Royal British Baroque: Art and Architecture
Study Day: Thursday 23rd April, 2026
at  Martlesham Community Centre,
Old Felixstowe Road, Martlesham IP12 4PB. 
Ample parking.

Dr. Amy Lim will be exploring:                                                

• What is Baroque and how is it reflected in British art and architecture?
• Which of Britain’s best-loved country houses were created in the Baroque period?
• How did women play a role as patrons of the arts and architecture and how did they use art to carve out their position in society? 

Cost £44 including our popular buffet lunch.                                    
 
Please make payment  to secure a place, either by BACs or cheque.  Further details and accompanying forms can be forwarded to you by email or collected at the March meeting. Forms can be returned at the March meeting or by post to:
 
 

Venue: Playford Village Hall, IP6 9DU, 10.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m. £40 including buffet lunch.

The Day will consider 19th and 20th century British Empire architecture, objects and art to examine how the British viewed themselves and their subjects in the era of imperialism.  There will be a focus on the vibrant capital city of Calcutta and then a detailed look at the life and art of one of India’s cultural giants - Rabindranath Tagore.

 Dr. Stevens’ career has included teaching British Imperial history, Indian history and the Bengali language at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, lecturing at numerous Indian universities, and as a consultant on Indian affairs.
Booking forms will be available at the October lecture.
 

“World Class Art at the Tate”, the subject of our next Special Interest Day, will be presented by Ian Swankie. His previous visit to our Society, when he focused upon the work of contemporary artist Grayson Perry, was well received. We now look forward in April to Ian’s exploration of the origins of the collection at Tate Britain and his selection of highlights from 500 years of British art. He will go on to look at the architecture and collection in Tate Modern, the most visited modern art museum in the world. Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives will also feature in his lecture.

Booking forms will be available at the February, March and April meetings. Please note that a place will be secured upon receipt of the application form with payment.

Study Day Friday 29th November 

This Study Day is fully booked and is waiting list only see below

Italy and the Islamic World

Cost per person £33 ( includes buffet lunch and refreshments )

Venue Playford Village Hall, IP6 9DU

10am till 3pm

The day will explore the interaction between the rival Italian City States such as Genoa, Venice and Florence with the Ottoman Empire, in terms of status, trade and diplomacy.

What new opportunities would this provide shoppers on the Rialto in Venice seeking luxury goods imported to Italy.

What inspiration did the opportunities offer to Italian artists?

Examples in art from the Italian Renaissance period will illustrate the influence of the East and the shared appreciation of the beauty of Islamic art. Email: southeastsuffolk@theartssociety.org to join the waiting list  and request a booking form 

A Special Interest Day on Friday 19th April, from 10am to 3pm

Cost per person £32

To include buffet lunch and refreshments

VENUE PLAYFORD VILLAGE HALL IP6 9DU

Popular Culture in the form of books, magazines, films and television can be addictive, but is it art?  At this Special Interest Day Colin Shindler, who describes himself as a film historian, will invite us to reflect on our taste for nostalgia in a series of lectures entitled:-

   🎞️ Screening the Novel:  Books into Films

   🎥 Sixty Years on:  Life in Britain as Seen in British Films of the 1960’s

   📺 Coronation Street and the Emergence of the Nort

Please join us at this SID to enjoy Dr. Schindler’s instructive and amusing view of British popular culture.

Colin Shindler has been lecturing on American and British social and cultural history for over 20 years.  Faculty. He also pursued a wide-ranging career as a writer and producer in television, radio, and film, and has won a BAFTA award for his production of A Little Princess. He has written three novels, as well as numerous television scripts and radio

Taking bookings at April's lecture

For the booking form EMAIL southeastsuffolk@theartssociety.org                                                                                                                                                                                                           

FULLY BOOKED TO JOIN THE WAITING LIST EMAIL:  southeastsuffolk@theartssociety.org

COST PER PERSON £31 to include tea/coffee on arrival, buffet lunch, and refreshments.

VENUE PLAYFORD VILLAGE HALL IP6 9DU

The flower paintings of Cedric Morris (1889-1982) capturing plants around the Mediterranean, the Canaries and beyond reveal him as a consummate botanist. After a fire in 1940, Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines were forced to relocate their East Anglia School of Painting and Drawing to Benton End near Hadleigh, in Suffolk. Not just a School but a vibrant eclectic artistic hub in a setting of Morris’s horticultural genius. He lived at Benton End until his death, enjoying national stature as artist and plantsman whose legacy included over 90 new irises.

By Caroline Holmes

Has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Japan as well as for cruises crossing the Baltic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In 2017 she returned to The Arts Society in New Zealand. University of Cambridge ICE Academic Tutor and Course Director; lectures for the Royal Horticultural Society, museums and online for The Gardens Trust and organisations worldwide. Author of 12 books including Monet at Giverny, Water Lilies and Bory Latour-Marliac, the genius behind Monet’s water lilies; Impressionists in their Gardens; Follies of Europe: Architectural Extravaganzas; and in 2020 Where the wildness pleases – the English Garden celebrated. 2017 recipient of the Herb Society of America ‘Elizabeth Crisp Rea Award’. Consultant designer specialising in evoking historic, artistic and symbolic references. 

True Life ? Dutch Painting in Vermeer's Golden Age

by  Sophie Oosterwijk 

Friday 21st April 2023 10.00 am to 3pm - Cost per person £38 incl tea/coffee, buffet lunch & refreshments.

Venue Playford Village, Butts Road, Ipswich IP6 9DU (free parking in the Hall carpark)

There are a few spaces left, for booking form email : southeastsuffolk@theartssociety.org

1. Merchants, matrons & mites: family life in Dutch 17th century art.

2. Wine, women and song: Dutch genre painting by Vermeer and his contemporaries

3. Wine, sweet home: the domestic interior in Dutch 17th century paintings.

Venue Bucklesham Village Hall

 Cost £30 to include tea/coffee and buffet lunch 

Wool, cotton and silk have each played a crucial role in the fortunes of Central Asia. Wool created the clothing and housing needed by the great nomadic cultures that were to dominate Middle Asia. Silk was more valuable than gold and used as currency, creating a network of trading routes that led to the first outbreak of globalisation. Cotton was the cause of Russian and then Soviet Colonisation and continues to cause controversy today as well as human misery and environmental catastrophe The felts, carpets, embroideries, robes and veils of the Silk Road stratified wealth, displayed religious and political entrenchments and changed the fortunes of this fascinating part of the world; a meeting place between Mohammed and Marx.

Chris Aslan

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey (hence the name Aslan) and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge, and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent three years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came two years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Since then, Chris has studied and rowed at Oxford, and is now based in Cambridge and focussed on writing fiction, including Alabaster, Manacle and Mosaic, and The Broken Hexapus. He is currently working on a new book on the Silk Road that marries travel and textiles, and lectures for The Art Society. He also leads tours to Central Asia, returning whenever he can having left a large chunk of his heart out there. 

At Bucklesham Village Hall, IP10 0DR
Cost £30 to include coffee, buffet lunch and tea.

A FEW PLACES REMAIN. To book contact :

 Sally Voelcker tel 07946 085299  or e-mail sallyvoelcker@gmail.com      

On Friday 15th October 2021 in we will be in Southern Spain for the morning!

Cost £12 per household.

The morning will be divided into two zoom lectures 

10.15am to 11.15am The History and Archecture of al-Andalus

11.15am to 11.45am Coffee Break

11.45am to 12.45pm  The Material Culture of Silk Textiles and Ivory Caskets 

For the booking form please email info@tassoutheastsuffolk.org.uk

Ian Cockburn - Three lectures on :

The History and material culture of al-Andalus

Moorish Architecture: The legacy of a vanished Kingdom

Crossing Religious Bounderies : Islamic Carved Ivory Caskets

Venue Bucklesham Village Hall, IP10 0BR: free car parking in car park and on the road.

10am to 3pm (lecture starts at 10.15am )

COST:  TBC to including coffee, buffet lunch and tea

This Study Day has been rearranged to Friday 8th April 2022

3 Lectures on Dutch painting and society in Vermeer's Golden Age 

Venue Bucklesham Village Hall 

Buffet lunch included

More information to follow

Ian Cockburn - Three lectures on :

The History and material culture of al-Andalus

Moorish Architecture: The legacy of a vanished Kingdom

Crossing Religious Bounderies : Islamic Carved Ivory Caskets

Venue Bucklesham Village Hall, IP10 0BR: free car parking in car park and on the road.

10am to 3pm (lecture starts at 10.15am )

COST:  £30 including coffee, buffet lunch and tea

Study Day at Bucklesham Village Hall, 2 Levington Lane, IP10 0DR on Thursday 14th November - 10am to 3pm (Lecture starts at 10.15am)

Cost £30 including coffee, lunch and tea

Three Lectures

1. Caravaggio And His Models - Caravaggio is known for his adherence to reality but how did he weave the real lives of his models in paintings? What became of Fillide Melandroni, courtesan to cardinals, the star of Caravaggio's "Judith and Holofernes" who was under the control of the pimp Ranussio Tomassoni who Caravaggio murdered? Why did Caravaggio choose Fillide's friend, street prosititute Anna, for the penitent Magdalane.

2. Venetian Courtesans - trend-setters and boundary breakers in the world of fashion. Venetian courtesans of C15th and C16th Venice were so plentiful there were guide books dedicated to them. One of the most celebrated was Veronica Franco who wrote poetry and had to battle accusations of witchcraft. Learn how these women wove visual clues into their appearances.

3. Paris' Grandes Horizontales - explore the demimonde of C19th Paris where elite courtesans entertained aristocrats, artists and writers. From the woman who had herself served up on a silver platter, with only parsley for decoaration, to the inspiration for Dumas's La Dame Aux Camelias, discover a fascinating world imortalised in paintings, scupture and even embalming fluid!

Lecturer Dr Marie-Anne Mancio trained as an artist before gaining a PhD in Art and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex. She has lectued in Art History for City Lit, Tate Modern, Dulwich Picture Gallery and 9th Degree Club and many private art socirties; she also runs art history study tours abroad.

Bookings can still be made at the October meeting. For more information and a booking form please contact Sally Voelcker, whose details are to be found on your membership programe card.

            A Study Day at Bucklesham Village Hall on Thursday 25th April 

First Lecture starts at 10.30 preceeded by tea and coffee from 10am  

These three lectures take us on a visual journey of the Thames from its source to its estuary and it encompasses five centuries represented through the artist’s eye.

Starting with a painting of the Tower of London in 1500 which tells a fascinating tale about a French Prince and a poet, we continue our journey seeing the Thames through the work of various Dutch artists, some showing us views of Tudor Palaces in 1620.

We then move on to the 18th century to see how the Thames appears to Canaletto and compare his view with that of his English rival, Samuel Scott.

Before we arrive at the twentieth century, we will experience views by Turner, Constable and Tissot, along with French Impressionists. The twentieth century offers up landscapists such as Stanley Spencer.

Nicholas Reed is an experienced lecturer and author, including two books exploring the Thames through the works of various artists.

This promises to be an entertaining and enlightening study day. Bookings taken at the February and March meetings – any enquiries contact Sally Voelcker her details can be found in  your programme card or email us at tassoutheastsuffolk.org.uk.

In celebration of the centenary of women being given the vote our study day explores the work and challenges for women artists from the Renaissance to modern times.

Bernard Allen

Bernard has a BA (Hons) in History and an MA in History of Art. Having taken early retirement, commenced a new career as an art history tutor for the WEA. Has taught French and British art of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as women's art, for the past eight years. Lectured to various societies, and guided parties around galleries in London and Paris. In addition to teaching, he is currently researching artists working in Sussex in the 19th century, with a view to publication.

NEW Venue for this Study Day is-    
Bucklesham Village Hall, 2 Levington Lane, Ipswich, IP10 0DZ

Times:  10am  -  3pm
Cost: £27, including Coffee, Lunch and Tea 

Bookings being taken at the October Lecture meeting or for further details please e mail us at the web site info@tassoutheastsuffolk.org.uk

A survey of Japanese art throughout history reveals surprising similarities but, above all, fascinating contrasts with Western art of the same periods. Three sessions explore Japanese approaches to painting, architecture and crafts in comparison with Europe and address the influence of society, environment and materials on the artistic responses of different cultures. The day includes 3 digital presentations, a display of Japanese objects and of members’ treasures.

Marie Therese Barrett

BA & MA English, Toulouse University; BA in Oriental Art, Sophia University, Japan. MA in Art History, Maryland University, USA. Course organiser and tutor in Japanese Art History, Temple University Japan (1990-1999). Guest lecturer for the College Women's Association of Japan, Sotheby's, Christie's, V&A, Asia House and the Japan Society. Chair of the Japan Society Art Circle (2003-2007). Course tutor for the Diploma in Asian Art, British Museum/School of Oriental and African Studies (2002-2008).

Venue for this Study Day is-    
Ascension Hall, Larchcroft Road, Ipswich IP1 6AJ
Times:  10am  -  3pm
Coffee, Lunch and Tea provided
Cost is £27 per person

Venue for this Study Day is-    
Ascension Hall, Larch croft Road, Ipswich IP1 6AJ
Times:  10am  -  3pm
Coffee, Lunch and Tea provided
Cost is £27 per person
 

Simon Rees will take us through the fascinating history of the development of theatrical design and its association with opera from its roots in early 17th century Florence up to the modern era. He will use examples of surviving drawings, design sets and costumes from early theatre along with the work of various contemporary artists to illuminate the relationship between these two art forms.

Simon Rees

Simon studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a BA and an MA in English Literature. Taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. From 1989 to 2012 was Dramaturg at Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. Now a freelance writer and lecturer, lectures widely on opera, art history and literature, travelling extensively with travel companies. Has published several novels, including the award-winning The Devil's Looking-Glass, poems and opera librettos.