Shoalhaven (Berry/Nowra)

Thursday 12 February 2026
THE V&A PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION: THE WORLD’S FIRST
Presented by John Swainston
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

Join John Swainston for a captivating exploration of the V&A’s pioneering role in photography. Founded when the medium was just eleven years old, the V&A today holds the world’s oldest and one of its most comprehensive photography collections. Discover how artistic, technical, and social changes have shaped this remarkable archive over 175 years, as Swainston – an expert with over forty years’ experience – brings its images, stories, and innovators vividly to life.

John Swainston has been a photographer, writer and broadcaster for fifty years. Educated at Winchester College and later studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, he has lived in Australia since 1979. He has lectured on both the history of photography and its art and technical practice for over three decades. As a photographer his work has been exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne and the Southern Highlands (NSW). Since 2016, John has been documenting and researching the history of the Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales. His work traces the influences on and development of church architecture over fifteen centuries, including churches in Normandy in France.

Thursday 5 March 2026
POTS AND FROCKS: The World of Grayson Perry
Presented by Ian Swankie
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

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.

Thursday 16 April 2026
SILK SILVER OPIUM
Presented by Michael Pembroke
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

Delve into the dramatic story of China’s trade with the West in Silk Sliver Opium with historian and author Michael Pembroke. From silk, silver, and tea to opium, missionaries, and war, this lecture reveals how centuries of commerce, conflict, and cultural exchange shaped China’s modern identity. Learn why these historical interactions continue to influence China’s relationship with the West and offer important insights for today’s global politics.

Michael Pembroke is a retired Supreme Court judge and author known for his historical works. He was born in Sydney in 1955 and has studied at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge. Pembroke has authored several notable books, including “Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy” (2013), which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, and “Korea: Where the American Century Began” (2018), which received the Queensland Literary Awards and the NSW Premier’s History Awards.

Thursday 7 May 2026
THE ARTIST AND HIS MODEL: WHISTLER AND JOANNA HIFFERNAN
Presented by Joanne Rhymer
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

Whistler’s painting, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) is both monumental and modern. Though its scale recalls grand portraits, Whistler’s innovative technique and overall treatment of the subject resist straightforward interpretation. In this presentation we will examine Joanna Hiffernan’s role in his art and life. Was she simply his model and lover? Or could she have been an essential collaborator who influenced Whistler’s artistic vision, assisting him in his development of a new pictorial language? This talk draws on themes in the Royal Academy’s exhibition in 2022, Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan (26 February-22 May 2022).

Joanne Rhymer’s expertise in the history of Modern Art and the Politics of Representation has led to roles at the National Gallery, Tate Gallery, Wallace collection and other prestigious institutions in London and Cambridge. Specialising in 19th-century and early 20th-century French art, her interests include the visual skills involved in sustained looking at paintings.

Thursday 4 June 2026
MYTH AND LEGNED IN SHADOW THEATRE
Presented by Dr Sam Bowker and Melinda Bowker
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

Experience the craft and performance traditions of shadow puppetry across the world with Associate Professor Sam Bowker, an Art History and Visual Culture specialist and experienced puppeteer. From historic wayang kulit to Manual Cinema, explore the rarely seen history of one of the world’s oldest and most mysterious art forms, shadows that predate photography and television. The lecture concludes with a performance of The Flea, sung by Melinda Bowker with Sam Bowker’s captivating puppetry.

Dr Sam Bowker is the Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture at Charles Sturt University. Beyond developing Australia’s leading ‘Islamic art and design’ subject for university students, he has curated diverse international exhibitions and published widely on the history of khayamiya (Egyptian tentmaker applique).

Thursday 9 July 2026
LOVE ACTUALLY: Your Favourite Christmas Movie Will Never Be the Same!
Presented by Mary Sharp
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

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.

Thursday 13 August 2026
A PHOTOGRAPHIC ODYSSEY: SHACKLETON’S ‘ENDURANCE’ EXPEDITION CAPTURED ON CAMERA
Presented by Mark Cottle
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

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.

Thursday 10 September 2026
THE GREAT AGE OF THE SHOGUN: Art and Culture In Edo Period Japan
Presented by Marie Conte-Helm
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

During the Edo period of rule by the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868), the arts of Japan gained in richness and diversity. With the rise of the merchant class and the growth of cities such as Edo (modern-day Tokyo), a new vitality was injected into traditional forms and an emerging middle-class culture gave rise to exciting developments in the visual and performing arts. This lecture will consider the arts of the period including castle architecture, golden screen painting, ukiyo-e prints, textiles, lacquerware, and netsuke, as well as the emergence of the flamboyant kabuki theatre.

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.

Thursday 15 October 2026
LEE MILLER AND ROLAND PENROSE AT FARLEY FARM
Presented by Antony Penrose
Venue & Time: Berry Uniting Church Hall, 71-77 Albert Street Berry, 6.30pm
Visitors $25 and Student Visitors $15

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.