Gozzoli was one of the most highly esteemed painters of fresco during the fifteenth century his most famous works being the exuberant frescoes of the Journey of the Magi in the private chapel of the Medici Palace in Florence. The restoration of many of his frescoes has enhanced our appreciation of his considerable achievements. This talk will explore a range of his fresco cycles and panel paintings confirming his remarkable contribution to the art of the period.

Ailsa Turner retired two years ago after seventeen years as a tutor in Art History for the University of Glasgow’s Short Courses (Life-Long Learning) programme. Ailsa provided courses and specialist study days on Renaissance Art and Architecture, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Painting and Spanish and Scottish Painting. Ailsa is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art and, before moving to Glasgow with her family, was a full-time lecturer for ten years in the education department of the National Gallery in London. Her married name is Ailsa Bhattacharya but Ailsa continued to work as Ailsa Turner, enjoying the fact she shares the surname of a famous artist.

Often seen in the past as rogues and vagabonds, for actors, the road to respectability was a long and lively journey. The knighthood of Sir Henry Irving at the beginning of the 20th century established acting as an ‘honourable’ profession and a great generation of actors emerged including John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and Edith Evans.

Malcolm has lectured on the Victoria & Albert Museum Short Course and Year Course Programmes since 2009. He was Workshop and Events manager at the V&A Theatre Museum in Covent Garden for 10 years, responsible for lectures, Study Days and workshops and interviewed many leading British actors as well as contributing to TV and radio programmes. He has worked at many drama schools including RADA, The Actors Centre and Rose Bruford College and has lectured on theatre for groups visiting the UK from America. He has also chaired panels and post show talks for the Ambassadors Theatre Group. 

Five thousand years ago, the island thought to have been the centre of British culture was Orkney. The presentation shows how these neolithic people lived. The lives of these Neolithic people were surprisingly civilised – comfortable houses, a wide variety of food, engraved pots and jewellery. These ancient Orcadians also built great temples, burial sites and stone circles. This lecture will examine past and present discoveries and current theories about these early people.

Elaine Hansen has a degree in Education and taught for twenty-seven years. Now retired, she splits her year between Italy and Scotland. She studied Art History at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde becoming a guide at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in 2009 where she also gives lectures to her fellow guides. Several of her Scottish lectures are based on rooms in Kelvingrove. 
In 2018 she was awarded accreditation as a lecturer for The Arts Society and since then has been in demand for lectures delivered in the UK and Europe. 
For the past four years, Elaine has been delivering lectures on cruises in Scotland and around the Mediterranean. She has worked for Cunard, Fred Olsen and Hebridean Princess.

  In December 2024, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, often referred to as the Soul of the City, reopened to the public after a devastating fire had threatened to destroy it 5 years earlier. A seemingly impossible target had been set by the French President to rebuild; yet huge sums of donated money and teams of expert restorers ensured the timescale was met. Such is the symbolic power of this cultural icon in the psyche of the French people and indeed people beyond.

Carole is an experienced guide and lecturer on combined history and art tours in France with 20 years experience. Having lived and worked on a number of bespoke river vessels and converted barges there she has used them as a platform from which to research her lectures. She uses art in all its guises to explore the characters who shaped France and likes to delve behind the scenes to discover hidden truths. She also acts as a guide for a privately owned ancestral home in her native Chilterns.

Join music journalist Andy Hughes for a fascinating look at the origins of the record label. How did the dream of one songwriter to create the most influential record label in the world succeed? Hear about Motown’s stars and the hits that continue to fill dance floors today. Re-discover artists such as the Supremes, the Temptations and Smokey Robinson.

Andy Hughes has been a professional freelance music journalist for over forty years. He is also a Popular Music historian. Andy has written for over one hundred national and international magazines, periodicals, and newspapers, including Record Mirror, Melody Maker, New Musical Express, and Creem (USA) and has travelled extensively to interview musicians and review concerts and festivals. Andy continues to write for a range of music magazines and websites. Andy enjoys researching the history of popular music, particularly groups and artists from the 1960s and 70s and in his spare time, he enjoys performing his Vintage Disco Road Show. 

It is a little-known fact that Pierre-Auguste Renoir, suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, was constantly racked with pain and at times struggled to even hold a paintbrush. This lecture will examine how, despite this, he managed to produce such wonderful art. We will look at how the development of his rheumatoid arthritis and how the illness affected his life and work. 

Alan Silman is a Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College Oxford. During his career, he has studied the long-term effects of disabling disorders, researching intensively the medical history of a number of well-known individuals in the arts and the impact of their medical problems on their achievements.
He was Medical Director of Arthritis Research UK and has authored over 700 research publications and textbooks. He is amongst the top 100 published scientists across all disciplines in UK universities. He has been an advisor on several government committees and has also appeared before several UK Parliamentary Select Committees.
In his spare time, he is a lover of theatre and an amateur drama enthusiast, and he directed his first play in 2024! 

In the 1730s, William Kent introduced a new style of garden: ‘natural’, full of variety, drama and surprise, as seen in gardens such as Rousham, Claremont, Painshill and Stowe, and in the ever-ingenious designs of Humphry Repton. But did the origins of the landscape garden lie elsewhere? Also considered are two imperial gardens of 18th-century China, which may have helped to shape the great gardens of Georgian England. 

1970-71 Teacher at Marlborough College. 1975-86 Keeper of Fine Art at the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery & Museums, Brighton. Since 1986 Director of the Martyn Gregory Gallery, London. Author of several books including Savage Ruskin, Oriental Architecture in the West and George Chinnery, artist of India and the China Coast.

Unearthed, by chance, in 1912, in London, it seems the Horde was lost or buried, between 1640 and 1666. More than 400 pieces make up this remarkable collection of Elizabethan and early Stuart jewellery, from a walnut-sized emerald containing a watch movement to earrings shimmering with suspended amethysts. What does the collection represent? Why was it brought together? What are its secrets?

Read Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge University. 1978-1988 Curator at Museum of London specialising in the decorative arts (1714 to present day). 1988-1995 moved with family to Japan, lecturing and writing on Oriental / Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. 1995 returned to UK, fundraising for arts companies, writing, lecturing and guiding. Curated exhibition on Japanese plants and gardens in London and Edinburgh as part of Japan/British celebrations in 2001. Catalogued over 2500 oil paintings for Southern Scotland for the ArtUK project for entry.
Amanda’s most recent publication is on the life and work of Sir Henry Raeburn, the Scottish portrait painter. She is currently preparing an exhibition in 2026 on the Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe.