If you have an interest in the arts and would like to learn more, go along to one of the Arts Society Dukeries’ meetings, at the Civic Centre, Carlton-in-Lindrick, from 11.00am to 12.00pm on the first Wednesday of the month (except for summer and winter breaks). There are also two extra, special interest days. They also have trips out to places of interest and a holiday for members.
Our Wednesday 2nd October the lecture will be on ‘The Trojan War on Greek Vases’. The Trojan War inspired Greek poets and dramatists in the art world. Now, using a wealth of illustrations, David Stuttered will show how vase painters, too, responded to the myths of Troy in ways that could be intensely moving, irreverently funny and sometimes heart-stoppingly profound. There is free car parking. For further details on the lecture programme, the study/special interest day or the society, please call Suzanne on 01909 290488 or Gill on 01909 540506 or visit the web page at www.theartssociety.org/dukeries.
The lecture on Wednesday 6th November is titled ‘Mad Men and the Artist: how the Tony Rawlins advertising industry has exploited fine art’. The next Study Day/Special Interest Day will be on Thursday 21st November on the restoration of the Palace of Westminster — ‘The Houses of Parliament from Fire to Rebuilding and Bombing to Restoration: 1,000 years of a British icon’. The lecture speaker will be Caroline Shenton.
With the restoration of the Palace of Westminster in the news, this highly topical study day covers 1,000 years of history, art and architecture of Britain’s most famous building: from the disastrous fire of 1834, through to the rebuilding of Barry and Pugin’s new Palace, to the damage of the Second World War and finishing with an update on the current multi-billion pound proposals to restore the Palace for the 21st century.
Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly director of the Parliamentary Archives and a senior archivist at the National Archives. Caroline is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society. Her book ‘The Day Parliament Burned Down’ won top prize at the inaugural Political Book Awards in 2013, and its sequel ‘Mr Barry’s War’, about the rebuilding of Parliament, was a book of the year for the Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine in 2016.