Scone

Tuesday 17 February 2026
BATTLE LINES: Australian Artists At War
Presented by Scott Bevan
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

Scott Bevan is an award-winning journalist and author known for his meticulous research and storytelling. He has reported for news and current affairs television, worked as a radio broadcaster, feature writer, and arts reviewer. Bevan’s work reflects his diverse career and his passion for storytelling, which is evident in his work on “Battle Lines: Australian Artists at War.” His book is a testament to his commitment to uncovering the stories behind the art and the impact of war on artists and society.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 10 March 2026
UNDERGROUND CATHEDRALS: The World-Class Art, Architecture and Design of the London Underground
Presented by Ian Swankie
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

The world’s first underground railway has a unique heritage of architecture, ingenious design, powerful advertising posters and unique calligraphy. This talk plots the early development of the Underground, examines the legacy of Frank Pick and Charles Holden, looks at some of the iconic posters, and celebrates the award-winning architecture of the modern Tube in the Jubilee Line extension and the brilliant Elizabeth Line stations, designed by some of the world’s top architects.

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.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 24 March 2026
ART DECO STYLE
Presented by Claudia Chan Shaw
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

Art Deco burst onto the world stage at the 1925 Paris Exposition, emerging from the shadows of the First World War with a bold new vision. One of the most influential design movements of the 20th century, Art Deco quickly became a global phenomenon—defined by streamlined forms, geometric elegance, and the spirit of the Machine Age. To mark the centenary of this iconic style, join Claudia Chan Shaw for a captivating talk exploring the many facets of Art Deco—its architectural splendour, decorative arts, fashion, and industrial design; from opulent craftsmanship to sleek, mass-produced objects and its lasting legacy.

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.  

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 12 May 2026
BARBIZON PAINTERS: PIONEERS OF THE FOREST AND MODERN PAINTING
Presented by Joanne Rhymer
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Upper Hunter Shire Council

In the early 19th century, the Forest of Fontainebleau, situated 35 miles from Paris, became a key inspiration for modern landscape painting. Artists and tourists flocked there to escape the city. For painters, the Forest’s diverse terrain – woodlands, rocks, oaks, marshes, and glades – offered endless opportunities to explore light, colour, and composition. Painting en plein air (out of doors) transformed artistic practice, fostering new realism and atmospheric effects. Looking at work by painters including Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet – members of the so-called Barbizon School – we will discover how they innovated and laid the groundwork for French Impressionism.esigns of Sonia Delaunay, to the poster girls of Shanghai and the luxury of Cartier.

Since earning an MA in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation, Joanne has focussed on education and has been employed in learning programs at many prestigious London galleries. She is currently a Panel Tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge as well as teaching at a range of other institutions. Her areas of specialism include 19th century and early 20th century French art and interests include the visual skills involved in sustained viewings of paintings.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 14 July 2026
IS THIS THE REAL LIFE? How Writers and Artists have Challenged our Perceptions of Reality
Presented by Mary Sharp
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

When Lucy goes through the wardrobe into Narnia, when Harry Potter opens his letter and when Neo takes the red pill, they all discover that the worlds they thought they knew are only part of the truth. From Plato onwards, writers and artists have been inspired to push beyond the everyday and to create other worlds that inspire our imaginations. This lecture explores what these stories tell us about how we view our lives and what it is that we most desire.

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.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 18 August 2026
A PHOTOGRAPHIC ODYSSEY: SHACKLETON’S ‘ENDURANCE’ EXPEDITION CAPTURED ON CAMERA
Presented by Mark Cottle
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

On Ernest Shackleton’s third Antarctic expedition in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped, eventually crushed in pack ice. After five months on the ice, the ship’s company rowed to remote Elephant Island. Shackleton then sailed with five companions over 800 miles to South Georgia, returning over three months later to rescue his stranded crew. Australian Frank Hurley was the expedition’s official photographer. His images capture with great artistry the amazing landscapes within which this remarkable human drama unfolded. This lecture illustrates Hurley’s great talent behind the lens, in the first flush of human contact when the Antarctic remained essentially ‘terra incognita’.

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.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 15 September 2026
ART OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN: FROM TRADITION TO MODERNITY
Presented by Marie Conte-Helm
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Upper Hunter Shire Council

This lecture introduces some of Japan’s most famous gardens and provides a context for under-standing the principles of Japanese garden design as it has evolved through the ages. The Japa-nese 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.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au

Tuesday 20 October 2026
LEE MILLER’S WAR
Presented by Antony Penrose
Time & Venue: 6.30pm, Scone Arts & Crafts Hall

Lee Miller is thought to have been the only woman combat photographer with the allied infantry in Europe during the second World War. This lecture presents her war photojournalism from shortly after D Day in Normandy, through the Siege of St Malo, the liberation of Paris, fighting across Germany, the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau to the flames leaping from Hitler’s Berghof near Berchtesgaden that signalled the end of the war, and then the post war traumas of Austria and Hungary. The story is told through extensive use of Lee Miller’s own words, set to her photographs.

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.

BOOK HERE: scone@adfas.org.au