Hobart
ArtsNational Hobart welcomes you.
ArtsNational Hobart is a not-for-profit organisation run by a committee of volunteers. Illustrated, entertaining, informative, lectures relating to fine, decorative, contemporary, and creative arts are presented throughout the year by six UK lecturers, and two Australian lecturers. Each lecture is followed by light refreshments. Special Events relating to the arts are offered to members during the year. Our Young Arts program supports young people in the community through music, dance, and visual arts. We keep members updated on all our activities via this webpage, emails, brochures, our Facebook and Instagram pages, and in the tri-annual newsletter.
Members are welcome to bring guests; each member receiving a one-use-only gift card with their membership. Additional guests are welcome at $30 per lecture. Booking prior to each lecture through the Trybooking link is appreciated.
We are looking forward to welcoming members and guests throughout 2024.
Lectures:
Venue:
Lectures are held at the Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay.
Parking is available on site.
Time:
Lectures are at 6.00pm on Monday evenings.
Program
Find full details of the 2024 program here
Membership:
Single $155
Couple $290
Click here to join or email: membership@artsnationalhobart.au
Guests welcome:
$30 per lecture
$10 per lecture for students
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: membership@artsnationalhobart.au
Postal Address: PO BOX 2162, Lower Sandy Bay, Hobart, TAS 7005
ABN: 23 682 798 614
Committee
Chair: Jandy Godfrey
Treasurer: Tiina Sexton
Secretary / Membership: Rosemary Sargison Ph: 0438 278 994
2024 PROGRAM
Monday 26 February 2024
LES PARISIENNES: HOW WOMEN LIVED, LOVED, AND DIED IN PARIS FROM 1939 TO 1949
Presented by: Anne Sebba
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
Les Parisiennes is a story about women’s lives during the Nazi occupation including British and American women caught in Paris, as well as native born resisters who were eventually sent to prison camps, couturiers, and jewellers as well as actors, night club dancers and housewives. British women worked as secret agents living clandestinely escorting downed Allied airmen from one safe house to another. The lecture opens with a magnificent circus ball at a chateau in the grounds of Versailles, many guests
Biographer, historian, and author of eleven books Anne Sebba lectures in the US and UK, and to the National Trust, British Library, and Imperial War Museum. Formerly a Reuters foreign correspondent, Anne presents on BBC Radio and television talking about her books, including biographies on Jennie Churchill, Laura Ashley, Wallis Simpson and her latest book Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy published in 2021.
Monday 15 April 2024
EGYPT, FROM THE TENTMAKER’S KHAN TO THE CITY OF THE DEAD
Presented by Jenny Bowker
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
In this lecture Jenny explores textiles in Egypt from the Tentmakers of Cairo who stitch appliqué hangings, to those who dye silks in the dyeing khans, and how this silk is used for tassels for curtain making or spun by spinners in the long alleys of the City of the Dead. In between she looks at the ground-breaking work of the Wissa Wassef tapestry school, patchwork projects with the wives and daughters of the garbage collectors of the huge city of Cairo, and the embroiderers of Upper Egypt who sew their stories into fabric.
Jenny has been working with textiles since receiving her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from ANU, Canberra. Married to a diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Jennifer has been fortunate to live for a total of eleven years in Arab and Islamic countries. The influence of the Middle East can be seen in her lectures and subject matter.
Her solo exhibitions have been held in the U.K., Australia and the Middle East. Jennifer has also lectured in countries where she has travelled, and is a sought-after lecturer at Quilt Conventions and Universities.
Monday 13 May 2024
THE VIENNA SECESSION: FROM KLIMT TO SCHIELE
Presented by Dr Anne Anderson
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
In 1897 Gustav Klimt, already a well-established academic painter, led the Secession, a ‘break-away’ group of artists who embraced progressive ideas and sought artistic freedom. Paintings by Klimt and Schiele shocked the Viennese. They were accused of creating pornography, of revelling in the ugly and bringing art down into the gutter. Klimt celebrated the femme fatale, while Schiele was fascinated by the fragility of youthful innocence. The surface of Klimt’s The Kiss (1907) is richly covered with complex patterns that are esoteric and hard to decipher. Yet we are fascinated by such images, as we are by the man himself.
An Arts Society lecturer since 1994 Anne was senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University and is currently Hon Associate Professor at Exeter University, a tutor for the Victoria and Albert Learning Academy, and Ceramics Consultant for Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum. Anne has published on Art Deco teapots, the Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones, and Art Nouveau architecture. She held various fellowships and has curated national exhibitions, the most recent Beyond the Brotherhood; the Pre-Raphaelite Legacy (2019-20).
Monday 8 July 2024
MICHELANGELO: PAPER, STONE, AND FLESH
Presented by Daniel Evans
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
Michelangelo was grumpy, dirty, ugly, and tight-fisted but produced sculpture, painting and architecture of such startling beauty and originality that two biographies were written in his lifetime. We know exactly what he looked like in life and at his death, and today we have over 1400 surviving letters by his own hand. Over 450 years have passed since the death of this talented yet tempestuous superstar. This lecture examines several of his drawings, a little of his poetry and some of his finished and unfinished works with the aim of all but summoning the great man to the room.
Dan Evans is an educationalist with a passion for European art and architecture. He is a Housemaster at Cheltenham College where he teaches History and A Level History of Art. Dan has been lecturing since 2001, has been a senior lecturer, tutor, and tour guide for Art History Abroad, was the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Awards, and continues to take groups of intrepid travellers to a range of European destinations.
Monday 5 August 2024
FROM ENCAUSTIC TO ACRYLIC: HOW PAINT MADE ART
Presented by Lynne Gibson
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
Painting is an illusion made from a skin of paint! Buon fresco allowed artists to decorate vast Christian basilicas, Renaissance palaces, and civic halls while tough egg tempera was ideal for altar panels. Rich gouache was perfect for illuminations on vellum and paper, and without oils the Mona Lisa would not be mysterious. Modern manufacturing processes enabled Impressionism with its vibrant use of colour and Jackson Pollock could not have ‘splashed and dripped’ without industrial car paints. This talk explains the significant role materials and their techniques play in our understanding and enjoyment of art.
Lynne Gibson is a freelance lecturer in History of Art, and in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. She has worked at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol and has conducted lectures, courses and guided tours for organisations including Art Galleries and Museums, The Art Fund, The National Trust and The Arts Society. She is a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching, has been exhibited widely, and her work used in a range of publications.
Monday 2 September 2024
PARADISE LOST AND RESTORED – 400 YEARS OF GARDEN DESIGN IN OXFORDSHIRE
Presented by Timothy Walker
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
The history of English garden design can rarely be told “through the lens” of one garden. The Oxford Botanic Garden, founded at the beginning of the 17th century, bears all the design hallmarks of that century. Over 400 years successive head gardeners have changed the features, reflecting the art of gardening, and occasionally the science of botany. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects modern garden design. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one motivation for garden design is to create paradise on Earth.
From 1988 to 2014 Timothy Walker was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators talk about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of as places where science and art meet on equal terms, and Timothy’s lectures investigate this relationship. Since 2014, he has taught Plant Biology at Somerville College Oxford.
Monday 21 October 2024
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S SENSE OF PLACE
Presented by Deborah Jenner
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
Unlike Europe’s International Style, Wright’s architectural designs are site-specific. Ecologically ahead of their time, they exploit local materials and provide shelter from local weather. From Falling Water, a millionaire’s residential retreat in Pennsylvania, to affordable – even prefab – urban housing in Milwaukee, each construction is married to its unique setting. His all-on-one-level Prairie houses spread out over Mid-West farmland, while the ascending spiral ramp in the Guggenheim Museum in New York completely redefined gallery spaces. Not only are Wright’s buildings America’s icons of 20th century architecture, they also offer the key to novel solutions for the new millennium worldwide.
An American-born art historian and member of the College Arts Association, Deborah Jenner has resided in Paris since 1990. She has worked at the Ecole du Louvre, the Sorbonne, the Catholic Institute, and the British Council. Her Doctorate thesis proved non-western influences in Georgia O’Keeffe’s art. Deborah’s publications include catalogue essays for Musée d’Orsay and Centre Pompidou, scholarly papers and gallery critiques. She gives public talks, guided walks, museum tours, and study-abroad programs.
Monday 18 November 2024
THE AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE FROM GLOVER TO OLSEN
Presented by Dr Nick Gordon
Venue & Time: Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay 6.00 pm
It’s often said that the Australian landscape – its colours, the intensity of light, the strange forms of its mountains and flora – posed unique problems for artists trained in a European tradition. But the history of Australian landscape painting is far more complex. In this lecture Dr Nick Gordon shows how Australian landscape painters helped craft ideas of Australianness, from a specifically Australian national identity in the 19th century to a confident cosmopolitanism in the 1960s.
Nick Gordon has a PhD in history from the University of Sydney. He has taught European history, the history of political thought, and architectural history. He has lectured regularly on art and history topics, and has led art-focused tours since 2007, principally to Europe and Australia. He is also an artist and brings his deep knowledge of materials, techniques, and the insights of his “artist’s eye” to his analyses of art in his lectures.
