Northern Rivers
ArtsNational Northern Rivers welcomes you.
ArtsNational Northern Rivers is one of a dynamic network of 38 societies throughout Australia. Together, we source recognised international and Australian based experts to deliver highly illustrated presentations across the arts – painting, sculpture, multimedia, architecture, landscaping, dance, music, writing, history ancient and modern.
We are a small friendly group who enjoy the company of others in broadening our understanding and appreciation of the arts. Our monthly one-hour presentations are scheduled on a Monday evening at 6pm in the iconic A&IHall Bangalow. Guests are always welcome to enjoy our friendly relaxed hospitality.
We encourage young and emerging artists from within our local community and are committed to the conservation and preservation of Australia’s heritage.
Together as one community around Australia, we encourage multi-generational interest in the arts and contribute to wider engagement in and enjoyment of the arts.
Lectures:
Venue:
Lectures are held at the historic A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow. Parking in front of Hall (two disability spots) and in Station Street.
Time:
Lectures are on a Monday evening at 6.30pm, with pre-lecture drinks from 6.00pm
Program
Find full details of the 2024 program here
Membership:
Annual membership
Single $160
Couple $280
Click here to join or email: northernrivers@artsnational.au
Guests welcome:
Guests $25, Book via the TryBooking links below or pay at the door.
Enquiries: Peter Harden northernrivers@artsnational.au
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: northernrivers@artsnational.au
Postal Address: PO Box 239 Bangalow NSW 2479
ABN: 40 338 920 815
Committee
Chair: Dianne Stuart
Treasurer: Peter Harden
Secretary: Diana Harden
2024 PROGRAM
Monday 4 March 2024
ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF ETHEL ROSENBERG AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN ICON
Presented by Anne Sebba
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
In the 70 years since her death, Ethel Rosenberg has become an American icon, a symbol of how fear and hysteria can make a government behave shamefully. Sometimes it requires artists to make sense of this catastrophic historical failure of justice and mercy.
Biographer, historian, and author, Anne Sebba is a former Reuters correspondent and documentary presenter. She appears regularly on television talking about her books – mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. Anne is a former chair of Britain’s Society of Authors and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research.
Monday 15 April 2024
MIRKA AND GEORGES: A CULINARY AFFAIR
Presented by Kendrah Morgan
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
Mirka Mora and husband Georges, were beloved and central figures in the cultural life of Australia. Arriving in Melbourne from Paris in 1951, Mirka captured the public imagination with her distinctive art and inimitable personality. The pair contributed significantly to the local art and restaurant scenes with their celebrated hospitality and intermingling of food, art, love and life – ultimately leading to the city’s gradual transformation into a sophisticated metropolis. The culinary journey is interspersed with fascinating anecdotes, archival photographs, Mirka’s sensuous and colourful artworks.
Kendrah Morgan is Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. Since 1998 Kendrah has curated over forty exhibitions, with Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Fiona Hall among her major projects. She has also co-authored four books on aspects of Heide history, including Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed (2015). Her most recent book, Mirka and Georges: A Culinary Affair, tells the story of the Mirka and Georges Mora’s transformation of Melbourne’s culinary and cultural landscapes.
Monday 20 May 2024
THE VIENNA SECESSION: FROM KLIMT TO SCHIELE
Presented by Dr Anne Anderson
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
In 1897 Gustav Klimt, lead the Secession, a ‘break-away’ group of artists who embraced progressive ideas and sought artistic freedom. Paintings by Klimt and Schiele shocked and dismayed the Viennese. They were accused of creating pornography, of revelling in the ugly and bringing art down into the gutter. Both tackled taboo subjects; Klimt celebrated the femme fatale, while Schiele was fascinated by the fragility of youthful innocence. Their paintings can be mysterious and baffling. Yet we are fascinated by such images. Klimt’s amorous liaisons are the stuff of legend. With the success of Edmund de Waal’s Hare with the Amber Eyes, end-of-century Vienna continues to fascinate us.
Dr Anne Anderson is currently Hon Associate Professor at Exeter University, tutors at the Victoria and Albert Learning Academy and is Ceramics Consultant for Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum.Anne has published books on the Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones and Art Nouveau architecture. She has held several prestigious fellowships, including fellow of the Huntington Library, California and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Library and Museum, Delaware. Anne has also curated several national exhibitions, the most recent Beyond the Brotherhood; the Pre-Raphaelite Legacy (2019-20).
Monday 17 June 2024
WONDERS OF THE ALHAMBRA – SYMMETRY AND PATTERNS IN ISLAMIC ART AND DESIGN
Presented by David Banney
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
For more than 700 years the Alhambra Palace in Granada has delighted and inspired. A treasure trove of art and design, the Alhambra is a virtual encyclopedia of symmetry and patterns, even more remarkable given the simplicity of the tools available to the artists and craftsmen. This lecture introduces the extraordinary techniques of design and construction that lie behind the tessellations of the Alhambra.
David is a passionate music educator, having taught music from primary school to post-graduate level. He is a renowned public educator, has lectured for Musica Viva and presented internationally on music education. David’s interest in symmetry lead to his appointment as Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Newcastle. Here he devised and delivered the course – Einstein, Bach and the Taj Mahal: Symmetry for Everyone – exploring the roles of symmetry and symmetry breaking in diverse disciplines – mathematics, science, visual art and design, music, literature and psychology.
Monday 15 July 2024
THE BAD BOY OF BAROQUE
Presented by Daniel Evans
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
This scandalous and sometimes vicious painter produced work with cinematic compositions and intensely visceral details. His downfall is the stuff of a film not yet made and despite dying prematurely his canvases influenced a generation that followed.
Dan Evans, an educationalist with a passion for European art and architecture. He teaches History and A Level History of Art at Cheltenham College, a full boarding independent school established in 1841. Dan has been lecturing since 2001 and spent nine years working as a senior lecturer and tour guide for Art History Abroad and he was once voted the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Awards.
Monday 12 August 2024
CULTURE AND KITCH: ART AND TASTE
Presented by Lynne Gibson
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
What has happened to art? Tracy Emin reveals her dirty knickers and crumpled sheets, Damien Hirst pickles fish and directs pop videos, Jeff Koons stars in pornographic photographs and designs giant floral puppies. Surely Raphael, Rembrandt and Reynolds would be turning in their graves! Is high-brow culture ‘dumbing down’ or is art becoming gloriously democratic, embracing consumerism, the mass media and kitsch? It is all just a game of self-consciously sophisticated irony! If you are regarded as ‘elitist’ or, conversely, if you are a secret hoarder of garden gnomes, this lecture will offer some insights into the politically incorrect world of Culture, Fine Art, and Taste.
Lynne is a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, as well as in practical drawing, painting and printmaking. She has held posts at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced “Understanding Art” to lifelong learning programs. She lectures and provides guided tours for a range of Art Galleries, Museums, The National Trust and the Art Fund. She is a professional artist specialising in oil painting and etching
Monday 9 September 2024
PARADISE LOST AND RESTORED – 400 YEARS OF GARDEN DESIGN IN OXFORDSHIRE
Presented by Timothy Walker
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
The history of English garden design can rarely be told “through the lens” of one garden. The Oxford Botanic Garden bears hallmarks of its 17th century design. Changes over the next 400 years, reflect more the art of gardening than the science of botany. We examine how the art of gardening has changed, and how this Garden now reflects early 21st century garden design. One motivation remains – the desire to create paradise on Earth. This paradise may now be less rooted in Biblical accounts, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.
Timothy Walker was Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014 and since then, has lectured and tutored in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College Oxford. Botanic gardens are often thought of as places where science and art meet on equal terms and this presentation investigates this relationship.
Monday 28 October 2024
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE’S GROUND BREAKING VISION
Presented by Deborah Jenner
Venue & Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start. A & I Hall, Station Street, Bangalow
O’Keefe’s inspiration comes from hiking in canyon country out west and integrating vistas from within gorges or with abstract cross sections of the Earth. Views from below and above or telescoping the far away and the nearby and finally, openings onto the Infinite. Such a topographical approach to landscape and abstract painting demonstrates O’Keeffe’s unique vision by breaking with all European norms and quaint English garden pictures. Australians could well identify with her approach and find parallels in their own landscape.
American born art historian, Deborah Jenna is a member of the College of Arts Association and has resided in Paris since 1990. She has worked at the Ecole du Louvre, the Sorbonne, Catholic Institute and the British Council. Her publications include catalogue essays, for Musee D-Orsay (New York City et L’Art Moderne and Centre Pompidou, plus many scholarly papers and Gallery Critiques. She gives public talks, guided walks and museum tours for expat organisations and study -abroad programs.
