Adelaide

ArtsNational Adelaide welcomes you

ArtsNational Adelaide is one of thirty-seven ArtsNational societies in Australia. Even though we have a new name, our mission is the same:

  • Our lectures are delivered by renowned experts sourced locally, from the UK and Europe.
  • We ensure friendly convivial hospitality for our members, their friends and the community
  • We support young and emerging artists within local communities and nationally
  • We believe that the arts enrich our lives.

We are a not for profit organisation run by a committee of volunteers. We aim to promote an interest in the study of decorative and fine arts by offering high quality lectures on a wide range of subjects including social history, gardening and design, architecture, textiles and music.

Lectures:

ArtsNational Adelaide hold two sessions of lectures on Wednesdays:

Morning Session
St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville
Lectures commence at 10.30am. Morning Tea at 10am.

Afternoon Session
Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore
Lectures begin at 7.30pm. Supper at approximately 8.30pm

Membership:
Annual membership
$160 single
$295 double
Click here to join or email: margaretstableford46@gmail.com

Special Interest Half Days are optional, and an additional fee applies. Registration forms are sent out approximately one month prior to the lecture. 

Guests welcome:
Guests are most welcome with prior notice. Please phone: Margaret Stableford on 0407 070 722. A $35 fee applies (or $15 if your guest is a member of another society). Membership between societies is non transferrable

Contact:
For all enquiries please email: margaretstableford46@gmail.com
Postal Address: PO Box 565 Walkerville SA 5081
ABN: 54 559 495 272

Committee
Chair: Dr Gillian Potter
Treasurer:  Christine Byrnes
Secretary: Sandie Meyer
Public Officer: Ross Burton
Membership Secretary: Margaret Stableford   Ph: 0407 070 722

 

2024 PROGRAM

Wednesday 6 March 2024
THE FASCINATION OF JEWELLERY: IMPORTANT WOMEN COLLECTORS
Presented by Claire Blatherwick

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards.

This lecture looks at the collections of four vastly different women and their approaches to jewellery, how their backgrounds influenced their choices and the messages jewellery can send in respect of status, wealth and politics. Marjorie Merriweather Post, Evalyn Walsh McLean, Madeleine Albright and Elizabeth Taylor are the subject of this richly illustrated talk.

Clare is an independent jewellery consultant with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. She spent 10 years as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, which involved travelling internationally searching for unique jewels to auction. Clare has a passion for the historical aspect of jewellery and lectures widely on this in both the U.K and the U.S Clare is also a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians.

​Wednesday 17 April 2024
THE HISTORY OF THE HARP
Presented by Emma Horwood

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards.

This will be a lecture and a performance, describing the history of the harp. Acclaimed harpist and singer Emma Horwood, playing both pedal and Celtic harp accompanying her beautiful and versatile voice, loves to connect with audiences, weaving a magic spell with her classical, Celtic, contemporary and original repertoire, enhanced by history and storytelling of the music.

Emma Horwood is a Graduate of the University of Adelaide. She has performed as soloist in the Elder Hall, Urrbrae House and Flinders University concert series, at The Lab, for The Firm and Adelaide Baroque and has presented many sold out show seasons in the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Emma has been a core member of the
award-winning Adelaide Chamber Singers since 2000, touring with them internationally and performing in the Adelaide Festival. She is a member of vocal quintet Syntony and a founding member of female vocal trio, Eve. Emma collaborates as a duo with her husband (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra principal percussionist Steve Peterka), is a member of Duo Celtica and Harp2Harp and directs the SA Celtic Harp Orchestra.

Wednesday 22 May 2024
PHOTOGRAPHY COMES OF AGE
Presented by Roger Mendham

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards.

From the very first, grainy image created in 1826, photography evolved into a major art form. Developments in
photography have posed challenges to traditional art and it is interesting to see how some great artists have
adapted to using cameras as part of their work. This talk looks at photography over the past nearly 200 years, looking at key advances in technology and the inter-relationship with art movements. The work of pioneering women photographers is particularly interesting. We shall conclude with some million dollar works.

An accomplished photographer, Roger Mendham has gained Distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society and is the President of the Surrey Photographic Association. A scientist by background, his interest in art and his photographic interest, particularly 20th Century, was sparked by his wife’s Art History studies. He has studied
the evolution of photography from the early 1800’s until the late 20th/ early 21st centuries. His talk will be richly illustrated with both his own images and images from some of the leading photographers in history.

Wednesday 19 June 2024
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLLECTING
Presented by Leslie Stephan

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards.

Collecting has been an age-old human behaviour. What is it that takes an individual on the collector’s journey? Indeed, some people throughout history have developed an extraordinary all-consuming drive to acquire objects and they have been labelled as suffering from an illness. From small domestic collectables to vast collections needing to be housed in museums, from a child with a little hobby to the adult who amasses a collection on a scale undreamt of except by monarchs, Dr Stephan explores some of the personal psychological feelings behind someone on the collecting journey.

Leslie Stephan, a medical graduate from the University of Adelaide, has been a Consultant Psychiatrist for 20 years working almost exclusively in the public health sector. He is a member of the Adelaide Society of Collectors, the French Porcelain Society of the U.K., the Furniture History Society of the U.K. and the Ceramics and Glass Circle of Australia. He has been a volunteer guide at the David Roche House Museum since its opening in 2016.

Wednesday 24 July 2024
THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY: EAST-WEST TRADE 1600-1800, CHINESE EXPORT AND CHINOISERIE
Presented by Vivienne Lawes

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards.

This lecture explores how the East India Company developed its methods of trade and facilitated the increasingly sophisticated and profound exchange of ideas between East and West. It focuses on textile design, but also includes wallpaper, porcelain and furniture, as well as the vast commercial trade in spices and tea. Concentrating at first on the 17th century textile trade with India, the lecture shows how the East India Company established a methodology for sending out patterns to be copied by the local weavers and dyers, paving the way for the production of chintz. The lecture then turns to the 18th century and the trade with Imperial China. The distinction is drawn between export trade and evolving Western culture.

An art historian, art market analyst and curator/writer, Viv Lawes combines a hands-on career in the art business with research and teaching in Higher Education at several London-based universities. Viv has curated numerous exhibitions of Southeast Asian art in London and Singapore. She writes for many publications and private clients, for both academic and general readership.

Wednesday 21 August 2024
NORMAN FOSTER: BRITAIN’S ARCHISTAR
Presented by Andrew Hopkins

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards

Norman Foster, perhaps the best-known British architect today, had a prolific career designing an extraordinary range of buildings from the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia to the iconic HSBC building in Hong Kong, the Reichstag Dome in Berlin, the Millenium Bridge in London and of course the “Gherkin”. This talk examines the high-tech architecture of Britain’s most celebrated archistar/ celebrity architect.

Andrew Hopkins was Assistant Director of the British School at Rome during 1998 to 2002 and, since 2004, has been Professor at the University of L’Aquila. Part of his PhD (Courtauld Institute 1995) was awarded the Essay Medal 1996 by the Society of Architectural Historians (GB). Andrew was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti 2003-2004 and in 2009 he was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow to the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Thursday 22 August 2024
SPECIAL INTEREST HALF DAY – GREAT ART COLLECTORS 
Presented by Andrew Hopkins

9.30am–12.30pm, Burnside City Uniting Church
Cost: Members $30, Visitors $35, Students $15

THE VANDERBILTS: THE GLAMOUR OF GILDED AGE EXTRAVAGANCE

Until her death in 2019, Gloria Vanderbilt was the most celebrated heiress of this extraordinary family, whose founders during their lifetimes, had been the richest living Americans. Their astonishing residences designed by leading architects of the day were filled with art treasures and exemplify the long-lost gilded age of East coast
America

THE GUGGENHEIMS: NEW YORK, VENICE AND BILBAO

The Guggenheim family managed to amass extraordinary art collections and design astounding buildings to display their art. This lecture, based on Andrew’s experience working at the Guggenheim in Venice, examines the celebrated museums in New York, Venice and Bilbao as well as the stunning works they display.

Wednesday 11 September 2024
STREAMS OF FIRE AND TONGUES OF FLAME – A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ART OF GLASS
Presented by Geoffrey Edwards

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards

In this illustrated talk the ancient and remarkable history of glass as an art form is traced with reference to works in major public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. The lecture also refers to glass-related imagery and symbolism in the visual arts, film and literature – a tradition that ranges in time and type from biblical allusion and Chaucerian dream visions of glass temples through to the novels of Daphne du Maurier, the films of Orson Wells, the poetry of Les Murray and recent science fiction.

Geoffrey Edwards was Director of the Geelong Art Gallery, one of Australia’s oldest and largest regional galleries. Prior to this appointment, he held Senior Curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Victoria where he was in charge of the collections of International and Australian sculpture and Melbourne’s celebrated holdings of ancient, antique and modern glass. He is the author of various monographs, numerous exhibition catalogues and contributes to journals in Australia, Japan, Britain and America.

Wednesday 2 October 2024
PHRASES AND SAYINGS: THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE CITY OF LONDON
Presented by Alan Read

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards

The English language is rich in idioms, phrases and sayings which are part of everyday speech yet seldom do we consider their original meanings. This is an exploration of historical etymology, often traceable to the City of London. Even if you have to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ and ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ you’d be ‘barking mad’ to miss this lecture!

Alan Read holds a Masters and first-class Honours degrees in History of Art from Birkbeck College, London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery and for Frieze Masters. He regularly lectures at the National Portrait Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Plymouth City Art Gallery and other galleries in the UK. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide and a City of London Guide. 

Wednesday 30 October 2024
THE BAUHAUS 
Presented by Andrew Spira

Morning: St Andrews Church: 43 Church Tce, Walkerville. Morning tea from 10am, lecture at 10.30am.
Afternoon: Burnside City Uniting Church: 384 Portrush Rd, Tusmore. Lecture at 7.30pm, supper afterwards

The Bauhaus was the most innovative and influential school of design in the 20th century, combining avant-garde ideas about abstract art with a thoroughly conscientious approach to social reform and domestic living. Employing some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century (including Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee) the school combined an interest in nature with faith in industrial design, revolutionizing art education and yielding a range of classic designs that still have an impact on the style of our everyday lives. The lecture will also explore the link between the Bauhaus and Australia: one influential Bauhaus teacher, Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, emigrated to Australia in 1940 and taught art and design at Geelong Grammar School for 15 years?

Andrew Spira studied at the Courtauld Institute and Kings College, London. His experience includes 14 years as Programme Director at Christie’s Education. Besides lecturing extensively on a wide range of subjects, he has taken numerous groups (including ArtsNational and Arts Society groups) on cultural visits to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Romania, Crete, Turkey, Tunisia and all over Europe. He has also published extensively.

Adelaide News

Exhibition: Fantastical Worlds

Sydney’s acclaimed Powerhouse museum, which holds Australia’s preeminent decorative arts collection, has partnered with The David Roche Foundation in Adelaide for the first time to present an exhibition entitled Fantastical Worlds. The exhibition will see 45 works...