Events available from Other Sources

See below or in the sidebar for the variety of online lectures that The Arts Society UK (TAS) and others have created for us while we cannot attend our normal live lectures and events. All of these are free and do not require any special software. Just click on the link and you should see the event with instructions on how to proceed.

TAS UK have just created a wonderful, free lecture programme of online lectures about 24 places around the world – over 80 days, following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, starting on 1st July with the Reform Club in Pall Mall. You need to sign up for the lectures here , but it is free.

There are also many articles and videos on the BBC Culture in Quarantine site.

The Google Arts and Culture site has collections from over 3000(!) galleries worldwide. It is a wonderful resource to see the museums of the world, all from your own home.

And the Louvre has just put pictures of all its 480,000 artefacts on the internet, for free ! See https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ Scroll down to the Themed Albums, or Explore the Collections, but don’t get lost – there’s a lot there !

Thomas Lawrence virtual exhibition from The Holburne

Those of us who saw Amina Wright’s lecture in December on Thomas Lawrence – The wonder of the times will have been looking forward to her exhibition Thomas Lawrence – Coming of Age in the Holburne Museum, Bath which was scheduled for later in 2021. Very sadly this has now been cancelled due to Covid

However … the good news is that you can still get a version of the exhibition experience (with a few bonus extras thrown in) from the comfort of your own chair, by going to https://www.holburne.org/planning-your-visit/whats-on/exhibitions/thomas-lawrence-coming-of-age/.  

Amina says : Of course this isn’t the same as the real thing, but the virtual approach does have some compensations, such as being able to zoom in to the drawings to see the details. They have a done a very good job on the technical side and it works very well on a smartphone as well as bigger devices.  So although I can’t give you an excuse for a nice afternoon out in Bath, I can at least offer you a bit of entertainment for a rainy day. The virtual exhibition will be available from now until the end of May 2022.

TAS Lectures via Connected

The Arts Society UK (TAS) have created a special Connected section of their website to keep people connected to the Arts through the lockdown and after. It is frequently updated.

Go to the main Arts Society website https://www.theartssociety.org/ and click on the big pink Connected link and from there click on Lectures at Home. Each video lasts for about 15 minutes.
(Note: If you are using an older iPad and find that these videos do not run, then try this Arts Society Youtube link instead and search for the lectures. Alternatively the main link does work on a laptop or smart phone. )

Recent ones include Lighting the Lamp of Knowledge (items from the Society of Antiquaries), Fashion and Silk, A Passion for Tea and Himalayan Encounters. And there are many more. You can access these Lectures at Home as above or directly from the sidebar to the left.

Back on the main Arts Society website, there are also links to the Instant Expert series of lectures, such as these and now many more:

• The Transformation of British Art from Tudors to Stuarts
• Our Historic Canals
• The Art of Chrysanthemums
• The Art of Georgia O’Keeffe
• William Morris’s Beautiful Wallpapers
• Polperro: Cornwall’s forgotten Art Centre
• Mary Newcombe
• The Art of Armour
• The Bruegel Dynasty
• Cartoons
• Wordsworth, the ice-skating poet
• Sir Thomas Lawrence
• Festive Illuminations around the country
• Rupert Bear – 100 years since his creation
• Early Hollywood, and its sparkle
• and other items of interest.

There is also a link to the Art and The Country House website featuring various houses including the fascinating history of Mells Manor in Somerset.

Art History in Focus

Siân Walters, founding director of Art History in Focus and one of The Arts Society accredited lecturers, has generously put together a number of free, online art lectures via Facebook.

Siân delivers a new lecture live every Monday morning at 9.30 am and has about 1000 people viewing from all around the world. You don’t need a Facebook account, just click on the link below. Scroll up to near the top of the page where the LIVE lecture will appear shortly before 9.30 am. Art History in Focus – Live

Her lectures are then recorded and you can see all the past ones at : Art History in Focus – Past

They include : A walking tour of Budapest Jewish Quarter, Durer’s Journys in Italy, The Arnolfini portrait, Van Gogh sunflowers, Piero della Francesca, Canaletto and many others.

(You may see a banner from Facebook which says that you have to login to Facebook or create a Facebook account, but that is only necessary if you want to ask questions during the lecture. Otherwise just ignore it and scroll down until you see the videos and click on one of them, and expand the view to full size. It seems there is about 4 minutes of music at the start of each lecture, presumably for people to take their seats ? You can fast forward through that if you like.)

Art Galleries

Various art galleries have marvellous online tours, and the great thing is that you can take your time, there is no-one in the way or talking loudly just in front of you !

Courtauld Gallery.

The Courtauld has recently opened after a major refurbishment and their virtual tour is excellent, and quite easy to control. It is the easiest we have seen and a good first step in gallery virtual tours ! (Do read the helpful instructions on Using the Tour before you ‘Launch the Tour’). Courtauld Virtual Tour

National Gallery

Click your way around the National Gallery – with some difficulty. You don’t need a Virtual Reality headset, but you’ll probably need a drink half way round ! (Their 2011 tour requires Adobe Flash software which many people will not have these days, but the Sainsbury Wing and Google tours do not require any special software, though they are quite difficult to navigate.) National Gallery Virtual Tour

Tate Britain

Their ‘Walk through British Art’ tour leads you through 12 rooms and their main paintings in chronological order. Walk through British Art

Tate Modern

Tate Modern has a tour of the recent Andy Warhol exhibition : Andy Warhol at Tate Modern

All these galleries have further information on their websites. And there are of course many others. Let us know of any favourites that you would like others members to see, as well as any other online lectures that you come across. Also tell us of any problems that occur.