THE ARTS SOCIETY SOUTHPORT

    ANNUAL REPORT 2024-2025

The 55th Annual General meeting will be held at     The Atkinson Lord Street, Southport at 10:15 on Tuesday    

17th June 2025

AGENDA

Ø Welcome

Ø Apologies for absence

Ø To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 18th June 2024

Ø Chairs Report

Ø Treasurer’s Report

Ø To approve the accounts for the period ended 31st March 2025

Ø To appoint OJ Gills as an independent auditor.

Ø To elect the Officers and Team Members for the year 2025-2026

Ø Incoming Chairs’ Address

Ø A.O.B.

Ø The date of the next A G M and close

ANNUAL REPORT 2024 - 2025

Chairs’ Report

It seems strange that this report will be the final one that Judith and I will present as joint chairs of the Arts Society Southport. Our time in office seems to have flown by, and it is hard to believe that it has been three years since we took over the role. When we started, the role of joint chair was something of a rarity in the Arts Society and I am pleased to report that we have started something of a trend, and more importantly, I can confirm that Judith and I are indeed still speaking to each other!

This year has seen changes within the structure of the National Arts Society not only do we have an entirely new Board of Trustees, but we also have a new President Hilary Kay and a new CEO Ian Arnold.  

In Southport it has also been a busy year. We have experienced some excellent lectures on topics ranging from Christmas at Covent Garden, the Art of the Automobile, Menswear, and the Road to Santiago de Compostela. We continued to enjoy the films and cake at the Bijou, the subjects of which were also very diverse, featuring artists such as Edward Hopper, Gustav Klimt, John Singer Sargent, and finally for this year Auguste Renoir.

Our travels took us to Arley Hall at Christmas and to the Hepworth Gallery and Nostell in the spring. A few of us also made it to the unforgettable Van Gogh Experience in Liverpool in July.

Community Arts projects were also a big focus for our sponsorship this year, with the Sefton Young Artists of the Year competition and the Adult Poetry and Creative Writing Competition. The writing competition proved to be especially memorable as, for the first time, we invited the winners to read their work to a live audience. A very emotional experience.

In February, we set up the Art Bank, to which you donated so generously, giving primary-aged children an opportunity to engage their artistic inspiration at the darkest time of the year. Art Bytes was a new initiative from the national Arts Society which gave the children of Holy Trinity School Southport the chance to enter a national online competition, and every member could vote for their favourite entrant. You have selected your local winner, and we are now waiting for the results of the national competition.

We are pleased to report that we were also able to support the Atkinson to purchase an artwork by the celebrated paper sculptor Suhail Shaikh. You may remember his amazing exhibition and the study day he hosted for us last year. We have also recently been able to contribute to the conservation of another work of art in the Atkinson collection, The Girl in a White Dress by Laurence Koe.

The Heritage volunteers have been fully engaged in a range of projects, including providing educational boards for the Scarisbrick Mausoleum at Crossens and the memory trail at St Peter’s Church in Formby. Whilst the document conservation work continues at Knowsley Hall, unfortunately, the taxidermy project in the Atkinson is on hold due to ongoing building works and staffing levels. A new project this year is a children’s trail in conjunction with the Hesketh Park Heritage Group.

Over the last three years, there have been some highs and lows, lots of good memories, and lots of laughter. Judith and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team, without whom we could not have accomplished all that we have. And finally, we would like to thank you, our members, for all your support, for coming to all the lectures and events, giving us your feedback, good and bad, but most of all your encouragement.

Judith and Jill   Joint Chairs

Treasurer’s Report

This AGM marks the end of my first year as Treasurer and I would like to thank many people. John Holden, my predecessor, for leaving the finances in good shape, the Committee for their support while I became

familiar with the accounts and, in particular, the members without whom we would not be a successful society and able to fulfil our obligations to provide a diverse and informative series of lectures and other events, and to support work for wider public benefit.

Overall, the Society’s finances are in good health, with a small surplus of income over expenditure on the year. The new team at Head Office recommends that we have 12 months expenditure in our reserves, hence the transfer of £5000 into our reserves during the year. The current reserve of £22689 is close to our annual operating cost of approx. £21000. This provides a buffer against increasing costs in an uncertain world.

The accounts show the picture at the end of our financial year (31 March) and not to the end of the membership year. The apparent surplus for the year of £4705 will cover lectures in April, May and June when income is minimal, and the costs of events for which payment was received in March. There are also some projects completing in 2025 for which donations were received before the end of March.

I will briefly go through some of the more detailed figures on the right-hand side of the balance sheet.

Although overall membership is down on last year, income has increased partly through the increased subscription rate for 2024-25 and partly through £642 received in visitors’ fees. Bank interest rates have been favourable and we had £392 in income from the savings account. Other income includes donations made to us for projects and the recovery of gift aid.

For expenditure, the annual cost of delivering the monthly lectures has increased to £9875 reflecting the effect of inflation on speakers’ fees and costs, and the cost of hiring the Atkinson. We have managed to contain these costs through booking 12-18 months in advance.

The next significant expense was £5736 paid to Head Office as a service recharge in respect of your membership fees. This was less than the £6816 last year and Head Office have indicated that the recharge will probably fall again this year. The recharge allows Head Office to provide the website, the monthly magazine and other membership services. Committee expenses are carefully monitored and have reduced slightly on last year’s spend. There is no cost included here for the Examiner’s fee for the accounts as the invoice was received in May.

I would highlight the expenditure of £4138 on donations to a range of projects including the highly successful Sing for Sefton project, art packs for children, the annual writing competition and support for the Atkinson in buying and restoration some artworks. We also supported one school to enter children’s work into the national ArtBytes competition. The Arts Society Southport is proud to be one of the founding members and supporters of the Southport Learning Town collaboration which will be a signpost for a wide range of learning opportunities across the community, including our own.

The committee is well aware of the general pressure of rising costs, both for the Society and our members. However, we feel that, provided income is maintained, we have sufficient reserves to continue to provide you with the services that you enjoy, as well as deliver benefits to the wider community. I am therefore not recommending an increase in subscriptions for the coming year.

Please renew your membership and continue to bring visitors and future members.

Tim Helliwell   Treasurer

Programme Secretary’s Report

Our lecture programme consisted of a variety of subjects, which we hoped would be of interest to all of our members.

In May 2024 Ian Kemble enlightened us on the birth of the Hoax in the 18th century, when people started to believe for instance that women could give birth to rabbits. Ian gave us an entertaining talk, also explaining the differing motives of the tricksters. In addition he showed us some magic tricks.

Following our AGM in June, Joanna Rhymer gave us an insight into how to look slowly at paintings from the Post-Impressionism period. She showed the audience, by detailing just three paintings, how to understand the colouring, the media which the painter used, the models and backgrounds of these specific paintings.

After the summer break Tessa Boase kicked off in September with a highly interesting lecture on the history of departments stores, not only in Britain, but also in Germany.

The sheer luxury of many of the most famous department stores was startling, and it was interesting to see how much photographic evidence of that abundant glitter came to light.

In October 2024 James Lindow explained the influence of the arts of the Low Countries on Italian Renaissance art. The impact of Flemish and Dutch art in the 17th century on famous patrons like the Medici, as well as painters including Botticelli, was very clear in their artistic impressions.

Moving to November Sarah Pearson gave us a delightful impression of the ‘Secret World below stairs’, dividing her lecture into different sections on the history of food, the fashion of kitchen  tools and cooking habits and the way fine dining evolved. All this was illustrated with plenty of photo material.

Then in December 2024 Sarah Lenton talked about the Christmas spectacles in Covent Garden, since the early 18th century. The Royal Opera House offered a performing tradition of dance, mime and special effects, which we can still witness in the Christmas offering at the Opera House of today. A most enjoyable treat to all of us.

The year 2025 started with a presentation on the History of the Automobile by Roger Mendham, a true expert in this field of art history. Automobiles in the early days were mainly functional but during the roaring twenties we entered a golden age of automobile design. Cars were stylish and influenced by the Art Deco movement.

In February Ian Cockburn took us for a walk along the Pilgrims’  Route to Santiago de Compostela, and pointed out the various sights of interest which pilgrims over many centuries visited to pray and meditate and find inspiration to follow the path leading to the magnificent cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

An entirely different subject came up in March when Russell Nash presented examples of Menswear and the men who made tailoring a form of art, especially around Savile Row and Jermyn Street. He also looked at the wider cultural shifts since the early 19th century to the present day.

In April Siobhan Clarke explained to a large audience that expectations have always been high when it comes to the line of succession. Some were groomed for a kingship they never enjoyed, while others rose to take their place. The lecture explored the historical significance of some of these royal babies, the heirs and the spares - from the War of the Roses to the present day.

There was plenty of choice and we hope we offered wide spectrum of all art forms, always trying to focus on the expression of creativity in human skills.

We are now looking forward to another stimulating year of lectures.

Membership Secretary’s Report

We end this year, 2024-2025, with 363 members, a slight decrease of 12 on the previous year despite attracting 32 new members. 

Allowing new members to join part way through the year, at a reduced membership fee, continues to work well for us. 

The membership renewal fee for 2025 - 2026 will be the same as last year £60, if paid by 17th of July 2025. 

Renewals after this date will incur a late payment fee of £5 per person. 

Can I remind you that as our main method of communication with members, is by email. It is very important that we have your correct contact details therefore, if you have recently moved or are thinking of moving or even if you have changed your email address, please let us know. 

You should receive a monthly email from us along with one from the main Arts Society, along with 3 printed Arts Society magazines posted to you. Please let us know if you do not receive these or have any further questions. 

Email Membership.southport@theartssociety.org

Jill & Mike Newsham   Membership Secretaries 

Day Trips Report

Arley Hall November 2024

This was a festive Christmas visit.  We visited the hall, gardens and Craft Fair.  The hall was decorated with fresh flowers, foliage and twinkling Christmas trees.  Choirs sung in the hall in the morning and afternoon. 

There was also access to St Mary’s Chapel and gifts could be bought in the Christmas shop.  Festive food was available in the Gardener’s Kitchen café.

It was a very enjoyable day for everyone.

The Hepworth Wakefield and Nostell Priory April 2025

We set off early from Southport with further pickups and arrived at the Hepworth at 10.45 am

Our members were split into two groups.  A 45 minute guided tour of the Hepworth collections including works by Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frisk.  We were also able to visit the Surrealism galleries.  The guides were excellent and everyone enjoyed their experience.  Lunch was available in the café following a spending spree in the shop.

We then left to join our coach for the drive to Nostell Priory.   Nostell is a Georgian house with Robert Adam interiors, Chippendale furniture and historic paintings.

A very pleasant afternoon was spent visiting the house and surrounding estate.  The day was complimented by lovely weather.

Christine Penny   Day Visits Co-ordinator

Heritage Volunteering and Trails of Discovery Report

Heritage Volunteering and Trails of Discovery

The taxidermy project at The Atkinson is temporarily on hold because the staff are busier than ever.  Jemma assures me there is still plenty to do and that duck dusting activities will resume as soon as possible.

We are working with Paul Sherman (NW Heritage CIC) to create professional exhibition boards for his local projects to restore The Scarisbrick Mausoleum, the Fog Bell and the Mere Brow Smithy.  We successfully applied for a Project Grant of £500 from the Patricia Fay Memorial Fund to be matched by £500 from our own funds.  Paul intends to use these information boards at Heritage Open Days, as part of his fund-raising talks and for temporary displays at venues such as Edge Hill University, the Wayfarers Arcade and The Atkinson.

Work continues for the volunteers at Knowsley Hall despite the unexpected retirement of the Curator, Stephen Lloyd, who will be greatly missed.  Recently, the filthy documents from the Muniments Room have been set aside in favour of the diaries of Mary Charlotte Leycester-Penrhyn (1824-1915), the eldest granddaughter of Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851).  She married Morgan Yeatman in 1850 but had begun making daily entries in a journal by the age of 12, a practice she continued well into old age.  Much of the content concerns mundane family life but, occasionally, important national and international events are noted, and trips abroad are described in detail.  This fascinating record spans the reign of Queen Victoria and beyond and at a time of rapid change.  It has been extremely interesting to read the thoughts and opinions of this lady (not always very polite!) and to have had a glimpse into her long life.

This year the Trails of Discovery Team completed a Church Trail and a Memory Trail for St. Peter’s Church, Formby.  A memory trail provides suggestions for conversation between someone living with dementia and a companion, prompted by a visit to a place of interest.  The team is currently working on a church trail for Holy Family Church, Southport, and with the Hesketh Park Heritage Group to create a paperless, interactive trail for children, making use of smartphone technology - always up for a challenge!

As you will note our team of heritage volunteers have been busy this year and have carried out 550 hours of volunteering.

Elizabeth Helliwell Heritage Volunteering and Trails of Discovery Co-ordinator

Community and Young Arts Report

1.     Sefton Schools’ Art Competition

Once again the entry numbers were strong with 130  works for consideration. The standard was high and we were delighted to award prizes to a lovely ceramic piece and to a stunningly artistic photograph of a caterpillar on foliage. The display in the Atkinson foyer presented by Jemma, was very effective. The dramatic mural  My Liverpool was eye-catching, and worthy of being adopted by the council ‘s advertising department. The parents and families were justifiably proud, although some of the artists were very reticent about their work. Everyone however enjoyed the cake. A big thank you to the Atkinson and to Jemma who worked so hard to make the event a great success.

2.     The Sefton Inspirations Writing Competition also attracted some excellent entries. The source exhibitions were Phillip Connard  Eternal Summer and Edwardian Impressionism. The pictures chosen produced a wide variety of responses, in particular the Rat Catcher and the Bathers. The lady in the diaphanous gown also elicited some intriguing ideas. The poets and authors read their work beside the picture used for inspiration. Award winners and families all enjoyed this innovation which highlighted their skills and personal commitment. Once again, my thanks to Jemma for all her administrative input. Both competitions embody our close working relationship with the Atkinson which we value enormously.

3.    Children’s Art Pack Summer competition  for Compassion Acts was well supported. The morning spent at the Soroptimist HQ packing the bags on a very efficient assembly line produced a host of beautiful bags stuffed full of arty goodies, enough to inspire the most reluctant of artists. Another very productive partnership.

4.   The Art Bytes initiative, which was taken up by Holy Trinity, Southport, produced some pleasing work which was shown online.

5.    Our Christmas appeal to members for art supplies for children was superbly supported and enabled us to present Compassion Acts with a massive pile of goodies to fill the art bags. Thank you all. Maybe we will have inspired a new David Hockney!

6.   The Arts Society support for Sing for Sefton has helped to double the number of schools and pupils taking part in the programme, and the Memories ‘r’ Made dementia friendly choir is thriving.

          Sue Dexter   Community Arts Co-ordinator

Promotions and Marketing Report

Sadly, despite recruiting 32 new members this year the membership is still lower than the same period last year. It is imperative for the future of our society that at the very least, we maintain the same level of membership. 

To create more awareness of our society, work has included

·         Posters placed on Community News boards in local   Supermarkets, local Community Hubs, Retirement Apartments and Post Offices.

·         Flyers in local businesses.

·         Leaflets and posters in The Atkinson.

·         Presentations to clubs and societies with a similar demographic.

·         An editorial feature and a regular “What’s On” listing in ‘Make The Most of Sefton’ magazine.

 Analysis shows us that word of mouth is still the best form of advertising, and we ask all our members to continue spreading the word and encouraging friends and family to join. 

Kim Barlow    Promotions and Marketing Co-Ordinator                                                                                      

Proposed Officers and Team Members 2025 – 2026

Chair                                       Kim Barlow

Vice Chair                               Jill Newsham

Hon. Treasurer                          Tim Helliwell

Hon. Secretary                        Judith Davies

Membership Secretary           Jill & Mike Newsham

Programme Secretary            Hilde Hall

Special Interest Events           Jill Newsham

Day Visits                                Christine Penny                                             

Arts in the Community           Sue Dexter

Heritage Volunteers               Elizabeth Helliwell

Promotions and Marketing       Kim Barlow

Technical Officer                    Mike Newsham

Lecture Programme 2025-2026

September 16th 2025 Marie Conte-Helm

Dressed to Thrill: The Art of the Japanese Kimono

October 21st Barbara Askew

Charles I – King and Collector        

 November 18th Clive Stewart Lockhart  

Betty Joel – Interior Designer in the 1930’s

December 9th (in the Studio) Ed Williams 

The Art of Christmas

January 20th 2026 (in the Studio) Gavin Plumley

The Two Gustavs – Mahler and Klimt

February 17th John Ericson

The Fascinating World of Colour and How We See It

March 17th James Grant

The Art of Pandemics

April 21st Rosamund Bartlett

The Culture of Ukraine

May 19th Amanda Herries

A Study of English Jewellery

June 16th Ed Gilnert

Architecture of Liverpool and Manchester

The last few weeks have been very busy and not without their challenges. Unfortunately, our February lecturer had to cancel at the last minute but as those of you who attended the lecture know, we were lucky to find an excellent replacement.
On the last day of February we all met at the Bijou Picture House for the first time to see the award winning Margie Kinmouth film Drawn to War about the life and works of the artist Eric Ravilious. We think that the Bijou is an excellent venue and we will be arranging further events there.
Perhaps our most ambitious event was a trip to the Lowry to see Swan Lake performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. We all had a splendid evening and most importantly, for Judith and I, we did not leave a single member behind ! 

We look forward to seeing you at the next lecture which is on
 

Tuesday 15th  of March at 10:45

Judith & Jill

.

Our lecturer will be Patrick Craig 

Bach and Handel - Separated at Birth

1685 was an extraordinary year for music. Two of the world’s greatest composers were born 130km and just one month apart. Much of their childhood development mirrored the other – including the tragedy of losing their fathers at the age of ten. Their careers took very different directions, and they never met, despite several near misses.  Patrick will reunite these two giants, tracking their lives across six decades, with a special focus on their vocal music, which has inspired his career as both a countertenor and a conductor.

Please note that, due to unforeseen circumstances, there is a change to the previously scheduled lecturer/lecture for 21 June 2022.  The January lecture will now be 'And So To Bed', and it will be delivered by Janusz Karczewski-Slowikowski.  Details can be found by clicking on the 'Lectures' tab.

Newsletter, June 2022

Dear Members - Chair’s Address
 As this will be my final newsletter introduction before the AGM in June I have been reflecting on my time as Chair. First, what a privilege it has been to be Chair of such a lively, committed group of members, who have continued to support The Arts Society through the trials and tribulations of the past three years. Thank you for coming on the journey into uncharted waters, picking up new skills enroute. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
It has been wonderful, this season, to welcome you all to face-to-face lectures in our new home, The Atkinson.  Lecturers, this season have been so impressed by the facilities and technical support that are available in the venue. It is also a great help to be supported by the friendly staff at our monthly meetings. There is a wonderful buzz of friends meeting up every month and discussion as members leave, having usually discovered something new.
Our additional activities have continued, Heritage volunteering, Community Arts, Talks, Films, Study Day, Holidays. We have also been able to enjoy additional content from The Arts Society HQ. In some ways there has never been a more relevant time to be a member of The Arts Society. The scope of lectures is wider and more stimulating than ever, plus opportunities to contribute.
I am indebted to all the committee members and additional helpers that have supported me through the last three years. It has been a humbling and rewarding time. When we shut down in March 2020, we committed to keeping the Society active. Thank you for working so hard to make things happen. Thank you all for rising to the challenge, for your patience and your team work.
I do hope you all enjoy the Jubilee celebrations and I look forward to seeing many of you at the AGM, when I will be happily be handing the baton on to the next Chairs .I know this Society will be going from strength to strength. We all have a shared curiosity of the arts and I am sure we will continue, through volunteering and grants, to enrich our heritage and local community and support and inspire young people.
Best wishes
Beatrice



AGM
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of The Arts Society Southport will take place on Tuesday 21st June 2022 commencing at 10.15, prior to the June lecture.
At the meeting you will be requested to vote on the following matters

1. Approval of the Minutes of the AGM held on 15th June 2021.
2. To receive and approve the Accounts April 2021 to March 2022
3. Election of committee 2022 – 2023
4. Appointment of OJ Grills as independent examiner of the accounts

Please note that admittance to the auditorium will not be allowed whilst the AGM is in progress.
After a short break the monthly lecture will commence, as usual, at 10:45

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MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
You will now have received renewal information either by email or post.
We will also be collecting, as a trial, renewal payments after the June Monthly Meeting at the signing in desk in the foyer.

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

• Old Medicine House

There are 2 dates for this visit June 29th and July 20th
Cost of £63 to include coach travel, entry fees, light lunch, afternoon tea and gratuities.
There are a couple of spaces available for booking.
Good mobility and sensible shoes are strongly recommended.
Please see Doreen
 

• A Day with a Linocut Artist 

There are 2 sessions at The Atkinson – September 13th and September 21st 10.00 a.m.
Cost of £38.00 to include light lunch of soup, sandwiches and fruit and afternoon coffee/tea and biscuits.
There are still a few places available. Places can be reserved at the June meeting.
See website for further details  https://theartssocietysouthport.org.uk/Special/FutureSpecial.aspx

• Exhibition on Screen – The Danish Collector

October 6th at 1.30p.m. £12.00 to include refreshments at The Atkinson
Tickets on sale at the June meeting Please see Hilary  

• Shakespeare Northern Playhouse

A production of a Mid Summer Night’s Dream is being performed.
October 19th 7.30 pm at the Northern Playhouse Prescott
Tickets £40 to include theatre seats and coach transport.
Coach pick up points in Southport, Formby and Aughton.
Tickets on sale at the June meeting. Please see Doreen

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VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
Thank you to all those who came to the meetings at The Atkinson on the 25th April.  We were all enthusiastic to become involved.  The staff at The Atkinson is currently fully stretched, however as soon as further information is received, contact will be made with all those who have volunteered.  There is still time for you to volunteer for any of the projects on offer.  Please contact Elizabeth Helliwell Heritage Volunteer Representative or any committee member  Heritage.southport@theartssociety.org

Projects currently on offer

• Digitising index cards of the Goodison Collection of Egyptian Artefacts on display at The Atkinson .Scanning can be undertaken either at The Atkinson or at home.

• Research into the family histories or the early donors to the museum and gallery. Envisaged that there will be collaboration with the Victoria Gallery and Museum in Liverpool.

Taxidermy aka Duck Dusting
Sessions are on a Monday 2.00 – 4.00 p.m and Thursday 11.00 – 1.00pm but not every week and attendance is not compulsory!
Training will be given
 
Trails of Discovery
Current Trail at St Philip and St Paul with Wesley (corner of Scarisbrick New Road/Hampton Road is in the early stages of development.

 
The Mausolea and Monuments Trust
The Arts Society nationally is assisting with a project to update a geographical index of mausolea in Great Britain.


National Archives at Kew – collaboration
Opportunity to join a nationwide collaboration organised by the National Archives Kew.  This involved remote working from home. Scans will be set out to people at home who will then type the information into a spreadsheet.
The project involves the transcribing and noting of all details of copyright materials held in the Archive.  This will cover Kew paintings, drawings, advertising and packaging documents and imagery. 

If you are interested in any of the above heritage volunteering opportunity, please contact Elizabeth Helliwell Heritage Volunteer Representative.   Heritage.southport@theartssociety.org
 
If you would like to assist your Arts Society in any way please speak to any committee member.

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LECTURE REVIEWS

Baroque on a Roll: Classical Music in the Modern Media - Tony Rawlins, 15th March 2022
This lively lecture started with a fanfare and continued with panache. Having established the importance of music in expressing emotion and as ‘our first language’, Tony Rawlins demonstrated how it can alter the way we perceive and feel. It generates more reactions than any other stimulus and appeals to all ages, with an increasing number of under 35-year-olds becoming classical music fans.
We were treated to excerpts of recordings varying from Ernest Lough’s affecting ‘Oh for the Wings of a Dove’ to the excruciating voice of Florence Foster Jenkins.  We considered the use of classical music as therapeutic, uplifting, touching and exciting through multiple examples.  Films like ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ that used ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ to create emotional response and Rachmaninov’s ‘Piano Concerto number 2’ in ‘Brief Encounter’, demonstrate these emotions.
Classical music employed in advertising provided reminders of Delibes’ ‘Flower Song’ for British Airways and Dvorak’s ‘New World Symphony’ accompanying the Hovis delivery boy, among many others. Entertaining examples of how much pop music has relied on classical sources included Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D Major’ as used by Ralph McTell, Bob Dylan, Oasis and Petula Clark, with intriguing use of technology to illustrate the closeness of ancient and modern versions. Tony played his guitar and sang several examples, including a memorable Elvis impression.
A brief reference to copyright laws, an inspiring short film of Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir and a very funny clip from ‘Only Fools and Horses’ ended a stimulating, varied and entertaining lecture that received long and well-deserved applause.
Tony Rawlins kindly provided the following suggestions for further reading:
‘As far as websites are concerned, I think the best are Classic FM – many references to Classical music in movies; ericwhitacre.com – the brilliant American composer who created the first “virtual” choir; And David Bennett’s  “ 14 songs that rip-off classical music” at  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknBXOSlFQs.  
 
 
 
Hans Holbein, Portraitist of the Renaissance -  Jane Choy-Thurlow,  19th April 2022.
Jane Choy Thurlow gave us a history master class by introducing us to the characters of those who made it. We saw the events of the early to mid-1500s through the eyes of the artist, whose portraits, once we had been introduced to their personalities by examining them in detail, became far more than mere paintings.
 
We were shown Hans Holbein’s techniques of producing very quick pictures in coloured chalk, which he then converted to portraits of people in all their finery, with beautiful close-ups of their jewels and the texture of their rich fabrics.  Comparisons of the sketches with the final portraits demonstrated Holbein’s ability to include characteristics like flirtatiousness or sneakiness if he chose to do so.  Jane demonstrated how the placing of the subject could denote power – as in Henry VIII’s stance – or how cunning and calculation could be observed in the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. A very plain portrait of John Chambers, Henry VIII’s personal physician, shows his indomitable spirit, whilst Robert Cheseman, his Grand Falconer, looks anxious and uncertain of the future. 
 
A particularly interesting analysis of Holbein’s largest painting, The Ambassadors, drew attention to individual items in the portrait.  These included the different times shown on the variety of timepieces; the broken string on the lute; the mathematical book opened at the page on division, the crucifix all but hidden against the curtain and the anamorphotic distorted skull on the floor.   All these combined to suggest that the splendid world of Henry’s court was not as firm as it seemed. This leads us to question if Holbein just employed his brush to live, was an opportunist and shrewd operator, or whether he deliberately used his talent to comment on the Reformation.
 
The lecture concluded with a short review of some of the paintings we had been led to examine, with a soundtrack from music composed by Henry VIII. There was so much to think about in this elegantly presented talk, with its excellent use of technology to emphasise interpretations, that it will stay with the audience for a very long time and will certainly inform our future examinations of Holbein’s work.
 
 Jane Choy-Thurlow kindly suggested the following sources for further information:
Books
Hans Holbein, Portraitist of the Renaissance, Stephanie Buck, Jochem Sander, Mauritshuis, The Hague
Hans Holbein, Portrait of an Unknown Man, Derek Wilson
Hans Holbein, by Oskar Batschmann and Pascal Greiner
Holbein’s Ambassadors, by Susan Foster, Ashok Roy and Martin Wyld
Hans Holbein, Masters of German Art, Stephanie Buck
Henry VIII Revealed, Holbein’s Portrait and its Legacy by Xanthe Brooke and David Crombie
 
Website
https://www.hans-holbein.org
 
Exhibition
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 21st May – 29th August 2022, The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics
 
 
 
The Shakers of North America: Their Beliefs, Architecture and Artefacts - John Ericson,
17 May 2022
Most of us have heard of the Shakers - Shaker furniture and Shaker-style kitchens have seen to that - but what of the people behind the name.
In his lecture John Ericson began their story with his insistence that the Shakers, the ‘Shaking Quakers’, were a ‘strange lot.’  And it’s true; in their beliefs and practises they instinctively went against the grain.
A non-conformist Christian sect they were founded in 1747 in Manchester as ‘The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing’. In the early days curious crowds of onlookers were drawn by their worship with its ecstatic behaviour, speaking in tongues, dancing, marching and shaking. Little surprise that their official title was soon popularly reduced to the ‘Shaking Quakers’ and eventually to simply the Shakers.
Equally unusual was the prominence of women in every aspect of leadership - spiritual, practical and organisational. Indeed the founding leaders were women: Jane Wardley, and Mother Lucy Wright.
Particularly influential was Mother Ann Lee. Manchester born and the tenth child of a blacksmith and his wife, she had a series of visions and spiritual revelations which would shape the Movement. In 1776 she and eight followers sailed from Liverpool to New York and established a community in Watervliet in upstate New York which became the first Shaker settlement.
The Shakers were pacifists. They practised common ownership, benevolence, public confession and frequent prayer. They were scrupulous in personal cleanliness, humble, straight forward, simple and hardworking. “Efficiency and Utility” were their watchwords.
Thanks to missionary verve and outreach hundreds of enthusiastic proselytes joined and other communities formed. All members had to be free from debt and agree to abide by Shaker rules which included a vow of celibacy.
If fully formed families joined parents were segregated and children placed in a ‘junoriate’ and brought up by others, the parents only seeing them twice a year. Boys attended school in winter; girls in summer.
Homes were designed to separate the sexes and traditional working roles were followed. Dogmas energised the quotidian such as:
‘Letter learning is useful in its place. There is much useless learning in the world which clogs the mind and shuts the gifts of God out of our souls.’
The Shakers applied science to whatever problem they encountered and were often at the cutting edge of invention. Henry Clay Blinn (1824-1903), editor of the Shaker Newspaper, was a good joiner and developed new skills as a self taught dentist making false teeth.
Others developed artefacts - clothes spinners, circular saws, pen nibs, brooms, apple peelers - to furniture - they were very keen on storage - to the buildings that held them.  
Their architecture speaks of practical design, beauty, balance and space. 
The furniture too is clean lined and serves its purpose; no detail is overlooked, all is well fashioned.
Thomas Merton, Cistercian monk and mystic, wrote, ‘the peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was built by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it.’
A movement that has celibacy at its core depends on new converts to survive. Times have changed; numbers have fallen from a high point of 6,000 in the mid 19th Century; now only two members are still living. 
Unanswerable questions remain: 
How did such a small community produce such a wealth of invention?
How did such a disparate group produce such a consistent level of craftsmanship and design?
But what lives on in the memory is a community remarkable for its humility, co-operation and equality.

-----------------------
 

LOCAL EVENTS
 
Various events at the Atkinson throughout the Summer 
https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/whats-on/events/


Southport Arts Trail, June 4th to 22nd 2022
           

https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/2022/05/southport-arts-trail-2022/

The Tudors Passion Power & Politics Walker Art Gallery Exhibition, 21st May to 29th of August 2022
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/walker-art-gallery/exhibition/tudors-passion-power-and-politics

Claire Partington at the Walker (ceramics exhibition), 1st June to November 2022
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/walker-art-gallery/exhibition/claire-partington-walker

Inspired by Lady Lever -  100 years of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, 24th June to 29th Jan 2023
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/lady-lever-art-gallery/exhibition/inspired-lady-lever

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

Email  Southport@theartssociety.org

Website  www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

NATIONAL ARTS SOCIETY LINK:

www.theartssociety.org

Our lectures for the 2022/2023 season are now on the website.

NEWSLETTER MARCH 2022 

Dear members                                   

Our next lecture with Tony Rawlins is a landmark. It is 2 years since Tony travelled to Southport to give the lecture in March 2020 and lockdown was imposed on the Monday evening.  March 2022, we will finally hear the lecture. Thank you all for staying with the Society, coming back or joining as a new member. We had our Zoom lecture period and are now fully into our season of Live lectures.  Chris Tyler, our Programme Secretary, has kindly reviewed the last lectures and included notes for additional reading supplied by our lecturers.  Thank you Chris.   This will give you a flavour of the content if you were unable to attend.

A huge thank you to all committee members for their hard work, stamina and support during the last two years in keeping everything moving forward so positively for the Society.

Jill Newsham and Judith Davies, our two Vice Chairs will be attending the first LIVE Directory Day in London for 2 years. Hundreds of lecturers present and societies gather to book and gather information for the future programme.

Our programme of additional events for members is building and now includes

Films, an exciting Aintree day of interest in May, a holiday to the North East is taking place in April, plus day visits are in planning.

We are also moving forward with our Community activities.

We  have Young Arts projects planned, Trails of Discovery about to restart and some wonderful Heritage Volunteering opportunities for you to become involved in.

The Committee will need additional members to support the programme and society activities. Please come forward if you are interested in or are willing to become more involved in all this Society has to offer. You are one of 419 members that I am sure have found the lectures stimulating.  Please consider joining our friendly and lively committee with role sharing a new development.  Anyone would be warmly welcome to observe a committee meeting to see us in action or alternatively you could monitor one of the committee members undertaking their various roles.

We welcome feedback and ideas.

Please read the opportunities available in this newsletter I hope you continue to enjoy being part of the Arts Society Southport as we continue to be a positive force for the wider benefit of arts in the community. Enriching lives through The Arts.

The Atkinson continues to use a fresh air ventilation system in their theatre. This can make the theatre cool. Please remember to wrap up warm while the weather is cold.

I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday.

Best wishes                                                                      

Beatrice

 MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

Forms will be available to collect at the May and June meetings.

Renewal payments and collecting programme cards will be undertaken after the June monthly meeting.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

In the forthcoming months we will be able to offer various opportunities for you our members to become involved in an area or topic which interests you.

In the pipeline are the following projects – Taxidermy Cleaning: Scanning catalogue cards from the Egyptology collection for digitising – a project which can be undertaken in the comfort of your own home:

 Decolonization Research (looking at where and from whom, items and objects in the collection have been collected) : Mausoleum Project in conjunction with the National Mausoleum and Monuments Trust. 

The Trails of Discovery Group is restarting.

I am sure you will agree a very varied and interesting selection.

There are also opportunities to help on lecture days.

If you are interested in any of the volunteering opportunities or becoming a member of the committee please speak to a committee member.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Exhibition on Screen            Monday 11th April         1.30 p.m.    Easter in Art

£12.00 to include coffee/tea and cakes

Film tickets are available for purchase at our Bookings Desk in the Atkinson Foyer at the March meeting or via info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

Please remember that you may bring non members to the film if they buy a ticket.  Please do not turn up without a ticket as refreshments are confirmed a week in advance.

Walker Art Gallery

Members may be interested in a Portrait Exhibition detailing the 5 Tudor monarchs entitled “The Tudors – Passion, Power and Politics.  The Exhibition runs from the 21st May to the 29th August 2022.

 LECTURE REVIEWS

Barry Venning, 16th November 2021, ‘With a Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles and their Artists’

Barry Venning’s stimulating view of the Beatles, based primarily on the photography used for their album sleeves up to 1969, gave a refreshingly different angle on the Fab Four.  He certainly knows his Beatles – and by approaching them through the world of Art rather than Music, he presented a lively visual biography.

The Beatles were heavily involved in the Hamburg art scene, which influenced the choices they made for the photography and art of their album covers. From photographers as varied as Astrid Kircherr and Roger Freeman, Barry described quite technical aspects of camera angle and graphics in an accessible manner and included esoteric details that informed and amused his audience.  Who knew that the first time the Beatles wore their especially designed Beno Dorm suits, they were performing at the Barnston Women’s Institute? This, and the fact that their ‘Revolver’ album was Pope Benedict XVI’s favourite, or that the Apple logo was based on ‘Le jeu de mourre’ by René Magritte, enlivened his lecture.

With reference to Robert Fraser (Groovy Bob), who introduced the world of Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake to the Beatles, we were led though a rich variety of influences and inspiration.  Details of the choice of images and composition for the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’album were fascinating – as much for who was rejected as for those included.  The finale, where we saw parodies of the famous ‘Abbey Road’ zebra-crossing photograph was again accompanied by Beatles music. 

We laughed – and we learned.

Barry Venning has kindly provided the following recommendations for further reading:

Harriet Vyner: Groovy Bob – the Life and Times of Robert Fraser. New edition 2016. Heni Publishing

Harriet Vyner: 'A Strong Sweet Smell of Incense’: A Portrait of Robert Fraser. Exhibition catalogue, Pace Gallery, London, 2015.

There are a number of online Beatles encyclopaedias. One of the most widely used is the Beatles Bible. https://www.beatlesbible.com/The information is useful; the ads are infuriating.

In 2013, Mark Lewisohn (anything by Lewisohn on the Beatles is worth reading) published the first of three volumes of what will be the definitive Beatles biography. It covers the years 1940-62, including the formative Hamburg period – Mark Lewisohn:The Beatles - All These Years: Volume One: Tune In. Little, Brown.

Janet Gough OBE, 7th December 2021 – ‘Cathedrals: safe places to do risky things’.

As a former Director of the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division of the Church of England, Janet Gough based her lecture on specialist knowledge of over 40 English cathedrals.

We were shown examples from Medieval Monastic; Medieval Secular; Henry VIII’s New Cathedrals; Post-Reformation/Baroque, Nineteenth Century and Twentieth century buildings.  These included architectural features, like the painted tower vaulting of St Edmundsbury Cathedral or the geometric staircase of St Paul’s and some individual treasures that are sometimes more spectacular than their site. The Shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe, which has recently been restored and can be found with the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, was one such example.

At pains to stress that Cathedrals are not solely museums and heritage centres, Janet showed pictures of the helter-skelter in Norwich Cathedral and the contemporary stained-glass art of Chelmsford and Chichester. The photograph of 2000 paper doves, suspended from the ceiling of Salisbury Cathedral (‘Les Colombes’, by the German artist Michael Pendry), symbolised the theme of hope and optimism that we are all trying to encourage in these difficult times. The use of Lichfield Cathedral as a Covid vaccination centre also exemplifies this.

Architecture enthusiasts particularly appreciated Janet’s depth of knowledge and all of us discovered something new to appreciate in our cathedrals.

Janet Gough has kindly provided the following recommendations for future reading:

 Janet Gough Scala Director’s Choice Cathedrals of the Church of England (revised 2020).  (A two-page spread on each cathedral and highly illustrated - see below also Janet Gough’s Director’s Choice, Churches of the Church of England)

Simon Jenkins England’s Cathedrals Little Brown 2016

Diarmaid MacCulloch A History of Christianity 2009

Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture
or lighter on the building of a cathedral in medieval England, but a great read

Ken Follet’s novel, The Pillars of the Earth, 1989

Roger Mitchell, 18th January 2022  -Thomas Moran, The Turner of the American West

We were introduced to Thomas Moran, born in Bolton in 1837, who, at the age of seven, emigrated with his family to escape the industrial depression of ‘the hungry forties’ and grew to become one of America’s foremost artists.

Though they never met, Moran was a huge admirer of Turner and returned often to Europe to study his technique, view his paintings and visit and paint his favoured locations, including Venice.

Moran was fortunate to travel with three gruelling expeditions between 1871 and 1874 to discover the American West and shared its spectacular scenery in watercolour sketches and oil paintings. The record price of $17,700,000 paid for his ‘Green River of Wyoming’ in 2008 and the fact that two of his great scenes hang in Congress demonstrate his inspirational role in America.

Roger Mitchell’s lecture enthused members through its depth of research - shared accessibly - and elegant structure. Reference to contemporary writers (Longfellow’s words were used to describe one spectacular painting) and photographs, taken by his friend and travelling companion William Henry Jackson, contrasted with Roger’s own photographs of scenes painted by Moran.  This juxtaposition provided fascinating glimpses into how artists adapt their approach to scenery in order to create effects as ‘there is no value in literal transcripts of nature’. Details of Turner’s and Moran’s paintings were compared, demonstrating Turner’s Ancient Greek inspirations absorbed into Native American allusions by Moran.  

Our lecture ended with the welcome news that we do not need to travel to the USA to see Thomas Moran’s work, as one of his great paintings, ‘Nearing Camp’ hangs in Bolton Art Gallery.  But many of Roger Mitchell’s audience were inspired to consider whether a trip to Yellowstone Park or the Grand Canyon, followed by selected art galleries across the States, might be just the trip we should make when we can travel again.

If not, we can examine the reproductions in the references suggested below and agree with The Times that ‘The untravelled world is under vast obligation to Mr Moran’.

www.thomas-moran.org for a comprehensive catalogue

Websites for the National Gallery of Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAMM), Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and Amon Carter Museum of American Art

www.tate.org.uk for material relating to 2002 Exhibition entitled American Sublime

Thurman Wilkins, Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains University of Oklahoma Press (2nd edition 1998)

Nancy Anderson, Thomas Moran, Yale University Press 1997

Comprehensive information can be obtained by typing ‘Thomas Moran’ into Google

Anthony Russell, 15th February 2022, ‘The power and the glory of our country houses; their evolution and changing role’.

 “How did he get all this? Is he paying enough tax? How did he get here? How important is it to preserve these country houses?”

These were the questions that Anthony Russell surmised most people ask when they see a beautiful country house and which he sought to answer. He did this by considering the development of stately homes and their role in showing how society evolves, and by sharing examples of the extraordinary collection of houses described by Auberon Waugh as our “chief national achievement.”

Illustrations varied from the great empty Hall of Arundel Castle, an early Norman fortress, moving through Renaissance castles, innovative glass-fronted mansions, Gothic halls and sophisticated Palladian palaces to the superhuman architecture of Blenheim Palace (described as ‘Castle Howard on steroids”).  These were used to support his argument that our country houses reflect the status and purpose of the aristocracy through time.

Our speaker led us through the centuries from unadorned defensive buildings to ostentatiously furnished and then plainly designed, beautifully-proportioned Dutch-influenced buildings that reflected order through their symmetry. Through this journey, he built a picture of the way in which many members of the ruling classes developed from those who wished to demonstrate their power over all levels of society to emerge as the responsible, tax-paying individuals that open their mansions to us today. Or, conversely, we may prefer Vita Sackville-West’s jaundiced view that primogeniture led the aristocracy to be “..a rotten lot and nearly all of them stark raving mad”.

The lecture was illustrated by examples of 32 stately homes, accompanied by relevant and amusing contemporary quotations.  Who will forget that gold leaf lasts longer than paint on windows (at Chatsworth) or that Bryanston House’s distinctive brick and Portland stone are described as ‘blood and bandages’?

Prince Charles claimed recently that, “We lose touch with our heritage at its peril’ and this lecture helped us to recognise the importance of maintaining our contact with history through the buildings that we see around us.

Further reading, kindly recommended by our Lecturer:

 • The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy; David Cannadine (Papermac)

• Blenheim - Battle for Europe; Charles Spencer (Phoenix)

• The Glitter and the Gold; Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan (George Mann) • Marlborough; Corelli Barnett (Wordsworth Military Library)

• The Marlboroughs - John and Sarah Churchill; Christopher Hibbert (Penguin)

• Blenheim - Biography of a Palace; Marian Fowler (Penguin)

• The Country House Remembered - Recollections ..; Edited; Merlin Waterson (Routledge)

• Life in the English Country House; Mark Girouard (Book Club Associates)

• Blenheim and the Churchill Family; Henrietta Spencer-Churchill (Rizzoli)

• The English Country House; Oliver Cook (Thames and Hudson)

 • English Homes (Period IV - Vol.II); H. Avray Tipping (Country Life)

Please note that, due to unforeseen circumstances, there is a change to the previously scheduled lecturer/lecture for 18 January 2022.  The January lecture will now be delivered by Roger Mitchell, who will be speaking about 'Thomas Moran: the Turner of the American West'.  Details can be found by clicking on the 'Lectures' tab.

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

Autumn 2021

(No. 14, issued 12 November 2021)

Dear members

It has been wonderful to welcome you back to live lectures since September.  For those of you unable to attend there is a brief resume of the lectures later in the newsletter.  It has certainly been a stimulating start to our 2021/22 season.  Both lecturers have been very pleased with the facilities offered by The Atkinson and have been very happy to be engaging with a live audience once again.  The Atkinson have been very helpful and I hope you are finding the new venue comfortable.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh, Chair

REMINDERS - with an important note re December and January lectures

•  The Atkinson does not open until 10 a.m.  Only the committee have early access to set up.
• Please use the lift near the library to access the first floor if you have mobility problems.  Rows B C and D are reserved for members with mobility issues.
• Please use both theatre bar entrances into the main theatre; it will avoid a queue on the near side. Coffee can be taken into the theatre
• Distanced seating is available at the sides of the main theatre.
• December and January are Pantomime season.  In order not to be dodging scenery we are using THE STUDIO at The Atkinson for the 7 December and 18 January lectures.  The seating will be tiered and the front three rows will be available for members with mobility issues. The Studio is also on the first floor.  There are no aisles to accommodate distanced seating in the Studio.
• We will be sharing a Christmas glass of wine or soft drink as usual after the Christmas lecture.
• Please continue to wear a mask while circulating in the building to keep yourselves and others safe.

COME TO A COMMITTEE MEETING

We are looking for members to join the Committee.  Fresh blood brings new ideas to a Society. We are a friendly bunch and welcome and support new recruits.  Please come and see what goes on at our monthly meeting.  There is a current vacancy for Events Coordinator, and other members will be stepping down at the AGM in June.  Please join the Committee to enable a smooth transition.  Speak to any Committee member if you would like to help. 

STUDY MORNING ON 18 NOVEMBER - THE CURATED CLOSET   

Our first special interest event this season in conjunction with The Atkinson.

10.05 a.m.-12.30 p.m.  Cost: £12.00 including refreshments.

An illustrated talk on The Grosvenor Museum’s historical costume collection given by their Senior Curator.

Booking forms are available from Siobhan Nelson, either at the Bookings Desk at the November meeting or via info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

EXHIBITION ON SCREEN

Film showings are back in The Atkinson Theatre.  Cost: £12, to includ*e coffee/tea and cake after the film.

·      Wednesday 23 February 2022, 1.30 p.m. Frida Kahlo

·      Monday   11 April 2022, 1.30 p.m. Easter in Art

We will be contacting those members who had purchased tickets for these films prior to the March 2020 lockdown.

A DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

WEDNESDAY 4 MAY 2022 - A DAY AT THE RACECOURSE

Aintree is steeped in history, drama, triumph and achievement.  We will be given access to the Jockey Club 1750 Suite, which incorporates paintings and memorabilia of Aintree’s racing heritage.  Here we will be joined by our lecturer Christopher Garibaldi, Director of the award-winning Palace House Museum, Newmarket 2010-2019.

The day will then be spent in the Princess Royal Suite, with panoramic views of the racecourse.  Following coffee our first lecture, Treasures of the Turf: The Fine and Decorative Arts of Horse Racing, will give specific reference to Aintree’s place in racing history.

The second lecture, George Stubbs 1724-1806: The English Leonardo, retains a local connection as he was the son of a Liverpool leatherworker and became this country’s greatest animal painter.

There will then be a buffet lunch with time to socialise and enjoy a turn on the terrace.

The Afternoon lecture, Giuseppe Garibaldi 1807-1882, will take us first to Italy to look at this romantic and heroic figure, who captured the imagination not only of the Italians but also of the British.  When he visited London in 1864, 500,000 came to Trafalgar Square to see him.  This lecture will also look at his influences on the fashion, culture and cuisine of the day - especially biscuits.

Tea and cake will be served at the end. 

Cost £50.  Places are limited.  Booking opens from 16 November.

Join us for an enriching day at Aintree.

NEW MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

Please sign up to the ARTVENT CALENDAR, the latest initiative from The Arts Society following the success of Around the World in 80 Days.  Something will be sent to your email inbox every day from the first day of December.

LECTURE REVIEWS

RICHARD WHINCOP, 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 – ART & ARCHITECTURE: ESTRANGED BEDFELLOWS

This intriguingly titled lecture certainly lived up to its promise.  Richard Whincop led us from Ancient Egypt to the present day in his elegantly constructed presentation.  Using the analogy of marriage to illustrate why the relationship between art and architecture has broken down, he led us through five secrets of a happy marriage, followed by five grounds for divorce and illustrated how these related to different examples of art and architecture.

When he considered the possibilities of rebuilding the relationship between the two, Richard asked – and answered - the key question of whether figurative art and architecture can ever work in partnership again. The lecture was beautifully illustrated with numerous examples throughout history and provided us with a truly celebratory return to live events at our new venue.   

Chris Tyler

Further reading

Richard Whincop has kindly provided the following recommendations for further reading:

• An Outline of European Architecture by Nikolaus Pevsner (Pelican) is an excellent general introduction to the history of architecture;
• Ad Quadratum: The Practical Application of Geometry in Medieval Architecture, edited by Nancy Wu, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art. This is a specialised book that highlights the use of geometric system based on squares in Medieval architecture;
• The Art-Architecture complex by Hal Foster, versobooks.com, looks at how links have developed between modernist art and architecture over the last half-century.

Online articles and websites:

• In-depth study of the geometry of Peterborough Cathedral, giving an idea of the complexity of medieval design

http://medieval-architectural-geometry.com/Index.htm

• Guilds and the art market in seventeenth century Holland

https://premodeconhist.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/park-m-2003-guilds-and-the-art-market/

• Interesting insights into the history of picture frames

https://theframeblog.com/archives/

• Background about the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/rococo-neoclassicism/rococo/a/the-formation-of-a-french-school-the-royal-academy-of-painting-and-sculpture

• The history of the Salon and the French Academy in the Nineteenth Century

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sara/hd_sara.htm

NIRVANA ROMELL, 19 OCTOBER 2021 - VENICE: WARTS AND ALL

Nirvana Romell’s Croatian birth and upbringing informed her interpretation of four hundred years of Venetian influence over its acquired territories.  Instead of sharing familiar images of Venetian art and architecture, she mixed what she described as the myth with the reality of Venice’s conquests and the effect they had on those countries they colonised.

Examples of Venetian loggias, fortifications, winged lions and carob trees abound in the Aegean regions that financed the empire’s artistic heritage. In return, Venice was able to claim artists like El Greco (Domenikos Theotokpoulis from Greece) and sculptors, like Giovanni Dalmata (Ivan Duknovic from Croatia) as part of its artistic heritage, now assumed to be Venetian because they had become part of a ‘talent drain’ through lack of support for their work in their native lands.

This challenging lecture gave a new view of Venice and its artistic wonders and certainly made the audience think. We can still perceive Venice through Turner’s dreamlike vision, but will now be tempering that with some realism relating to how those dreams were supported over the centuries.

Chris Tyler

Further reading

Nirvana Romell has kindly provided the following recommendations for further reading:

• Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State by David Rosand, 2005, UNC Press, paperback ISBN 978-0-8078-5663-5, e-book (2012) 978-0-8078-7279-6 – discusses the role of visual arts in shaping the ‘Myth of Venice’;
• Venice: History of the Floating City by Joanne Ferraro, 2012, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1316606612 / 1316606619) - general history.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

 OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org.uk

Please note that our previously scheduled lecturer for 19 October 2021 has had to withdraw due to ill health.  The October lecture will now be delivered by Nirvana Romell, who will be speaking about 'Venice: Warts and All'.  Details can be found by clicking on the 'Lectures' tab.

From September 2021 our meetings/lectures will take place at the Atkinson in Lord Street, Southport.

We are really pleased to be back to 'face-to-face' meetings again at last.

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

Summer 2021

(No. 13, issued August 2021)

 Dear members

Thank you to all the members who have renewed their subscriptions and welcome to new members who are joining us for the first time, and those members who have chosen to rejoin us for the forthcoming season.  I do hope that the new season’s lectures will provide a stimulating and varied programme for you all.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to our NEW VENUE, THE ATKINSON.  It is very important that you bring your barcode membership card for booking in to our system and to attend the lecture in the main theatre.  It has been 18 months since we last attended a live lecture, so please check that you have your card.  If you are unable to find your card, contact our new Membership Secretary, Jill Newsham, before September via email - theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com - or by phone.

Those members who have highlighted mobility issues will be contacted individually by The Society to discuss their requirements.  Accessible seating will be available and there is a lift to the theatre level on the first floor.  We will also have an area set aside for members who let us know in advance that they are shielding and need to be sitting apart for the lecture.

Thank you for your kind comments on the Golden publication.  It did highlight how members’ enthusiasm for excellent lectures and the promotion of the arts has enabled the society to develop and thrive for the last 50 years.  Your Committee has kept up the momentum through the recent challenges and are now looking forward to resuming face to face Committee meetings from September.

We always welcome members to our Committee meetings; if you would like to attend, please contact us via the website for details, or talk to any committee member.  A constant supply of fresh ideas keeps this society active, and we will need some willing members to help as we resume face to face lectures.  Siobhan Nelson is stepping down from coordinating Special Interest Events.  We thank her for all her work in this area and the enjoyable additional events she has organised for the Society..

Please read the guidance sheet [enclosed with your programme card] before our first meeting.  This will outline the measures that are in place for you the members, and our volunteers, to enable the first meeting to run smoothly as we come together for our first live lecture at last.

Looking forward to meeting you all in September.  Keep safe and well.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh  (Chair)

Vacancy: Special Interest Events Coordinator

A Special Interest Events Coordinator is needed for the new season, due to Siobhan stepping down from this role in the Society (she will continue to edit the newsletter and maintain the website). This is an interesting role and an excellent way to get to know other members, especially if you are new to the society - Siobhan can vouch for this!  Typical events in recent years have been study mornings and art film showings at The Atkinson, involving liaison with the Gallery Manager and other staff.

This role could easily be shared between two people.  Full support will be given in all aspects of the role.  If you are interested and would like to know more, contact Beatrice either directly, or via info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

Membership Cards 

Now that we are going to be meeting up again in September, this might be a good time to check that you still have your membership card as you will need it for entry to the lectures in the Atkinson.

If you have lost your card please contact Jill Newsham, Membership Secretary, before September, via email at theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com

Tour News

The Delights, Art and History of Northumbria will be our first tour, departing on 4 April 2022 - 5 days, £559.  We will be staying at the 4 Star Copthorne Hotel (half-board) on the Quayside in Newcastle.  The tour will include The Bowes Museum, a Guided tour of Durham, Cragside House, Alnwick Castle and Gardens, Lindisfarne Castle, Bamburgh and the Laing Art Gallery.

This trip will be available to book at the October meeting of The Arts Society Southport at The Atkinson.  If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to go on this tour please contact me directly.

Anthony Weldon (Tours Organiser)

Community Arts

Despite lockdowns and home-schooling, our society has managed to contribute to the cultural and artistic life of the area across both age and ability spectrums. Once again, in collaboration with The Atkinson, we supported the Sefton Young Artist Competition. This competition attracted 105 entries which showed a range of lively, colourful and thoughtful contributions.  We are grateful to the schools which support this annual event. Prize winners who see their entries displayed at The Atkinson must be excited and inspired to see their work recognised The prizes are tokens exchangeable for art materials, maybe the seed corn for a future Picasso! 

A new venture this year was a writing competition using pictures from The Atkinson collection representing scenes from around Britain which might inspire memories of staycation holidays or provoke ideas for stories and poems. With plenty of lock-down time to fill, many local seniors and a few younger writers, produced an impressive range of prose and poetry which I enjoyed reading and judging via Zoom while being on holiday in Cornwall. The prize winners’ work and the pictures which inspired them are up on our website and I recommend that you take a look. There is work of outstanding quality. They are also displayed alongside the Inspirations exhibition at The Atkinson.

Our close partnership with The Atkinson continues and we are grateful for their time, expertise and facilities which support these important community projects. We will be planning together next year’s community projects very soon.

Sue Dexter (Community Arts)

Fifty Years Young

If you enjoyed reading the ‘Fifty Years Young’ booklet that was sent to you through the post, we have good news for you!

For joint members who received one booklet between two people, another copy is available for you to receive without charge, by contacting the email address below.

Anybody else who would like to purchase additional booklets will be able to do so at our first lecture of next season, on 21st September, for the cost of £2.00 per copy.  If you are really keen and can’t wait until then, we can send you additional copies, at a cost of £3.50 (to cover cost and postage).

Please send requests to theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com with your full contact details.

Chris Tyler

Around the World in 80 Days

Like most people I had resigned myself to ‘staycationing’ and not having a holiday abroad this year but as it turns out I have actually spent the summer travelling (virtually) to distant parts of the globe with the Arts Society Around the World in 80 Days series of lectures.

The lectures follow the ports of call around the world made by the fictional character Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout in Jules Verne’s book, Around the World in 80 Days. 

Our journey began on 1 July and we will not arrive back in London until 18 September. Each lecture is linked in some way to the places that Fogg visits and there are 24 of them for you to watch as his journey progresses.  So far, I have particularly enjoyed Cindy Polemis talking about the art and architecture of Paris during the Belle Epoque and Roger Butler explaining the engineering miracle that is the Suez Canal, and there is even a link to take you on a journey through the modern Suez Canal.  Most of the lectures have links or additional information on the topic. 

Each lecture becomes available to view as the intrepid travellers arrive at the different cities and ports but all the lectures are recorded so you can watch them whenever suits you.

At the same time, I have been rereading Jules Verne’s book (which is available to download free from the site), and this has given an extra dimension to the whole experience.  If you don’t want to read the entire book you can also join the live readings of selected chapters from the book, beautifully read by Simon Whitehouse.  These are also recorded for you to watch whenever you want.

If you really want to get into the spirit of the adventure, you can also join Live Events and there is a Blog where you can meet fellow travellers and discuss your experiences of the places we visit.

To join the Virtual Travellers Group and begin your journey click the link below:

https://www.connected.theartssociety.org/around-world-in-80-days

Bon Voyage.

Jill Newsham

June 2021 Lecture Review - ‘From the East Indies to Indonesia: Legacies of Colonialism and Fine Art in Indonesia’

Our lecturer in June, Viv Lawes, displayed a unique familiarity with art in Indonesia (formerly known as the East Indies). She has visited the country regularly and been entrusted with curating exhibitions and cataloguing artefacts there, and buys and sells Indonesian art through her London gallery. In addition, as a journalist, she has a keen eye for the social and political history of the islands. A fortunate combination of skills for, since the first settlement by the Dutch in 1598 up to the present day, politics and art have been intertwined and Viv was able to trace these links.

From the start, the Dutch controlled all aspects of artistic creativity. They plucked promising painters from the Indonesian social elite and dispatched them to train in Europe. They dominated the schools of art and the fine arts societies and so embedded Western approaches to art in the choice of subjects, materials, colour, and composition. Indonesian art followed the artistic movements in Europe. In paintings, the Indonesian figures were at best exoticized and romanticised. Even during the Social Realism movement, representations of working people were idealised in stark contrast to the reality of their abject poverty.

However, after the Second World War and the end of Japanese occupation, the mood changed; artists rejected the socio-political as well as the artistic hierarchies. Painting began to reflect the series of revolutions to gain independence from colonialism and the struggle against dictators supported by the west: The Hour of the Guerrilla and Preparation for Guerrilla, in the late nineteen forties, are paintings which depict a new and more violent society.

In the New Art Movement of 1975, artists finally shook off the Western approaches to art and turned back to their cultural roots. Their paintings embraced the striking forms of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu monuments and temples, the striking figures of shadow puppetry, the sinuous movements of traditional dance, the complex and beautiful designs of traditional textiles and dress.

Today, in this young democracy, artists continue to grapple with socio-political questions such as capitalism and the environment, the future and identity of the Indonesian state and several have become diplomatic envoys.  Viv delivered a fascinating lecture, erudite but accessible, and particularly relevant in this age when the legacy of our British colonial past in art, especially public statues, is being questioned.

Paula Haes

More about Indonesian Art

You may be interested in the following information, kindly provided by Viv Lawes:

In terms of recommendations for resources, Indonesia is fairly obtuse this side of the Indian Ocean.  Most books would need to be ordered through a platform like Abe, since many are only available as old print runs.  A good source is Claire Holt's Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change (Cornell University Press, 1967).  Adrian Vickers concentrates on Balinese art - a significant field within Indonesian art but also a culturally distinct one. You can find some sources within the wider field of Southeast Asian art. Viv suggests Modernity and Beyond: Themes in Southeast Asian Art, edited by T.K. Sabapathy (Singapore: National Heritage Board, 1996).

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The winning and commended entries from the Sefton Young Artist of the Year competition, 2021, can now be viewed on our website.  Go to 'Gallery' and select 'Young Arts'. You need to scroll down the page to see the pictures, and then click on each image to see details. The competition was organised by The Atkinson, and the prizes were sponsored by The Arts Society Southport.

The Arts Society Southport

 Newsletter

June 2021

(No. 12, issued 6 June 2021)

Dear members

I hope you are enjoying the current summer weather after a very changeable May.

By now you will have received - either by MailChimp, email or post - our Annual Report, AGM notices and membership renewal form.  Thank you all that have renewed to date.  It helps a great deal to receive the renewals in a timely fashion.

For clarification, as we are still unable to meet in person, we are holding the AGM, virtually, early on the morning of the next lecture (15 June).  For this reason we are requesting that you vote by proxy in advance of the meeting.  We will answer any questions that we receive in writing, and the outcome of the AGM will be emailed or sent out shortly afterwards.  This is similar to The Arts Society AGM, which was held virtually for the second year.  We look forward to meeting for our AGM next year.

The final lecture of our season will be on Zoom, and the waiting room will open as usual from 10.35 a.m.  We have certainly enjoyed a wide variety of topics this year.  Some lectures were even enhanced by the Zoom experience: last month’s illustrations of complex Elizabethan embroidery stitches were an example of this.

The booklet celebrating 50 Years of The Arts Society Southport will soon be arriving from the printers and will be dispatched to you all.  I hope you enjoy reflecting on the last 50 years, and are looking forward to the next.

It seems so long ago that we started planning our 50th Season.  The talk on The Triumph of Art by Xanthe Brooks highlighted not only the importance of this 17th Century painting, but also its fascinating journey to Southport from France, its attribution to Loir not taking place until the 1990s.  To have contributed a golden frame seemed a fitting way to launch our anniversary celebrations, enabling the painting, following restoration, to be on public display for the first time in 100 years.

Those members who missed the talk can access information about the exhibition on the Atkinson website. Enter Triumph of Art in the search area; click on Triumph of Art and there is a virtual tour of the exhibition, plus details of the conservation and travels of the painting below the other paintings featured in the exhibition.

We have also managed to develop a Creative Writing competition and a Young Artist competition in conjunction with The Atkinson this season.  We continue to support community art despite the pandemic.

Looking forward to our Golden lunch at The Princess Royal Suite, Aintree Racecourse, this has been moved to Wednesday 4 May 2022.  Details will be available at our meeting in September, and reservations can be made from October.

I am sure you are all looking forward to being able to meet for lectures in person, and we will keep you all updated about the arrangements in our new venue, The Atkinson main theatre.  We will also be sending out a questionnaire to members during the summer.

As restrictions ease, I hope you all keep safe and well.  The work goes on behind the scenes unabated, thanks to your Committee.  I am looking forward to meeting you all in the 51st season.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

ART UK

A website that may be of interest to you is Art UK, which can be found at https://artuk.org/.  Art UK is a charity that brings national collections to one place and has a long-term aim of cataloguing the UK’s art and sculpture in public collections. They have been holding a series of free 30 minute talks, ART UNLOCKED, in conjunction with the Bloomberg Foundation.  Each talk is given by the curator of a different gallery, and features key works from that gallery.

The next featured galleriy is:

Wednesday 16 June 2021 at 5.30 p.m. - Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Tickets for online access to ree talks are available via Eventbrite.  The link for further information and booking tickets is:

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-unlocked-a-new-online-talk-series.

There are other talks available by signing up to the free newsletter.  Art UK is also a valuable resource for searching for paintings in public collections.

Tuesday 15 June Zoom Lecture

Our next lecture is From the East Indies to Indonesia: Legacies of Colonialism and Fine Art in Indonesia, 1830 to the Present Day.  The lecturer is Viv Lawes. 

2021/2022 Lecture Programme

All being well, the June 2021 lecture will be the last one that takes place on Zoom, and we plan to resume ‘live’ lectures in September.  These will take place at our new venue, The Atkinson in Lord Street, Southport.

• 21 September 2021 - Art and Architecture: Estranged Bedfellows (Richard Whincop).
• 19 October 2021 - Venice: from Canaletto to Monet (Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes).
• 16 November 2021 - With a Little Help from their Friends: The Beatles and their Artists (Barry Venning).
• 7 December 2021 -  Cathedrals: Safe Places to do Risky Things (Janet Gough).
• 18 January 2022 - Pioneering Women Photographers 1860-1920 (Suzanne Fagence Cooper).
• 15 February 2022 - The Power & the Glory of Our Country Houses: Their Evolution and Changing Role (Anthony Russell).
• 15 March 2022 - Baroque on a Roll: Classical Music in the Modern Media (Tony Rawlins).
• 19 April 2022 - Hans Holbein the Younger: Portraitist of the Renaissance (Jane Choy-Thurlow).
• 10 May 2022 - The Shakers of North America: Their Beliefs, Architecture and Artefacts (John Ericson).
• 21 June 2022 - How the Queen Entertains at Windsor Castle: Treasures and Curiosities (Oliver Everett).

Fuller information about each lecture can be found at:

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

North West Area ‘Day of Special Interest’

A ‘Day of Special Interest’ is being organised by the Arts Society North West Area at Hoghton Tower; this will take place on Monday 6 September 2021 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The subject is 'Elizabethan Enigmas', and the event is led by Dr Jonathon Foyle.  The day will comprise coffee, 3 lectures and a light lunch, plus a tour of the house.  Attendees will need to provide their own transport to Hoghton Tower, and bookings need to be made direct with North West Area.  [The link was provided with the emailed version of this newsletter.]

The Arts Society Monthly Highlights

If you aren’t yet familiar with the Curated Monthly Highlights that are sent to you by email from The Arts Society – do take a look!  May’s edition was particularly interesting, including beautifully illustrated articles on modern weaving, recycling everyday objects to create art that has been exhibited at Tate Britain, and Picasso’s photography.  But, arguably, the highlight of this newsletter is the hyperlink it provides to its ‘Lecturers at Home’ series where speakers as varied as Mark Hill on 1960s Glass and Rebecca Hussack on Aboriginal Art are instantly available.  Enjoy!

Chris Tyler

Competitions Sponsored by The Arts Society Southport

The Arts Society Southport has sponsored two exciting competitions this spring.  Lockdown has given rise to plenty of online creativity.  Our “Inspirations” poetry and creative writing competition attracted 40 pieces, mostly in the over-25 age group, all inspired by a carefully chosen set of paintings from the Atkinson collection. Each depicted a scene from different parts of the British Isles where people might have memories of childhood family holidays or where we might be thinking of for a post lockdown staycation.

The quality of the entries was very high and we had some very worthy winners.  Interestingly the prose winners were all female and the poets were male.  All these entries are well worth browsing; they can be read online on the Atkinson website at:

www.theatkinson.co.uk/whats-on/online-exhibitions/inspirations-competition. 

The winning entries will also be displayed alongside the Natural High exhibition in June.

The second community competition was the Sefton Young Artist of the Year 2021 competition run by the Atkinson and sponsored by us.  This attracted 104 entries, largely from the schools who supported us last year.  There was a fascinating range of talent and techniques on display which had the judging panel hard at it on Zoom for over 4 hours!  We had some lovely winners and they will receive online vouchers for art materials.

We owe Jemma Tynan and Jenny Cope a huge thank you for their dedication and enthusiasm in putting all the entries online, advertising the competitions and gently reminding and prodding people to submit their entries.  Our thanks also to Tom Kelly, poet and playwright, who joined me on Zoom to judge the literary competition.  Reading the entries filled the very wet first day of my Cornish holiday, which seemed entirely appropriate and was very entertaining.

Sue Dexter (Arts in the Community)

May 2021 Lecture Review – Elizabethan Stitches: Overturning Our Understanding

In her lecture this month on “Elizabethan Stitches”, Jacqui Carey, an expert in textiles and dress, introduced us to the fine detail of Elizabethan and Jacobean embroidery, as found in the sixteenth and seventeenth century on jackets, bags, coifs, gloves, book covers, cushions and so on.

Jacqui is an “embroidery detective” who, by painstaking and time-consuming analysis, has rescued many embroidery stitches from obsolescence.  For over a century, certain stitches have been misidentified, wrongly confused with others and fallen into complete disuse.  In the early twentieth century, a certain Mrs Christie catalogued the stitches in a book which became the Bible of embroiderers and resulted in the disappearance from the craft of at least forty-six stitches.

Jacqui’s questioning of the prevailing orthodoxy was not always welcomed by the embroidery establishment but she persisted because, in her words, stitches are as fundamental to embroidery as brush strokes are to painting.  She reads the stories behind the embroidery: the efforts of the professional embroiderers to save money by using certain stitches – for example stitches which could save on the use of hugely expensive silver thread - or save time by bringing in other members of their household to carry out parts of the work, resulting sometimes in the “wonky bits” of the design!

It was really refreshing to hear a researcher taking the structure and techniques of embroidery so seriously and helping to raise its reputation in the “value system” of art where it has languished for so long at the bottom, disparaged as “women’s work”.  Yet in the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was a highly regarded commercial craft and a popular pastime for ladies with too much leisure.  As one lady in the early seventeenth century remarked: embroidery is “my chief help to pass the time away”.  Maybe embroidery is calling to us over the centuries as a beautiful and largely neglected craft for our tedious times!

Paula Haes

More about Elizabethan Stitches

If your appetite has been whetted by Jacqui’s lecture on Elizabethan Stitches, or if you were unable to attend the lecture, you may be interested in the following publications:

• Carey, J., Sweet Bags: an Investigation into 16th and 17th Century Needlework, Carey Company, Ottery St. Mary, 2009;
• Carey, J., Elizabethan Stitches: a Guide to Historic English Needlework, Carey Company, Ottery St. Mary, 2012.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

From September 2021, our monthly meetings will be held at the Atkinson in Lord Street, Southport.  Details can be found under 'Our Society'; 'Where We Meet'.

Details of the lectures planned for our 2021/2022 Season are now on the website.  These can be found under 'Lectures'.

The Arts Society Southport

 Newsletter

May 2021

(No. 11, issued 10 May 2021)

Dear members

I hope you are keeping well and enjoying the sunny Spring weather.

We were able to travel virtually, thanks to the excellent Armchair Travel, to Russia with Jane Angelini and then from America to Europe back to America and finally to Bilbao via Venice, following the exploits and philanthropy of the Guggenheim dynasty in our April lecture. Thank you to Doreen and Chris, respectively for arranging these and Mike Newsham for his technical expertise in supporting them.

 As promised, there is an additional free online talk on Wednesday 26 May: The Triumph of Art – an Allegory of the Arts.  Please see details later in the newsletter.  This is part of our Golden season celebrations.

 The Golden booklet is progressing, and looking back has enabled us to reflect on how the Society has changed over the years, whilst still staying true to the original aim of bringing people together through a shared curiosity for the arts. The arts have the potential to enrich people’s lives, and hopefully we will be able to meet again and hear expert lecturers in person from September.  In the short-term, Zoom has saved the day for societies and lecturers in this year of unprecedented restrictions.

In January 2020, following our Annual Financial Review, I and John Holden, the Treasurer, requested a meeting with the Little Theatre Treasurer to ask for a reduction in our monthly rent.  Looking back over the previous 10 years the rent had risen well above inflation, and looking beyond our Society we were paying more than any other Arts Society for our venue.

We were also required to provide Front of House and 5 stewards, from our existing members, in the event of a fire or evacuation.  Plus, a technician to run the lecture from the gantry box.

We were aware of the rising cost of lecturers, currently £350-£400; this meant that each morning was costing £1,000 with venue hire, before transport and accommodation costs were added.  We had an open and frank discussion, including sharing costings that we had been offered by an alternative venue.  Sadly, in March the pandemic and subsequent lockdown meant that all venues closed.  It has now become clear that there are additional requirements for organisations to take into account before meeting again.

 We were informed in April 2021 that The Little Theatre would not be able to offer a reduction. 

 Therefore, we have made the decision to move to The Atkinson theatre from September 2021, for the following reasons:

1. ​Cost.  We will save £289 per morning session including VAT (£2,900 over the season).  Cost includes a technician and 4 ushers.  All staff are trained in the event of an emergency.
2. The Atkinson is a Covid secure environment with a ‘Good to Go’ status confirmed.  They have already hosted events successfully in line with Government guidance.
3. The Lecture theatre has a large screen, microphones and excellent acoustics from all areas.  Easily accessible seats will be set aside for members with mobility issues.
4. There are several toilets on both levels, including disabled facilities.
5. There is a modern reliable lift able to carry several people, plus a backstage lift for instrument access, e.g. harps.
6. Coffee/tea will be available for purchase on both levels on lecture mornings.  There is a café for lunch.
7. There is experience of hosting our lectures (the evening trial), plus Exhibition on Screen events in the main theatre.
8. A grand piano is available for musical lectures if required.
9. There is the same easy access for the station and bus routes and a drop-off point adjacent to the building.
10. Relocating to the main Arts facility in the North of Sefton will mean members can visit the galleries and museum and change their library books in the same building.

Our contribution to the fabric of the Little Theatre, most recently the provision of the electric screen will be a thank you gift from the Society and we have happy memories of our time there. A huge thank you to Ray Mann as Front of House and all our members that have performed steward duties for every meeting plus those that climbed up to the box to provide technical support to the lecturers. Thank you also to the staff and volunteers of the Little Theatre. From our early beginnings there in 1991, struggling to put up the folding screen, it would appear we have gone full circle. When this Society began In 1970, they held additional lecture series at The Atkinson for several seasons.

I hope that you will enjoy the facilities that will be available as we recommence our face-to-face lectures in September, and look forward to the next 50 seasons of coming together through a shared curiosity for the arts.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

Date of Next Lecture: 11 May 2021

Elizabethan Stitches: Overturning Our Understanding, with Jacqui Carey. 

Just to remind everyone that this month’s lecture takes place on Zoom on Tuesday 11 May, i.e. the second Tuesday of the month, rather than the usual third Tuesday. 

Virtual Coffee Morning 

On Monday 24 May at 11 a.m., we are holding what could, all being well, be the last Virtual Coffee Morning.  These Zoom get-togethers have been providing an opportunity to chat with other members during the times when we are unable to meet in person.  Invitations will be sent out by email before the event.

Free Online Talk - The Triumph of Art: an Allegory of the Arts

A free online talk for members of The Arts Society Southport will be held on Wednesday 26 May at 10.30 a.m. 

The Atkinson, with support from The Chateau de Sceaux and The Arts Society Southport, has been able to restore and return to public display a major 17th century painting from their permanent collection.  Art historian Xanthe Brooks looks into the fascinating history of this large scale allegory of the arts, its connection to the court of the 'Sun King' Louis XIV of France and its remarkable journey from Paris to Southport.  The talk will be preceded by a short introduction by Gallery Manager Stephen Whittle, with an opportunity for discussion at the end.  

We need to know how many wish to attend, so a link to a booking form has been emailed to members.

Armchair Travel Review, 13 April 2021 - St Petersburg: the Window to the West

Jane Angelini again transported fifty Arts Society members from Southport – this time to St Petersburg.  Once there, we were introduced to its rulers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, through their architectural heritage, to the turbulence of Russian politics.

The four Empresses who dominated eighteenth century Russia built on the work of Peter the Great, who established his court in St Petersburg in order to move from Moscow’s Eastern-influenced court to a more European focus.  The Peterhof Palace, Peter the Great’s ‘Russian Versailles’, contrasted with Rastrelli’s ‘snap, crackle and pop’ style of architecture at the Winter Palace – described as ebullient – almost kitsch, with its red, gold and white splendour.  Later, Catherine the Great added a less frivolous, glacial touch to the architecture, using pastels and white where there had formerly been gilt, in a more rococo style.  She also employed European architects like Charles Cameron, whose Pavlovsk Palace ushered in the classical idiom of the nineteenth century.

The Emperors who ruled then century faced political turbulence.  Much of their architecture reflected the successful vanquishing of the French, with Carlo Rossi introducing new buildings alongside Rastrelli’s earlier work to fuse different buildings harmoniously through colour.  This more sober approach led to huge architectural contrasts across St Petersburg, best demonstrated by comparing the severe classical style of the Winter Palace’s Armorial Hall with some of the shimmering white and gold excesses of the Small Hermitage.  By the end of the century, there was no sense of a single focus of style in St Petersburg, which represented the political disturbance of the time.

This elegantly planned and beautifully illustrated talk used different styles of architecture to introduce us to Russian history.  What started as an attempt to emulate European grandeur changed over two centuries to a strong Slavophile movement, and a need for Russians to create a clear statement of who they were and are – neither based on Genghis Khan and the Moguls nor on the European ideals – but Russian.  Jane Angelini concluded that this is what is happening in Russia today, with the current move to establish the credibility of a uniquely national culture.  Our architectural tour of St Petersburg gave us many fascinating insights - and much food for thought.

Chris Tyler

More about St Petersburg

You can see the ‘Peacock Clock’ in action in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPlVRoUl_8

Jane Angelini has kindly provided us with the following video link and further reading:

•       The Russian Ark video is available via Amazon Prime at www.amazon.com/Russian-Ark-Sergey-Dreyden/dp/B018DYKEGO 
• ·      St Petersburg by Jonathan Miles;
• ·      St Petersburg: a Traveller’s Companion by Laurence Kelly;
• ·      The Romanovs by Lindsey Hughes.

April 2021 Lecture Review - The Guggenheims: a Dynasty of Art Collectors

What do you do if you make millions of dollars in silver and copper mines in Mexico in the late nineteenth century?  Invest in fine art!  What do you do if you know very little about art except for traditional family portraiture?  Find a wife or a mistress who does and found a dynasty of art collectors!

Most of Andrew Hopkins’ lecture in April focussed on Peggy Guggenheim, a progressive feminist, whom he knew when working as an intern at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.  But the founder of the dynasty was her Uncle Solomon whose mistress, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, herself an artist and admirer of non-objective painting, soon whisked him off to Germany to meet Kandinsky, returning to the USA with 250 of Kandinsky’s paintings.  These were the core of the art collection which opened first in an ex car salesroom in New York at the end of the thirties.  As the collection expanded, it moved into a series of spectacular purpose-built Guggenheim Museums in the USA and across the world, a building project which continues to this day.

Peggy, herself a wealthy heiress, moved to Paris when young, married and had children. She expanded her own collection to include the leading abstract artists of the early twentieth century: Picasso, Braque, and Mondrian among others.  She bought directly (ideally one painting per day) from the artists, to whom she opened her home.  In the late 1930s she met the Surrealist painter Max Ernst whom she later married.  As the Second World War progressed, she expanded her collection further by buying up the works of artists fleeing war-torn Europe.  In 1941, she smuggled her huge collection out of Paris to New York where she spent the next five years.

In the post-war era, Peggy continued to widen her tastes to include African Art, Jackson Pollock and Giacometti.  In 1947, when she moved to Venice and bought the Greek Pavilion and Garden built for the Biennale, Peggy fulfilled a vital role with her paintings, whose modernity was a revelation to Europeans, introducing them to previously unknown artists.

Peggy, lying in the Italian sunshine with her signature sunglasses and her pooches, was an iconic figure in the 1950s, welcoming into her home the most famous artists and sculptors of the mid-twentieth century. But tragedy lurked behind the glittering façade: her daughter Pegeen and the artist Tancredy with whom she had an affair, both committed suicide and Peggy, back in the USA, died alone in 1979.  However, her granddaughter Karole Vail upholds the dynasty today as the new curator of the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

This was a lecture crammed with facts and with glimpses of the major art works of the twentieth century found in the Guggenheims’ collections, but made entertaining by Andrew’s personal acquaintance with the Guggenheim dynasty: its important contribution to art collecting as well as its private scandals.

Paula Haes

More about the Guggenheims

If your appetite has been whetted by the lecture on The Guggenheims, or if you were unable to attend the lecture, you may be interested looking at some other sources of information, Andrew Hopkins has kindly pointed us towards the following publications:

• ·      Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim, by Megan Fontanella;
• ·      Peggy Guggenheim: the Last Dogaressa, by Karole P.B. Vail with Vivien Greene;
• ·      Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a Special Issue of Connaissance Des Arts.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

 Newsletter

May 2021

(No. 11, issued 10 May 2021)

Dear members

I hope you are keeping well and enjoying the sunny Spring weather.

We were able to travel virtually, thanks to the excellent Armchair Travel, to Russia with Jane Angelini and then from America to Europe back to America and finally to Bilbao via Venice, following the exploits and philanthropy of the Guggenheim dynasty in our April lecture. Thank you to Doreen and Chris, respectively for arranging these and Mike Newsham for his technical expertise in supporting them.

 As promised, there is an additional free online talk on Wednesday 26 May: The Triumph of Art – an Allegory of the Arts.  Please see details later in the newsletter.  This is part of our Golden season celebrations.

 The Golden booklet is progressing, and looking back has enabled us to reflect on how the Society has changed over the years, whilst still staying true to the original aim of bringing people together through a shared curiosity for the arts. The arts have the potential to enrich people’s lives, and hopefully we will be able to meet again and hear expert lecturers in person from September.  In the short-term, Zoom has saved the day for societies and lecturers in this year of unprecedented restrictions.

In January 2020, following our Annual Financial Review, I and John Holden, the Treasurer, requested a meeting with the Little Theatre Treasurer to ask for a reduction in our monthly rent.  Looking back over the previous 10 years the rent had risen well above inflation, and looking beyond our Society we were paying more than any other Arts Society for our venue.

We were also required to provide Front of House and 5 stewards, from our existing members, in the event of a fire or evacuation.  Plus, a technician to run the lecture from the gantry box.

We were aware of the rising cost of lecturers, currently £350-£400; this meant that each morning was costing £1,000 with venue hire, before transport and accommodation costs were added.  We had an open and frank discussion, including sharing costings that we had been offered by an alternative venue.  Sadly, in March the pandemic and subsequent lockdown meant that all venues closed.  It has now become clear that there are additional requirements for organisations to take into account before meeting again.

We were informed in April 2021 that The Little Theatre would not be able to offer a reduction. 

Therefore, we have made the decision to move to The Atkinson theatre from September 2021, for the following reasons:

1. Cost. We will save £289 per morning session including VAT (£2,900 over the season).  Cost includes a technician and 4 ushers.  All staff are trained in the event of an emergency.
2. The Atkinson is a Covid secure environment with a ‘Good to Go’ status confirmed.  They have already hosted events successfully in line with Government guidance.
3. The Lecture theatre has a large screen, microphones and excellent acoustics from all areas.  Easily accessible seats will be set aside for members with mobility issues.
4. There are several toilets on both levels, including disabled facilities.
5. There is a modern reliable lift able to carry several people, plus a backstage lift for instrument access, e.g. harps.
6. Coffee/tea will be available for purchase on both levels on lecture mornings.  There is a café for lunch.
7. There is experience of hosting our lectures (the evening trial), plus Exhibition on Screen events in the main theatre.
8. A grand piano is available for musical lectures if required.
9. There is the same easy access for the station and bus routes and a drop-off point adjacent to the building.
10. Relocating to the main Arts facility in the North of Sefton will mean members can visit the galleries and museum and change their library books in the same buildin

​Our contribution to the fabric of the Little Theatre, most recently the provision of the electric screen will be a thank you gift from the Society and we have happy memories of our time there. A huge thank you to Ray Mann as Front of House and all our members that have performed steward duties for every meeting plus those that climbed up to the box to provide technical support to the lecturers. Thank you also to the staff and volunteers of the Little Theatre. From our early beginnings there in 1991, struggling to put up the folding screen, it would appear we have gone full circle. When this Society began In 1970, they held additional lecture series at The Atkinson for several seasons.

I hope that you will enjoy the facilities that will be available as we recommence our face-to-face lectures in September, and look forward to the next 50 seasons of coming together through a shared curiosity for the arts.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

Date of Next Lecture: 11 May 2021

Elizabethan Stitches: Overturning Our Understanding, with Jacqui Carey. 

Just to remind everyone that this month’s lecture takes place on Zoom on Tuesday 11 May, i.e. the second Tuesday of the month, rather than the usual third Tuesday. 

Virtual Coffee Morning 

On Monday 24 May at 11 a.m., we are holding what could, all being well, be the last Virtual Coffee Morning.  These Zoom get-togethers have been providing an opportunity to chat with other members during the times when we are unable to meet in person.  Invitations will be sent out by email before the event.

Free Online Talk - The Triumph of Art: an Allegory of the Arts

A free online talk for members of The Arts Society Southport will be held on Wednesday 26 May at 10.30 a.m. 

The Atkinson, with support from The Chateau de Sceaux and The Arts Society Southport, has been able to restore and return to public display a major 17th century painting from their permanent collection.  Art historian Xanthe Brooks looks into the fascinating history of this large scale allegory of the arts, its connection to the court of the 'Sun King' Louis XIV of France and its remarkable journey from Paris to Southport.  The talk will be preceded by a short introduction by Gallery Manager Stephen Whittle, with an opportunity for discussion at the end.  

We need to know how many wish to attend, so a link to a booking form has been emailed to members.

Armchair Travel Review, 13 April 2021 - St Petersburg: the Window to the West

Jane Angelini again transported fifty Arts Society members from Southport – this time to St Petersburg.  Once there, we were introduced to its rulers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, through their architectural heritage, to the turbulence of Russian politics.

The four Empresses who dominated eighteenth century Russia built on the work of Peter the Great, who established his court in St Petersburg in order to move from Moscow’s Eastern-influenced court to a more European focus.  The Peterhof Palace, Peter the Great’s ‘Russian Versailles’, contrasted with Rastrelli’s ‘snap, crackle and pop’ style of architecture at the Winter Palace – described as ebullient – almost kitsch, with its red, gold and white splendour.  Later, Catherine the Great added a less frivolous, glacial touch to the architecture, using pastels and white where there had formerly been gilt, in a more rococo style.  She also employed European architects like Charles Cameron, whose Pavlovsk Palace ushered in the classical idiom of the nineteenth century.

The Emperors who ruled then century faced political turbulence.  Much of their architecture reflected the successful vanquishing of the French, with Carlo Rossi introducing new buildings alongside Rastrelli’s earlier work to fuse different buildings harmoniously through colour.  This more sober approach led to huge architectural contrasts across St Petersburg, best demonstrated by comparing the severe classical style of the Winter Palace’s Armorial Hall with some of the shimmering white and gold excesses of the Small Hermitage.  By the end of the century, there was no sense of a single focus of style in St Petersburg, which represented the political disturbance of the time.

This elegantly planned and beautifully illustrated talk used different styles of architecture to introduce us to Russian history.  What started as an attempt to emulate European grandeur changed over two centuries to a strong Slavophile movement, and a need for Russians to create a clear statement of who they were and are – neither based on Genghis Khan and the Moguls nor on the European ideals – but Russian.  Jane Angelini concluded that this is what is happening in Russia today, with the current move to establish the credibility of a uniquely national culture.  Our architectural tour of St Petersburg gave us many fascinating insights - and much food for thought.

Chris Tyler

More about St Petersburg

You can see the ‘Peacock Clock’ in action in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPlVRoUl_8

Jane Angelini has kindly provided us with the following video link and further reading:

•       The Russian Ark video is available via Amazon Prime at www.amazon.com/Russian-Ark-Sergey-Dreyden/dp/B018DYKEGO 
• ·      St Petersburg by Jonathan Miles;
• ·      St Petersburg: a Traveller’s Companion by Laurence Kelly;
• ·      The Romanovs by Lindsey Hughes.

April 2021 Lecture Review - The Guggenheims: a Dynasty of Art Collectors

What do you do if you make millions of dollars in silver and copper mines in Mexico in the late nineteenth century?  Invest in fine art!  What do you do if you know very little about art except for traditional family portraiture?  Find a wife or a mistress who does and found a dynasty of art collectors!

Most of Andrew Hopkins’ lecture in April focussed on Peggy Guggenheim, a progressive feminist, whom he knew when working as an intern at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.  But the founder of the dynasty was her Uncle Solomon whose mistress, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, herself an artist and admirer of non-objective painting, soon whisked him off to Germany to meet Kandinsky, returning to the USA with 250 of Kandinsky’s paintings.  These were the core of the art collection which opened first in an ex car salesroom in New York at the end of the thirties.  As the collection expanded, it moved into a series of spectacular purpose-built Guggenheim Museums in the USA and across the world, a building project which continues to this day.

Peggy, herself a wealthy heiress, moved to Paris when young, married and had children. She expanded her own collection to include the leading abstract artists of the early twentieth century: Picasso, Braque, and Mondrian among others.  She bought directly (ideally one painting per day) from the artists, to whom she opened her home.  In the late 1930s she met the Surrealist painter Max Ernst whom she later married.  As the Second World War progressed, she expanded her collection further by buying up the works of artists fleeing war-torn Europe.  In 1941, she smuggled her huge collection out of Paris to New York where she spent the next five years.

In the post-war era, Peggy continued to widen her tastes to include African Art, Jackson Pollock and Giacometti.  In 1947, when she moved to Venice and bought the Greek Pavilion and Garden built for the Biennale, Peggy fulfilled a vital role with her paintings, whose modernity was a revelation to Europeans, introducing them to previously unknown artists.

Peggy, lying in the Italian sunshine with her signature sunglasses and her pooches, was an iconic figure in the 1950s, welcoming into her home the most famous artists and sculptors of the mid-twentieth century. But tragedy lurked behind the glittering façade: her daughter Pegeen and the artist Tancredy with whom she had an affair, both committed suicide and Peggy, back in the USA, died alone in 1979.  However, her granddaughter Karole Vail upholds the dynasty today as the new curator of the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

This was a lecture crammed with facts and with glimpses of the major art works of the twentieth century found in the Guggenheims’ collections, but made entertaining by Andrew’s personal acquaintance with the Guggenheim dynasty: its important contribution to art collecting as well as its private scandals.

Paula Haes

More about the Guggenheims

If your appetite has been whetted by the lecture on The Guggenheims, or if you were unable to attend the lecture, you may be interested looking at some other sources of information, Andrew Hopkins has kindly pointed us towards the following publications:

• ·      Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim, by Megan Fontanella;
• ·      Peggy Guggenheim: the Last Dogaressa, by Karole P.B. Vail with Vivien Greene;
• ·      Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a Special Issue of Connaissance Des Arts.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

April 2021

(No. 10, issued 4 April 2021)

Dear members

By the time you read this we will have moved the clocks forward an hour and we will be officially in British Summertime.  Hopefully some warmer weather will follow.  The gradual lifting of restrictions is also a hopeful sign that we will be able to resume face to face lectures in the Autumn.  We will keep you updated on how we intend to proceed once guidance is issued on indoor events and we are confident that we can meet safely in line with Government guidance. 

Those able to Zoom last month’s lecture on Canals will have a new word at their fingertips: GONGOOZLING (the activity of watching boats and activity on canals, staring).  In 1904 it was used in the Bradshaw’s Canal and Navigable Rivers guide but there is still uncertainty over its origin: the Cambridge dictionary links it to Lancashire; the Oxford dictionary to Lincolnshire; the English Dialect Dictionary to the Lake District.  In the same week I also heard the term used for a quiz question.  I will now reserve it for use on towpath rambles.

Work on the Golden booklet continues and looking to the future we are planning to produce an online archive of The Society for members.  Thank you for your contributions.

The Luncheon that we had planned for Wednesday 13 October 2021 at Aintree Racecourse to celebrate our Golden Anniversary has been postponed until Wednesday 4 May 2022.  This will allow plenty of time for the current restrictions to be lifted and larger celebrations to take place.  Please save the date - something to look forward to when we will raise a glass to the next 50 years.

I do hope that you continue to enjoy the lectures, events and coffee mornings.  Please try the Zoom links beforehand, and check your Spam or Junk mail as Mailchimp notices can sometimes go straight to these.

As the days lengthen, I am sure you will look forward to being able to do more.  I hope you all keep safe and well.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh

Chair

Last Call for Passages to St Petersburg

We still have a few places left for the Armchair Travel event led by Jane Angelini on Tuesday 13th April, starting at 10.00 a.m.  Do not miss the opportunity to hear this excellent tour guide.

Booking details have been emailed to members and a further set of booking instructions will be sent out shortly, in case you have lost the email.

Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on our last Armchair Travel event of this Arts Society year.

Doreen Roberts

Virtual Coffee Mornings 

The Arts Society Southport’s Virtual Coffee Mornings on Zoom provide an opportunity to chat with other members.  Please do join us if you can.  Invitations will be sent out by email before each event.

The next dates are:

·      Tuesday 27 April at 11 a.m.

·      Monday 24 May at 11 a.m.

March 2021 Lecture Review: The Hidden World of Canal Architecture

Roger Butler, landscape architect, photographer and “canaloholic” opened our eyes to the beauty of the “Hidden World of Canal Architecture”. 

In the top three of British cultural icons, the canals boast a wealth of architectural gems: warehouses and cottages, locks and bridges, tunnels and aqueducts.  Roger introduced us to all of these features in his lecture, beautifully illustrated with his own and with archive photographs.  He covered the traditional folk art of the boatmen: the painted “Roses and Castles”, familiar to us all and the highly decorated and well-maintained barges with their immaculate sign writing.  But he also illustrated the beauty in the functional infrastructure of the canals.  I cannot forget the image of the sinuous “snake” bridges on the Macclesfield Canal which, with their gentle coils, led the horses across the canal when the towpath moved from one side to the other.

I was struck by how many of these landmarks are within a short travelling distance of Southport.  The North was so productive during the Industrial Revolution and the canals were the “Super Highways” for the distribution of such goods as coal and textiles, until superseded by the train.  So we have the Bridge of Sighs In Chester (like its Venetian counterpart), the doom-laden route from courtroom to gaol; the three foot long Wigan Pier and of course the World Heritage Site, once described as “the finest work of art in the entire world”: the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen, 120 feet up in the air.

Each year ten million people walk the tow path; 34,000 boats are registered and many will explore the “spider’s web” of over 2,000 miles of canals, travelling at no more than four miles per hour, but with journeys punctuated by the strenuous work of passing through the locks.  Most however will, I suspect, merely “gongoozle” which in boatman’s language means idly watch the boats go by!

The lecture was indeed wide-ranging and laced with gentle humour, inspiring us to view canals with fresh eyes and, when we are allowed to travel, “gongoozle” to our heart’s content.

Paula Haes

More about Canals

If your appetite has been whetted by the lecture on canal architecture, or if you were unable to attend the lecture, you may be interested looking at some other sources of information.  Roger Butler has kindly provided us with the following list:

Books

• Narrowboat by L.T.C. Rolt.  When published 70 years ago it was seen as the book which helped save many waterways from dereliction -  it’s never been out of print
• Water Ways by Jasper Winn.  A nice recent travelogue - 1,000 miles along Britain’s canals.
• British Canals by Charles Hadfield, who wrote several detailed histories and also founded David & Charles publishers.  A classic.
• The Leeds & Liverpool Canal: A History and Guide by Mike Clarke.  The best book about your nearest canal with lots of detail.  Fully updated to mark the 200th anniversary in 2016 (contact the author for a good price - mike.clarke@zen.co.uk).
• Canals of Britain by Stuart Fisher.  Large format colour paperback with lots of detailed info, though some of the photos could have been better printed.  Full of quirky facts, local history etc.
• Britain’s Canals: Exploring their Architectural and Engineering Wonders by Anthony Burton & Derek Pratt.  Recently published.
• Canals by Nigel Crowe.  A detailed English Heritage book, now only available second hand.

Maps/Guides

• Nicholson Guides, published by Collins.  Detailed regional canal guides, based on OS mapping, with info on pubs, shops, etc.
• Heron Maps produce a wide range of detailed canal maps with plenty of visitor info. They also have a good map of the entire network.
• Pearson’s Guide to Leeds & Liverpool Canal.  Local info; facts & figures; insight & entertainment. 

Museum

• National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port - historic boats, displays, archives, etc.

Websites

• www.canalrivertrust.org.uk - lots of info aimed at all sorts of visitors.
• www.canalbookshop.co.uk - they probably have everything mentioned above in stock!
• www.canaljunction.com - covers all aspects of our canals.

The Marsh Awards 2021

In a challenging year, it is great to be able to celebrate the news that Beatrice McIntosh, our Chair, has had her efforts recognised at a national level.  The prestigious Marsh Awards recognise volunteers across both UK and international societies who are committed to helping conserve and promote the decorative and fine arts in their local community.

In nominating Beatrice for this award, Hazel Jacobs, former North West Arts Society Chair, emphasised her energy and commitment, describing her as ‘dynamic…she makes things happen and has generously shared her time with others’.

For The Arts Society Southport, this accolade is particularly pleasing because it recognises just how much Beatrice has done to initiate, to lead and to support everyone’s activities. We have continued to be stimulated and kept in touch - through Zoom lectures, Armchair Travel, Virtual Coffee Mornings, telephone calls, Young Arts opportunities and a regular newsletter.

In responding to her award, Beatrice is keen to emphasise that without the members’ active participation and her Committee’s efforts, we should have had a very dull year:

“After recovering from the shock of receiving the news that I had not only been nominated, but had won a Marsh Award…my next reaction…This award is for US ALL, your exceptional and hard-working committee and every member who has chosen to continue their membership and support The Arts Society Southport in this challenging year.  Thank you - and I am looking forward to when we can meet for face-to-face lectures again.”

So congratulations to Beatrice - and thank you members!  Hopefully we shall be able to build on the energy generated by all this year’s initiatives to enjoy an even brighter and better Southport Arts Society in future.

Chris Tyler

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

Dates for the Next Virtual Coffee Mornings

The Arts Society Southport is continuing to hold Virtual Coffee Mornings for its members.  They generally take place 2 weeks after the monthly lecture, and we are varying the days of the week on which we hold them.  The Coffee Mornings providing a good opportunity to chat to other members - about all manner of things.

Our next 2 dates are:

Wednesday 31 March 2021 at 11 a.m.

Tuesday 27 April 2021 at 11 a.m.

Invitations for each event will be sent out to members via email.  

The Arts Society Southport

 Newsletter

February 2021

(No. 8, issued 7/2/2021)

Dear members

Our January lecture and Armchair Travel gave 2021 a flying start. Please read the reviews. With the vaccination rollout it would appear that there is finally some light at the end of this endless tunnel.

I am sure that many of you are disappointed that we have not been able to meet to celebrate our Golden Anniversary Season, mentioned in the January newsletter. At our January virtual Committee meeting it was agreed that a Commemorative booklet of 50 years of this Society would be given to each member during the current season. To progress this a “Golden Group”, led by Doreen Roberts, is working on this; please read how you can contribute later in the newsletter. Looking forward, so that we can utilise as much of the information that we collect, we intend to also start an online archive, to provide an historical record of the Society. This can be added to as this lively society continues to develop. We are determined to make the best of this unprecedented situation, which has challenged us in our 50th year.

Your Committee is working really hard behind the scenes.  If you would like to join us at a virtual Committee meeting please email or contact me by phone.  It is a way to contribute more fully to the Society with your ideas and skills.  We are a friendly group.  Members coming forward will be supported, and a  flow of new members will help with succession planning as vacancies occur; where possible we try to organise shadowing in any specific role.  Our informal ‘Virtual Coffee Mornings’ are another way to meet other members, Committee members, or try Zoom for the first time [for more on the Coffee Mornings see below].

I do hope that you all continue to keep well. As the snowdrops are appearing in the garden, we have Spring to look forward to.

Best wishes

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

Virtual Coffee Mornings 

Please, if you can, do join us for our Virtual Coffee Mornings on Zoom.  They are proving to be a really enjoyable way to spend an hour or so chatting to other members of The Arts Society Southport while we are unable to meet in person.  After an initial chat as a group, we then usually get magically allocated to smaller rooms (up to about 6 people per room).  After a while, we are taken to a different ‘room’, so you get the chance to talk to different people.  Finally, we all meet back together again.   

We never know what direction the conversations will take.  A starter is sometimes ‘what did we think of the last lecture?’, or there may be a theme (which we can either stick to or ignore!).  We soon find ourselves talking about all manner of things.  There is usually a great deal of laughter along the way. You have to provide your own coffee/tea/cake/biscuits, of course!.

Although Virtual Coffee Mornings are, of course, no substitute for meeting in person, those of us who have been taking part have found they are a good way of getting to know people they have not spoken to before.  At our usual bustling monthly meetings, it can be difficult to interact with other members, apart from those you already know.  As Beatrice points out in her opening piece, If you have not used Zoom before, the Coffee Mornings provide a good way of getting to grips with how it all works.

Our next two Virtual Coffee mornings are:

Tuesday 2 March at 11 a.m.

Wednesday 31 March at 11 a.m.

Invitations will be sent out via email

CAN YOU HELP?

[In the version of the newsletter sent to members, there is a photograph of the Inaugural Meeting of the Society.] 

Can you name any of the people, where it took place, and were you there?  Answers to Theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com (or see the contact information in the section ‘Share Your Memories’ below).

SHARE YOUR MEMORIES 

We need your memories of the 50 years of the existence of The Arts Society Southport (formerly NADFAS) to help us compile a special commemorative booklet.

The sort of things that are of particular interest are:

·      different meeting venues;

·      major events in the life of the Arts Society;

·      day trips and holidays; 

·      memorable speakers;

·      support and sponsorship and heritage activities undertaken;

·      personal highlights.

If you have any documents, photographs, press cuttings or verbal memories we would love to hear from you.

Please contact us on Theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com

If you prefer to telephone us, the following people are available to speak to:

Doreen Roberts, Paula Haes, Judith Davies, Chris Tyler, Jill Newsham, Beatrice McIntosh. Our telephone numbers are in your programme card.

 Please do not send anything in yet before you have spoken to one of us, as we will arrange collection to scan your items and return them to you.

 Looking forward to hearing from you.

 Doreen Roberts

Correction to Programme Secretary’s Contact Details   

Please note that the contact phone number for Christine Tyler, our Programme Secretary, is incorrect on the printed programme card you will have received.  The dialling code is 01744 not 01704.

Guest Attendance at Online Lectures

It is now possible to attend one of our monthly Zoom lectures as a guest, for a payment of £5 (as with our ‘live’ lectures).  To arrange this, email Theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com

January 2021 Lecture Review: The Punch and Judy Show

Was it a lecture? Was it a show? It was both: - our January lecture “performed” by Bertie Pearce.

Bertie deepened our knowledge about the traditional Punch and Judy show, which is in the top six of British Cultural Icons and one of the oldest, with its dark, sinister and violent undertones.

Although Punch himself was not born until May 1662 (in Covent Garden, London), his ancestors go way back: to the bronze masks of the “Old Fool” in Roman theatre through the morality plays of the early fifth century to the masked characters of the Commedia dell’Arte, particularly long-noséd Pulchinello from Naples.

Punch is the British scion of these iconoclastic characters: saying things no-one else dares say, respecting no authority, all in the spirit of “bawdy relief”.  He beats his wife (originally called Joan) gets hanged but survives, gets rid of the devil.  No wonder Punch appealed to Jonathan Swift and Hogarth!  Appealing too, the constant updating of scripts to refer to the social issues of the period: the fight against poverty, the battle of the sexes, the trials of parenthood (the Baby), the rule of law (the Policeman), the script delivered in varying dialects and accents according to the location of each show.  Bertie awakened nostalgic memories in those of us who spent annual holidays on the North Wales coast or watched Professor Codman at work in Southport.

The title of Professor was earned by those puppeteers who could use the “Swazzle” – the gadget slipped to the back of the throat to create the characteristic squawking voice of Punch – responsible also for the mutation of “Joan” into “Judy”.

The use of the Swazzle was of course demonstrated by Bertie Pearce, a Professor himself and a senior member of the official “Punch and Judy Society”.  Witty and urbane, he delivered many side-swipes at modern “villains”.  He dared to speak the unspeakable in the Punch tradition.  But the trenchant, at times outrageous content of the lecture was always illustrated with arresting images, paintings, sketches, cartoons, stamps: a fine balance of erudition and entertainment.

Thank you, Bertie, for an excellent show!  In Punch’s own catch-phrase: “That’s the way to do it!”

Paula Haes

More about Punch and Judy…

If your appetite has been whetted by the lecture on the Punch and Judy Show, or if you were unable to attend the lecture, you may be interested looking at some other sources of information.  Bertie Pearce has kindly provided us with the following list:

The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy, with Illustrations by George Cruikshank;

The Punch and Judy Show: Tradition, and Meaning by Robert Leach;

The film : The Punch and Judy Man starring Tony Hancock, 1963.

The Punch and Judy Fellowship website: thepjf.com

You may also like to visit a website called Punch and Judy Online, which describes itself as “the gateway to everything known about the immortal Mr Punch and his anarchic little wooden world”.  It can be accessed at www.punchandjudyonline.com

Armchair Travel – 28th January 2021  

A full ‘coachload’ of members attended the excellent Armchair Travel Zoom session, visiting Intellectual Bloomsbury with Annamaria Dall’Anese, our Blue Badge Guide.  Amongst other places, she conducted us around the gracious Georgian terraces of Belgrave and Woburn Squares; introduced us to the buildings of University College London and explained the variations in blue plaques celebrating different notable residents, including Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell and (later) John Maynard Keynes, who lived at a Gordon Square address that is open to the public during the annual Heritage Week.  After our coffee break, we viewed notable artefacts in the British Museum, moving between the fantastic Mold Golden Cape, the Portland Vase and the Lewis Chessmen to the tomb figures of Liu Ting Xun.

Over a two-hour tour, Annamaria introduced us to fascinating places and artefacts and linked them with expert commentary, including website links for further research, and virtual lectures on Charles Darwin.

It was a grand way to spend a cold January morning, and most exciting to think that all this is within a stone’s throw of Euston Station.  I’m booking my train ticket as soon as I can!

Christine Tyler

Editor’s note: Just to clear up any confusion, please note that Armchair Travel is organised by The Arts Society Southport, solely for its own members.  Likewise the Virtual Coffee Mornings.  These are our own Special Events, and not national Arts Society ones.

Free Online Lectures and Courses from Beyond the Arts Society

As well as Arts Society lectures, don’t forget there is a multitude of online lectures taking place, on a huge range of subjects.  For those of us with internet access, there is much to explore amid these strange times. 

We don’t propose posting long lists, but here are just a couple of suggestions to whet the appetite:

Thank you to member Chris Vasey for drawing our attention to free online lectures run by Gresham College, on a variety of topics, from art to science.  www.gresham.ac.uk

If you’re looking to tax your brain, your editor can highly recommend the free online courses offered by the  Open University – either sticking to familiar territory or venturing out of your comfort zone!  Anything from 1 hour to 20 hours of work, depending on the course.  No marked assignments, and you can just dip into them as and when you feel like it.  www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

January 2021

(No. 7, issued 4/1/2021)

Dear members

Well, my pre-Christmas newsletter aspirations have not materialised, as we are all in either Tier 3 or 4.  I do wish you all a Happy New Year and also that 2021 will be a memorable year for all, as we hopefully emerge safely from this pandemic.

You will have received your new programme card, hopefully before Christmas. Needless to say, our lectures will continue to be delivered via Zoom until it is safe to meet.

This is still the Golden Year for the Arts Society Southport.  Started in October 1970 we are the 28th member to join the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, started in 1968 by Patricia Faye.  It is now a worldwide organisation with 429 societies and 93,000+ members.  Thank you for your support and I look forward to us all being able to celebrate this achievement together in our Golden Anniversary season.

We are one of the 222 societies that have been enjoying online lectures and 243 of the lecturers are now able to deliver online lectures, so there is no danger of us not being able to enjoy the high standard of lectures that is a highlight of our membership.  I hope our postal only members are enjoying the Instant Expert additions to the monthly post.

The days are beginning to lengthen and the sun is currently shining so, looking on the bright side, we will continue to keep the Arts Society Southport thriving and look forward to when we can meet up and share these experiences in person.

Best wishes for 2021.

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

Dates for the Next Virtual Coffee Mornings

We will be continuing with our Virtual Coffee Mornings over the coming months, as these are providing a good opportunity for members to get together on Zoom to chat about all sorts of things!  Do join us if you can.

The Coffee Mornings will generally take place 2 weeks after the monthly lecture, and we are varying the days of the week on which we hold them.

The next one will be on Friday 8 January at 11 a.m. – apologies for the short notice! 

Dates for February and March are:

Monday 1 February at 11 a.m.

Tuesday 2 March at 11 a.m.

Wednesday 31 March at 11 a.m.

Invitations will be sent out to members via email.  

Armchair Travel Event  

Intellectual Bloomsbury – Wednesday 27 January 2021, 10 a.m., cost £7

Join us for a virtual tour around the vibrant historic district of Bloomsbury, followed by a look at some of the British Museum’s most interesting, but lesser-known, treasures.  We will be escorted on our tour by Annamaria Dall’ Anese, a blue badge London guide who specialises in Bloomsbury.  Further details about this event were in the December newsletter, and are on our website. 

To book your place, please complete & submit the Google Form (members will find the link to this in the copy of the newsletter they have been sent).

Once the form is submitted you will receive email confirmation of your booking request.  Payment must be sent within 7 days to secure your place.

Art and the Country House

Members may be interested in the fascinating ‘Art and the Country House’ website, which explores the collection and display of art in 8 country houses around Britain, focusing on the 16th century to the present day.  Described as an ‘online publication’, the site was launched in Autumn 2020 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, which has a long-term commitment to country house studies.  ‘Art and the Country House’ contains 8 case studies: Castle Howard, Doddington Hall, Mells Manor, Mount Stuart, Petworth House, Raynham Hall, Trewithen and West Wycombe.

You can find the website at http://artandthecountryhouse.com/

December 2020 Lecture Review  (Paula Haes)

Grandfather Frost and Old New Year  

The enigmatic title of our December lecture was swiftly explained by our lecturer Rosamund Bartlett, expert in all things Russian: the dates on which the festivities have been held, together with the symbols and rituals of Christmas and New Year, have all had to adapt to the shifts in power and influence in the Russian State.  Pagan Yuletide celebrations of Christmas gave way to the Christian ceremonies of the Russian Orthodox Church.  In the nineteenth century (as the Imperial Family married German princesses), Western traditions were introduced: Santa Claus and the Christmas tree.  These were all eradicated by the Soviet regime after the revolution in the early twentieth century, until today which sees a mixture of the old and the modern, of religious and secular.

So, Father Christmas has, over time, again become the ancient figure of Grandfather Frost, changing the colour of his robes from red to blue, signifying the rejection of the West.  Christmas cards in the twentieth century have borne the images of Lenin and Stalin, of scientific and military triumphs.

The whole lecture was a feast of the senses, the myriad of facts richly illustrated with archive photos, rare vintage film and cartoons, heavenly music and dancing.  There were extracts from folk tales, poetry and some of the great Russian novels (which Rosamund has translated), linked with her encyclopaedic knowledge of Russian painting.  A wonderful experience, more than fulfilling the consistent, high-quality standards set by the Arts Society: with the performance of lecturers constantly monitored by our London central headquarters, and individual lectures carefully selected by our Southport Society programme secretaries.  We look forward to further delights in 2021.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

December 2020

(No. 6, issued 13 December 2020)

Dear members

With Christmas fast approaching and vaccines on the horizon, let us hope that the uncertainty of 2020 is replaced by a more positive 2021 and the Tiers and restrictions continue to fall.  Each of our lives has been affected by the current Covid-19 situation. Thank you for continuing to support us.  Thankfully we are supported by a very proactive national organisation, The Arts Society, and additional virtual meetings have taken place nationally and in the North West Area for support and to share ideas.

Locally we are continuing to develop our programme, not only offering a monthly lecture but also additional events that we hope you will join in.  These are listed in the Programme Card which will be arriving in the post shortly.  Updates will be listed in the monthly newsletter and we hope that as we move into 2021 we will all continue to be enriched by the arts, and emerge from this situation with an organisation that will thrive for a further 50 years.  Personally, I am indebted to your hard-working Committee for not only keeping the show on the road, but taking on the challenges that 2020 presented with enthusiasm and good humour.  In the meantime, the Committee and I wish you a happy and healthy Christmas and look forward to meeting you in 2021.

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

Lecture Gremlins

Please accept our apologies if you had difficulty accessing the Christmas lecture on Zoom.  The problem was caused by a malfunctioning link; we have now put in an additional step to enable us to test the system before the lecture, so hopefully this problem will not recur.  If you are ever unable to access the lecture via the link, come out of Zoom and then join the meeting by typing in the meeting ID and password that you will find in the email invitation. 

What a lovely start to Christmas Rosamund Bartlett's lecture was, though, with music, snow and images across the centuries.  A review will appear in the next newsletter (courtesy of our resident lecture reviewer, Paula).  Information about Rosamund's field of study, information about her publications, and a contact link, can be found at www.rosamundbartlett.com.

If you come into a lecture late, please could we ask that you make sure you mute yourself immediately.  Also, can everyone ensure that they do not unmute themselves once the lecture has commenced.  Sounds from unmuted participants caused some disruption to the Christmas lecture.  Thank you.

Festive Virtual Afternoon Tea on 15 December

Our next Virtual Coffee Morning will be a little different, as it is a Virtual Afternoon Tea, taking place via Zoom on Tuesday 15 December at 3 p.m.  This one will have a Christmas flavour; you are invited to bring a favourite card, bauble, short poem or any other item, to share with other members - though this is not compulsory!  These events provide the chance to chat with other members during this period when we are unable to meet in person - future dates to be announced shortly.  Invitations will be sent out via email.  

Armchair Travel Event   (Doreen Roberts)

Intellectual Bloomsbury – Wednesday 27 January 2021, 10 a.m., cost £7

For our next virtual day tour we wanted to do something different.  As we are all missing our usual trips to London and visiting our favourite museums, exhibitions etc., what better than a tour around a part of our capital that is worthy of a visit, often  overlooked but easily accessed.  Many of us travel to London by train, arrive in Euston station, jump in a taxi, rush to our chosen destination and then back home. Maybe we have an hour or so to wait before that return journey. The area around Euston is full of fascinating places in which to while away a little time, so we are going on a taster tour.

Bloomsbury is special because of its intellectual connections: it is a vibrant historic district made most famous by a group of turn-of-the-century writers that included Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster (the "Bloomsbury Set"), economist John Maynard Keynes and the artist Roger Fry.

Numerous Blue Plaques mark the beautiful Georgian houses where writers such as Virginia Woolf lived, and calm garden squares give today’s academics the tranquillity to focus their minds on their latest discoveries or ideas.  Bloomsbury is home to many prestigious medical institutions, such as the Wellcome Trust, London’s oldest university, University College London, The British Museum, The British Library, many small museums such as the Foundling Museum and numerous historic homes, parks and buildings. The first part of our tour visits many of the places that are within walking distance of Euston station.

After a suitable coffee break we set off for our final destination, the British Museum, to examine an eclectic collection of some of the most interesting but least well known treasures of world civilisations.

We will be escorted throughout the tour by Annamaria Dall' Anese, a blue badge guide of London who specialises in Bloomsbury and its attractions. 

To book your place on this Armchair Tour, please complete & submit the Google Form, which members will find in the emailed version of this newsletter. Once the form is submitted you will receive email confirmation of your booking request.  Payment must be sent within 7 days to secure your place.

Membership Secretary

Lucy Weldon expressed, before this year's AGM, her wish to stand down as Membership Secretary, having served for four years.  However, due to the unexpected arrival of the pandemic, Lucy very kindly agreed to continue to see us through the renewals for the 2020/2021 season, until we could organise a handover of the system.  Lucy's hard work on the membership, assisted by Anthony, and her attendance at the Committee meetings is greatly appreciated by everyone.  It is a testament to Lucy's commitment that she continued with this role at what has been an exceptionally busy time for her.  The changeover will not be happening immediately. Jill Newsham has offered to take over this role, so her name is under that position on your new cards and the handover will be in place before the end of the season.  Lucy has also offered to help on the booking-in desk when we are able to meet in person. 

Report on our Special Event with Paul Kenny  (Siobhan Nelson)

A rather small group of members attended the online event that we were able to put on in collaboration with the Atkinson.  The artist and photographer Paul Kenny talked about his approach to his work, and then he showed us his 15 minute film project Bun Na Speire; this was the north-west premiere of the film.  Paul has been developing his work into moving images, which he describes as "slowly evolving versions of my still work". I did not really know what to expect, but I found his work extremely thought-provoking, and the film had a meditative quality, which I found quite mesmerising.  The film was followed by a lively discussion, and Paul seemed very interested in our thoughts on different ways the film could be used, as well as in a gallery context.  You can find out more about Paul and his work at https://paul-kenny.co.uk.  Hopefully more members will sign up for other events we are able to arrange during the current situation.

November 2020 Lecture Review  (Paula Haes)

Ocean Liners: An Extraordinary Story of Design Through Art  

I had always thought that Ocean Liners were an isolated form of transport, cut off from developments on land.  How wrong I was!  In a fascinating lecture in November it was James Taylor, curator at the National Maritime Museum, who showed the links between the large cruise ships of the 20th century and the history, not only of naval engineering but also art, design, international communications and conflict.

Cruising, according to James, was invented by Germany in 1900 and the rivalry between the Germans and the UK cruise lines continued over many decades, with these nations, joined later by France and the USA, competing for the prized Blue Riband (for the fastest North Atlantic crossing).  Sadly many of these liners were later converted for war purposes and ultimately destroyed in hostilities at sea.

Especially in the 1930s, the heyday of cruising, nations competed also in the interior design of their ships: the smoking rooms, veranda cafes, dining rooms, swimming pools, squash courts and so on.  They chose the most talented designers who had shown excellence in fitting out buildings on land, especially hotels, including the Ritz.  With no expense spared, they installed wonderful oak panelling, wrought iron work, chandeliers, even pillars of Lalique glass.  The interiors reflected the artistic movements of the time: Arts and Crafts, Art Deco.  Artists lined up to produce paintings to hang on the walls - Turner and Picasso among them.

Often liners, especially the French ones, were so sumptuous they could not sail at a profit but were viewed as "floating, promotional platforms", only then to be torpedoed to the bottom of the ocean together with their artistic treasures.  Other artists produced iconic posters advertising the cruise lines and their ships, with memorable images and unique typefaces.  The most prominent poster artists were Cassandre and Dame Laura Knight whose posters are worth a fortune today.  Look to see if you have one in your attic, as many rich people retired to Southport to benefit from access to these cruises.

What filled me with particular pride was the role played by Liverpool in this glorious history, housing the headquarters of such famous lines as Cunard, White Star and Blue Funnel.  I was encouraged to visit our own Maritime Museum.  In short, this was an inspiring lecture crammed with information and beautiful images.

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL 'ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED' LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

Number 5

(Issue date 16 November 2020)

Dear members

What a difference a month makes.  As the last newsletter was dispatched we were looking forward to learning about potters, enjoying our first Armchair Travel experience and hoping you would join in our first Virtual Coffee Morning.  I enjoyed them all but was puzzled by the lack of questions, so please do not forget to check out the chat button (bottom centre on a PC/laptop, top right on a tablet/iPad). When you click on this, my name as co-host Beatrice will be near the top.  Type a question in the space below my name and press enter the question will appear for me to ask.  If you have a tablet, as you click on the chat button a key pad will be displayed for typing the question.  Would you believe an informal training session took place at the first Virtual Coffee Morning, with two tablet/iPad users helping each other.

For the member who asked the question re Women potters this is Julian Richard's response: “In answer to your question there were important women potters, or more correctly decorators in the 19th century, many employed by ‘Art’ potteries like Doulton or Dell Robbia.  Perhaps the best known of them is Hannah Barlow at Doulton who used lots of animals, donkeys, horses etc on the pots she decorated. In the 20th century one of Bernard Leach’s first pupils was Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie who became very celebrated for her use of wood-ash glazes, with which she experimented all her long life.  And of course, Viennese born Dame Lucie Rie who died in 1995 is probably the most famous woman potter of the 20th century.  She produced brightly coloured, delicate (fragile!) and very modern looking pottery which, I have to confess, I have never had any desire to own. Not that I could afford her pots anyway!”

We were hoping to start the Exhibition on Screen films again at The Atkinson in early December, with a socially-distanced film showing of Raphael Revealed; however, the escalating situation leading to the closure of arts venues means the event is being moved to January 2021.  Details will be announced when they are finalised, and those who booked tickets for the cancelled Easter film will be contacted individually.

I am pleased that we now have a programme that can be delivered by Zoom if necessary for the rest of the season.  (You will find an updated list of lectures below.)  To that end you will finally be receiving your programme card, your 2021 Arts Society Card and, if you are a new member, your Arts Society Southport barcode card.  You will all need your Arts Society Southport barcode card, when we meet in person, for access to the meeting.

Please keep up to date by checking the website, www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk, if you are able to, as this will give additional information on events/lectures.

In this issue of the newsletter, you will find information about some upcoming events, including an online talk by artist/photographer Paul Kenny (some of you may remember the Sea and Shore exhibition that Paul was involved in), future Virtual Coffee Mornings, and a date for our next Armchair Travel journey.  

You will now have received your invitation to our monthly lecture via Mailchimp.  Please do not forget to fill in the survey, as this is our register of attendance in these electronic times.  I do hope as many of you as possible will join the lecture.  This week there was a fascinating programme on BBC Four about the Queen Mary I can't wait to learn more and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

I hope you are all bearing up under this ever-changing situation and that the Arts Society continues to provide stimulation and interest.  I think flexibility is essential with the current situation, and we are using the technology available to do all we can to provide a varied programme, while working towards restoring meetings when it is safe to do so. 

Beatrice McIntosh (Chair)

A Note About the Newsletter  

When you receive your Newsletter by email, you will no doubt have noticed that the appearance of the text varies, and the format is erratic!  Unfortunately, the latest version of Mailchimp automatically reformats in mysterious ways.  To access the Newsletter in its original format, follow the link in the email, which will take you to a pdf version.  This consists of 2 or more A4 sized pages, so it is much more suitable for printing (if, like me, you prefer to read things on paper).  We include the basic text of the within the email for those who have problems accessing pdfs, or who just want to view it on their phone.  

Siobhan Nelson (Newsletter Editor)

Online Special Event  

We are very excited to be able to offer a Special Event online, in conjunction with The Atkinson, on Wednesday 2 December at 10.30 a.m.  We will have an opportunity to enjoy a live talk from the international artist/photographer Paul Kenny about his work and how it has evolved.  There will be a chance to ask questions, and then we will have a 15 minute showing of his latest project  Bun Na Speire  which links moving images to a commissioned score by Richard J. Birkin.  This work was a semi-finalist in the Film Art Festival, Berlin, 2020, and was described by the Curator of the V&A as ‘moving stills’.  This will be the first showing in the North West, so after a stimulating talk sit back, relax and enjoy - all in the comfort of your home.  The cost of this event is £7.00 ... [booking information has been sent to members]

Virtual Coffee Mornings

We are continuing our Virtual Coffee Mornings the week following the lecture: an opportunity to meet other members in small groups.  The next date is Tuesday 24 November at 11 a.m., and we would love to use this slot to ask for your feedback on what we are offering or what you would be interested in, as well as just chatting about whatever takes our fancy.  In December we will hold a Virtual Afternoon Tea instead; this will take place on Tuesday 15 December at 3 p.m. and will have a Christmas flavour; you are invited to bring a favourite card, bauble, short poem or any other item, to share with other members - though this is not compulsory!  Invitations for both these events will be sent via email, nearer the time.

A Report on Our First Virtual Coffee Morning

The coffee wasn’t so special - but the company was great!  To those of you who weren’t able to attend the Southport Arts Society’s Zoom coffee morning on 28 April - you missed a treat.

We met up as a group of about 20 people for a brief introduction by Beatrice and then split randomly into small groups to chat.  It was a good opportunity to speak with people we hadn’t met before and to share our interest in the Arts.  We used individual pieces of pottery as an initial stimulus, with some intriguing contrasts between fine porcelain, self-crafted (and very good) pots and Islamic-inspired tiles.

As we moved on to meet in different groups (‘breakout rooms’), the talk widened to sharing backgrounds and interests, solving technical issues with Zoom and suggestions for future topics.

On a wet, Covid-limited Wednesday morning, our spirits were lifted and new friends were made.  Do come along next time - you’ll get a warm welcome, even if you have to make your own coffee!

Chris Tyler

National Arts Society Video Lectures on YouTube  

Please note that the following lectures are not organised by the Arts Society Southport, and they are broadcast live at 1 p.m. on https://www.youtube.com/c/theartssociety.  These are broadcast live, so they can only be accessed at that time.

27 November 2020  The Story of Indian Modern Art (Georgina Bexon)

18 December 2020  Exhibition History: The History of Great Exhibitions, Expos and World’s Fairs, 1851 to Present, the British Contribution (Matthew Denney)

Updated Lecture Programme for 2020/2021  

Lectures will continue to be held ‘live’ on Zoom until further notice.  We look forward to the time when we are able to resume our monthly meetings.  Fuller information about each lecture and lecturer can be found on our website: www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

17 November 2020  Ocean Liners 1800-1950: Ships that Shaped Our Lives (James Taylor)

8 December 2020    Grandfather Frost and OLD New Year (Rosamund Bartlett)

19 January 2021      The Punch and Judy Show: a Subversive Symbol from the Commedia Dell-arte to the Present Day (Bertie Pearce)

16 February 2021    The Very Model of an English Entertainment (Roger Askew)

16 March 2021         The Hidden World of Canal Architecture (Roger Butler)

20 April 2021            The Guggenheims: a Dynasty of Art Collectors (Andrew Hopkins)

11 May 2021            Elizabethan Stitches: Overturning Our Understanding (Jacqui Carey)

15 June 2021           From the East Indies to Indonesia: Legacies of Colonialism and Fine Art in Indonesia, 1830 to the Present Day (Viv Lawes)

Armchair Travel  

Our next virtual trip will take place via Zoom on the morning of 27 January 2020.  Details to follow soon.

Here is some of the feedback from our first virtual trip, A Journey from Constantinople to Istanbul:

• “...it was Superb!  Jane [Angelini] was really on top of the subject bringing it to life with her superb story telling skills and intense knowledge. She  brought back so many memories of our fascinating journeys around Anotolia.  I have to say it took me a little time to navigate Zoom as I have resisted it until today it really was a matter of you can't beat it, so join in. So glad I did.”  (Mary Roberts)
• “What a fabulous way to spend a dreary Wednesday morning.”  (Angela Proctor)

A Pantheon Of Passionate Potters  

Our monthly October lecture was given by Julian Richards, professional archaeologist, expert on Stonehenge and self-confessed “potaholic”.

He selected examples of “passionate potters” who, in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement, replaced the soulless industrial manufacture of the 19th Century with individual, handcrafted objects, embodying the “soul” of the maker.

The potters he chose were highly gifted and eccentric.  First William de Morgan, who concentrated for most of his manufacturing life on designing tiles, pouring his imagination into an array of beasts and dragons (my favourite was the “frankly bored leopard”).  De Morgan’s wide-ranging knowledge of Islamic art: the colours blue and green, the mathematical symmetry and so on was incorporated into his tiles, used lovingly not only in homes but also on the ocean liners of the time.

The eccentric and quarrelsome quartet of the Martin Brothers set up a pottery in 1870, producing a wide variety of objects largely designed by Wallace Martin, a gifted sculptor: face jugs, grotesque figures, chess sets and so on, all cleverly marketed by brother Charles. My favourite, and the most valuable, objects were the eponymous “Wally Birds”, grotesque pots with rotating heads and an obscure function (tobacco jar perhaps?)

Sir Edmund Elton, a minor aristocrat, set up a pottery in the 1880s and together with his servant (they were known as “the Baronet and the Bootboy”) specialised in mosaics created with different coloured clays. He moved onto pots with lustre glazes and discovered several beautiful effects by accident.  Accidents often determined the success of these potters: fiercely independent, initially inexperienced in the processes of manufacture, they insisted on building their own kilns, often with disastrous results, such as burning down their potteries. They ended up penniless but pursued their work for its own sake, following their passion. What a contrast with the value of their artefacts today!

An excellent lecturer who wore his knowledge lightly and knew how to entertain and delight his audience. I hope those of you who viewed the lecture (once again well over a hundred members) will make your views known on the website.

Paula Haes

Arts Society – Become an Instant Expert on …

As members of the Society, you will all have received an email from The Arts Society Connected telling you how to become an instant expert on a certain topic and if, like me, you have not really had time to look at these during a busy autumn, can I now encourage you to do so.  They are, as I discovered this week during a particularly wet and miserable afternoon, really interesting and absorbing.  The latest one is very topical – all about witchcraft.  There is just enough information in the main part of the email to help you to impress your nearest and dearest with your knowledge of 14th century witchcraft (in a good way of course) but there are also links provided if you want to know more.  Previous Instant Expert topics, which are still available on the website, have included Andy Warhol, 20th century Glass and Thomas Lawrence. https://www.connected.theartssociety.org/

Jill Newsham

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL ‘ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED’ LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

 Number 4

(Issue date 30 September 2020)

Dear members

Our season has started and I do hope you enjoyed our first live Zoom lecture.  Thank you to all who watched, commented and gave feedback either via the website or by emailing the committee.  Your comments were very helpful.  For those unable to attend, there is a personal review of the lecture later in the newsletter.  Please note that we are unable to record the lectures due to copyright.

Two weeks ago, we were unaware of the impending escalation of the current pandemic or, more importantly, the added restrictions.  The Arts Society nationally is providing additional monthly LIVE Lectures At Home: full details of these, and our own forthcoming lectures, can be found on our website www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk - they are all under the ‘Lectures’ tab.  Please also register with the Arts Society Connected for additional short talks by leading experts.  All this is part of your membership - a great resource to stimulate and educate and widen our horizons, plus there is your national magazine.

In our Southport Society we are adding to our regular programme of monthly lectures.  Our first VIRTUAL COFFEE MORNING takes place on Wednesday 28 October at 10.30 a.m.  Following our lecture on ‘Passionate Potters’, we will start with a ‘Show and Tell’.  Do you have a favourite piece of pottery, perhaps a story you would like to share with a small group of other members in a Random Room (a Zoom term)?  No group will be larger than 6.  An item is not essential - think about which potter you most admired.  Let the conversations begin!  I wonder should I show my Slab Mug, carefully crafted in my pottery sessions as an Occupational Therapy Student!  If you would like to take part in the Virtual Coffee Morning, please email us at theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com.  We also have our first ARMCHAIR TRAVEL event, details of which can be found below. 

If you are still worried about trying Zoom we are running a further ZoomAlong session on Wednesday 7 October at 11 a.m.  We will help overcome, in a friendly small group, any worries that you may have about using Zoom.  Book in by email to info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

If we have not received your renewal, this will be the last newsletter you receive.  I hope you will decide to continue as a part of this thriving Society.  Our aim is to increase our understanding and enjoyment of the arts in its broadest sense, to foster friendships and support arts education and conservation in the Community.  The season has started in a way that none of us envisaged, but with technology we are able to continue with our stimulating lectures and events and hope to meet when we are safely able to.  Please email theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com if you wish to renew your membership.

Beatrice (Chair)

Armchair Travel   (Doreen Roberts)

Join us in our first tour by Zoom: A Journey from Constantinople to Istanbul on Wednesday 21 October at 10 a.m.  The tour will take place in two parts with a break of 20 minutes for refreshments (Turkish coffee if you like).  Our travel guide will be Jane Angelini, an experienced tour leader with St James’ Travel.  The cost of attending this event is £7.00.

Istanbul is an exotic and mesmerising mix of East and West.  Situated on the shores of the Bosphorus, it straddles two continents and was the capital city of two great empires: Byzantine and Ottoman. Both periods have left a rich tapestry of monuments and art works.  We will begin our tour by looking at the development of the city; the famous Theodosian walls, the water cisterns, the hippodrome as well as the Great Palace of the Emperors.  We will look at several churches surviving from the Byzantine period including Haghia Sophia, regarded as an architectural wonder of the world. In the second half we will move on to the Byzantine period again concentrating on the development of the city as a whole whilst concentrating on the greatest of the Ottoman Mosques. 

Limited numbers so first come, first served.  

To secure your place, email: theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com

Membership Secretary

Lucy would like to hand over the reins of this vital and interesting role after 3 years.  If you have computer skills and would be interested in finding out about this role please email us at info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

The First Lecture of the Season     (Paula Haes)

Royal patronage and priceless artefacts; Holbein paintings and silver loving cups; richly embroidered robes and brilliantly coloured banners. What a fitting opening to our new season and the premiere of our remote Zoom lectures!

For this was “Treasures of the Livery Company Halls” delivered by Paul Jagger, Court Assistant of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. Thanks to his role and his particular expertise in computers, Paul was able to take us on a virtual tour of several of the one hundred and ten Livery Companies located in the City of London. We explored their many treasures: paintings, gold and silver ware, fascinating artefacts and the history connected with them, going back at least to Tudor times. He initiated us into several of the traditional secret ceremonies held in these sumptuous halls, often at the moment of the transfer of power from one “Master” to another. Power these companies certainly had, and still have to an extent; in regulating their particular sphere of activity, be they the Barber Surgeons, the Queen's Bargemasters or, in more modern times, the Company of Nurses and of Information Technologists. We even learnt a little about the Livery Company, Merchant Taylors, which founded the local schools (now 400 years old). For each company must carry out significant charitable works to be admitted to the circle.

I certainly knew very little about these Companies; their strong connections with royalty even to this day; the ancient beauty of their buildings; the wealth of their assets; above all (for my taste!) the rich banquets held on ceremonial occasions.

I want to know more. Most of the company halls are inaccessible to non-members except during the “Open House” London Weekend once a year (not in 2020!) when long queues of interested visitors snake round the buildings. But more information can be had on-line, and virtual tours can be enjoyed:

https://cityandlivery.blogspot.com/2020/07/exploring-citys-livery-halls-in-lockdown.html

A grand opening to our season despite all the obstacles we face and there is so much more to come!

Write a Review

Would you like to write a review of our monthly lectures? After all, writing is one of the "Arts".  We would select the most entertaining one and publish it in the next edition of the Newsletter, subject to space.  (This would expand on the brief survey of our members' opinions which is now possible after each lecture on the website.)  Just email your contribution (around 300 words) within a week of the lecture to: info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk, with the subject heading ‘review’.  You may be launching a glittering literary career!

Good luck,

Paula

Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas

.

OUR LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS & INFORMATION

info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

NATIONAL ‘ARTS SOCIETY CONNECTED’ LINK:

www.connected.theartssociety.org

Are you missing our day trips and tours?  The Arts Society Southport is embarking on Armchair Travel: journeys without the early morning starts and arduous transport. 

Details can be found on 'Visits' page of the website.

The minutes of the Arts Society Southport's 2020 AGM are now available on the website.  They can be found under 'Our Society', 'Documents'.

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

Number 3

(Issue date 24 August 2020)

Dear members

I hope you are all keeping well.  Thank you to all who have renewed their membership.  I appreciate that there have been some hiccups as we have offered different ways of renewing, including post.  We have also offered BACS payment for the first time as an alternative payment method.

I promised to report on the whole survey this month.  However, only a handful of members receiving the survey by post have returned them.  Please feel free to comment...  We will continue to contact members not on email regularly with a newsletter and additional arts information that should interest you.

Thank you all for your patience, support and confidence in the Southport society.  I am sure you would wish to thank your Committee for all their hard work during the last season, and which has continued through the Summer.  I look forward to welcoming the new members that are joining us. 

Beatrice (Chair)

AGM report

Our Society Virtual AGM took place on Tuesday 18 August 2020 at 11 a.m.  Thank you to all who voted by proxy.  It was attended by the full Committee apart from Lucy Weldon, Membership Secretary, who sent her apologies due to work commitments.  There were no objections or questions.  The Annual Report, and the Accounts until March 2020, were accepted.  Your Committee was agreed en bloc.  Two new members were voted in: Sue Dexter as Young Arts Rep (formerly co-opted) and Chris Tyler as Programme Secretary.  Rita Darwin is stepping down after three years but will work along with Chris for a short overlap period.  Thank you for your hard work, Rita.  I look forward to working with the Committee as we steer through the current situation, provide you with a stimulating and exciting programme and work towards meeting again as soon as safely possible. 

ZoomAlong opportunities

If you would like to join us for a short session on Zoom, where you can meet other members, hear a short talk, and try things out before the September Zoom lecture, please let us know by email, info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk, which of the following dates you would prefer:

     Thursday 27 August at 3 p.m.

     Tuesday 1 September at 11 a.m.

     Monday 7 September at 11 a.m.

Here is some of the feedback we received after the first three ZoomAlong sessions we held, where members joined in from their iPads, tablets, PCs and laptops:

·      “DON’T PANIC!  These would be my first words of advice to any technophobe like me who is about to embark on their first Zoom session... Don’t think you won’t be able to manage the technology: if I can, you can.  It's easier than you think, and help is always at hand.”

·      “I now feel much more confident about accessing the meetings.”

·      “I found it very helpful, even though I had joined a Zoom meeting before.  An added bonus was being able to see and chat to other Society members after such a long time.”

·      “Everyone was so friendly and helpful that I wasn’t afraid to risk making a fool of myself by asking very basic questions!  Having decided that I would just have to miss the Zoom lectures I now look forward to enjoying them.” 

Access to the September lecture will be via an invitation.  For security reasons, you will be sent a short Google Forms survey to answer - please submit this to receive your Zoom invite.  If any members are willing to host a member without access, please contact us via email.

We are also hoping to run some small coffee morning Zoom sessions, when you will be able to chat to other members on a topic (exhibition or painting) to be announced.

Armchair travel     (Doreen Roberts)

We may not be able to travel far, or indeed anywhere by coach, but why let that stop our quest for exploring and learning?  Join us for some armchair travel.  Our first expedition will be to one of the world’s most stunning architecturally and historically interesting religious buildings.  We are hoping to leave these shores, virtually, in October and whisk you away on a trip to sunny Turkey.  Enough clues - I am sure you have guessed where we will be going.  Of course it is a tour of Hagia Sophia, which has recently been reclaimed as a Mosque.  Watch this space as we are finalising details.

Live lunchtime lectures

From September to December the Arts Society will be holding live monthly online hour-long lectures, exclusively for Members.  These will take place on Friday lunchtimes, as follows:

     Friday 18 September 2020 at 1 p.m.

     Friday 23 October 2020 at 1 p.m.

     Friday 27 November 2020 at 1 p.m.

     Friday 18 December 2020 at 1 p.m.

The lectures will be broadcast via YouTube, and the link will be shared with Members via email in early September.  The events will be live and only available to watch at that time.  Please note that these lectures are not being run by Arts Society Southport.

Online lecture review    (Paula Haes)

Happily, Beatrice passed on the tip that one outstanding lecture in the YouTube videos on the Arts Society Connected website was “Rescuing unwanted diaries! A lecture by Irving Finkel”, and it did not disappoint!  Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum with extensive knowledge of ancient artefacts and hieroglyphics, began collecting diaries from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries about twenty years ago.  What started as a personal interest has now found a home in the Bishopsgate Institute with its own curator and an online catalogue of diary entries.

Some diaries are handed over by the families of deceased diarists and nowadays Mr Finkel contacts house clearance firms, requesting suitable items for the collection.  For these are not the diaries published by ex-politicians or celebrities, varnished and embellished, according to Mr Finkel, for commercial gain but diaries kept privately by ordinary people: “Anybody’s diary”.  As such, these contain “real life”, a genuine record of human nature, and remarkable insights into normal people’s emotions and activities: “a distillation of truth”.

This lecture is highly amusing and entertaining.  The lecturer himself would probably revel in the description “eccentric”, both in appearance and attitude.  You won’t fall asleep!  However, he does predict that these diaries will outlast technology, which is “doomed” (along with several other aspects of modern life!).  So make haste to watch the lecture online soon, before the internet crashes!  Don’t forget that, from September, only members can access these treats from Arts Society Central.  So watch them and our own new monthly online lectures.

 Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas.

email: info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

www.connected.theartssociety.org

Our lecture programme for the 2020/2021 season has now been uploaded to the website.  Until we are able to hold our usual monthly meetings again, lectures will be held via Zoom.  Members will be given information on how to access the lectures.

The Arts Society Southport

Newsletter

Number 2

(Issue date 28 July 2020)

Dear members

As promised, here is a review of the Survey.  Thank you first to Mike Newsham, our technical expert, who sorted it and sent it out.  Secondly thank you to all members who answered.  The responses reflect the online receipts only.  Members will have received a questionnaire by post if they are not online.  We will add this information in time for the next newsletter.

• 85% & 88% respectively thought we offered a good variety of lectures and that speakers were of a high standard.
• 82% would like to have online lectures until we can meet safely for live lectures.
• There were encouraging numbers of members taking part in our additional events: Exhibitions talks , Artist films, day trips and holidays.  Also your interest in Heritage Volunteering and Children’s Trails was heartening.  We shall continue to tell you about opportunities to volunteer and our grant activities.
• 96% valued the social aspects of meetings.  Lecturers always comment on how lively it feels.
• 77% wanted to receive a regular newsletter.  This will be our main means of regular updates and letting you get to know the Society.
• Travel to lectures was an important question, as it may be a barrier to attending.  46% came by their own transport and 41% by public transport.
• 99% of Members enjoyed the Magazine; fewer members had been on Connected or listened to the Lectures at Home.  Perhaps Paula’s article will entice you to try them.

Your comments and ideas have been much appreciated.  Several members said that we can appear unfriendly.  We are a very large society with many groups of friends.  We will work hard to make it more welcoming, especially for members coming alone. The new members’ coffee morning was a first step.

Thank you for your programme suggestions, and for sharing your concerns with us about meeting again for live lectures.  Let me assure you that your safety will be our upmost concern when we start exploring options for moving back to live lectures.  All proposals will be detailed and sent out to you in advance, and we will be in touch to gauge attendance numbers as that will also have a bearing on meetings.  Programme content, as you will see from the Programme Secretary’s article, is booked well in advance.  We welcome suggestions, and for the coming season we will be enabling members to comment on the lectures via our website.

Our Golden event, scheduled for Wednesday 14 October at Aintree, has now been moved to Wednesday 13 October 2021.  We will then be able to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the starting of this Society - something to look forward to.  Details of the day to follow.

Please don't forget to vote in the AGM by proxy, at theartssocietysouthport@outlook.com, and renew your membership by 18 August.

Keep safe and well, and hopefully the weather will settle down.

Beatrice (Chair)

ZoomAlong sessions

Members are invited to join us in a short session on Zoom, where you can meet other members, hear a short talk, and try things out before we have our first  Zoom lecture in September.  Please let us know by email, info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk, which of the following 3 dates you would prefer:

Tuesday 4 August at 11.00  a.m.

Thursday 13 August at 7.00  p.m.

Thursday 20 August at 3.00  p.m.

My first online lecture

I am a convert!  Having been extraordinarily snooty about online lectures I have now actually watched one: “An Artist of Note: Turner and the new £20” delivered by Nicola Morby in the “Lectures at Home” series on Arts Society Connected. 

This lecture is fascinating, exploring the design of the new £20 polymer banknote and its links with the first British artist ever to appear on a banknote: J.M.W. Turner.  The design, by the first ever woman designer of a banknote, exploits a wealth of knowledge about Turner’s work, his theory of art, his personal circumstances and wider social history.  The lecturer displays a sensitive and thoughtful approach, delivered in a clear style and easy to listen to.

Sitting in front of my television (YouTube can be watched on some TV screens) with my morning coffee and a very small amount of chocolate (!), I was transported away from the boring (and these days frightening) real world, just as I am at our live lectures: thirty minutes respite from grinding reality.  I will never look at a £20 note in the same way again!

I can’t wait to watch another virtual lecture.  They are posted every month by the central Arts Society – three more are free to view at the moment – but from September only available to members.  So don’t forget to renew your membership for 2020/2021 to continue watching this enrichment to our own Society’s programme.

Paula Haes

From the Programme Secretary

I am looking forward to our lectures starting up again, initially via your computer, smartphone or iPad, and later when we are able to meet up again in person.  While we try to make it look easy, a lot of organisation goes into our activities, and what follows is my role in all that happens behind the scenes.

We plan our programme a long way ahead, currently I am preparing for 2022.  Once a year the Chairman and I attend the Arts Society’s Programme Day in London.  It is interesting, stimulating and occasionally chaotic.  Over  a hundred lecturers give short presentations about their subjects.  When I get home, with scribbled notes, scraps of memory, and some recommendations from colleagues, I put forward a proposed year’s programme of lectures to the committee.  I try to provide a balance of different aspects of the arts, and the more and less serious.  If possible I include lectures that are relevant to planned major exhibitions or events.  Once the programme is agreed I send contracts out to the lecturers.  I am well aware they are paid out of your subscriptions so I need to get all the details right.

Once the programme is finalised, each month there are the routine matters of ensuring lecturers arrive, are met at the station if necessary, have somewhere to stay, and get to the Little Theatre on time (Northern Rail has caused some close shaves).  Some surprises; last September’s lecturer, Sarah Deere-Jones needed a full-size harp transferring into the Little Theatre and on and off the stage.  That was entertaining!  Other members of the committee obviously help as needed, we work as a team…

I am always keen to know what members thought of each lecture, your comments are welcome as I provide feedback about the lecture afterwards to the Arts Society.

I plan to stand down, having enjoyed doing the job for three years.  If you are interested in the role, email us at info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk, or use the contact form on the website.

Rita Darwin

 Please let us have your feedback on the newsletter, and send us any contributions or ideas: short pieces, which can include pictures, that will interest other members.

email: info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

www.connected.theartssociety.org

​The Arts Society Southport

 Newsletter

Number 1

 (Issue date 22 June 2020)

Dear members

Since we last met, we have all had to learn to structure our lives in a completely different way, often without direct access to friends and family.  A challenge indeed.

Welcome to the first of The Arts Society Southport’s regular newsletters.  We have missed seeing you at monthly lectures and hope that, via the newsletter, we can keep you informed and in touch with our proposals and initiatives before we can safely meet again.  We hope this will also become an active way of members sharing experiences and the wealth of talent within our membership.  If you are not online we will continue to send the newsletter by post.  As we adapt to the “new normal”, please be assured that we are working hard to keep a vibrant and strong Arts Society connected and fulfilling all its aims.

 ·      We will be rescheduling our AGM (with reduced annual report) to an online format - details to follow.

·      We will be offering an online lecture to members as a way of seeing and hearing an expert speaker.

·      We will be offering renewal at a reduced rate - details to follow - and an ability to pay online for members who wish to.

·      We have our 2020/2021 programme in place.

Staying in contact

The Committee has been working hard checking and updating our database, so that we can stay in touch with you online until we are able to meet again face to face.  If you have had a call from one the Committee members to check your details, thank you for your help and, going forward, if any of your details change please let us know as soon as possible.  For those of you who are not connected online we will find a way to keep you up to speed with what is happening.

New Facebook page

A Facebook page has now been created, to supplement the website.  We will be using this to post general links and information that may be of immediate interest during these strange times.  You do not need to be signed up to Facebook to view it; however, you may get a prompt to sign in.  If this happens, click on the words 'not now' at the bottom of the prompt box.  Unfortunately, we are unable to stop this happening.  You can find and ‘like’ the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport 

Young Arts

The Young Arts section of the Arts Society of Southport were delighted with the response to the Sefton Young Artist of the Year competition which is digitally displayed on the Atkinson’s website. The competition was organised by Jemma Tynan, Exhibitions and Learning Officer at the Atkinson, and the prizes were sponsored by The Arts Society Southport.  Because of the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, the entries have been entered, displayed and judged digitally.  Over 120 entries were received, displaying a wealth of talent and originality across all age groups and using a variety of mediums.

It was both heartwarming and a privilege to share in the judging of this event.  As a Society this kind of involvement in the artistic lives of young people is an essential investment in our local community.  I urge you to visit the Atkinson website and scroll through the entries. It will give you a lift in these difficult times.

Sue Dexter (Young Arts Rep [co-opted])

A fresh way of welcoming new members

At the start of the 2019-2020 season, Beatrice McIntosh, our Chairman, suggested we have a fresh way of welcoming new members.  Just before the season opened, a coffee morning was held in the lovely bar of the Atkinson Art Gallery.  The Committee introduced themselves and their various functions to the new members and we all then sat down to have a chat over the excellent coffee and cake (always delicious and gluten-free!).  Already new members were getting to know us and each other, exchanging life stories and interests; one new member was glad to meet another: her former schoolteacher!

In the new season before each lecture new members gathered again at special tables.  They continued their chats, asked questions and caught up on any announcements or leaflets they might have missed.  The conviviality continued before and after our many events: films, trips out, workshops and so on.  Those of you who have made numerous friends in the Arts Society over the last decades know how important that friendship is.  We hope to have found a pleasant and effective way of welcoming new members and laying the ground for their friendships.

Paula Haes (New Members)

Heritage Volunteers at the Atkinson

In September 2019 a group six of volunteers from the Arts Society were trained by a conservator from Lancashire County Council in the practical assessment, care and cleaning of taxidermy.

In January of this year a small team of volunteers began work assisting the Atkinson with the care and maintenance of the Pennington and Echalaz collections of taxidermy.  This includes some of the pieces which came from the Botanic Gardens Museum when it closed, and which the Atkinson now curates. Things were going well, and the team was moving on to some of the more complex pieces when we, unfortunately, went into lockdown.  Once we are able to gain access to the collection again, and it is safe to do, so there will be further opportunities for additional volunteers to receive training and join the team.

Jill Newsham (Heritage Volunteers)

The Arts Society (We pay an Affiliation Fee for each member - currently £13.80 - to this body)

The National body have been working very hard on support and guidance.  They produce the Arts Society magazine, which is due out shortly.  Do try The Arts Society Connected for Lectures at Home, a series of short films by accredited lecturers: www.connected.theartssociety.org  You are able to receive regular e-newsletters by signing up to www.theartssociety.org/join-our-mailing-list

Your comments and contributions

We would really like you to give feedback on the newsletter and send us any contributions or ideas: short pieces, which can include pictures, that will interest other members.  You can contact us by email via info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk (please put ‘Newsletter’ as the subject).  If you do not have email, you can contact us in your usual way.

Although we are, sadly, not able to meet socially at the moment, it is heartening to hear that the first tentative steps are being taken to easing the current restrictions.  We will continue to work hard on your behalf.  Sending best wishes to you all.  Keep safe and well.

Beatrice and the Committee

email: info@theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.theartssocietysouthport.org.uk

www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

www.connected.theartssociety.org

We are in the process of setting up a Facebook page, to supplement the website.  If you are on Facebook, please 'like' and follow us.

You do not need to be signed up to Facebook to view it.  However, you will keep getting a prompt to sign in.  When it does this, click on the words 'not now' at the bottom of the box with the prompt in it.  Sorry that we can't stop this happening. 

Link: https://www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietySouthport

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

(25 May 2020, 9.20 a.m.)

Dear members

As lockdown continues may I on behalf of the Committee extend good wishes and hope that you are keeping safe.

We are working behind the scenes and have held our first Zoom committee meeting to discuss future options and are currently in the process of studying the copious information and guidance from Headquarters. In the coming weeks we will contacting you by e-mail, or by letter if we are unable to contact you by e-mail. We will outline alternative proposals for the Society, while we are unable to meet for our lectures and events as usual.

We are pleased to have been able to sponsor the Sefton Young Artist competition in partnership with The Atkinson, which this year has taken place online. Do visit The Atkinson website and view the competition entries to see the creativity exhibited in this years entrants. 

We hope you are all enjoying the Arts Society Connected talks and the wide online access that Galleries, Theatres, Orchestras, Ballet and Opera companies are making available online.

You may be interested in Edge Hill University's series of podcasts, under the title "The Lonely Arts Club".  These can be found at https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/ice/thelonelyartsclubinfo/

Beatrice and your Committee

Members who use Facebook may be interested in this event that we have heard about:  

There is a free screening of  'Painting The Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse', live on Facebook on Monday 27 April. Enjoy treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts landmark exhibition, including masterpieces from Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sargent, and Matisse. The film's Executive Producer will also be live online throughout the film to answer your questions.

“A ravishing joy from start to finish.” The Guardian

https://www.facebook.com/exhibitiononscreen/posts/1586729018159909

Stay connected to the Arts Society when isolating...

The Arts Society Connected

The Arts Society has launched Connected:

"A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WHO LOVE THE ARTS

... to enrich lives through the arts: even if we cannot leave our homes. During the the current situation many people will feel isolated and lonely. On this site we want to connect people through a shared love for the arts.  

a new community website. You can join various forums and chat to members from other Societies, read blogs and, and watch a series of Lectures At Home - talks by Arts Society accredited lecturers."

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

(9 April 2020, 6 p.m.)

Dear members

We wish you all well during these difficult times.  

We have cancelled the lectures up to and including our AGM in June. The AGM has been postponed until we know definitely that we will be able to meet. To this end we will not be sending out the Annual Report and renewal letters until we have a definite forward date for the AGM. 

We do have our full programme booked from September 2020-June 2021; details of this will available once we are sure that we will be able to meet in September.  In the meantime, check the News Page to see how we can keep ourselves informed and interested whilst we are staying at home. 

Beatrice and your Committee

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

(16 March 2020, 6.15 p.m.)

Please note that the meeting on Tuesday 17 March has now been cancelled. 

STATEMENT RE CORONAVIRUS

Dear Members,

As the Government has announced additional steps to delay the spread of Coronavirus, it has become clear that further measures will be taken in a phased approach to protect the vulnerable and elderly. 

Please rest assured that we are staying close to government guidance to inform our decision making and that our approach is being reviewed regularly.

We are still planning on holding our Lecture on Tuesday 17th March and welcome any members who want to attend.  UPDATE (16/3/20, 6 p.m.) - this meeting has now been cancelled.

However the government has identified the following high-risk groups:

·         Those over 70 years old

·         Those with reduced immunity

·         Those with respiratory conditions

·         Those with serious, chronic medical conditions such as

-          Heart disease

-          Diabetes

-          Lung Disease

As many of our members fall under the high-risk categories then we understand if people do not feel able to attend the Arts Society Southport events over the next few weeks.

We will be in contact directly with members with bookings for specific events/trips if we make the decision to cancel them in the future.

We would ask that if you have any of the symptoms of Covid-19 including a high temperature and/or a new continuous cough that you do not attend any Arts Society events and follow the government guidance around self-isolation.

If you are attending the lecture on Tuesday then please follow the current advice:

-    Wash your hands with soap and water often, for at least 20 seconds

-    Wash your hands when you arrive home from the lecture

-    Use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available

-    Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze, putting used tissues in the bin immediately

-    Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean

As the situation is fast changing, we will keep you all updated as and when guidance is released. As we intend to communicate via MailChimp to everyone who has an email address then please can you make sure that you let us know if you have changed this recently by e-mailing the membership secretary via lucycweldon@btinternet.com.

If you do not have an email address and you are aware that you have changed your phone number recently then please can you make sure that you let us know your new number by referring to the contact section of the website or direct to 01704 540097  N.B. leave a message if there is no reply

Beatrice McIntosh

Chair

The Arts Society Southport

We are undertaking a project to trial an evening society to complement the day society.  This would be a new society, with the aim of attracting those who would be unable to attend daytime lectures. 

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE (18/3/2020, 4 p.m.):

The Atkinson is contacting ticket holders directly re. cancellation of events.

The next two lectures planned are:

• Monday 23 March 2020: Anthony Penrose will present 'The Boy Who Bit Picasso';  CANCELLED
• Monday 8th June 2020: Lecture title and presenter to be announced. CANCELLED

These will take place in the Atkinson Studio, and tickets are available directly from the Atkinson (not through the Society).  

​Doors open & access to galleries at 6 pm. Lecture starts at 7 pm.

Tickets are £7* and are only available from The Atkinson.  

* Plus £1 per ticket if booking online or by phone

Please visit the other pages of the website for details of Lectures, Tours, Visits, Special Days and Activities of Interest during the coming months

It is regretted that Members arriving later than 10.40am for the Monthly lectures may not be admitted to the auditorium. Fire Regulations require the Society to be able to account for the number and names of those present in case of emergency. All Members have to be "logged-in". This is carried out at the sign-in desks, either by the electronic scanning of membership cards or by manual recording. Members' arrival in good time will be of benefit to everybody.