Meon Valley Arts Society

Lectures

The next lecture is in this colour.  Click on a thumbnail for more information.




data/20251209.jpg Tuesday 9 December 2025 – Christmas Drinks. Members Only

Subject: Christmas in Bach’s Leipzig: The Christmas Oratorio
Speaker: SANDY BURNETT
This talk explores how Bach brings the Christmas story alive in his ‘Christmas Oratorio’ written for Lutheran congregations in the 1730s. An overview of Bach’s life and achievements precedes a close look at this magnificent work which draws on various forms ranging from recitative, arioso, aria, chorale, and instrumental sinfonia through to full-blown choruses.



data/20260113.png Tuesday 13 January 2026

Subject: The English Country Garden: A Quest For Paradise
Speaker: GILLIAN TAYLOR
A journey through time to look at some famous gardens and their owners. From landscapes to exuberant borders, self-designed to collaborations.



data/20260210.jpg Tuesday 10 February 2026

Subject: Viking Gods and Valkyries: The Art of Norse Mythology
Speaker: JAMES VAUX
The lecture explores how Norse myths and legends have been portrayed in the decorative and fine arts over more than 1,300 years. It reveals how few depictions we have and how varied they can be. The talk gives a brief overview of the various deities, the Norse creation story and the twilight of the gods before linking them to art.



data/20260310.jpg Tuesday 10 March 2026

Subject: Making Sense of Portraits in Country Houses
Speaker: AMY LIM
Country houses are often full of historic portraits, but it is not always clear who the sitters are, why they are there, or why they mattered. Focusing on 17th and 18thC portraits, this lecture looks closely at clothes, poses and accessories, and how to decode them.



data/20260414.jpg Tuesday 14 April 2026

Subject: The Silver Thread: silver filigree and traditional arts in Kosovo
Speaker: ELIZABETH GOWING
From the early Kosovan silver mines to twentieth century politics there is a silver thread winding through their history. Its most intricate tanglings are in the country’s cultural capital, Prizren, where a seventh generation of filigree artisans use various designs to magic lacy creations from dull sticks of raw material creating a wide variety of objects.



data/20260512.jpg Tuesday 12 May 2026

Subject: The Art and Culture of fin-de-siècle Vienna
Speaker: GAVIN PLUMLEY
In the early 1900s Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Looking at these and others figures we ask how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed.. 



data/20260609.jpg Tuesday 9 June 2026

Subject: Henry Moore: A Revolution in British Sculpture
Speaker: JO WALTON
Henry Moore is one of the most popular and important British sculptors of the 20thC. He was inspired by the art of the past and of other cultures, but also at the forefront of modernism – creating a new language of sculpture, full of abstract shapes, holes and magisterial forms.



data/20260814.jpg Tuesday 14 July 2026 – AGM and Summer Lunch. Members only

Subject: Selfies, Self-Expression, Celebrity & the Victorian Carte de Visite
Speaker: MARK HILL
From the late 1850s to the 1870s photography suddenly enabled nearly everyone to have a self-portrait. Small portraits mounted on card were shot professionally and handed out like business cards. In this lecture, we look at the rise and fall of the fashion, learn how the cards were used, dating them from clothing and hairstyles.



data/20260908.jpg Tuesday 8 September 2026

Subject: Monopoly
Speaker: ROGER MENDHAM
Monopoly is one of the world’s most popular and enduring board games. The lecture starts with the original 1903 Landlord’s Game to its evolution into the game known today.  Based on the classic 1936 London version the lecture takes a photographic journey around the locations on the board.   Expect some surprises as we uncover the story we all know so well -or do we?