Duncan Pring was educated at Oxford (BA, MA) and London (MA, Ph.D) universities, and his PhD thesis was on “The Preclassic Ceramics of Northern Belize”. Having worked as an archaeologist before moving into teaching, he was involved in a number of significant digs in the region, and his book `The Protoclassic in Maya Lowlands` is a detailed analysis of the archaeological and ceramic evidence for the transitional period between the Preclassic and Classic ages.

The Maya lived in Central America between 1000 B.C. and 1528 at which time they were conquered by the Spaniards. The peak of their civilization was between 300 and 900 AD. During that time, they built enormous monuments, produced jade and ceramic items of great beauty and developed a calendar that was far more advanced than anything in Europe at the time. They had an advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy and developed a hieroglyphic script which scholars are beginning to decipher, allowing us to understand their achievements much more fully. 

Kirsty Hartsiotis was the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham from 2008 to 2023. She is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, where she also worked prior to 2008. She has also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories. She is a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.

 We've told supernatural tales at midwinter for a very long time. In this talk Kirsty Hartsiotis takes us back to the earliest winter tales of the Middle Ages and the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe. We then explore the lost years of the 17th and 18th centuries, where it’s often thought that Christmas wasn’t celebrated much – but ghost tales at Christmas-tide were very part of the season.  In the 19th century many traditional Christmas ghost tales were collected, and even now it’s considered one of the spookiest times of the years. We draw on midwinter tales from all around Britain in this talk and explore links with European midwinter traditions. This is a special Christmas lecture that draws on Kirsty's long experience as an oral storyteller and writer and teller of local ghost and folk tales. You may well come away with a shiver running down your spine and with seasonally spooky stories to share around your fireside at Christmas! 

A painter of national reputation named as a Woman of The Year 2008 for her contribution to art and society, Ghislaine Howard has published and exhibited widely, has work in the Royal Collection and has had solo exhibitions at many prestigious venues including Manchester Art Gallery, Canterbury Cathedral and Imperial War Museum North. She is currently working with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on a permanent but changing exhibition of her work at their  headquarters on Deansgate Manchester- ‘The Home of the Ghislaine Howard Collection’.

This lecture will be a feast for the eyes and tickle the taste buds, an inspiration for your cooking- and looking. It will feature the art, anecdotes and recipes of artists who loved their food. We will discuss Toulouse Lautrec, famous in his day for his truly fabulous meals and infamous cookbook, Renoir who introduced Paris to the pleasures of Provencal peasant cooking as well as Monet, Cézanne, Picasso and many others. We have prepared a special recipe booklet that can be posted on the internet - or bring a pen! 

Emma Johnson studied Music and English at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where she was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow. With 30 CDs to her name, she is one of the few clarinettists to have performed as a soloist all over the world. She also enjoys giving talks about music - Woodwind Wizardry and The Poet John Milton were both broadcast by BBC radio and she has lectured about composers Gerald Finzi and Malcolm Arnold for the internet company Tonebase. Her charity, the Emma Johnson Music Foundation, gives workshops in primary schools to introduce children to instrumental music, and she was awarded the MBE in 1996.

How do composers make us laugh? In this talk Emma will look at snippets of the classical cannon from Mozart's A Musical Joke and Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, to Malcolm Arnold's Grand Overture for Three Vacuum Cleaners, a Floor Polisher and Four Rifles, taking in along the way footage of Charlie Chaplin, Dudley Moore and Victor Borge, to uncover the techniques composers use to make us chortle.

Magdalen Evans graduated in the History of Art at the University of East Anglia before working for several years in London galleries. Since then, as curator, researcher and author, she has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and BBC Woman`s Hours, as well as working with charities that help ex-offenders through art and education. Her achievemants have earned Magdalen the accolade of Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, and she has lectured for this and for many other distinguished organisations.

Many women were officially appointed to record he events of World War Two, at home and abroad. Magdalen has not only reseached, but also interviewed, many of them. Her lecture will throw light on the work of these talented women, and demonstrate both theor artistic and historical importance.

Patrick Craig, a Cambridge history graduate, is one of the most distinguished names in choral music that this country boasts. A Vicar Choral at St. Paul`s Cathedral, he sings with the world-renowned Tallis Scholars and the award winning group The Cardinal`s Musick; he founded this country`s leading all-female choir Aurora Nova; and his cnducting career includes performing at the BBC Proms as well as many other major festivals. Patrick is also deeply involved in education, leading choral workshops around the world and lrcturing for the St. Paul`s Adult Education Programme.

Henry Purcell has been described as "England`s Orpheus" and ranks among the greatest of this country`s composers. He rose to the position of Organist at Westminster Cathedral at the age of only 20. In his lecture, Patrick will place Purcell in his context and offer a guide both to this wonderful building itself and to the equally wonderful mmusic composed for the royal events held in it.

Juliet Heselwood studied History of Art at London University and lived for many years in France, where she devised and led art study tours in seven different regions. She is the author of fourteen books; one of these, on Vincent Van Gogh, led to her being interviewed on a BBC 4 arts programme. while another, The History of Western Paintig for Young People, has been translated into twelve languages.

The Bayeux Tapestry is a unique work of art, created for a specific location and recording an extraordinary time in history. Juliet`s lecture will look at other work from the period, in order to put it in its artistic context, but will focus on the very approachable figures in, and narrative of, the Bayeux Tapestry itself.

Guy Lawson, who has a degree from London University in History of Art and Philosophy and a Master`s in Aesthetics from Manchester, is a Fellow of the  Chartered Institute of Marketing. After a varied career including teaching, journalism and PR, he became CEO of Construction for Merseyside and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors` Asssociation. He has lectured and published on a wide range of topics, from engineering and construction to the arts and the waterways of the north west.

Though we may associate grandiose projects with the Victorian age, civil engineering has always had good design at its core. In this lecture, Guy will introduce many examples of beauty in civil engineering, and explain why elegance of form and function go hand in hand in structures that are constructed primarily for the public good.

Art historian and lecturer Joshua White was director of the London Art Course at Christie`s Education, and he has also taught on the client VIP courses of that pretigious art business. A former BBC journalist, he is also a founder and presenter of The Art Channel, an online project covering art exhibitions that has now received over two million views.Institutions for which Joshua has lectured include Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the University of California, the Victoria and Albert Museum Academy and many others.

David Hockney, perhaps the best known and best loved of contemporary British artists, has continually reinvented conventional subject matter for the modern age. While others have abandoned the human figure or landscapes, he has embraced the challenge of bringing new technologies to bear on traditional themes. In this lecture, Joshua will present the different phases and interests of Hockney`s career, in an attempt to explain how and why he has remained at the forefront of artistic creativity.

An alumna of the Courtauld Institute of Art in the UK and Smith College in the USA, Shauna Isaac is a regular lecturer at Sotheby`s Institute of Art and the author of many academic publications. For many years she has been active in World War II art restitution, working with families and government organisations to recover works looted by the Nazis. She set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served on the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague.

Shauna will provide an overview of Nazi looting by establishing the context in Nazi Germany, discussing Hitler`s obsession with art and showing how the Monuments Men went about recovering loot after the war. Several landmark cases will be examined, including Klimt`s `Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer` and the stash of over 1,200 artworks found in the possession of the son of a notorious Nazi art dealer.

Russell Nash trained and worked as an actor, pupeteer and theatre maker before qualifying as a London Blue Badge Guide. This last move rekindled his love of art and art history, as he led groups around the major galleries and museums of the capital, including the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the British Museum. He now regularly delivers lectures for prestigious institutions both in the UK and the USA.

Russell`s lecture tells the story of men`s tailoring over the last 200 years through the lives of the men who commissioned, created and wore it. How did men from Beau Brummell to Alexander McQueen create their signature looks? The lecture also looks at the wider cultural shifts since the early 19th century to the present day and how they affected the way men present themselves.

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent 25 years as an actor, working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries. Now he produces audio walking guides to cities across Europe for private clients, as well as lecturing on a wide range of theatrica topics.

In this lecture, Tyler promises a revealing look at professional panto. Is it always the jolly entertainment it sets out to be? Who are the great names and great dames who have shaped it over the years?And why does every actor, however famous, want to be a part of it? Expect an amusing and informative journey through this enduring tradition of the British stage.

Mark Patton studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University and went on to take a PhD at University Cpollege London. Born in Jersey, in the 1990s he led the excavation there of the megalithic passage grave of La Houge Bie and directed the island`s archaeological museum. As well as bing a hands-on archaeologist, he has also taught at the universities of Leiden, Paris, Wales, Greenwich and Westminster, and currently teaches for the Open University.

The art known as "Celtic" spread across large swathes of Europe, includng the British Isles, between 500 BCE and 50 CE. Mark`s lecture will examine the charcteristics of this art, which is found onstone sculpture, bronze objects and pottery vessels, and examine possible associations with the development of new social institutions. Since the Celts left no written records of their lives, it is through the artefacts they created that we can best get to know this widespread, but in many ways mysterious, culture.