotte to consider how the transformation of urban life was an inspiring theme. We will examine how Paris led modern painters to experiment with painting techniques and subjects to create a new pictorial language which changed the direction of art forever.

Joanne completed an MA in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation at University College London in 1997. She worked at the National Gallery, including as Head of Adult Learning Programmes, and later taught for Tate, the Hayward Gallery, Sotheby’s Institute, and the National Portrait Gallery. She is a Panel Tutor at Cambridge and teaches for the Wallace Collection and the V&A, specialising in French art.

Monday 1 June 2026
ART CRIMES AND HEISTS
Presented by Leigh Capel
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

The lecture will be addressing some of the world’s greatest art crimes and heists in history. Leigh will delve into the murky world of fakes and forgeries, using his comprehensive, personal experience as both an auction assistant some of Australia’s most reputable Fine Art auction rooms, and as a successful secondary market art dealer, to expose the deceit, immorality & dark secrets of the art industry; from the Crown to the underground, in Australia & abroad! 

Leigh Capel has worked in the auction industry as a valuer and specialist since 2013 and is an accredited valuer of the Auctioneers & Valuers Association of Australia. His experience in the auction industry and as an art dealer provides a rounded perspective of art history and the market.

Monday 6 July 2026
LOVE ACTUALLY: Your Favourite Christmas Movie Will Never Be the Same!
Presented by Mary Sharp (Please watch the movie)
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

When Richard Curtis interwove ten stories with equal doses of comedy and tragedy in Love Actually, he created one of our best loved Christmas movies. But could it be that the stories are not all that they seem? In this entirely original (and definitely unauthorised) lecture, Mary presents her insights into how Shakespeare’s four great tragedies (and other classical masterpieces) lurk just below the surface.

Mary is an experienced broadcaster and teacher with particular expertise in literature and drama. She worked for many years for BBC Radio 4 producing some of its most popular programmes, including Start the Week and Woman’s Hour, before joining the senior management team as a Commissioning Editor. Mary has subsequently worked as a teacher and Director of Sixth Form at a leading girls’ grammar school. She now runs her own company ‘Opening Up Literature’ which offers literature courses for adults including studies of Shakespeare and Creative Writing. Her most popular course is ‘Telling Tales’, which explores how writers and artists have reinvented classical stories. She is a professional bridge teacher and lecturer.

SPECIAL EVENT: CHRISTMAS IN JULY AND MOVIE SCREENING
Saturday 4th July
Time and Venue: 5.30pm, Club Mudgee
Cost: $70.

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Monday 10 August 2026
THE CULT OF GLORIANA: Art, Music And Politics at the Court of the Virgin Queen
Presented by Mark Cottle
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

Elizabeth I was the most remarkable woman of a remarkable age. Her reign was one of the great creative periods of English history – literature, music, art, architecture and overseas exploration all reached unprecedented heights. With reference to architecture and gardens, this lecture will focus chiefly on the portraits, miniatures and music of Elizabeth’s court. The aim is to demonstrate great levels of artistic achievement and to interpret ideas and assumptions to recreate something of the energy, spirit, and confidence of this Golden Age.

Born on the Isles of Scilly and educated at Truro School, Cornwall, and Birmingham University, Mark Cottle has enjoyed a career in education and training at home and abroad. He has lectured at Exeter College on Medieval and Tudor history, St Mark’s & St John’s University College, Plymouth, and at Bath University on Anglo Saxon and medieval England. Currently Mark runs two small companies providing training and study breaks.

Monday 7 September 2026
THE ART OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN
Presented by Marie Conte-Helm
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

This lecture introduces some of Japan’s most famous gardens and provides a context for understanding the principles of Japanese garden design as it has evolved through the ages. The Japanese love of nature and the changing seasons has manifested itself in paintings and in the intimate and grand-scale gardens surrounding aristocratic palaces and Buddhist temples, as well as Zen-inspired dry landscape gardens with strikingly symbolic content. The lecture also draws upon wider examples to illustrate the distinctive qualities that the Japanese have brought to garden design, an approach successfully adapted to modern domestic settings and to Japanese gardens abroad.

Professor Conte-Helm is a long-established Lecturer of The Arts Society with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art. She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, as Visiting Professor at Northumbria University, and as a Member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic positions at various UK universities.

Monday 12 October 2026
LEE MILLER AND ROLAND PENROSE AT FARLEY FARM
Presented by Antony Penrose
Time & Venue: 6pm, Auditorium Cudgegong Valley Public School, 47-65 Madeira Road Mudgee

The story of Roland Penrose, British Surrealist artist and biographer of Picasso, and Lee Miller, the American Surrealist photographer, who shot fashion and combat with equal talent, as seen through the eyes of their son Antony Penrose, who is also their biographer. We look at how their early lives formed their motivations and how they strove to use art to make the world a better place. The last decades of their life together were at Farley Farm, their home in Sussex which was frequented by many prominent Surrealist and Modern artists.

For the past 45 years, Antony has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. With his daughter Ami he is the co-director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents’ work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial war Museum London, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world and made documentaries for television. Publications include The Lives of Lee Miller, Lee Miller’s War (editor), The Angel and the Fiend, The Home of the Surrealists, Roland Penrose the Friendly Surrealist and The Boy Who Bit Picasso. The movie titled ‘LEE’ starring Kate Winslet is based on his book The Lives of Lee Miller and for ten years he was heavily involved with its production and release.