This second newsletter of 2026 comes with commiserations to everyone’s wardrobe!!! I cannot be the only one who wishes that the weather would make up its mind so that I know roughly what to wear each day! If anyone keeps a detailed diary and would like to check back to the beginning of March to report on whether or not it ‘came in like a Lion’, that would be lovely … I do know that I walked along Rochester High Street on Wednesday in 32c sunshine but was wrapped up in winter woollies the next day, and had the heating back on by the weekend!!

Our next meeting is Tuesday 19th April, at Franklin Rooms, Franklin Road, Gillingham, ME7 4DG.
Doors open at 10.00am for refreshments and chat (reminder that the bar has a minimum spend of £5 for card payments, so please be advised to bring cash). Attendees should be seated in the hall by 10.45am for notices and the lecture starts at 11.00.

Our ecclectic programme of lectures continues and this month we turn to ‘decorative’ arts and will be welcoming Lydia Goodson, to tell us all about Wrotham pottery - made between 1612 and 1739 in a small area of Kent close to the village of Wrotham. This distinctive brown slipware, on which the names of the potters are frequently prominently displayed, has been popular with collectors since the end of the 19th century, and a large collection survives in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. This talk explores what we know of the Wrotham potters themselves and looks at the many designs created in these local potteries before competition from large scale production in Staffordshire closed them forever.
Dr Lydia Goodson is  an art historian and lecturer specialising in the art and material culture of Renaissance Italy. Lydia holds a BA in Renaissance History, an MA in History of Art and was awarded her PhD in 2020 from the Warburg Institute of the University of London, for her thesis on painting and patronage in Renaissance Perugia. Lydia returned to study as a mature student which has given her a passion for the benefits of life-long learning and she hugely enjoys writing and delivering lectures for audiences of all ages. She is an art history tutor for CityLit and regularly speaks to other adult learning groups and has taught at Sussex University and at London University. Lydia’s research interests centre on painting production in Central Italy in the Renaissance. Lydia lives in Kent and the Umbrian region of Italy.

In May we will be exploring ‘The Art of the shell’ with Anne Haworth. The shell is an attribute of Aphrodite who was conveyed to Paphos on a shell; of Triton who calmed the waves by blowing a conch trumpet and of the pilgrim as seen, for example in scallop shells at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. As exotic and beautiful objects of wonder, realistic groups of shells were faithfully reproduced within Dutch still life paintings of the 17th century. Real shells featured in grottos, such as that in Florence’s Boboli Gardens and as a decorative motif appear in European interiors of the Baroque and Rococo. Exotic and fragile shells were traded from the eastern seas, carved as cameos, ground into artists’ pigment, and mounted as drinking vessels in precious silver gilt, to be admired as wonders of the natural world in princely Cabinets of Curiosities. Shell specimens were collected during the 18th century Enlightenment by Sir Hans Sloane and were recreated as exquisite porcelain sculptures or as painted details on delicate porcelain vases and dishes. Mother-of-pearl has long been utilised as a decorative inlay on rare works of art from India and Japan and tortoiseshell was manipulated as a veneer for fine furniture. The lecture considers the beauty of shells in all of their variety. 
Anne has been a lecturer and guide at the Victoria and Albert Museum for more than 20 years and also lectures extensively for organisations including the Arts Society, Sotheby's Institute, Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and for many private groups during their visits to London's museums. Since 2008, she has been a member of the London faculty of Eckerd College, Florida, teaching Art History. She was a lecturer for the British Museum and the Royal Collection Trust for 14 years, including 10 years guiding private tours of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. In 2013, she was invited by the British Council to lecture on William Morris for the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow. 
In her earlier career, after studying Modern History at Durham University, she trained and became a senior specialist in ceramics at the head offices in London of Christie's Fine Art auctioneers (1987-1995) and also Bonhams (1981-1986). From 1995 to 2002, she was resident in Shanghai, China and gave lectures on the history of the China trade and European Chinoiserie to the international community of diplomats and expatriates in Shanghai and Beijing. On returning to London in 2002, she worked on a short project cataloguing Chinese ceramics at Kensington Palace and became Hon Membership Secretary and Treasurer of the French Porcelain Society.
She is currently a member of the Heritage Advisory Panel for the Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington, Lancashire. 

Looking ahead to June, we will be whisked off to Venice by Antonia Cevizli to explore how Venice’s unique position brought the city into contact with the different powers of the Eastern Mediterranean including the Byzantine Empire, the Mamluks and the Ottomans, and how these interactions left their mark on the artistic heritage of the city.
And in July, Antonia Keaney takes an amusing and informative look at the clothes, underclothes, shoes and accessories which would have been worn by some of the colourful characters in 300 years of style at Blenheim Palace.

Also in July, we have our now annual Evening Lecture and Dinner with our very own Pat Lock. I am not sure that L.S.Lowry counts as a ‘bad boy’ of the art world, so this could be the start of a new series and I am looking forward to learning more about this more quiet-living artist … Lowry developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished erotic "marionette" works, which were only found after his death (ahem, not necessarily so mild as perhaps most people are aware!). He was fascinated by the sea, and painted pure seascapes, depicting only sea and sky, from the early 1940s.
We will be at the Upchurch River Valley Golf Club from 5pm on Wednesday 15th July for the lecture followed by a three-course dinner. We need to take and confirm bookings as soon as possible, and booking forms will be available at the April & May lecture days. The past three years events have been very well received and guests are most welcome so do please invite friends along for a very pleasant evening.

It feels as though we are barely into 2026, but your committee is working hard to find the best and most interesting lectures for the 2027 season. The Arts Society Directory Day is an opportunity for Societies all over the UK and beyond to meet new lecturers and lectures with new titles to share, and hear what they have on the cards. We were able to send two committee members in March and we are currently collating and typing up their notes from the day; checking the online database for information about potentially engaging speakers; watching videos to listen out, as best we can, for clear speech; cross checking the record of our own programmes to avoid repetition of topics, themes, etc; searching through websites of art galleries across London, the South East and a bit beyond for upcoming exhibitions and anniversaries in 2027; before trying to curate a cohesive programme that will appeal to as many people as possible.
This is your chance to speak up about your thoughts on things. If you can recall speakers who you have found particularly engaging, entertaining, or informative, and that you would welcome seeing again, please let us know. If you recall lecture topics that you found particularly interesting or intriguing and would welcome learning more about, please let us know.  And if there are particular artists, movements, genres, types, periods, locations that you would like to learn more about, please let us know. We know that some people favour the more traditional, well known art and artists, where others are keen to be surprised and learn new things. With more than 380 accredited lecturers offering more than 4700 lectures, we could clearly fill the programme for the next ten years!  We may not hit the mark every time, but we only have 10 lectures a year and we do our very best to find something to interest, educate and entertain people.

You can also get involved in more things online - Head Office is out there on a number of platforms, including a podcast (think radio broadcast!) It’s a fun, easy way for Members to stay up to date and comment on the latest videos and arts-related posts. The content shared there is not only interesting, it’s designed to be useful and easy to pass on to promote your Society, support recruitment, and spread the word about what you do. You can dip in whenever suits you, but subscribing also means you won’t miss new episodes of the Artfully Said Podcast, featuring engaging conversations and ideas from Lecturers and experts. You can find The Arts Society on: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music
And we have our very own The Arts Society Medway Facebook page where we try to post interesting things that are going on, as well as the info about our meetings, etc. Do please join the community and share things that you see out there … it is a private group: for privacy we have restricted it to members and their guests only, so do request to join.

We are all very aware of just how much prices of everything continue to rise and we are doing our best to mitigate against this. Unfortunately, this means that we are no longer offering post-lecture lunches. This is a great shame from a social point of view but the caterers cannot run the lunches on the numbers we have been getting in recent years – dwindling down to a dozen or so, from a regular 50+ ten or twenty years ago. Sadly, we have also made the decision not to run Study Days this year because although attendees have raved enthusiastically about the ones we have run over recent years, we cannot continue to run them at a loss. We will, however, do our best to keep you informed of any Special Interest Days that are coming up in neighbouring Society areas –
The Arts Society Wealden are offering a Special Interest Day with the excellent Toby Faber (of the Faber&Faber publishing family) on Weds 20th May. The Imperial East Eggs of Carl Faberge. The first egg was apparently plain white. It was the ‘surprises’ hidden inside that made it special. The gift began a tradition that would last for over three decades and that would send Fabergé on a relentless search for novelty, exploiting and extending almost every jewellery technique and style available. Contact johnlarum@hotmail.com today for info and booking.
The Arts Society Egerton are offering a day with the fabulous jeweller Andrew Prince (of Downton Abbey fame) on Weds 27th May. The changing face of fashion in a turbulent world 1890-1959 was probably the most turbulent & extraordinary in world history with world events having a profound & lasting impact on fashion & jewellery design. Contact lynnesaunby@gmail.com asap for a booking form.

On a positive note, our ‘Art & About’ visits, introduced a couple of years back, continue to be popular … members express an interest in going somewhere, often at short notice, and invite others along to share the drive or jump on a train / bus together. We have had some fun days out with this so we are pressing ahead this year. Ramsgate, Aylesford, Margate, Hastings, Romney Marsh and various London locations are all on the table for consideration (we are waiting on an improvement in the weather for some of these!!).
Committee members will initiate days out where they can but we also encourage members to let us know about things they plan to do, or would like to do if they had company … so do please speak up and extend the hand of making new friends. There is a long list of useful links on our webpage and you may also wish to explore the upcoming programmes of the local theatres: Medway Little Theatre, Rainham Oasthouse Theatre, Chatham Central, Hazlitt at Maidstone , Marlowe at Canterbury, and the Assembly Hall at Tunbridge Wells.
We are also experimenting with ‘piggy-backing’ existing coach trips in order to take smaller numbers which would not be viable under our own auspices, and we have trips booked to Hampton Court in May and Rainham Hall in June.

A reminder of a request we made at the start of the year: there have always been families in need and, for many, life is getting tougher. We all know that the fun niceties are the things that get cut when money is tight, and the bags that our Young Arts representative, Pat, puts together at various points throughout the year is one way in which we can bring a little bit of art to families. In this vein, we are asking for your help this year. Over the coming year, if you see super lovely, beautifully illustrated children’s books in charity shops and feel able to pick up one or two as donation, could you please do so? And, if you felt able to buy some arty, crafty bits and bobs along the way, could you do that? We will be collecting at June & July lecture days, ready for putting together our art bags for the summer.

We would ask everyone to do their best to recommend us, to family and friends – the hall has capacity for more attendees and whilst we can put out flyers in libraries, train stations and local arty hang outs, personal recommendation probably is most effective.  Could you be chatting with newly, or soon to be, retired friends (or friends of your children / the next generation??) to invite them along to things? Guests are welcome to all our lectures and visits and many of our guests become full members later on. Do please have a think and put the feelers out for us, thank you. In addition to the main organisation website, we have our own webpage which you can share with potentially interested parties … and this is also where you can keep up to date with things – for example, all the 2026 lecture dates are there, along with a precis of the content.

So, we look forward to seeing you at our monthly lectures, and out and about exploring what the art world has to offer … and please cross all fingers and toes that the weather settles and allows us all to enjoy being out there!

2025 New Year Newsletter Part 1

Welcome to 2025! We have lots planned for our Arts Society members this year – read on…

We had our AGM in November – in 2023, with the agreement of members, we have now achieved charitable status, one of the benefits of which is that we can claim gift aid from member subscriptions (rather than passing it on to ‘Head Office’), and this will help our funds! 

The AGM gave us the opportunity to confirm the election of our 5 Trustees: Viv Chapman (Chair), Barbara Fisher (Treasurer), Annette Cooper (Membership Secretary), June Sainsbury (Committee Support) and Liz Duckworth (Programme Secretary). Other Board members continue to volunteer essential support to the Committee: Lou Jupp (Events Organiser), Suki Calder (Visits Organiser) and Pat Lock (Young Arts). 

Membership - it is lovely to see more new members joining us and attending lectures, as well as some who have returned to us following a break in membership. We are not yet back at the numbers we were several years ago (200+, with a waiting list!) but it is encouraging to see, 5 years on from when things went a bit haywire! A number of people were sent info for Membership in 2025 and so far there have been 6 new members. Annette is planning to arrange a 'tea / cake' welcome session for them probably in March / April. In the last couple of years a few members who had dropped out have rejoined.

Attendance at lectures is usually about 70 people and we often have a few visitors too. Thanks to all members for their continued support. 

Now that we are a Registered Charity it is very important that anybody who is a UK taxpayer also completes the Gift Aid form. Our branch can then claim all the Gift Aid rather than only receiving £1 with the remainder going to the Arts Society. A Gift Aid form can be claimed by both people in a household where a couple are members. It does not matter how many organisations a member already signs up to Gift Aid with. It all helps to keep our membership costs down. The majority of members have already signed up for Gift Aid but an email will be going out shortly to those who haven't signed up yet.

We are fortunate to retain Roger Backway as a non-committee volunteer and he continues to help us publicise the Society through local publications and distribution of materials (as well as producing displays about local artists, etc.), but do please spread the word about us. Tell friends, bring friends along (guests are always welcome), and if you would like a few pieces of publicity material (bookmarks, postcards, etc.,) that you are happy to hand out or leave somewhere pertinent, do please ask.

Lectures - Our January lecture from Ian Swankie on Grayson Perry was absolutely excellent, a really good mix of information and entertainment. Next month it is 'Cathedrals: Safe places to do risky things' ... did anyone catch the recent 2 part mini-series ‘Britain's Great Cathedrals’ on Channel 5 with Rev. Pat Allerton? Very interesting if you are able to get it on catchup. And then in March, for the second of two lectures relating to our trip to the Wallace Collection in April, we welcome curator Tobias Capwell for 'Mars and the muses: the Renaissance art of armour'.
All of the information about upcoming lectures is on our website, do please take some time to explore the site https://theartssocietymedway.org.uk/ and remember to use the code TASMED22 to provide lecture feedback. We do use all feedback when reporting back to HQ about lecturers, lecture content, etc., thank you.

Study Days - we have not provided Study / Special Interest Days for a while. They have always been well received and garnered rave reviews, but numbers simply have not made it viable more recently. We are, however, always looking to do our best by our members and are looking at options.  For new members, this is a whole day out - 3 lectures, morning refreshments and a lunch. In recent years we have enjoyed excellent days on 'classical music crash course,' 'embroidery the back & the gold', 'art of the Far East', etc. A full day of hall hire, plus lecturer fee and catering puts the cost of such a day at approximately £60, so we want to be able to book and arrange things that truly interest people - we are all for 'educating' about art - so if there is something that really interests you, do let us know and we will see what we can do. Louise is on loujupp70@gmail.com

Young Arts - You make a difference!
Through head office we are able to access funding (which ultimately comes from membership subscriptions) which has been used to provide another 50 hand sourced & packed bags of art materials delivered to the Medway Foodbank for Christmas, thanks to Pat Lock!. We are very grateful for the ongoing support of members for this and other Young Arts projects over the years and we will continue to provide this service in the coming year.

Additionally, Pat is in discussion with Store104 in Rochester to purchase (with member donations to a ring-fenced fund) the art led / beautifully illustrated children's books. Unfortunately we are not in a position to donate these to the town libraries!! Sadly they are happy to accept a financial donation but not to accept books that we choose to donate. This is still under negotiation but we are also exploring other recipients, such as women's/family refuge shelters.

A new Young Arts project for this year is under consideration: We would like to invite members to consider making a donation to a ring-fenced fund for a school visit to an art gallery. A 50-70 seat coach for the day costs c£1000. Covering staff for a visit like this costs c£900. A local secondary school may have upwards of 200 students studying GCSE or A’Level art, design, textiles, photography, so this would require more than one coach, over more than one day. The cost for individual students can be prohibitive and so we would like to explore making a contribution to a local school. Please get in touch if this is something you would like to be a part of. Without stealing a well known supermarket's marketing slogan, every little contribution does indeed count. Our Society volunteers are on hand on lecture days, or you can drop us a line via email or phone call, thank you Pat is on lockpat3@gmail.com 

Anniversary banner - Thank you to Pat Lock for the painting, to Suki Calder for the hours of sewing, and to everyone who contributed to this memory piece. The banner created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Medway DFAS (Decorative & Fine Arts Society - now known as 'The Arts Society') is now framed and ‘hangable’. Do take a look when it is on display at lectures. We are hoping to arrange a 'tea & cake' visit to Mary Woodfield, our Honorary President and founding Chairman, and will take it with us to show her.

Visits - We are delighted that the proposed visit to the Wallace Collection for the Grayson Perry 65th birthday exhibition has been so well received. The visit is now full.

The coachtrip to the Watts Gallery and Artist's Village near Guildford is going ahead in June and we will start taking bookings for that at the February lecture. Suki is on sukicalder@hotmail.com 

Other visits in the coming months will take the form of our very successful 'Art & About' road trips. This is a somewhat ad hoc, spontaneous, often short notice, but great fun, case of taking a lift with someone who is offering to drive & take passengers (we will need volunteer drivers of course) and join us as we hit the road, grab coffee & cake and/or a pub lunch, etc., or in some cases jumping on a train together and accepting a short walk at the other end. The important thing is for you to let us know that you are definitely interested, so do please put your name down when paperwork is out on lecture days and we will be in contact with you (thank you to those on the shortlist of people who put their names down for things at the January lecture - we have emailed).

Where relevant, there may be discounts on entry for those with a National Art Pass for example. We will be offering in due course:
Dulwich Picture Gallery, for the Tirzah Garwood exhibition March/April or early May - this will be a train trip across London (approx £20), to learn more about this Gillingham born artist, and when we know numbers we will be able to confirm price of entry to the gallery & exhibition (this could be £26:50). 

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/news-blog/2024/december/10-things-you-didn-t-know-about-tirzah-garwood/

Ditchling Arts & Crafts Museum, for the Tadek Beutlich textile exhibition before June - this will be a car journey of about an hour and a half and a full day out (with cafe lunch). Please let us know if you would like to join and can drive with passengers, or whether you would like to have a lift with others that are going. Exhibition tickets are £9 https://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/event/tadek-beutlich-on-and-off-the- asloom/

Hastings Contemporary, for the Undersea exhibition from March onward - this is another car journey of about an hour and a half, with a full day out (almost certainly to include fish & chips on the Stade if weather permits!) so again please let us know whether you would like to join as a driver or passenger. Exhibition tickets are £11 https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/events/undersea/

The Friars at Aylesford Priory, Pottery & Upholstery Workshop - less than half an hour from the centre of town, this peaceful spot is worth exploring. Free entry but with shop & tearoom on site. Please let us know whether you would like to join as a driver or passenger https://thefriars.org.uk/Attractions/Arts+and+Crafts+

Guru Nanak Durbar Gurdwara, Gravesend - A place of unique scale, the largest in Europe, with 5 elaborate domes, and design inspired by the Golden Temple at Amritsar, with hand crafted marble & stonework, colourful interior tiling and stained glass. A note on this visit is that heads must be covered (with a scarf) and shoes are not permitted inside. Let us know if you would like to join us for a fascinating insight into the Sikh temple.

And finally, for now, we will be embarking on part2 of the Romney Marsh Historic Churches mystery road trip - jump in a car and let us guide you through the landscape to explore hidden gems and artworks. This is a full day out (free, but with pub lunch and tea breaks!) and covers windswept landscapes with uneven ground. Let us know if you are game! Attendance at part1 of the road trip last summer is not a requirement!

Back in the autumn there was a lot of interest in 'theatre' trips - locally (within Medway), regionally (Maidstone, Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, etc.) and London.
If you spot something when looking at theatre listings, that you would like to go and see, do please let us know. We may not be able to run a coach trip if there are not enough people interested, but we may be able to put people in touch with each other to share lifts ... we are mindful of people not wanting to drive longer distances, especially at night.
Medway Little Theatre - https://www.mlt.org.uk/
Rainham Oasthouse - https://www.oasthousetheatre.co.uk/
Chatham Central - https://www.medwayticketslive.co.uk/
Hazlitt Maidstone - https://www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/hazlitt-theatre/whats-on
Marlowe Canterbury - https://marlowetheatre.com/whats-on/
Assembly Hall Tunbridge Wells - https://www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk/whats-on/

 Viv Chapman and the Committee

The Arts Society Medway Autumn 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter – my thanks to the Committee for their efforts in helping me to pull it together!

We’re nearing the date for renewing annual membership (1st November is when it’s due.) Annette Cooper (Membership Secretary) has passed on her comments for you:

Attendance varies each month from about 60 to almost 100 people. Usually there are also a couple of visitors each month too. Subscriptions for 2025 are not increasing and are staying at £50. I hope all with Standing orders have amended their Standing Order to the correct amount! Payment is due from 1st November and the vast majority are received by mid December. Renewal forms will be in the AGM pack that is due out towards the end of October. There are a few people I have to chase unfortunately. Quite a few members now pay by BACS which is very helpful.

We've taken the opportunity that anyone joining part way through the year pays a pro-rata amount. We have had about 10 people who joined for 2024 and we managed to have one session. with some of them plus some Committee members, of tea and cakes which was a good chance to talk to them - and we will repeat this in 2025 for those that join. Most new members, so far, join because they know an existing member - so getting your friends to come along too has helped to increase membership.

 The format of the Programme card is going to change - with more detail about the lectures. We are taking the opportunity to use the same 'card' for both Members and as part of Publicity material. It will also be cheaper to produce than the existing card. The new format will be available for the January lecture.

AGM on Tuesday 19th November

This will be our first AGM since we became a registered charity in June 2024.  The AGM agenda is mostly the same as in previous years, but there are some small changes which reflect the fact that our committee is now a Board of Trustees.

It is still the membership who decide which members will form the Committee/Board and we will have the usual election item on the agenda.  So, this year we will ask you as members to vote for our Trustees, as set out in our new constitution.  We currently have 5 trustees:  Vivien Chapman, Barbara Fisher, Annette Cooper, June Sainsbury and Liz Duckworth.  We will ask members to vote for each of them if they wish the Trustees to continue.

The remaining Committee/Board members are Volunteers rather than Trustees.  They are currently Louise Jupp, Suki Calder, Pat Lock and Roger Backway.  Roger has decided to step down from the Committee, although he will continue to volunteer in the background.  We are extremely grateful to Roger for the great progress he has made over the past year on publicity and marketing, and his research into local artists.

Although not a constitutional requirement, we will also ask members to vote at the AGM for our volunteers, because we feel it is important for members to have a say in who manages our Society’s activities.

We hope this is not too confusing!  Do please ask at the October lecture if you have any queries about the AGM.

One of the bonuses of being a charity is that we benefit from the ability to claim Gift Aid (whereas, previously this went to the Arts Society itself).

Publicity, recruitment and research

The Society always needs new members and advertises through distribution of leaflets, The Net (the free Medway wide publication), our internet site and encouraging visitors to lectures. However, the best means of recruiting new members is word of mouth and members are urged to try to recruit prospective new members through their own personal networks. Roger has produced a regular display on notable Medway artists at each lecture and this has stimulated much interest. Further information from members, particularly personal recollections and even artworks on any of the artists covered, is always welcome. Roger has developed the displays into a lecture entitled Famous Medway Artists which he recently presented to The City of Rochester Society. It was well received and has led to invitations to present the lecture to other similar organisations. As well as covering a neglected area of research, these lectures also provide an excellent means of publicising the Society, sharing and educating others, hopefully leading to interest in membership and possibly an opportunity to collaborate with other kindred organisations.

Volunteering

You do not need to be on the committee to help with the Society. There are many tasks where volunteers can take some of the load off committee members and help would be really appreciated. There are a wide range of tasks including such things as greeting members at the door, speaking to new members, helping to shift chairs, helping with the raffle, meeting guest speakers, help with the equipment, helping with research, helping to produce a sculpture trail leaflet etc. It is YOUR society and members can play their part, however small, in helping to make it a vibrant and successful organisation for the future. As an example, Roger is stepping down from the committee due to other commitments but will continue to help with publicity, Medway Artists displays and further research. Please make yourself known to any committee member if you can help in any way. We would like to compile a list of volunteers with the tasks where they could help.

The Arts Society Medway Facebook page

Do take a look at our Facebook page where you will see regular updates about our Society and other events in Medway:  The Arts Society Medway Facebook page

If you are not already a member of our Facebook group, do please join up and “follow” us and you will receive a notification each time a new item is added. It is a private group and only the members of the group can see who else is a member and what is being posted. We have considered making it a public group, which would help us hugely with publicity and recruitment - Thanet for example has over 1000 followers keeping abreast of what their Society is up to!! - but for now we are keeping our group private, in the hope that our members will be encouraged to join and use it as a conduit for information.

Notes from our Programme Secretary (Liz Duckworth)

Our September lecture by Mark Hill (from The Antiques Roadshow and The Antiques Road Trip) on Mid Century Modern was extremely well received and generated many very positive online reviews.

Just to let you know, Mark Hill also runs a Study Day which comprises our choice of two lectures combined with a mini 'Antiques Roadshow' style identification/valuation session, or alternatively a Q&A session of items brought in by members, all very interactive.

Would members be interested in a Mark Hill Study Day?  Let us know.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the next lecture on 15th October when lecturer James Butterwick will tell us about the Ukraine artist Oleksandr Bohomazov - The Lost Futurist of Ukraine.

Doors open at 10am for tea, coffee and chat.  We ask attendees to be seated by 10:45am for a prompt start at 11:00am.

We are fortunate to have been able to book Stuart Harvey for the lecture on 19th November.  Stuart lives in Rome and is a qualified Rome Tour Guide (Guida Turistica Abilitata della Provincia di Roma).  But he pops back to the UK in February and November each year, and this year’s visit luckily coincides with our lecture.  Stuart will be talking about The Highlights of the Vatican Museum and frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.

Visits (Suki Calder)

There will be two day trips by coach in 2025; the first to visit The Wallace Collection in Manchester Square, London in March/April ... this will be to view the Sir Grayson Perry exhibition of new works to celebrate his 65th birthday and ties in with our lecture from Ian Swankie, 'Pots and Frocks'. The Wallace Collection also contains one of the finest collections of arms and armour in the world, from medieval Europe to 19th-century Asia; ASM has as it's March lecture 'Mars and Muses: the Renaissance Art of Armour' given by Tobias Capwell.

The second one will be to The Watts Gallery and Artist Village near Guildford. This will be in June/July and an English Heritage membership will give you a discount on entry.

We will be arranging a few 'pop-up catch-a-car' trips throughout the year ... 

1.      There will be two visits to Romney Marsh to view the little churches that we missed earlier this year ... pub lunch and coffee and cake.

2.      "The Friars" Aylesford Priory ... a peaceful, and important pilgrimage centre with lovely grounds and picnic areas. Tearooms, shop, pottery and upholstery workshops

3.      Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, in Gravesend ... A place of unique scale, with its 5 elaborate domes and design inspired by the Golden Temple at Amritsar, and detail, with hand crafted marble and stonework.  It is the largest Gurdwara in Europe

4.      Eltham Palace ... Such a lovely, historic place, home of the young Henry VIII

A guided walking tour of parts of Medway (to be confirmed)

A guided tour of Rochester Cathedral (to be confirmed) 

A three day trip to Norfolk is also in the planning ... this will be next September/October. I hope that we will be visiting Norwich Cathedral, The Sainsbury Centre among other places ... in the planning so no details yet.

Other stuff!

You’ll be pleased to her that our ‘Banner Project’ is near completion and will be unveiled / shared at the AGM, with a huge thank you to all those who contributed and a huge thank you to Pat for the artwork and to Suki for the sewing!  

Thanks to those who filled in feedback forms about ideas moving forward. We’re working on analysing it all – thanks Louise! There’s still time for people to respond!

And thanks to June Sainsbury for all her help and support – in particular, looking after the raffle. It all helps with building up funds.

Thanks committee – I couldn’t do this without you. Here’s to the future!

Viv Chapman

Hello there
 We are happy to confirm several events for the coming summer months (and if you could all cross all fingers and toes for warmer weather, especially for our visits, that would be fantastic thank you!!).
1) Tuesday 21st May – lecture day This month, the National Gallery celebrates its 200th anniversary and Lydia Bauman will share stories from within. A reminder to all to please be seated by around 1045am for notices and a prompt start to the lecture at 11am. Also, please, a reminder to all drivers to help us maintain a positive relationship with the Masonic Hall and please park with courtesy in the car park. Please do not block other cars without notifying a committee member so that we can ensure other members can get out as needed; please do not block access to the building (staff on site require access throughout the time that we are in the hall); and please please do not park in the disabled bays unless needing the access and displaying a blue badge, thank you.
 2) Friday 31st May – We have been invited to attend and have a stand at the “Over 55s Advice & Information Fair” event, 10am-1pm at The Victory Academy, Magpie Hall Road, Chatham, ME4 5JB. This has been described at a ‘Fresher’s Fair’ for a more mature audience, to provide information about staying connected in the community through services and organisations locally. Hundreds of people attend and find it very beneficial, so do come along to say hello … and if you felt that you would like to volunteer half an hour to chat to others about The Arts Society Medway, that would be super lovely – please let us know x
 3) June 18th & July 16th – lecture day lunches - We are now accepting payments and taking menu choices for post lecture lunches in June & July, guests are most welcome. Please, by preference, make £22 payment per person, per lunch, via BACS to Sort Code 40-52-40, Account 00060290, with the reference of 'Surname June’, or ‘Surname July’, or ‘Surname Both’ (for example ‘Jupp June’ or ‘Jupp Both’). 
This is a CAF Bank charity account - The Arts Society Medway
When attending the lecture on Tuesday May 21st, please confirm your choices from the menu below, and let us know of any specific dietary requirements. 
If paying by cheque, please make £22 payment per person, per lunch, to The Arts Society Medway, AND on the back of the cheque, please PRINT your choices from the menu below, letting us know of any specific dietary requirements. Please bring the cheque to the lecture day on Tuesday 21st May
 MENU - Post lecture lunch in June – Edward Coley Burne-Jones: the last Pre-Raphaelite, with Daphne Lawson
Roast Chicken OR Vegetable Roast, Rhubarb crumble OR Cheese & biscuits.
 MENU – Post lecture lunch in July – The art of framing, with Julia Korner
This will be our traditional summer salad buffet spread. We do still need to know about dietary requirements (e.g. gluten free, dairy free, etc.) as well as one choice from:
1) Cold meats OR poached salmon OR vegetarian quiche and 2) Eton Mess OR cheese & biscuits.
Please let us know.
Some members have asked several times over recent lunches about doing a collection for the catering staff.
If people wish to bring cash for a contribution to a ‘summer tip’, we will put an envelope of each table.
 4) Thursday 27th June – Evening lecture (Caravaggio: the sacred and the profane)
and 3 course Dinner at Upchurch River Valley Golf Club, ME9 7AY.
The venue, along with the bar, will be available from 5pm, and we aim to start the lecture at 5:30pm, with dinner and conversation starting shortly after 6:30pm.
We are very much looking forward to this evening. Last year's event was hugely enjoyable and we hope that as many people as possible will join us this time - guests are very welcome.
We are now accepting payments and taking menu choices. Please, by preference, make £40 payment per person via BACS to Sort Code 40-52-40, Account 00060290,
with the reference of 'Surname Evening' ... for example 'Jupp evening' 
This is a CAF Bank charity account - The Arts Society Medway
When attending the lecture on May 21st, please confirm your choices from the menu below, and let us know of any specific dietary requirements. 
 If paying by cheque, please make £40 payment per person, to The Arts Society Medway,
bring the cheque to the next lecture day on Tuesday 21st May AND on the back of the cheque, please PRINT your choices from the menu below, and let us know of any specific dietary requirements. 
 STARTERS: Smoked Salmon, prawn & cream cheese parcel, with salad garnish
OR Stilton stuffed breaded mushrooms, with salad and garlic & chive dip
 
MAINS: Breast of chicken with chorizo & sundried tomato parfait, watercress & spinach sauce
OR Pan fried cod with spinach, samphire and lemon & thyme sauce
OR Goats cheese, cranberry & apricot nut roast with gravy
                             
DESSERTS: Cream profiteroles with chocolate OR Poached pears with mixed berries
 5) Tuesday 9th July – Painting Picnic on Church Green, Frindsbury – as part of the celebrations of our 25th Anniversary, we will be re-enacting the sorts of gatherings that artists have held in the past (period costume fancy dress entirely optional !! But we do recommend suncream, sun glasses & sunhats x).
This is a free event... bring a folding chair if you have one, bring a picnic lunch.
Artistic types – bring your materials, take in the view and get creating. Please let us know if you are willing to share some materials and / or show others how to give it a go xx
Less artistic types – give it a go?! We hope that people will volunteer to share their enthusiasm & skills.
Not artistically inclined? – just come and join the picnic.
The view from Church Green gives a near 180 degree sweep from the Royal Naval Memorial at the Great Lines, across Chatham to Jacksons Field, across Rochester with Cathedral & Castle, south down the Medway River Valley (including the former Russian Nuclear Submarine!) over Rochester Bridge toward Maidstone on a clear day, over Strood to Broomhill, as well as the National Heritage Listed Norman Church of All Saints Frindsbury – something for everyone. Something different and fun. Please speak with committee members at the lecture in May/June.
 6) Monday 15th July – Roadtrip!! A few of us are running a ‘magical mystery tour’ of the Historic Churches on Romney Marsh. This will be a ‘visit’ with a difference: bring your own car (being willing to take passengers) or jump in a car with someone else Be prepared to do some walking on uneven ground (both indoors and out!). There is plenty of art, sculpture, history, nature to enjoy. Cost = £5 petrol money to the volunteer drivers, plus pub lunch (c£10-£20). Transport logistics will be confirmed when we know which brave souls are booked on the trip x Please speak with Suki and Louise at the lecture in May/June.
 7) Tuesday 23rd July – Visit to Hever Castle, Coach travel there and back, with guided tour and wander of the beautiful gardens. Cost = £44, guests are welcome. Please speak with Suki about this visit.
8) looking ahead to autumn lectures: dates for the diary 17th Sept, 15th Oct, 19th Nov
 9) 30th Sept-4th Oct - 5 day visit to Liverpool – coach travel to & from Liverpool, 4nights at the Marriott Hotel, taking in Little Moreton Hall, Blue Badge Guide tour of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral and Walker Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Village and Blue Badge Guide tour of the Lady Lever Gallery, Crosby Beach, Blue Badge Guide tour of the Museum of Liverpool, free time for the Albert Docks or a mini cruise of the River Mersey, guided tour of The Lowry, free time at Salford Quays with e Imperial War Museum North an option. Please speak with Suki about this visit.
Rolling project, research team – from the comfort of your home, or at a library / museum / gallery or archives. we are very keen to get the 25thAnniversary project rolling and would welcome interested members joining a team of enthusiastic amateur sleuths! A number of dates have been proposed for visits to the Archives Centre in Strood. Speak with a committee member if you are interested in joining in to help us compile a compendium of artists who have connections with the Medway Towns – we cannot do this without you and every small contribution would be a big help.
 Additional things going on outwith The Arts Society Medway
None of these events are organised by us. If you would like to attend these events (or another arts related events or venues) do please get in touch and we can help put interested parties together.
27th May – 1st June – Summer Exhibition at St Mildred’s Church, Tenterden, Weald of Kent Arts Society - NOT to be confused with The Arts Society! We know! The rebranding! – but a nice day out to view the work of Society members across Kent. If you are interested in a daytrip, do let us know and we can put interested parties together.
 1st June through to 3rd July Medway Print Festival / Dockyard40 - As part of the 40th anniversary of the closure of the Dockyard and the formation of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, join Hazelnut Press artists on a print-based journey through popular Dockyard landmarks and mysterious hidden history in unexpected spaces. This is not an Arts Society event, but features local artists and is free to attend … and takes place in the Namur Room, adjacent to the Mess Deck restaurant! More info https://thedockyard.co.uk/events/medway-print-festival-dockyard40-with-hazelnut-press/ https://www.hazelnut-press.com/
1st – 30th June South East Open Studios - one of the most established annual open artist studio events in the UK; showcasing creative talent, and strengthening visual arts in our corner of the South East. The event takes place across Kent, East Sussex and the Surrey Borders, from Edenbridge to Ramsgate, Rochester to Hastings … and everywhere in between! It is the perfect opportunity to meet the creators behind distinctive and inspiring artworks. We have over 200 participating artists and makers practising a range of disciplines, from painting to pottery and printmaking, jewellery making and textile art, sculpture and woodwork, glass making, illustration, digital art and mixed media. Visitors can tour and explore studio spaces from custom sheds to remote workshops, beachside galleries to beautiful purpose-built studios. Seeing the creativity artists put into their space and process can be as fascinating as the art itself, and many artists will be demonstrating. More info  https://www.seos-art.org/about-seos
6th – 14th July Medway Open Studios - Now in its 12th year, the open studios trail regularly attracts over 25 venues to visit, and work on show by over 200 artists, including painting, printmaking, jewellery, ceramics, photography, textiles, illustration and animation. Each year, visitors are welcomed to explore the hidden creative work spaces and secret studios across Medway. Along the trail you can take part in art activities and events, view exhibitions, talk to the artists, buy art and crafts, and see first hand the array of artistic talent and opportunities in this impressively creative area of Kent.  https://medwayopenstudios.org/

Viv Chapman & Committee

Welcome to our Spring newsletter. We are thrilled to have achieved 25 years as a local society – and are looking forward to celebrating the event throughout 2024.

It was great to have such a good attendance in January for the first celebration – with an amazing crowd enjoying the delicious lunch afterwards. It was great to welcome Terrie Wheatley-ward (Kent Area) and James Wilkins (Membership Director) to the event. They both said they’d had a great time – and what a very friendly group you all are.

Since the lunch went down well, Louise has organised one for after the 19th March lecture. It’s a choice of roast lamb or vegetable tart, followed by Eton Mess or cheese and biscuits. The price is £21, and we need payment in advance – bookings need to be completed by 12th March at the very latest. Contact us if you need bank details etc.

We have visits planned: Mon 22nd April National Gallery; Tues 23rd July Hever Castle; 30th Sept 5-day visit to Liverpool. Details are on the website (link at the end of the newsletter), Suki is looking forward to hearing from you.

We are still accepting quilt square donations – Suki hopes to complete this in time for out summer evening lecture at Upchurch Golf Club.

Committee member Roger Backway is researching local artists. Here is an update from him:

Medway Artists: There are numerous distinguished artists who have lived in the Medway Towns or painted there (or both). Roger has carried out extensive research through personal knowledge, the Internet, visits to The Medway Archive Centre and ArtUK to compile CVs of the artists and their local connection. He complemented this with a display at the January meeting on W.L.Wyllie. At the February meeting he repeated this display, together with one on Medway Sculptures. It is intended to have a display at each meeting and in March it will cover Hogarth.

Louise is working up a Sculpture trail based on the Sculpture locations and has already carried out a pilot run with some members. We are hoping to restart Art and About walks and meet-ups in spring – we’ll keep you informed with what’s planned. We hope to build up a collection of Arts trails and maps for the whole of Medway, and we welcome ideas and suggestions from members.

Artists with a Medway connection (and examples of their work) so far identified are William Hogarth, J.M.W. Turner, James Baker Pyne, Kate Perugini, Richard Dadd, Anne Pratt, W.L.Wyllie RA, Charles Spencelayh RA, Bertram Priestman RA, Donald Maxwell, Paul Maitland, Job Nixon, Thomas Hennell, Terzah Garwood, Evelyn Dunbar, Eric Ravilious, Roland Hilder, Fred Cuming RA, Tracey Emin, Billy Childish. Graham Sutherland is also believed to have some local connection.

If any members have personal  information, own works by any of the above or can suggest any other distinguished artists please get in touch with Roger:

Future  and Current Exhibitions : Turner Contemporary Margate - Beyond Form,lines of abstraction 1950-1970. 80 works, predominantly sculptures by women artists (**** The Guardian) Until 6 May

Royal Engineers Museum - Rochester and West Kent Artists  Spring Exhibition 16 April -30 June

Rochester Art Gallery - Over Lap, Works by Ian Bottle until 13 April

Corn Exchange - Rochester Art Fair 3- 5 May

If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

It has been great to see a gradual increase in attendees at our lectures – we’ve had new members, and it’s been encouraging that those of you who were affected by Covid restrictions are now feeling confident enough to come back to see us.

Pat Lock is still in touch with local food banks with the offer of arts materials for struggling families, but they are very, very busy at the moment – we’re hoping to make donations as soon as possible – we have funds set aside for this.

Thanks to the committee, in any event for all their support.

We look forward to seeing you to learn about Hendrick Goltzius: Master Printmaker, lecture by Albert Godetsky, at the Franklin Rooms as usual, on Tuesday 19th March. See you there!

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Dear Members,

Welcome to our Autumn newsletter. We look forward to seeing you after the August break for the last three lectures of 2023.

Remember that you can find lots of information about our society and its future (and past) events on our website: www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk

 If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

It has been great to see a gradual increase in attendees at our lectures – we’ve had new members, and it’s been encouraging that those of you who were affected by Covid restrictions are now feeling confident enough to come back to see us.

The July lecture, on how Napier (in New Zealand) became the Art Deco capital of the world was excellent – stunning to see the before, during and after effects of the earthquake – a lot to take in. Our September lecture, on the 19th, is Agatha Christie themed – I’m looking forward to it – lecturer is Benedict Morrison.

As I stated in the January newsletter, we have put Study Days on hold at the moment, as we cannot afford to make losses when they are poorly attended.

We’ve had some excellent visits organised by Suki Calder, to Provender in May, and Godinton in July. This month it’s back to Margate for a wander round the galleries in the Old Town, followed by the fabulous Walpole Bay hotel.

We are still working on how to resolve issues with catering at the Franklin Rooms. For now, you can purchase tea or coffee, and snacks before the lecture begins. As it’s our 25th anniversary next year, Louise is currently trying to sort out a special lunch after the January lecture – we’ll keep you updated on how this is going.

Pat Lock is still in touch with local food banks with the offer of arts materials for struggling families, but they are very, very busy at the moment – we’re hoping to make donations as soon as possible – we have funds set aside for this.

Lou has been organising ‘Art and About’ walks locally, for those who are able to join in – and is hoping to continue with these activities. There’s an Art Fair in Rochester from 6th – 8th October at the Corn Exchange – we’ll look into that.

The evening dinner and lecture at the Bridgewood Manor was very well attended and enjoyed by all – especially Pat Lock’s lecture! We have plans to organise another such event. We’ll keep you posted.

On the topic of our 25th Anniversary, the ongoing project of members decorating the fabric squares – the date for completion and handing the squares back to us is 16th January 2024 – our first lecture of next year. Hope you’re all progressing well!
We will then mount, back and display like a giant quilt. This is a major members project that we would like as many people as possible to be involved with.

The committee is coming up with plenty of ideas on how to celebrate – we’ll start to share them with you before the September lecture – but, also, we’d welcome feedback and ideas from you all, too.

Just a gentle prod – our committee has had the same people for longer than we would normally have them – thanks Covid – and thank goodness for their staying power – but we do need to welcome some new members for fresh ideas. Volunteers please!

Thanks to the committee, in any event for all their support.

We look forward to seeing you to learn about the innovator that was Agatha Christie, at the Franklin Rooms as usual, on 19th September. See you there!

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Dear Members,
Welcome to our Spring (I hope!) newsletter. We hope you are enjoying our 2023 programme of events.

Remember that you can find lots of information about our society and its future (and past) events on our website: www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk

 If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

It has been great to see a gradual increase in attendees at our lectures – we’ve had new members, and it’s been encouraging that those of you who were affected by Covid restrictions are now feeling confident enough to come back to see us.

We’ve enjoyed our lectures so far – it was interesting to learn about some of the eye-watering prices paid for famous paintings – Ian Swankie certainly knows how to entertain us! We had a novice lecturer, Matthew Wilson, in February, to tell us about Buddhist art – and it was clear from the reception he received that he’s a very gifted young man. I’m sure he’ll be back!

I think there were mixed feelings about the March lecture on the Turner Prize (but is it art?) – but it doesn’t hurt us to listen to different topics, does it?

And then, in April, we were notified on the Friday before the lecture on the following Tuesday, that the planned talk couldn’t take place as the speaker was on a Nile cruise… We were extremely lucky that Roger Backway, a new committee member, was able to leap in at such short notice to talk to us about French impressionists in Britain and their legacy. It was extremely well received – and we are forever extremely grateful that Roger rescued Us. Thanks so much, Roger!

As I stated in the January newsletter, we have put Study Days on hold at the moment, as we cannot afford to make losses when they are poorly attended.

Suki Calder has worked hard sorting out visits – a visit to Provender on 3rd May (fully booked). I hope it goes well. Sadly, she has had to cancel the 2 June trip to Eltham Palace, as we have been unable to receive the numbers required for this. However, for July, it’s a visit to Godinton House and gardens – definitely worth a go – it’s a great place. And then, in September, it’s back to Margate for the Turner Contemporary and the fabulous Walpole Bay hotel. Details are on the website – and Suki will have details at out forthcoming lecture meetings.

We are working on how to resolve issues with catering at the Franklin Rooms. For now, you can purchase tea or coffee, and snacks before the lecture begins.

Pat Lock is still in touch with local food banks with the offer of arts materials for struggling families, but they are very, very busy at the moment – we’re hoping to make donations as soon as possible – we have funds set aside for this.

Lou has been organising ‘Art and About’ walks locally, for those who are able to join in – and is hoping to continue with these activities.

It was back in February that we had our last get togethers 'Art & About'. We met at the very compact & bijoux Halpern Pop, in the Nucleus Arts cafe & restaurant (which does excellent coffee and very good food!) where we chatted about the floral works (Random Ideas that interest me) by one of our members (Suzanne West).
We moved on to Rochester Cathedral to see the Peace Doves installation, which was both stunning & moving, especially as the Jubilee Oak table was also in position in the nave. (We had planned to sit as a group at the table in October, to enjoy a chat, together with conducting an art activity there. However, we do not have enough interest in this (there are costs associated) we will not be going ahead with this event).

We also explored the UCA retrospective at the campus on Fort Pitt Hill. and at the Visitors Centre in Rochester. It was fabulous to see some of Zandra Rhodes' dresses among works by students past & present. It should be noted that the campus cafe there has spectacular views from the roof terrace ... it has to be hoped that Mid Kent College will take on the site as well as the courses.
Another quick visit was to the Exhibition by a local art group at the Adult Education Centre above the library in Rochester.

For the next Art & About - Lou is looking to visit Maidstone Art Gallery & Museum as soon as possible, with current exhibitions on 'Animal Guising and the Kentish Hooden Horse' and  'Discovering a Bronze Age Hoard', as well as a 'shhhOUT!! trail' (created by an LGBTQ+ youth group through a 'Level -Up' grant from the SE Museums Development team) and both the 'Textiles' and 'Fine Art' permanent collections, amongst much else to see there. Dates tbc as she is waiting to hear whether she is needed as school for exam invigilation, but will know by lecture day on 16th May.

As the weather improves (fingers crossed!) we hope to not only put a few local dates in the diary, but also go a bit further afield in Kent so if you have ideas on where you would like to go for a short impromptu visit, and would like some company, do get in touch with us.

A first for us, we are delighted to present an evening dinner (3 courses) and lecture (tbc, but we've been promised murder or sex!! Caravaggio or Egon Schiele - we'd love to know what you'd be most interested to hear about!), to be held on July 13th at the Bridgewood Manor Hotel (which has parking and level access throughout). Places will be limited, so members only in the first instance, first come first served, bookings will commence at the lecture on May 16th.

One more thing – advanced notice, so to speak! We will go ahead with the project to celebrate our Medway society’s 25th anniversary, which falls in 2024. Essentially, we are looking to provide members with a small piece of fabric, onto which members are invited to sew, embroider, lace, applique, tatt, paint, even knit / crochet (because we can stitch yarn pieces on to backing), - something that represents the Arts Society Medway.
We will then mount, back and display like a giant quilt. This is a major members project that we would like as many people as possible to be involved with. More information to follow.

Thanks to the committee for all their support – we’d have no society without them.

We look forward to seeing you to learn about the secrets and mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry on 16th May.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Dear Members,
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023. A Happy New Year to one and all! We hope you had a good Christmas and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Remember that you can find lots of information about our society and its future (and past) events on our website: www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk

 If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

We had our AGM in November when we elected our committee for 2023, including one new member – Roger Backway, who is joining us to help us to promote our society and to encourage new members. Welcome Roger. Thanks for joining us.

We had some great lectures and Study Days in 2022. It was good to have Sandy Burnett join us again in November for a lovely festive music-themed lecture. He had outstanding reviews for the lecture – such a shame that there was such poor attendance for his Study Day in June.

A fabulous day, excellent reviews again, but we have made sizeable losses this year, to the effect that Lou Jupp, our Study Day organiser is reviewing how we manage these. We would welcome your views on how we move forward with these as we cannot afford to provide these events at a loss.

I think the new sound system is proving a great success, especially now Liz Duckworth and I have finally got to grips with making it work.

Our next lecture, the first for 2023, is by Ian Swankie, and is about ‘The world’s most expensive art: where Leonardo meets Picasso’. I’m certainly looking forward to it – hope to see you there, on 17th January.

We currently have no fixed dates for 2023 visits, but Suki Calder is planning: Provender on 3rd May; Eltham Palace tbd; Godinton House in July; the Turner Gallery and Walpole Bay Hotel in September. Plenty to look forward to, and we’ll provide you with all the details as the events are finalised.

We are working on how to resolve issues with catering at the Franklin Rooms – the change of management has thrown us a few problems. We haven’t given up, but will keep you posted as to how we are progressing.

Thanks to all those who have renewed their membership. We have lost some members due to moving or, sadly, ill health. Unfortunately, our President, Mary Woodfield and her husband Owen can no longer attend – but they send their good wishes to everybody.

Please, if you have friends or contacts who would like to join, we’d really welcome new members. It would certainly help to keep us running as a group – we do need more funds!

Thanks to the committee for all their support – we’d have no society without them.

We look forward to seeing you on 17th January.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

The Arts Society Medway Newsletter Summer 2022

Hello everybody! Just as I thought we had settled back at the Franklin Rooms, we have a heatwave! Thanks for your patience and understanding when we needed to reschedule July’s lecture to Zoom – but it would certainly have been too warm in the hall. We had a reasonable attendance, and thoroughly enjoyed the lecture. Good to learn that a charity is committed to listing all the paintings under public and local authority control.

Living in a 1907 house, as I do, I was very interested in the May lecture to hear about the band of brothers, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and co. An interesting perspective.

I was wary of the June lecture, not being a fan of Bauhaus! But the historical facts and links made it worthwhile for me to attend. I may not have changed my mind, but at least I’m much better informed than I was. Vivienne Lawes certainly knew her stuff.

We had a disappointingly small attendance for the Crash Course in Classical Music Study Day at the end of June, but Sandy Burnet was great, certainly kept us on our toes, and, again, it was an unexpected set of presentations. Those who attended had a good day – and I do hope that when Sandy comes back in November we will see lots more people.

It's been great to be able to re-establish visits this year.

I hope that those of you who joined Suki Calder for the Sculpture Park visit on 5th May had a great time. It seems to have gone well. Here’s a link to the report: https://theartssocietymedway.org.uk/DocumentStore/Trip%20report%20The%20Sculpture%20Park.pdf

There is also a report on the Belmont House and Gardens visit which took place in June on our website – do check it out here: https://theartssocietymedway.org.uk/DocumentStore/Report%20on%20Belmont%20House.pdf

Good weather, loads to see, and great gardens.

There is a visit to Tudeley planned for 6th September, before we return to the Franklin Rooms on 20th, we have a few places left – so please get in touch if you are interested. All Saints' Church in Tudeley, Kent, England, is the only church in the world that has all its windows in stained glass designed by Marc Chagall.

I’m still interested in feedback on the lunches that we are trying. It would be great to see more people stay to join in with the post lecture chats.

A list of upcoming events is provided below. Do please visit the website https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Default.aspx as it is updated regularly and includes further details and access to booking forms, also if you are on Facebook, do please join our Group for further updates and discussions https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707 

Sept 20th: The Ballet Russes: when art danced with music by Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes. Using stills and video clips we take an exciting look at the Ballets Russes that dominated the ballet stages of the world from its explosion in Paris in 1909 until Diaghilev’s death in 1929.

Oct 18th: Eagle, Dan Dare and the Art of Frank Hampson with Howard Smith – certainly one not to miss!.

Nov 15th: ‘From Tchaikovsky to Tin Pan Alley – uplifting music for Christmas’ with Sandy Burnet (It’s also the AGM, as I’m sure you know.

And, don’t forget the Study Day on October 25th. Georgina Bexon, who visited us earlier this year on Eastern Art will be back to make a whole day of it. Please join us if you can.

Liz Duckworth has planned the lectures for 2023, we’ll publish the list as soon as all lecturers have confirmed their availability.

Thanks to the committee for all their support – and I look forward to seeing you in September..

Viv Chapman

(Chairman, The Arts Society Medway)

The Arts Society Medway Newsletter May 2022

Hello everybody! It’s been great to see so many of you gradually coming back to the Franklin Rooms for our 2022 lectures. Please keep it up!
I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture in March on ‘The History of Cartoons: from William Hogarth to Private Eye’. Ian Keable was very entertaining – and made the talk so topical. It was very well received.
The April lecture on Indian Contemporary Art was also thought-provoking – certainly for me, as I had heard of some of the artists, but had not linked them in the way Georgina Bexon did for us.
And, what did you think of the Study Day, on Embroidery and Colour? Chatting to some of the people there, it was clear that this was one of the most entertaining and informative days we’ve had in a while. Awesome. I’m not (lately) into embroidery, but it didn’t matter – we were all hooked. Fabulous.
I hope that those of you who joined Suki Calder for the Sculpture Park visit on 5th May had a great time. I’m looking forward to feedback and pictures of the day.
I’m also interested in feedback on the lunches that we are trying. It would be great to see more people stay to join in with the post lecture chats.
A list of upcoming events is provided below. Do please visit the website https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Default.aspx as it is updated regularly and includes further details and access to booking forms, also if you are on Facebook, do please join our Group for further updates and discussions https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707 
 
MAY 17th: A band of brothers: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & co. with Joanna Banham, examining the origins of William Morris’ firm of Fine Art Workmen in their early projects and the work involved with the firm in its first decade.
 
June 21st: Revolution in the Art School: the Bauhaus (1919 – 1933) with Vivienne Laws.
 
July 19th: ‘Art UK: Uncovering the nation’s hidden oil painting collection’ with Mary Rose Rivett-Carnac
 
In addition, there is a Music Study Day on 28th June, with Sandy Burnett, a very well-known figure, ‘A Crash Course in Classical Music’. I can’t wait!
 
Our next visit is to Belmont House on 29th June, with a guided tour and lunch included. Some of you will know that we previously wanted to combine the visit with a trip to Provender on the same day – but that would have been too much, so we decided not to overdo it.
 
Lectures are booked through the rest of the year, 3rd Tuesday of the month.
there is an additional Study Day planned for October 25th, on Asian Art.
Suki Calder is planning a visit to All Saints Church (Chagall Windows) at Tudeley, on 6th September – details to follow.
 
I look forward to seeing you all again on 17th May.
Viv Chapman
(Chairman, The Arts Society Medway)
 

The Arts Society Medway Newsletter February 2022

I hope you are all well. We are very pleased to be getting back to meeting at the Franklin Rooms for our lectures and Study Days. Please join us if you can!
Just to keep you informed, we are considering how to re-engage with Heritage Volunteer projects. From the conservation of books to projects in historic parks and gardens, our Heritage Volunteers are busy all over the UK helping to conserve and protect the nation’s heritage. They work in many different roles including book conservators, stewards and archivists in heritage sites. If heritage is your passion and you want to make a difference, this might be the role for you. Working closely with the curators and volunteering managers of museums, archives, gardens and historic houses, you will get to spend time in these wonderful places as part of the team. Please get in touch with us if you are interested.
Pat Lock is looking forward to getting back to practical activities for arts projects, in particular, Young Arts. We’ll keep you posted with the plans as they evolve.
I’d like to thank our committee for all their help and support. Welcome to our newest member, Liz Scarboro – onwards and upwards!
Thanks also to Barbara Fisher (Treasurer), Liz Duckworth (Lectures), Lou Jupp (Study Days – and a fair bit of extra stuff!), Suki Calder (Visits), Annette Cooper (Membership), Pat Lock (Arts Projects) and June Sainsbury – a stalwart at helping at the hall, thank goodness!

A list of upcoming events is provided below and weblinks to info and booking forms are provided in each case ... do please visit the website as it is updated regularly, also if you are on Facebook, do please join our Group for further updates and discussions https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707 
 
MARCH - Tues 15th lecture
History of cartoons: from William Hogarth to Private Eye, with Ian Keable
 https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Lectures/FutureLectures.aspx
Guests and new members are most welcome, so do please share the information.
 
MARCH - Tues 15th lunch 
The new catering team at the Franklin Rooms have been doing event catering for many years, including weddings and events at the Corn Exchange in Rochester and we would encourage everyone to give it a go. It has been so long (two years this month!) since we have all been able to sit and chat after a lecture. https://forksandcorks.co.uk/ 

Please send a cheque and a note with your meal choice. Fish Pie or vegetarian option, apple crumble & custard or fresh fruit salad
£15 cheque payable to 'Forks and Corks Ltd', Send to 'Arts Society Medway, c/o 14 Church Green, Rochester, ME2 4HE
to be received by Monday 7th March.
APRIL - Tues 19th lecture 
The story of Indian contemporary art, with Georgina Bexon
https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Lectures/FutureLectures.aspx
Lunch menu tbc
 
APRIL - Tues 26th study/special interest day
Black, gold and every colour in between: Medieval and Tudor embroidery through to the development of colour from the C19th, with Dr Susan Kay-Williams https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Special/FutureSpecial.aspx
 
MAY - Thurs 5th Visit to The Sculpture Park at Farnham
https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/Visits/FutureVisits.aspx
 
Lectures are booked through the rest of the year, 3rd Tuesday of the month.
Two more Study Days are booked, 28th June & 25th October.
Further visits are also booked, Belmont House & Provender (with tours guided by HRH Princess Olga Romanoff) on Weds 29th June is next.
 
I look forward to seeing you all again in March.
Viv Chapman
(Chairman, The Arts Society Medway)

The Arts Society Medway May 2021 Newsletter

Hello everybody – still looking forward to spring – at least signs are positive for gradually getting back to normal!

I hope those of you who managed to, enjoyed the musical study day, ‘From Buckingham Palace to the Caribbean’ – very entertaining.

I enjoyed our last two lectures: Raphael is a favourite of mine anyway – and Malcolm Jones turned Restoration Theatre almost on its head. Fascinating!

We intend to continue with Zoom lectures at least until September, but the good news is that the Committee and I will be visiting the Franklin Rooms at the beginning of June, with a view to re-starting our monthly lectures as soon as is sensible. Apparently there have been changes made – both to the management, catering team and to the building. We will meet the manager, Simon Millgate, and the new head of catering, Barbara (Jason and Lisa have left). I’ll let you all know how we get on.

In the meantime, the good news is that we are holding an additional lecture this year – in August: ‘Women behind the lens – Outstanding Female Photographers and their contribution to the Art of Photography’ with Brian Slater. There are more details of this and other lectures on our website.

We are pleased that Suki Calder has been able to arrange a visit to Chiddingstone Castle for late June and I understand that take up has been very positive. I look forward to feedback and pictures as I shall be down in Devon myself and not able to join in.

Pat Lock, who is our Young Arts representative, has been preparing Arts Bags for local families, and has at last been able to deliver them to our local foodbank. We are discussing the possibility of doing this again later in the year – maybe around Christmas time – so we would be pleased for any donations to help us to continue to support this.

Annette Cooper, our membership secretary, has asked me to thank everybody who has responded to Gift Aid requests. All the updates are now complete.

Finally, Do please also explore our Society webpage https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/ 
It is very easy to miss things, especially if you access the internet via smartphone or iPad, so do please scroll around the screen and click on the various buttons for updates.

We currently have 28 members on Facebook, 6 of whom are committee members! We invite you to join us.
We have tried to keep people updated with information as it has evolved and this has included sharing notifications about online arts in the local area and beyond.
You can find us by searching for 'The Arts Society Medway' within Facebook or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707

Stay in touch, keep strong.

Viv Chapman (Chairman) and the Committee

The Arts Society Medway March 2021 Newsletter

Hello everybody – here’s looking forward to spring – and a gradually improving 2021.

As you will have gathered, we are planning to hold our lectures and Study Day via Zoom as it is still far from clear as to when larger groups will be able to meet indoors. We’ve enjoyed some excellent lectures this year – learning about Japanese art and culture was new to me – and very interesting. I was certainly entertained by Ray Warburton’s take on Conceptual Art – and, while I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan of the topic, the lecture was engaging – and, if nothing else – it made us think!

I enjoyed Aliki Braine’s lecture on Tuesday – Picturing the passion – fascinating to be led through the tiny clues in all the paintings.

It has been great to see a growing uptake in attendance for our lectures – we’re all getting better at managing, aren’t we? We’re planning an additional lecture in August – watch this space!

I do hope that you will be able to join us for the next Study Day – 23rd March – it promises to be a musical feast ‘From Buckingham Palace to the Caribbean. Please get in touch with Lou Jupp if you’re interested.

It’s sad that we still have not been able to carry out any visits – there are suggestions from Suki Calder (Visits Secretary) on the website on ‘Virtual Visits’ – do try them! Jonathan Fenner will be giving a virtual tour of the North Downs to members of the Arts Society Sevenoaks (and we have been invited to join in) on 25th March – we will circulate the details to you shortly. In addition, please get in touch with Suki Calder should you be interested in a coach trip when the situation allows.

Pat Lock, who is our Young Arts representative, is investigating a new idea, shared by one of the Kent Area societies. It is to donate bags of arts materials to help families who use local foodbanks. We have contacted our local service and they are very keen for us to be involved. If you are interested in making any small financial donation to help us get this going, we would appreciate it. Get in touch with Pat – she would appreciate this. We do set aside funds to support young people – but additional donations are always welcome. We will keep you informed on progress.

Annette Cooper, our Membership Secretary, has asked that I remind those of you who have not yet returned Gift Aid forms to her to please do so as soon as possible – or give her a call to say ‘no’ – she needs to get records updated and for that we need your help! Her number is: 01634 222159.

Do please also explore our Society webpage https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/ 
It is very easy to miss things, especially if you access the internet via smartphone or iPad, so do please scroll around the screen and click on the various buttons for updates.

We currently have 28 members on Facebook, 6 of whom are committee members! We invite you to join us.
We have tried to keep people updated with information as it has evolved and this has included sharing notifications about online arts in the local area and beyond.
You can find us by searching for 'The Arts Society Medway' within Facebook or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707

Stay in touch, keep strong.

Viv Chapman (Chairman) and the Committee

The Arts Society Medway December 2020 Newsletter

Well, here we are, approaching the end of a most unusual – and somewhat difficult year. I do hope that everyone is well and looking forward to a rather different Christmas. Fingers crossed for 2021!

I have been delighted that a fair proportion of you have been able to join us for our three Zoom lectures and our Study Day. My thanks to Liz Duckworth and Lou Jupp for organising these.

Thank you to all who supported the Zoom Study Day in November ... that we had over 50 attendees was fantastic and the day seemed to be thoroughly enjoyed by all. Feedback on the day's speaker, Elaine Hansen, was overwhelmingly positive and everyone learned something about the Glasgow Girls, Scottish Colourists and the Treasures of Kelvingrove. The views of all were that we should book another Study Day and we are hopeful of securing bookings for the Spring.

We have planned for at least the first three of 2021’s lectures to be via Zoom, given that it is extremely unlikely that Coronavirus restrictions will be relaxed in that short timeframe. Please do join us if you possibly can!

Our January lecture is called ‘The Great Age of the Shogun: Art and Culture in Edo Period Japan’, given by Marie Conte-Helm, on 19th January.

It’s sad that we have not been able to carry out any visits – there are suggestions from Suki Calder (Visits Secretary) on the website on ‘Virtual Visits’ – do try them!

Thanks to Annette who has done a fabulous job in keeping up with all the members – phone, post email – all sorts; and of course, Barbara with finances, mailchimp and the rest.

Thanks to Felicity Osborne for all her past efforts in supporting Young Arts – and welcome, Pat Lock, who is taking over those reins. Let’s hope 2021 will permit her to get cracking on new projects.

My thanks to the Committee for their support during this tough time – and thanks to all you members who have continued to pay your subscriptions which will allow us to continue as best we can.

Do please also explore our Society webpage https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/ 
It is very easy to miss things, especially if you access the internet via smartphone or iPad, so do please scroll around the screen and click on the various buttons for updates.

We currently have 28 members on Facebook, 6 of whom are committee members! We invite you to join us.
We have tried to keep people updated with information as it has evolved and this has included sharing notifications about online arts in the local area and beyond.
You can find us by searching for 'The Arts Society Medway' within Facebook or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707

We have a special treat for you with this newsletter – an Arts Quiz to keep you entertained over the holidays. Do try it, enjoy yourselves as best you can.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year.

Keep strong.

Viv Chapman (Chairman) and the Committee

The Arts Society Medway August 2020 Newsletter

We do hope that everyone is well and coping with our changed circumstances. It’s hard, and we hope it comes to an end soon.

While we have been unable to meet together at the Franklin Rooms, we have provided a number of readable lectures from Head Office via email. Printed copies have been sent to those members who have not provided us with an email address. 

Committee members recently attended a Regional Zoom Meeting. 44 committee members from across Kent joined to learn about how zoom can work for lectures and study days. It was both informative and fun to share ideas and it will help us to provide our members with the best service we can as we continue to work in uncertain times.

As a result of this, we have decided that our three lectures planned for 2020 will take place via Zoom, rather than being cancelled completely. We hope that you will be able to take advantage of this.

Do please join us on Aug 26th at 7pm for a friendly and sociable practice session. Get in touch to ask any questions you may have. Do please share the info with member friends. Do get in touch with member friends who are not online and, where possible / safe to do so, team up and view together over a cuppa (or something stronger) ... the advantage of a lecture in your own home!

You will need to have the Zoom App downloaded – preferably on a PC or a Laptop – though it is possible to use tablets or smartphones too. We will email you with a link, Meeting ID and Passcode near the day. Select ‘Join Meeting’ and enter these details just before 11 am on the usual lecture day.

Do please also explore our Society webpage https://www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk/ 
It is very easy to miss things, especially if you access the internet via smartphone or iPad, so do please scroll around the screen and click on the various buttons for updates.

All info about meetings, lectures, study days, visits, the AGM and other useful links are updated here. 

We currently have 24 members on Facebook, 6 of whom are committee members! We invite you to join us.
We have tried to keep people updated with information as it has evolved and this has included sharing notifications about online arts in the local area and beyond.
Finding a balance between being informative without bombarding people is not easy but people can dip in and out as they choose.
Details about lectures, study days and visits are posted here in addition to the main website.

Do please spread the word because as we try to operate under the current covid19 conditions, online info is our main form of communication and indeed will be the basis of future lectures, etc.
You can find us by searching for 'The Arts Society Medway' within Facebook or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921493744553707

Keep strong.

Viv Chapman (Chairman) and the Committee

July 2020 Newsletter

Hello again everybody – I hope you have been enjoying the sunshine – it certainly makes things feel more cheerful.

As you will be aware, we have been providing access to printable lectures as they are available, either by email, if we have a valid address for you – or by post for those of you who are not ‘online’. We have had positive feedback from some of you on this, so will try to continue as items are available, probably on a monthly basis.

The committee and I have been holding meetings via Zoom – and this has been successful. We are investigating the possibility of holding lectures this way, should things continue with restrictions on large gatherings.

One thing I want to ask is, if any of you are feeling a little lonely and disconnected from the world, please feel free to let us know if you would like a chat at any time – I have heard that some of the other societies are making contact with members this way. Our telephone numbers are on the Programme card for 2020.

We have heard from Samantha Edgley from Medway Adult Education Centre, who says:

I teach Art History & Art Appreciation at the Medway Adult Education Centre and during lockdown I’ve been producing a series of art history videos on the theme of the 'Greats of British Art’ for the Medway Adult Education Centre and Medway Council's YouTube channel. 

So far we have posted 7 videos from a series of 10 episodes. Each short video is roughly 10 minutes long. I wondered if they might be of interest to your Art Society members during the summer. Here is the link:

 https://samanthaedgleyart.wixsite.com/arthistory/videos-greats-of-british-art

in addition – a reminder of other online material:

The Arts Society Connected: connected.theartssociety.org

The main national website is:             theartssociety.org

The Medway website is:                     theartssocietymedway.org.uk

In addition, we have a private Facebook Group:  The Arts Society – Medway, organised by Lou Jupp.

Thinking of you all at this difficult time.

Thanks all for your continuing support.

Please get in touch if you have any queries (vivchapman1@gmail.com)

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Coronavirus Update

I do hope you are all keeping safe and well, and not getting too bored!

You will be aware from the previous newsletter that we have cancelled all lectures and our Study Day, together with planned visits up to and including July.

Where we have been able to, missed lectures/visits/Study Day have been replanned for next year.

The Arts Society has a special platform ‘The Arts Society Connected’ to provide items of interest online as well as support of features in the Guardian, on BBC News, Sky News, BBC Arts online, BBC Radio 4 Today and more!

Click here:   connected.theartssociety.org     

Other items of interest:

Chiddingstone Castle is organising a Virtual Literary Festival, with Podcasts from MICHAEL MORPURGO, CLARE MULLEY, MAGGIE O’FARRELL, CATHY RENTZENBRINK, PETER JAMES, JOHN SUTHERLAND, ANGELA CLARKE, SUE STUART-SMITH, MARIAN BOSWALL, EMILY BRAND, ROBERT SACKVILLE-WEST, ASA BENNETT, ANDY BELL, ALEXANDRA SHULMAN, LOUISE CHUNN, PAUL CONROY, JULIA WHEELER, ANDREW LOWNIE, JAMES LEE, OLIVIA WILLIAMS, GEOFFREY STREATFEILD, JOANNA TROLLOPE, ROWAN PELLING, ANDREW ZIMINSKI, CHRISTOPHER SOMERVILLE, LINDA PORTER, PAUL LAY, NEIL MACGREGOR, ANDREW ROBERTS, DAVID WALSH with more to follow.

You can find these at: chiddingstonecastle.org.uk/literary_festival

The main national website is:  theartssociety.org

The Medway website is: theartssocietymedway.org.uk

In addition, we have a Facebook Group:  The Arts Society – Medway, organised by Lou Jupp. You need to be a member of Facebook to join; our group is private - so you need to request to join the group. Click here for the page: The Arts Society - Medway

Thinking of you all at this difficult time.

Thanks all for your continuing support.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

A Happy New Year to one and all! We hope you had a good Christmas and we look forward to seeing you soon.

 If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

 We had our AGM in November when we elected our committee for 2020, including some new members – Liz Duckworth (Programme Secretary), Suki Calder (Visits) and Pat Lock, herself an artist, looking forward to helping with new activities. Welcome ladies – here’s to some fresh ideas! Annette Cooper will now take on Membership Secretary role. We said goodbye to three stalwarts on the committee - Margaret Huntly, Anne Skinner and Shirley Berry - you've earned a rest ladies - hope you continue to enjoy the society.

we all thoroughly enjoyed the October lecture - From Downton to Gatsby with Andrew Prince. I have never had so many people approach me to say what a great talk it was - we must get him back soon.

Ian Gledhill in November on 'The Magic of Pantomime' was very entertaining too - he certainly made us all laugh - even the non-panto fans... Looking back on 2019, I think the lectures were some of the most successful we have ever had - here's hoping 2020 will provide more of the same.

Our next lecture, the first for 2020, is by Julia Musgrave, and is about Salvador Dali, a surprisingly multi-talented man - I'm looking forward to learning more about him  - come join us on January 21st.

Our next Special Interest Day is not until 28 April, on Protest Art with Liz Strang.Think Banksy, Derek Jarman - and many more. Lou Jupp is the contact for Study/Special Interest Days.

We currently a visit to Chiddingstone Castle at the planning stage. It will be a spring trip - in order to take advantage of the Japanese Garden and Cherry Orchards. Suki Calder is working on them and details will be on the website as soon as they are available.

Thanks all for your continuing support.

We look forward to seeing you on 21st January, with Julia Musgrave on Dali..

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Welcome to our autumn newsletter – and I do hope that you enjoyed our 20th Anniversary celebrations.

I have put some snaps from the occasion on our website in the 2019 gallery. We enjoyed a very entertaining lecture by Tony Rawlins on advertising and fine art – a mix, among other things, of Leonardo and Lego, Michelangelo and Levis! This was followed by a generous buffet lunch with special anniversary cakes – thanks to Lou Jupp for all the organising. We gave a special thank you to our President, Mary Woodfield, for setting us up back in 1999. Long may we continue.

For our first meeting following the summer break, Jane Gardiner put a new perspective on glass in art. It was fascinating – I shall be peering very closely at any paintings I see in the future – clearly glass is so difficult to paint – but quite spectacular when successful.

In October we are looking forward to Andrew Prince’s lecture ‘From Downton to Gatsby’.

For the series Downton Abbey, Andrew was commissioned to produce many jewels for the main characters. Jewellery and fashion are often seen as two entirely separate and distinct fields of design, but this is very far from the case. In his talk, Andrew guides you through the extraordinary period and events between 1890 and 1929, where the great fashion houses collaborated with the finest of jewellers to produce works of art of outstanding quality and glittering opulence.

Sounds great to me. See you there!

There were two visits in August and September. The August visit was to Savill Garden and Frogmore. Unfortunately, the garden was closed on the day due to very high winds, but the café and shop were open and it was possible to wander in the park – so all wasn’t completely lost. Frogmore was interesting, with excellent guides. Refunds were issued for the Savill Garden part of the trip.

The September trip to Layer Marney was very successful – and something to be recommended. Despite a delayed start, heavy traffic and rain at first, this was a very good day. The guide was very knowledgable – and there was a lot to see. Full reports on these trips – and others in the past are in the Visits and Tours section, together with photos from the days on the Gallery pages.

October 1st was a Study Day with Frank Woodgate on Realism to Modernism. While I have not had official feedback on the day, I understand that it was enjoyed by most people.

Remember that we have our AGM on 19th November – starting at 10.30 am, followed by ‘The Magic of Pantomime’ with Ian Gledhill – which should be entertaining.

We have been lucky enough to have some new committee members nominated for election at the AGM, Liz Duckworth, Suki Calder and Pat Lock. It would be great if you would be willing to supporting their election on the day. I should also take this opportunity to thank our current committee members – all of whom work hard to keep the society running. We couldn’t do it without you all.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

Welcome to our summer newsletter – and I do hope that those of you who could attend you enjoyed our 20th Anniversary celebrations.

I have put some snaps from the occasion on our website in the 2019 gallery. We enjoyed a very entertaining lecture by Tony Rawlins on advertising and fine art – a mix, among other things, of Leonardo and Lego, Michelangelo and Levis! This was followed by a generous buffet lunch with special anniversary cakes – thanks to Lou Jupp for all the organising. We gave a special thank you to our President, Mary Woodfield, for setting us up back in 1999. Long may we continue.

Earlier in summer, the late May lecture was planned to be on Lapis Lazuli – but unfortunately, the lecturer was double-booked, so that lecture was postponed, while instead, we enjoyed a talk by Daphne Lawson on Degas, Manet and Baudelaire – an amusing, if a little risqué, exposition of Paris, Art – and ‘ladies of the night’!

We followed this in June with one of our favourite lecturers, Bernard Allen on Artemisia Gentileschi, the first female member of the Florentine Academy. Sadly, I missed the talk – but I am assured that it was very engaging.

We are looking forward to our next visits – Savill Garden and Frogmore on 10 August, followed in September with a trip to Layer Marney. This trip has proved popular enough for us to hire a larger coach – get in touch with Annette Cooper should you wish to sign up.

Also planned for October 1st is a Study Day with Frank Woodgate on Realism to Modernism. The first lecture after summer is not until September 17th – so that will be your last opportunity to reserve a place. Contact Margaret Huntly if you would like to attend.

As I have said before, there is a lot of planning and preparation that goes into putting the programme together and arranging lectures, special interest days and visits and as we approach the second half of the year and the AGM in November, I am aware that we need to encourage fresh ideas/new people onto the committee.

In particular, we will need to find a new Programme Secretary and Visits Secretary. Note that next year’s lectures are booked, so we can give the new programme secretary a gentle start!

Some (brief) role description examples can be seen below – I have full details of them all should any of you be interested in taking up one of the roles – please speak to me at the next meeting in September.

The Programme Secretary, usually together with other Committee members such as the Chairman, the Study Day Organiser and the Visits Secretary, plans the yearly programme of lectures for the Society.  The Programme Secretary discusses arrangements with lecturers, handles all aspects of the booking process including sending the lecturer a signed booking form and is usually be the first point of contact within the Society for lecturers

Visits Secretary Responsibilities include: Presenting suggestions to the Committee, researching venues using reference books, the internet and information from the Arts Society website, contacting venues for up-to-date information on costs, tours, refreshments etc. In addition, travel options need to be researched. Some Visits Secretaries visit venues before booking as required.

We look forward to seeing you on 17th September, the topic being ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ with Jane Gardiner.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

I do hope that you have enjoyed the lectures so far in 2019.

I am sure you all enjoyed the ‘It’s not just Tchaikovsky’ talk in January. There was lovely music as well as very entertaining memories from Nigel Bates. A highlight for me was the clip of the ballerina pirouetting I don’t know how many times, seemingly without moving her head! Let’s hope we can enjoy more music in our talks in the future.

We all enjoyed a somewhat analytical lecture on Lawrence of Arabia with Neil Faulkner in February. I certainly made me think, especially about the difficulties and danger for the soldiers out there at the time.

I was sorry to have missed the lecture by Sally Dormer on medieval architecture and art – it seems to have been well received.

I am sure that you remember the last visit Denise Heywood made a couple of years ago to talk about Sir Stamford Raffles. Our projector/laptop combination refused to work – but brave Denise gave us the talk anyway – undaunted by lack of illustrations. Luckily, when she visited us last month, all operated as expected and this time we enjoyed an entertaining lecture with some fascinating pictures too.

Our Special Interest Day on 30 April, by Professor David Jackson was excellent. It was on the Golden Age of Danish Art – fabulous! What sturck me most was the amazing, almost photographic, detail  the painters employed, generally about everyday life, rather than religion, mythology or wealthy retainers. As David said, most of them seemed to just look outside their back door and paint what was visible from there. It was well attended and, I think, thoroughly enjoyed by all who were able to come. Margaret Huntly, who is the contact for these events, has arranged our next Study Day for October, the topic being ‘From Realism to Modernism’, with Frank Woodgate.

Annette Cooper arranged a visit and walking tour of Cambridge for last month – it seems a good day was had by all, but it was a painful journey back, aggravated by road works and accidents – so the coach returned to Medway much later in the day than planned. Not much we can do about that, but thanks to all for your patience.

Two more trips have been arranged – one to Savil Garden and Frogmore (interesting!!) in August; the other to Layer Marney in Essex – a Tudor Palace, which sounds intriguing to me. Contact Annette to join these trips.

If you are willing to help us at the meetings in an informal way – we would be delighted. Committee members can be busy – and helping with ‘Meet and Greet’ would be much appreciated.

We look forward to seeing you on 21st May for a mental trip to Paris, Degas, Manet and Baudelaire with Daphne Lawson. Please join us!

We have had to rearrange plans for the May 2019 lecture as Sarah Searight, who was talking in Lapis Lazuli, discovered she was double booked and has had to cancel her visit to Medway.

We are pleased to welcome Daphne Lawson, whose topic is: Degas,Manet and Baudelaire: Paris, the City of Modernity.

A Happy New Year to one and all! We hope you had a good Christmas and we look forward to seeing you soon.

 Remember that you can find lots of information about our society and its future (and past) events on our website: www.theartssocietymedway.org.uk

 If you are on Facebook, we have a group there (The Arts Society – Medway) which gives information about local events with opportunities to meet up informally to share some of these experiences. If you would like to join this closed group, please let Lou Jupp know.

 We had our AGM in November when we elected our committee for 2019, including two new members – Lou Jupp, whom most of you know as the lunch organiser and sound lady – and June Sainsbury. Welcome ladies – here’s to some fresh ideas!

Most of you will know that we had a change to our lecture in November as Janet Canetty-Clarke was ill. Roger Rosewell stood in at the last minute and gave us a fabulous talk on local stained glass – together with the history of how it came about – fascinating. Thanks Roger!

I do hope you enjoyed the lecture on Meissen in October with Marie-Anne Mancio.  Feedback was positive – we have met Marie-Anne before and she did not disappoint. I know there were issues with the sound system. We do try hard to get it right, but because we need to face the screen, rather than the stage (which is what the sound system is designed for), we do sometimes have issues. We won’t give up!

Our next lecture, the first for 2019, is by Nigel Bates, and is all about ballet choreography and associated music, ‘It’s not just Tchaikovsky’. Sounds fun to me!

Our next Special Interest Day is not until 30 April, more information to follow. The lecturer is one of my favourites, Dr. David Jackson and it’s about Danish art – count me in! Margaret Huntly is the contact for these events.

We currently have no visits planned, but Annette will be working on them and details will be on the website as soon as they are available.

If you are willing to help us at the meetings in an informal way – we would be delighted. Committee members can be busy – and helping with ‘Meet and Greet’ would be much appreciated.

We look forward to seeing you on 15th January, ballet music and Nigel Arch.

Viv Chapman

Chairman, The Arts Society Medway

In July, some of the committee went to Canterbury for the Kent Area summer lunch – an opportunity to catch up with other societies, some trustees and also with Florian Schweizer, the Arts Society CEO. It was a little showery, but we enjoyed our day!

I do hope you enjoyed the lecture on American Impressionism in July – Bernard Allen is very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the Hilary Williams lecture on Rubens and Antwerp – though I hear that some of you found the talk a little academic for your tastes – we do try to keep everybody happy!

I am looking forward to hearing about Meissen and porcelain this month – as the owner of a couple of small pots myself. Our last lecture for the year promises to be spectacular – music as well as pictures, ‘A Celebration of Christmas’ with Janet Canetty-Clarke.

Our next special interest day is on 23rd October, and is all about Cornish Art with Catherine Wallace – don’t forget that lunch is included in the cost. Closing date for booking this lecture is Saturday, 13 October – contact is Margaret Huntly.

There was a visit to Goodwood House in early September – feedback was excellent – and afternoon tea was enjoyed by all.

Our Annual General Meeting will be on Tuesday 20 November at 10.30 a.m., followed by the Christmas lecture. Lunch can be booked by contacting Lou Jupp.

If you are willing to help us at the meetings in an informal way – we would be delighted. Committee members can be busy – and helping with ‘Meet and Greet’ would be much appreciated.

We are hoping to encourage an informal project ‘Art and About’, covering small informal visits locally.

Membership subscriptions are due on 1 November for 2019 – we have had to raise the fee to £45 in order to maintain a positive bank balance! If you pay by standing order – please ensure that you pay the correct amount – it is not something that we can do for you.

The Arts Society, Kent Area 
will be celebrating its National Golden Jubilee Year 
at

The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury

on 22nd/23rd September 2018 
featuring  

 Free art workshops with a professional artist for children and young people under 16

 Children’s museum trails

 Free highlight tours of the museum (Saturday: 11am, 2pm; Sunday: 1pm, 3pm)

 Exhibition about The Arts Society (19 Societies in Kent with over 4,000 members) including the work of our Volunteers in Young Arts, Heritage Volunteering, Church Recording, and Children’s Trails in Places of Worship (all denominations)

Please do come and join us to celebrate our 
 Golden Jubilee 

We have four tickets for the service at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 16th May 2018 at 12 noon, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Arts Society. There is no charge. if you would like one, please get in touch: info@theartssocietymedway.org.uk

As you know, this year The Arts Society celebrates a milestone in the organisation's history; its golden anniversary. We are marking the 50th year with a series of events that embrace one overriding theme; enriching lives through the arts. Highlights include a major exhibition 'Rhythm & Reaction; The Age of Jazz in Britain' at London's Two Temple Place opening on 27th January, and a celebration of the arts at Westminster Abbey on 16th May. 

Kent Area is one of the many Societies are holding their own celebratory events. Medway took part in the ArtsFest – a rare opportunity for Members to show off their artistic talents. Photos of the entries will be passed on to Kent Area for display at the Spring Meeting, and later at the National AGM on 16 May.

Over the weekend of 22-23 September 2018, Kent Area will partner with the Beaney Museum and Art Gallery in Canterbury for Our True Gold, offering unique events for members of the public, which will highlight the treasures in their collections, as well as The Arts Society’s volunteers and the wonderful work they do. 

Dear All,

Having had minor teething problems getting the sound correct at the January lecture I thought I would try to explain the current situation.

The Arts Society Medway hires the hall from the GMCC Ltd at the Frankllin Rooms. We do not have any control over the sound system! We own the microphones which plug into the in-house sound system and then transmit signals. In order to adjust the quality and volume of the sound, we have a limited number of dials we can turn and when I was unable to do anything to make any difference, Ian Petrie kindly came to my assistance - even he admits that all he did was turn everything down and then slowly up again!! Even then we had a completely random booming feedback - we know not why!

We cannot control the diction, annunciation, speed of the lecturer. Most really are very good and the committee are careful to select the speakers they think will come across well. When handing over microphones we do ask that they wear the microphone centrally, or slightly to the right as that is the direction they mostly look (toward the slides) and we warn them that the sound system is temperamental and that people have difficulty hearing unless they speak clearly. All lecturers receive feedback on the lectures and difficulty in being heard is something that is passed on where appropriate.

An additional difficulty we face is that we are the only people who use the room in the orientation we do, i.e. the sound comes sideways at you, the audience, because we face the end wall. Other hall users face the sound booth area, because they do not need to see a screen, and thus they face the speakers which are mounted on that wall. Consequently the Franklin Rooms has no incentive to change the current system simply to suit us and our needs. We cannot turn through 90 degrees to face the wall mounted speakers because the shallow depth of the room when facing that way would mean that the audience is spread too far sideways and people would not be able to see a screen there.

The committee has, more than once, looked at alternatives.
1) Buying a stand-alone, all-in-one sound system, with multiple speakers which could be positioned around the room, would certainly improve sound quality BUT is prohibitively expensive AND there is nowhere to store it.

2) We have looked, seemingly exhaustively, at alternative venues within Medway. We need somewhere that seats 250, with a great audio-visual system (a bigger screen would be great), easily accessible, with car parking and allows us to have a long term agreement of monthly sessions from 9am-1pm. We have found nothing that fits the bill and is affordable ... BUT, PLEASE, if you have concrete information on a suitable venue do please let the committee know and they will take it into consideration.

All I can say in the meantime, again, is this - if you have any difficulty with hearing the lecturer, PLEASE sit at the front of the room as near to the lecturer as possible - every time. OR sit close to the speakers which are on the wall above the sound booth area. There is no point in anyone sitting at the back of the room, unable to hear and therefore missing most of the lecture :( AND if you have no difficulty hearing, perhaps edge back a bit and encourage others to move forward?

Kind regards
Louise 
BSc Dual Hons (Sheffield) Archaeological Science & Geography with Geology
PGCE (Exeter) Geography & History with RE
Teacher of Geography, History & RE
Mummy & General Domestic
in no way qualified as a sound engineer!!! :)