Ku-ring-gai (Chatswood)
ArtsNational Ku-ring-gai welcomes you.
Join us for a program of high-quality lectures on a diverse range of topics, delivered by well-credentialed lecturers from Australia and the UK. Light refreshments follow the lectures.
We also offer Special Interest Days throughout the year for a more in-depth analysis of a topic or theme. These days consist of three lectures punctuated with morning tea and lunch – a wonderful day out for like-minded people.
In line with our mission to cultivate the application and study of the Arts, we offer support to young people through personal grants, scholarships or funding to appropriate organisations. We also strongly encourage the preservation of our cultural and artistic heritage, carried out by a dedicated team of volunteers, who painstakingly document the history and contents of local churches, culminating in a printed, illustrated book for the church and national archive for posterity.
Lectures:
Venue:
Lectures are held at Zenith Theatre, corner Railway and McIntosh Streets, Chatswood. Concessional parking is available at the Wilsons Zenith Theatre Car Park, to be validated at the Zenith Snack Bar.
Time:
Lectures are on Wednesdays at either 10.30am or 6.00pm
Membership:
Annual membership $235 per member, plus a $30 joining fee for new members.
Click here to join or email: windeyerann@gmail.com
Guests welcome:
Guests of Members or interested members of the public pay $35 per lecture
$25 per lecture for members of another ArtsNational Society.
Pay by cash only at the Desk.
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: windeyerann@gmail.com
Postal Address: PO Box 270 Roseville NSW 2069
ABN: 21 696 997 748
Committee
Chair: Helen Meddings
Treasurer: Wendy Watson
Membership: Ann Windeyer
2024 PROGRAM
Wednesday 14 February 2024
THE NATURE OF JEWELS
Presented by Clare Blatherwick
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
This lecture looks at the historical context of the use of botanical imagery in jewellery from ancient times to the modern era. The lecturer will also examine specific flowers and plants and reveals their hidden and overt meanings and symbolism.
Clare Blatherwick 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 UK and the US. Clare is a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians as well as a qualified gemmologist (FGA).
Wednesday 20 March 2024
KING CHARLES I: THE RISE AND FALL OF HIS SPECTACULAR ART COLLECTION
Presented by Anne Harbers
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
In just two decades in the 1600s, Charles I assembled a spectacular art collection of Titian, Holbein, Durer, Rubens and Van Dyck. Art was a currency into his personal Court. Following his trial and execution in 1649 by Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians, these paintings played a role in the politics that followed. Recent art research reveals the role art played in funding the Civil war as well as paying off Royal debts. Tradies were paid in priceless paintings!
Anne Harbers received her MA in Art History from University of Sydney in 2014 and Is currently living part time in The Netherlands working on her doctorate of 17th century Dutch painter, Abraham van Beyeren. She also holds an MBA & Masters research degree in science and worked for 30 years in medical research and international business. Her current art history research interests lie in Dutch 17th century art and 17th and 18th Century European Art and Decorative Arts. She has published on collecting, art and Science.
Wednesday 1 May 2024
THE EVOLUTION OF STREET ART
Presented by Roger Mendham
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
Over the past 40 years, street art has evolved from its roots in American graffiti to becoming a global art movement. This lecture focuses on different styles of street art and leading artists, including Stik who collaborated with the Dulwich Gallery to create the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery. Images are drawn from the lecturer’s own photography of street art in London and beyond taken over the past 7 years.
Roger Mendham has gained Distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society and is currently President of the Surrey Photographic Association. A scientist by background, he developed a particular interest in 20th century art and has studied the evolution of photography over the 200 years since it was invented. An experienced speaker, his talks are all richly illustrated with both his own images and images from some of the leading photographers in history.
Thursday 2 May 2024
SPECIAL INTEREST DAY – PHOTOGRAPHY
Presented by Roger Mendham
Venue & Time: 10.30 am at “Laurelbank”, Cnr Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby.
Follow the emergence of photography in 1826 to its evolution into a major art form. Key advances in technology and the inter-relationship with art movements will be examined, as well as the work of pioneering women photographers. This talk will examine some of the most important images and photographers of the past century exploring why these images are so powerful and influential. Finally, a digital art gallery will be featured, curated into a number of genres. The lecturer will compare the approach of traditional artists with examples of how photographers have approached the genre.
Details:
10.30 am start at “Laurelbank”, corner Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby where there is parking for 30 cars as well as street parking.
Cost: $90 per head, including morning tea and lunch
Bookings Essential: Any member wishing to attend a Special Interest Day should book here or contact Mrs Gillian Stegmann on 9416 5609 or gillianst@bigpond.com
Wednesday 5 June 2024
SPLENDOUR OF THE SHAH-I-ZINDA: TOMB OF THE LIVING KING
Presented by Sam Bowker
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
The Shah-i-Zinda tomb complex is a superb UNESCO World Heritage site, one of many marvels of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. This lecture will review the rich diversity of ornament, cultural history and myths of central Asia, including controversial restorations and how these have inspired contemporary artists.
Dr Sam Bowker is the Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture at Charles Sturt University. Beyond developing Australia’s leading ‘Islamic art and design’ subject for university students, he has curated diverse international exhibitions and published widely on the history of khayamiya (Egyptian tentmaker applique). Sam lives in Wagga Wagga.
Wednesday 3 July 2024
CLARICE CLIFF (1899 – 1972): THE DOYENNE OF ART DECO
Presented by Vivienne Lawes
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
This lecture explores an artist whose work, inventiveness and ability to catch the zeitgeist is still admired a century after her bold ‘Bizarre’ wares were launched in 1927. These Art Deco masterpieces are the products that most vividly signify Clarice Cliff’s legacy. She spent a lifetime innovating. Born in 1899, she was a working professional whose lifespan covered the period in which women broke through the barriers of the art world. The pottery industry was one field that had traditionally offered female artists the opportunities to excel.
Vivienne Lawes is an art historian who combines a hands-on career in the art business with academic research and teaching in Higher Education at several London-based universities. She is UK consultant to Larasati Auctioneers in Jakarta and Singapore and One East Asia gallery, Singapore. She has curated numerous exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art in London and Singapore since 2011. Vivienne is widely published and in 2021 was awarded the Geoffrey Bond Prize for Art given to an ‘Outstanding Teacher’.
Thursday 4 July 2024
SPECIAL INTEREST DAY – A SMORGASBORD OF CULTURES: FINE ART PRACTICES AND THEIR HISTORIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Presented by Vivienne Lawes
Venue & Time: 10.30 am at “Laurelbank”, Cnr Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby.
The rich and well-established fine art tradition of the Philippines, introduced in the 18th century by the Spanish Jesuits, will be examined as well as the British heritage, Modernism and fine art in Singapore and finally the youthful world of the Malaysian fine art scene developed in only the past fifty years or so. The lecturer has had the privilege of curating some of the exciting contemporary art now featured in Southeast Asian cultures.
Details:
10.30 am start at “Laurelbank”, corner Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby where there is parking for 30 cars as well as street parking.
Cost: $90 per head, including morning tea and lunch
Bookings Essential: Any member wishing to attend a Special Interest Day should book here or contact Mrs Gillian Stegmann on 9416 5609 or gillianst@bigpond.com
Wednesday 31 July 2024
THE PERFECT HOUSE: ANDREA PALLADIO’S VENETIAN VILLAS
Presented by Andrew Hopkins
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
Palladio’s villas are his most celebrated accomplishment because of their beauty, practicality and, in cases such as the Villa Rotunda, its iconic image. The villas were also known through the woodcuts that illustrated Palladio’s treatise, The Four Books of Architecture, which meant that they were copied and imitated in Britain and America. This lecture examines why his villas have such enduring appeal.
Dr Andrew Hopkins was the Assistant Director of the British School at Rome and since 2004 Professor at the University of L’Aquila. He was awarded the Essay Medal by the Society of Architectural Historians. He gained his PhD from Courtauld Institute in 1995. He was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti in Florence and was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Andrew has been widely published.
Thursday 1 August 2024
SPECIAL INTEREST DAY – GREAT ART COLLECTORS: THE VANDERBILTS, THE ROCKEFELLERS, THE GUGGENHEIMS
Presented by Andrew Hopkins
Venue & Time: 10.30 am at “Laurelbank”, Cnr Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby.
Follow the glamour of gilded age extravagance in the astonishing residences of the Vanderbilts filled with art treasures. A dynasty of art collectors in the Rockefeller family even donated their 9 storey New York townhouse on Fifth Avenue to found the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA. Lastly, we look at the Guggenheim family who managed to design or acquire astounding buildings to display their art, their name even becoming a brand. The lecturer worked at the Guggenheim in Venice.
Details:
10.30 am start at “Laurelbank”, corner Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby where there is parking for 30 cars as well as street parking.
Cost: $90 per head, including morning tea and lunch
Bookings Essential: Any member wishing to attend a Special Interest Day should book here or contact Mrs Gillian Stegmann on 9416 5609 or gillianst@bigpond.com
Thursday 11 September 2024
WHISTLER v RUSKIN: FLINGING A POT OF PAINT IN THE PUBLIC’S FACE
Presented by Alan Read
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
The famous trial in 1878 between artist and critic became one of the first great public debates in Britain about modern art. This lecture looks at the issues and personalities involved in this famous court-room drama, how their animosity divided the art world and the extent to which it can be argued that the outcome of the trial ruined both Whistler and Ruskin.
Alan Read holds a master’s and first-class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College, London. He is currently a gallery guide at Tate Britain and for many years was a guide at Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has lectured at both Tates, the NPG, Dulwich Picture Gallery and for many other galleries in the UK. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide and a City of London Guide.
Wednesday 9 October 2024
FREUD AND ART IN VIENNA
Presented by Andrew Spira
Venue & Time: Zenith Theatre – 10.30 am & 6.00 pm
Sigmund Freud was the beneficiary of a long tradition of psychological research in Vienna which included Franz Mesmer, who gave his name to ‘mesmerism’. This lecture will examine the psychological life of Vienna leading up to Freud and the many fascinating traces it left in the arts. These included the beguiling reveries of Gustav Klimt.
Andrew Spira studied at the Courtauld Institute and King’s College, London. He worked at the Temple Gallery, London (specialists in Byzantine, Russian and Greek icons) and as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Subsequently he was Programmer Director at Christie’s Education for 14 years. He has also taken numerous groups on cultural Visits to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Romania, Crete, Turkey and Tunisia. Andrew is the author of The Avant-Garde Icon, on the relationship between Russian icons and Russian avant-garde art, published in 2008.
Thursday 10 October 2024
SPECIAL INTEREST DAY – RUSSIAN ART
Presented by Andrew Spira
Venue & Time: 10.30 am at “Laurelbank”, Cnr Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby.
While the names of the great Russian writers and composers are household names – Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev – the artists that worked alongside them remain relatively unknown; indeed, there is not a single Russian painting in the National Gallery in London. This Special Interest Day will explore the neglected story of Russian art from icons and sacred art to the ‘window on to the West’ under Peter the Great and finally examining the avant-garde movement in the early 20th century on the eve of the Russian Revolution.
Details:
10.30 am start at “Laurelbank”, corner Penshurst and Laurel Streets, Willoughby where there is parking for 30 cars as well as street parking.
Cost: $90 per head, including morning tea and lunch
Bookings Essential: Any member wishing to attend a Special Interest Day should book here or contact Mrs Gillian Stegmann on 9416 5609 or gillianst@bigpond.com
