Riverina   (Wagga Wagga)

Friday 10 March 2023
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES – ART NOW
Presented by Anna Moszynska
Venue & Time:  St John’s Anglican Church, Church Street, Wagga Wagga, arrive at 5.30 for 6pm start.

There is a huge range of art to look at today and due to the impact of globalisation, we can now view recent art from different countries all over the world. Much of this work is exhibited in museums or sold at auction, but how do we make sense of it all?  In this talk, I look at a range of artists from diverse continents and discuss how their work relates to their specific place and time. Covering geographical regions including Eastern Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East and South America, my talk provides a ‘way in’ to the richness of global art today.    

Anna Moszynska is a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art.  She has taught at Sotheby’s Institute, The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate London plus lectured in cities ranging from Dubai to New York. Anna’s books include Abstract Art (1990) and Sculpture Now (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson. She enjoys introducing art to audiences in a lively and approachable way to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.

INTEREST DAY

Saturday 11 March 2023
FRESH ENCOUNTERS: CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE AND THE PUBLIC SPACE
Presented by Anna Moszynska
Venue & Time: Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

The role of sculpture has changed substantially in recent times. This lecture considers how the concept of monument and memorial, familiar since classical antiquity, shifts towards other concerns. We discuss how sculpture now plays a vitally important role in terms of site in the city; how the sculpture park comes into being in Britain in the mid-20th century, thanks to the efforts of Henry Moore, and grows exponentially across the globe; how water has attracted artists to make exceptional works in or alongside it; and not least, how sculpture has become a challenging and exciting space for social encounter. This lecture includes Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg, Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread – artists who also feature in Anna’s book, Sculpture Now.     

Anna Moszynska is a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art.  She has taught at Sotheby’s Institute, The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate London plus lectured in cities ranging from Dubai to New York. Anna’s books include Abstract Art (1990) and Sculpture Now (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson. She enjoys introducing art to audiences in a lively and approachable way to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.

Friday 12 May 2023
GOLDEN VIENNA
Presented by Ian Glendhill
Venue & Time:  St John’s Anglican Church, Church Street, Wagga Wagga, arrive at 5.30 for 6pm start.

The Strauss family may have dominated musical life in 19th century Vienna, but other composers also wrote some beautiful waltzes and operettas.  We look at the golden age of Viennese music, featuring the works of Josef Lanner, Karl Millocker, Carl Michael Ziehrer and others. 

Ian Gledhill has had a very varied career, from designing underground railways as an engineer for London Transport, to appearing in pantomime with Julian Clary. In between, he has worked in travel and tourism, music publishing, television, and especially the theatre, where he has been an actor, director, set designer, stage manager and opera translator. His main interests include architecture, history, transport, and classical music.

Friday 23 June 2023
RAMMED EARTH DESIGN AND USE
Presented by Rick Lindsay
Venue & Time:  St John’s Anglican Church, Church Street, Wagga Wagga, arrive at 5.30 for 6pm start

Earth Structures Group specialises in the construction of rammed earth walls.

Over the past 30 years, contemporary rammed earth walls have become a much loved building material for Australian architects who understand its unique thermal and aesthetic benefits.

No other walling system offers the same “humble majesty” of these walls (as described by a recent client). In an era of rising concern for our environmental future, rammed earth walling can offer low embodied energy, very high thermal mass and with ISE, our insulated external wall system, high R value as well.

Rick Lindsay is the MD of Earth Structures, and a local Wagga person originally. He has worked around the world on sustainable building design technology.

INTEREST DAY

Saturday 24 June 2023
ENVIRONMENT AND ARCHITECTURE WITH WAGGA WAGGA ART GALLERY
Various speakers including Rick Lindsay
Venue & Time: Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

INTEREST DAY

Saturday 15 July 2023
CLASSICAL MUSIC CRASH COURSE
Presented by Sandy Burnett
Time: 9.30-4pm
Venue: Riverina Conservatorium of Music, 1 Simmons Street Wagga

This course covers three hundred years of great classical music, from the first opera still to be performed today, Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607), through to the work that perhaps more than any other signalled the start of modernism, the ballet The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (1913). Progressing through the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras, Sandy discusses what role music played in each, and illustrates how composers went about the process of shaping their works. A glossary of key terms and list of essential elements of each era is provided, along with a playlist with details of the musical illustrations used.  

Sandy is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing, and lecturing. He has worked as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and for a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. Additionally, he is a highly sought-after double bassist on the London jazz scene and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

INTEREST DAY

Saturday 16 September 2023
THE ART OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN: FROM TRADITION TO MODERNITY
Presented by Professor Marie Conte-Helm
Venue & Time: Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

This lecture introduces some of Japan’s most famous gardens and provides a context for understanding the principles of Japanese garden design as it has evolved through the ages. The Japanese love of nature and the changing seasons has manifested itself in the subject matter of paintings and in the intimate and grand-scale gardens surrounding aristocratic palaces and Buddhist temples as well as Zen-inspired dry landscape gardens with their strikingly symbolic content. Nature and artifice are intriguingly combined in such examples to capture the very essence of the landscape. Historical developments and religious and philosophical influences have informed the Japanese approach to the visual arts. This lecture will also draw upon wider examples to illustrate the distinctive qualities that the Japanese have brought to garden design, an approach that has been successfully adapted to modern domestic settings and to Japanese gardens abroad.  

Professor Conte-Helm is a long-established lecturer of The Arts Society with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art. She has held senior academic positions at various UK universities, is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She was awarded an OBE for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations, and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the Government of Japan.