Sydney (Paddington)

Thursday 6 November 2025
THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ART HEIST
Presented by Georgina Bexon
AGM: 12:30pm
LECTURE: 1:10 pm & 6:00 pm
Venue: Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

On 18 March 1990, the ‘impossible’ happened – thirteen works of art, valued at a total of $500 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Museum officials, police and security experts were completely baffled as to how this had happened. These great masterpieces have never been recovered; a devastating loss to the museum and its public. This talk relates the story of the fascinating police investigation into the missing paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet; resulting in knowledge of how, why and by whom the robbery was committed but leaving the crime officially ‘unsolved’.

Georgina Bexon is an international art historian, a Consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club in London and a tour guide at Tate Modern. Georgina holds an MA in Arts Management and Policy from City, University of London and an MA in Art History from SOAS, University of London. Georgina is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society.

Thursday 19 March 2026
POT AND FROCKS: The World of Grayson Perry
Presented by Ian Swankie
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

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 23 April 2026
DEGENERATES AND PERVERTS: The 1939 Herald Exhibition on Modern Art
Presented by Steven Miller
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art has been regarded as the single most enlivening event in Australia’s modern cultural development. Opening when Australia was undergoing profound change, this exhibition became the focus for the opposing forces of cultural conservatism and innovation. Many competing claims about the exhibition will be examined – how it was displayed and the reception it received. This was a time when conservatives were accused of perverting progress and progressives were accused of degeneracy.

Steven Miller has worked in commercial and public galleries since the late 1980s and headed up the National Art Archive at the Art Gallery of NSW from 2009 to 2023.He has published widely on art.  He co-authored a book on Australia’s first blockbuster exhibition of modern European masters, that won the NSW Premier’s History Award. Among his other publications is Awakening: Four lives in art – exploring the creation of national identity through art published in 2015.

Thursday 21 May 2026
HOW TO LOOK SLOWLY: Post-Impressionism
Presented by Joanne Rhymer
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

Can we ever really ‘know’ a painting fully? What might we gain if we look again – but slowly – at a familiar picture? Looking with a curious eye we discover how familiar paintings by Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh that we know well from reproductions were both extraordinary and pioneering. They made extraordinary contributions to the development of modern art, each through their own distinctive and experimental approaches to picture making.

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.

SPECIAL INTEREST MORNING

Friday 22 May 2026
WOMEN AND IMPRESSIONISM IN FRANCE
Presented by Joanne Rhymer
Time & Venue: 9:45 – 12:30pm, Paddington Uniting Church Hall, Newcombe St, Paddington

Joanne Rhymer, MA (UCL) is an art historian specialising in 19th-century and early 20th century French art. Her interests include the visual skills involved in sustained looking at paintings.
She has worked at the National Gallery and for London galleries and institutions including Tate, the Hayward Gallery, Sotheby’s and the National Portrait Gallery as well as leading group excursions in the UK and abroad. She is a Panel Tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of
Cambridge and teaches for the Wallace Collection and the V&A as well as a range of private institutions.

Cost includes morning tea:
Members: $65 per person
Guests: $75 per person

Thursday 18 June 2026
POSTAL ARM: An Eccentric Return to Correspondence Courses and Drawing
Presented by Bill Platz
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

This lecture asks a simple question: did we, as artists and educators, replace a good network (postal) with a bad one (internet)? The lecture proceeds through a historical overview of correspondence instruction, Mail Art practices, and a comparative analysis of two very different educational experiments — Black Mountain College and the Barnes Foundation; and includes a contemporary experiment in postal drawing.

Dr William Platz is an American-Australian artist, teacher and researcher with a disciplinary focus on Drawing who exhibits and publishes regularly in the US, Europe and Australia. With research concentrations in life drawing, portraiture and pedagogies of drawing, his recent work confects drawing, the body and puppets. Dr Platz resides in Brisbane and is currently Head of Drawing at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Dr Platz completed his BFA and MA degrees in New York and his PhD in Australia.

Thursday 23 July 2026
IS THIS THE REAL LIFE? How Writers and Artists have Challenged our Perceptions of Reality
Presented by Mary Sharp
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

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.

Thursday 27 August 2026
THE CULT OF GLORIANA: Art, Music And Politics at the Court of the Virgin Queen
Presented by Mark Cottle
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

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. 

Thursday 24 September 2026
THE GREAT AGE OF THE SHOGUN: Art and Culture in Edo Period Japan 
Presented by Marie Conte-Helm
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

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.

SPECIAL INTEREST MORNING

Friday 25 September 2026
NATURE, ART, AND GARDENS IN JAPAN: From Tradition to Contemporary Life 
Presented by Marie Conte-Helm
Time & Venue: 9:45 – 12:30pm, Paddington Uniting Church Hall, Newcombe St, Paddington

This Special Interest Morning introduces some of Japan’s most famous gardens and provides a wider context for understanding the distinctive features of Japanese garden design that have evolved through the ages. Historical developments and religious and philosophical influences have informed the Japanese approach to the visual arts and have similarly contributed to different styles of gardens in Japan, from the palatial to the intimate. The Japanese love of nature will be illustrated through traditional examples and through the ways in which nature and the changing seasons continue to be celebrated in contemporary life.

Cost includes morning tea:
Members: $65 per person
Guests: $75 per person

Thursday 29 October 2026
HAND GRENADES LIKE CARTIER CLIPS: Lee Miller’s Life and Work in Fashion
Presented by Antony Penrose
Time & Venue: 12:30pm and 6:00pm. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford Street, Paddington

Two genres shaped the life of Lee Miller, Surrealism and the world of fashion. They informed each other and were both central to the way she saw the world. Her career as a fashion model began with an accidental encounter with Condé Nast, the proprietor of Vogue who put her on his front cover a few weeks before her 20th birthday. She became the model for Lepape, Steichen, Genthe, Man Ray, Hoyningen Heune, Horst, Picasso and Roland Penrose – later to be her husband.

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.