Rockhampton
ArtsNational Rockhampton welcomes you
This is the society’s 30th year of bringing to the area, experts from overseas and Australia to speak on all aspects of the Arts. Our society is one of 38 around Australia that form ArtsNational, with The Arts Society in the United Kingdom as the ‘parent’ organisation.
In 2025 ArtsNational Rockhampton will welcome six overseas, two Australian and two local speakers to give beautifully illustrated presentations for members, their guests and visitors. Each lecture is followed by a most generous, convivial morning tea with the speaker. The society hopes to engage members in excursions and other activities throughout the year. Do join us to learn things you never knew you didn’t know about the arts. Be entertained, exercise the grey matter, meet old friends, make new ones and enhance your travels with your new knowledge of out of the way wonders.
Image: Susan Head, ‘Baking’

Lectures:
Venue:
Rockhampton: Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
Disabled and ample parking available
Time:
Lectures are on Saturdays and begin at 10 am with refreshments afterwards.
Program
Find full details of the 2025 program here
Membership:
Annual membership: $150
$125 for pensioner concession card holder
Click here to join or email: adfassecretary@gmail.com
Guests welcome:
Visitors are welcome to attend lectures for $25 per lecture which includes morning tea with the lecturer.
Visitors from other ArtsNational societies $15 per lecture
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: adfassecretary@gmail.com
Postal Address: PO Box 8306 Rockhampton QLD 4700
ABN: 549 638 445 18
Committee
Chair: Anne Dunne
Treasurer: Catherine Dass
Membership: Lyn Garland
Secretary / Enquiries: Janet Gentle
2025 PROGRAM
HALF INTEREST DAY
Saturday 5 April 2025
Presented by Marc Allum
Time & Venue: 10am, Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
Cost: First lecture FREE for members. Visitors $25. Second lecture $20 for members and visitors.
Lecture 1: THE CHAIR – 2000 Years of Sitting Down
This engaging talk looks at the history of the chair and ‘sitting solutions’, charting the humble to high design, from antiquity to the 21st century. Never again will you take your seat for granted!
Lecture 2. BRING AN OBJECT
One of Marc’s most popular talks and based on the age-old Antiques Roadshow premise of people arriving with their personal objects and Marc spontaneously deciphering them to the audience. Always different and peppered with historical anecdotes, emotional tales and also highly audience interactive.
Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire, UK. He has been a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow for over 25 years. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer. He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service. Marc’s interests range from pre-history to modern design, and he is a self-confessed ‘collectaholic.’ Marc has lectured widely to organisations in both the public and charity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust and at literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath and Wells. Marc is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Bookings required: Please email adfassecretary@gmail.com

Saturday 3 May 2025
SISTERS OF TRAGEDY: The Brontes and their Works
Presented by Susannah Fullerton
Time & Venue: 10am Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
The story of the Brontës, a tragic and brilliant family, is one of the most fascinating tales in all of English literature. Charlotte, Emily and Anne grew up in a bleak Yorkshire parsonage, expecting to become governesses. Instead, they wrote 7 extraordinary novels – passionate, violent, feminist and autobiographical – which they published anonymously. Only Charlotte enjoyed literary fame, as Emily and Anne died soon after publishing their works. Susannah Fullerton presents the incredible story of these sisters of tragedy, performs dramatic excerpts from their books and poems and depicts the Victorian background of repressive attitudes to women against which they struggled all their lives. Vivid slides will transport you to Yorkshire and its wild and beautiful moors.
Susannah has been passionate about literature for as long as she can remember. She has a BA from the University of Auckland NZ and a post-graduate degree in Victorian literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She currently teaches literature courses in Sydney 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.

Saturday 24 May 2025
DICK WHITTINGTON: International Man of Myth and Mystery
Presented by Simon Whitehouse
Time & Venue: 10am Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
For many, Dick Whittington (ca 1354-1423) is simply a fictional character from a Ladybird book or pantomime. In fact, Dick was very real, indeed one of the major movers and shakers of medieval London. We separate the man from the myth as we follow in his footsteps throughout London. Apprenticed to a master mercer, Whittington became one of the wealthiest and most successful textile merchants in the City, bankrolling three medieval kings and holding the office of Lord Mayor of London four times. What of that famous feline companion, his cat? The church that he built might provide the answer….
Simon is a (recovering) actor, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher, and award-winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide in-house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature. Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion, and art history.

Saturday 21 June 2025
THE ART OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN
Presented by Kathleen Olive
Time & Venue: 10am Ballygriffin Cultural Centre, St Ursula’s College, Yeppoon. 4703
Expanses of raked white gravel; iconic trees – pines, maples, gingko – carefully twisted and pruned into dynamic and sometimes torturous shapes; the soothing drip of water onto stone; the autumn light shining through richly coloured leaves: when you deconstruct them, the elements of a Japanese garden seem so simple that they’re almost banal, yet their combined effect is undeniably engaging and soothing. In this talk, Kathleen will investigate the historic roots of Japanese garden design that, like much of the country’s art tradition, developed in isolation from European influence and thus preserves something quintessentially “Japanese”.
Dr Kathleen Olive has lived and studied in Italy and has taught Italian language, literature and history at the University of Sydney. She regularly lectures on the history, art and culture of Italy and Japan in particular, and is an experienced cultural tour leader having led tours to Italy, France, Spain, the USA and Japan since 2003.

HALF INTEREST DAY
Saturday 26 July 2025
Presented by Maria Chester
Time & Venue: 10am, Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
Cost: First lecture FREE for members. Visitors $25. Second lecture $20 for members and visitors.
Lecture 1. SOUTH AMERICA – PARACAS: The Most Splendid Textiles of the Americas – Peru
The Paracas civilisation developed from 800 BCE and 100 BCE. Textiles and ceramics were recovered from burial sites. The “funerary mantles” were well preserved by the desert climate. Paracas textiles include complex weaving techniques, elaborate plaiting and knotting. Paracas Necropolis contained bodies in baskets wrapped in large cotton textiles embroidered with camelid fibres. Paracas embroideries are considered the finest ever produced in the Americas and are remarkable works of art. Designs on textiles were achieved by painting, embroidering, sewing feathers of rare tropical birds and using 3D “structural weaving”. Peruvian weaving remains one of the finest traditions in the world.
Lecture 2: MESOAMERICA-MAYA: Writing and Sacred Books. Sacred Mayan Astrology and Astronomy
In Mayan culture there was no linguistic distinction between words painting, drawing and writing. All modern Mayan languages are derived from Proto-Mayan, a language spoken at least 5,000 years ago. Mayan languages were written in hieroglyphic script which was widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization (c. 250–900 CE). The Maya had a visually striking writing system which employed ideograms to create innumerable books known as the Mayan Codices. Priests alone could write these sacred books. Paper, made from the inner bark of the fig tree ( amate paper ), was used. Through their sacred books we can appreciate the scientific developments of this amazing civilisation.
Maria Chester was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied Fine Arts and Art History and is a Professor on Pre-Columbian Art. She delivers conferences linked to art exhibitions complemented with guided tours. In May 2018, she was made a Visiting Research Fellow at CAUA Research Centre for International Elderly Education, Shanghai, China.
Bookings required: Please email adfassecretary@gmail.com

Saturday 30 August 2025
ART IN MINIATURE: Illuminated Manuscripts in the Middle Ages
Presented by Sophie Oosterwijk
Time & Venue: 10am, Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens, Rockhampton
A familiar image in medieval Annunciation scenes is that of the Virgin Mary reading a book, but what exactly is she supposed to be reading? A devotional book probably, and perhaps one with beautiful decorations: intricate initials, miniatures glittering with gold, and witty marginalia. The illuminators of such manuscripts have themselves often remained anonymous, yet their artistry was greatly prized by wealthy patrons such as the Duke of Berry. This talk offers an introduction to medieval manuscript illumination: an art so rich and so highly regarded that it long managed to survive the advent of book printing.
Born in Gouda (Netherlands) Sophie has an MA in Medieval Studies (York) and a PhD in Art History (Leicester), and an MA and PhD in English Literature (Leiden). She has taught at UK universities, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, National Trust, V&A and other organisations, and organised many study days and tours. She is a regular lecturer for Cambridge University and travel companies, is Vice President of the Church Monuments Society, and has numerous publications to her name.

Saturday 27 September 2025
CONTEMPORARY FEMALE ARTISTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Presented by Anna Moszynska
Time & Venue: 10am Ballygriffin Cultural Centre, St Ursula’s College, Yeppoon. 4703
The talk considers the fascinating range of women artists who have emerged from the Middle East, those still working in the region and those who now live elsewhere. Reacting against the exoticized depiction of women as seen in the West though 19th-century Orientalism, female artists from the region have, since the end of the last century, re-examined visual notions of the gaze; engaged with contemporary society, religion and politics, and offered fresh insights into contemporary issues. Artists under discussion include Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, Huda Lutfi, Zenib Sedira, Monir Farmanfarmaian and Shirazeh Houshiary.
Anna is a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art. During the 1990s, Anna oversaw the development of the first British Master’s Degree in the subject at Sotheby’s Institute. She has also taught at institutions including The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate London, as well as lecturing globally from Dubai to New York. Anna currently teaches in London and continues to write on art. Her books include Abstract Art and Sculpture Now. Anna enjoys introducing art to audiences in a lively and approachable way to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.

Saturday 1 November 2025
MY SCRAMBLING AFFAIR: How Constable’s Late Paintings Changed the Face of Modern Art
Presented by Sarah Cove
Time & Venue: Lighthouse Baptist Church, 480 Norman Road, Norman Gardens. 4701
Would you recognise John Constable R.A.’s ‘late’ oil studies? Constable’s exuberant, almost abstract, brush and palette-knife work shocked audiences for a full 50 years before Impressionism. In fact, the handling is so avant-garde that it is impossible to tell what these paint strokes depict! Constable only sold 20 or so paintings in England during his lifetime, as their rough and ‘specky’ surfaces horrified audiences. By contrast, he sold many to forward-looking French art dealers and collectors. Consequently, his radical ‘late’ works influenced generations of French painters, making Constable a Forefather of Modern Painting. Sarah Cove’s work reveals a ‘Jackson Pollock of the 1830s’.
Sarah Cove ACR is an accredited paintings conservator-restorer, technical art historian and lecturer with several decades of experience working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She is a specialist in British portraits, 19th-20th century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board. She founded the Constable Research Project and is the leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques. Her presentations are lively, enthusiastic and passionate about her work and research.
