Our October talk was by Richard Osgood on the role of archaeology in recovery from trauma experienced by war veterans.
Our September talk was by Dr Gill Clarke talking about the exhibition at St.Barbe’s she co -curated featuring the work of 8 women artists:
Our August talk was by Anne Desmet RA talking about her work and influences:
Our July talk was by Philip Garrahan on Two Railway Artists and a Railway Poet:
Our June talk was by Trustee of the Stradling Collection, Cleo Saunders
Our May talk was by Mark Golder on A Century in Print 1920-2020 and also collecting, Chippenham Museum and 3 phases of print making.
Our April talk was by Michael Gray on the History and Architecture of Lydiard House
Our March talk was by Camilla Johns and featured the work of UK Antarctic Heritage Trust
Our February talk was by Eilish Clohessy-Dennis, Curator of the Museum of Making in Derby
Our January 2023 talk by Dr Barbara Swann was on Pictish Stones
Pictish Meigle cross slab
Our February 2022 talk by Michael Gray was on The History, Art and Architecture of St. Mark’s Church, Swindon New Town, it can be viewed here:
Our January 2022 talk was by Neil Redfern on Art and Archaeology, it can be viewed here:
Nicola Cornick’s talk, ‘Swindon Before the Railway’ can be found here: https://youtu.be/GsLvbrcKM_g
‘All You Need is Love’ by Juliet Wood, one of her series of paintings in a fast food outlet in Swindon. We were fortunate enough to have Juliet Wood talking about her life as an artist on 24 June 2020 via Zoom, in a talk entitled ‘From Response to lasting Image’.
It can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR4FIoOtjpU
Joseph Ingleby’s talk can be viewed here:
Talk by Mike Pringle 12.11.20 Beauty of Nature: Incompetence of Painting
Dr Mike Pringle in this beautifully illustrated talk explained the work of Richard Jefferies, his upbringing and influences and the importance of his work today.
Desmond Morris Remembering Swindon 17 February 2021
84 computers joined us for this memorable Friends’ talk, making over 100 people in total. The first part of the talk is missing, but will appear in note form soon.
Dr Stuart Prior gave a talk on 24 February entitled: Minster, Manor and Town- Excavations at Berkeley Castle 2004-19 about his years excavating around Berkeley, what he found, and what it tells us about life in the Kingdom of Hwicce in 660.
On 28 April, we hosted a talk by Dan Hicks, author of The Brutish Museums The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
At the recent Swindon Festival of Literature, Dr Mike Pringle gave this talk which is really part 2 of the talk he gave us : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl_CdR54V8g&t=6s
You can find out more about his new book as well.
Our May talk was given by Katie Ackrill about Three Great Women Artists: Artemsia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman and Suzanne Valadon: https://youtu.be/YwU7WXTlDn4
23 June Katy Whitaker talked about Sarsen Stones
On 28 July, Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger, archaeological adviser to Swindon Borough Council gave a talk on ‘Archaeology in the Swindon area’ picking 8 of the sites from the 1800 listed sites.
August’s talk was on the Art of Ashdown House, a National Trust property 8 miles from Swindon, by Nicola Cornick, a guide at the house for the last 20 years, and an author of many published books:
The photograph is a portrait by Miereveld of Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia .
Our September talk was given by Jo Baring, Director and Curator of the Ingram Collection, there will soon be a blog post about the talk, and there’s more information here.
Our October talk was given by David Dawson, Director of the Wiltshire Museum, about their current exhibition: Ravilious: Downland Man:
Our November talk was by ceramicist Grant Aston whose piece ‘Radioactivitat’ entered the Swindon Collection in 2015, and we were pleased to hear about his artistic direction of travel since then.