Shauna Isaac has been active in World War II art restitution for several years and has worked with families and government organisations to recover Nazi looted art. She set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served as a member of the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague. She is a regular lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, TLS and Art Quarterly. She is a contributor to the book ‘Insiders/Outsiders: Refuges from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British Visual Culture’(2019).

Lecture
How to Steal a Million
This lecture will look at famous art thefts, discuss what motivates art thieves as well as examine what aspects the thefts have in common. It will also look at where the burglars made mistakes, which enabled investigators to swoop in and recover stolen masterpieces. In many cases, the police sting operations were just as daring as the thefts.

Peter Medhurst's work as singer, pianist and lecturer-recitalist has taken him all over the world, and in the last few years he has toured New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, and made frequent tours in Europe. He has also presented events at the Barbican, St John's Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall on various musical subjects including The Beethoven String Quartets, Mozart Operas, Vermeer's Music Lesson, and 18th Century Venetian Art and Music. He has directed presentations at the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, linking the visual arts with the world of 17th & 18th century music making. He has regularly appeared on radio programmes and has made various recordings. He has also lead tours abroad for small groups of art and music connoisseurs.

Lecture
Johann Sebastian Bach: His music and his life
(1685 – 1750)
Music lovers generally regard JS Bach as the greatest of early 18th century composers. In fact, he is so important in the history of music that we close down the Baroque period with his death in 1750. This lecture goes beneath the surface of Bach's music to decode some of his musical symbolism, to reveal some of his working methods and to highlight some of his aesthetic goals.

Jacqueline Cockburn is a specialist in Western European Art History, Literature and Language, and is Managing Director of Art & Culture Travel Andalucia. She is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy, Christie's Education, The Art Fund and the London Art History Society. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950. She has recently published A Taste of Art, London (Unicorn Press 2019).


Lecture
Fantasy comes from the ghosts: Gaudi and other Catalan Architects
Antoni Gaudí (1852 - 1926) was a Catalan architect known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. This lecture will explore in detail how he engaged with nature and worked with extraordinary ceramicists, iron workers, tilers and decorative artists. It will look at his public and private buildings - most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família - and his relationship with a wealthy and demanding patron. The lecture will also feature some of the other architects working in Barcelona over the turn of the twentieth century including Domenech y Muntaner and Puig y Cadafalch.

Jane Tapley is a Special Events Organiser at Theatre Royal Bath where she frequently interviews actors, writers & directors. She is also Blue Badge Tour Guide & Lecturer, Freelance Author and Researcher, Home Economist and Theatrical Landlady!


Lecture
Taking the Waters- Social Life in the Spa Towns from Roman Times to Present Days
Hear how spas developed from mineral springs and holy wells steeped in local folklore. Learn about the development of spas in medicinal practices and how they transformed into fashionable watering holes for the Georgian Society, gathering as they did to dance, gamble, gossip and flirt. The talk looks at splendid architecture, extensive parks and gardens all designed to attract the "Beau Monde".

Rosalind Whyte is a History graduate with a Masters in Art History from Goldsmiths College. She is a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Royal Academy. She is also a member of the Greenwich Tour Guides’ Association and an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society and leads Art Appreciation holidays to various locations.

Lecture
Signs and Symbols in Art
Focusing in on signs within paintings, this lecture explores how signs and symbols are used to tell the story of a painting. It will also show how paintings spreading across centuries often use the same imagery, whether in religious or secular paintings. By learning to ‘read’ these signs and symbols we are better able to understand paintings.

Dr Meri Arichi is a lecturer and Senior Teaching Fellow in the History of Japanese Art at SOAS. She studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s, London in the 1990s. Returning to academia, she completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art, an MA in History of East Asian Art, and a PhD in Japanese Art at SOAS. She has run courses at Birkbeck College, the V&A, British Museum, and the the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School, and leads tours to Japan. She is an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society, and the Chair of the Circle of Japanese Art London.

Lecture
The Great Buddha of Nara and Treasures from the Silk Road
The Great Buddha of the Todai-ji (Great Eastern Temple) of Nara was commissioned in the first half of the 8th century by Emperor Shomu who aimed to unify the country by creating a network of temples in all provinces. The colossal bronze statue of Buddha, over 16 metres high, was the symbol of imperial authority. Its completion in 752 was marked by a grand ceremony and the ceremonial artefacts used on this occasion are still preserved in the temple storehouse Shoso-in, together with the Emperor’s personal belongings. The collection includes many rare works of art originating from the countries along the Silk Road, suggesting the active trade and the international nature of the Buddhist world at the time.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given many lectures to universities, colleges and art societies in Britain and Europe. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on ‘Whistler’ and the exhibition video on ‘William Morris’. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, including his popular book on Monet, ‘River of Light’.

Lecture
Kraków “The City of the Dragon”
Kraków was the ancient capital of Poland up until the 17th century. Its great market square, the spider’s web of mediaeval streets, the university where Copernicus first studied the stars and above all the majestic cathedral overlooking the Vistula river tell the story of this turbulent country. The lecture is a personal tour of Krakow in search of the gems of art and architecture, the triumphs, the tragedies and twists of fate that have shaped this remarkable nation.

Valerie Woodgate
Lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, also at many other London Galleries and for various art organisations. Former member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lecturer to The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) throughout Britain, and to related organisations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Lecture
Can Art change the world? Art with something to say
This lecture concentrates on those artists from the 15th to the 21st centuries who have used their art to communicate ideas, opinions, criticisms or fears about their world and, in doing so, tell us a great deal about the historical period in which the art was created.

Dr James Taylor studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester. He is a former curator of paintings, drawings and prints, and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Also lecturer and ship's historian on board cruise ships. His many publications include illustrated histories of Marine Painting and yachting art.

Lecture
Ocean liners 1800 -1950
The vision and genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel underpins this global story of hopes and dreams, disasters and triumphs. A wide range of ships are featured including Great Britain and Great Western, Lusitania and Mauretania, Olympic and Titanic and, arguably Britain's most popular liner, the Queen Mary, brought to life through a diverse range of artworks, including some striking Art Deco Posters.

Dr Alexandra Loske is an art historian and curator with a particular interest in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century European art and architecture. She read literature and linguistics at Humboldt University, Berlin, and has a postgraduate degree and a PhD in Art History from Sussex University. She has been working at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, East Sussex, since 2008 and has curated a number of exhibitions and displays, including ones on Regency Colour, exotic animals, local history, and the life and times of Jane Austen. She has lectured and published widely on colour history and related topics, appeared as an art historian on many TV and radio programmes, and writes regularly for local and national magazines and blogs.

Lecture
George IV and his Giraffe - A Tale of Politics, Exoticism and Science This is the amusing but also serious story of the first living giraffe in England. She was given to George IV as a diplomatic gift by the Pasha of Egypt in 1827 and soon influenced fashion, sciences and the arts, as well as ringing in a new era of municipal zoological gardens.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given many lectures to universities, colleges and art societies, in Britain and Europe. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on ‘Whistler’ and the exhibition video on ‘William Morris’. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, including his popular book on Monet, ‘River of Light’.
 
Lecture
James Abbott McNeill Whistler. (1834-1903) “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies”
Self assured, affected and irreverent, the owner of a razor sharp wit, Whistler scandalized London society during the 1870s. American by birth, he trained as an artist in Paris where his bohemian lifestyle made him one of the personalities of the city. Annoyed by the criticisms of his work at the Salon des Refuses he moved to London only to find the English even more opposed to his ideas.
The lecture explores the paradox of this man whose flamboyant and eccentric ways made him both admired and detested in equal measure and yet whose quiet, meditative paintings ultimately assured him a place alongside Oscar Wilde as one of the high priests of the Aesthetic Movement.