Previous courses

  • Three Ways Of Looking At The World

    23 September 2009 - 9 June 2010

    How humankind has searched for ways to explain and understand the world, its inhabitants and its place in universal order.

  • Exploring London

    30 September 2009 - 23 June 2010

    The London of Charles Dickens, The Archaeology of London and 'The Silvery Thames' - a celebration of the many faces of London's great river.

  • Study Days

    21 September 2009 - 15 February 2010

    Istanbul, City of the World's Desire: the story of Constantinople from its founding by Constantine the Great, its life as the capital of the Byzantine Empire and its renaissance as Ottoman Istanbul. Art goes to the movies: Two study days of lectures and film clips which explore some of the ways in which the film industry has depicted artists and how the visual arts have influenced the design of movies.

  • From Model To Maker

    22 September 2009 - 22 June 2010

    Three linked programmes which examine the relationships between women and the arts. The Muse and the Ideal: How and why women have been idealised in art from the time of Classical Greece and how these ideas have persisted into the 21st century. Real Women: Why artists have chosen to present unidealised images of women and what these images imply. Women as Makers: This programme looks at the art and design made by women who have been working in the visual arts since the 19th century.

  • The Great Collections

    15 September 2008 - 18 May 2009

    London acquired her great public museums and galleries in the 19th century; - The British Museum, begun in the 1820s, The National Gallery in 1840, The Victoria and Albert in 1856 and The Tate in 1897. This programme of linked lectures and visits tell the stories behind the collections and the buildings made to house them.

  • The Art Of Power & The Power Of Art

    16 September 2008 - 23 June 2009

    The visual arts can be expressions of power and authority and of rebellion against authority. This lecture series examines the ways in which art can be used to affirm and undermine power. From displays of cultural supremacy, to social control and manipulation, and international propaganda, art is used to assert the power of nations and cultural groups. It can also be used to criticise and undermine, sometimes using guerrilla tactics to do so. We will explore key moments in our history from the ancient world to the present when art has been at the service of power and revolution.

  • Intolerance

    24 September 2008 - 17 June 2009

    It is becoming a commonplace that religious differences are responsible for some of the insoluble divisions in the modern world. How did these situations arise, were they inevitable or were they the result of political expedience? This lecture series examines ways in which intolerance is fostered and will ask if there can be any solutions.

  • Aspects of London

    17 September 2008 - 27 June 2009

    Geoffrey Tom's programme of lectures and visits reveals different faces of London. Term one looks at Regency London and term two considers great events that have affected the physical shape of the City. Term three concentrates on the city of Wren and his times.

  • Three Artists, Three Worlds

    17 September 2007 - 16 June 2008

    This programme of monthly lectures concentrates on the work of three artists, Donatello, Caravaggio and Seurat. Each one was an innovator and a great craftsman, and broke new ground for art while re- sponding to the social, religious and intellectual climate of his time. 'Three Artists, Three Worlds' will link the careers of these artists and the evolution of their respective visual languages to the very dif- ferent worlds in which they worked.

  • Roma - From the Fall to Fellini

    18 September 2007 - 24 June 2008

    Roma follows the story and the arts of the city from the late Empire to the 20th century. Few cities have experienced Rome's extremes of fortune; squalor and poverty in the early middle ages and great prosperity in the 8th and 9th centuries as she became the capital of the Christian west. Three hundred years of civil war and the loss of the papacy to Avignon brought poverty again followed by the wealth and splendour of the Renaissance and Counter Reformation. Even after the Church ceased to be a major patron, Rome remained a cultural power house, attracting artists of all kinds from across Europe. She survived Napoleon and the struggle for the unification of Italy to emerge as the capital of the new kingdom in 1870. Since then the city has had many roles, the Holy City, Mussolini's New Rome and the 'Hollywood of Europe' but in every case the past and the present are inextricably mixed, Rome remains the 'Eternal City'.

  • Concerning Belief - The Great Faiths

    26 September 2007 - 11 June 2008

    The late 15th century humanist scholars of Florence arrived at the conclusion that all Faiths were paths to an identical goal and that this truth was actually buried and hidden by the structures of organised religion. 'Concerning Belief ' will work with this premise by comparing the core ideas which inform the great faiths of the world and examining the ways in which those ideas developed in very different ways.

  • Three Aspects of London

    19 September 2007 - 25 June 2008

    Geoffrey Tom's programme of lectures and visits reveals three different faces of London. Term one looks at the city as it was in the time of Shakespeare and the development of the London theatre. Term two uses archaeological evidence to unveil the prehistoric and Roman city and Term three traces the development of suburbia and Metroland

  • Secret Languages - Hidden Meanings in Art

    18 September 2006 - 25 June 2007

    Often the complete meaning of a painting or sculpture is conveyed in details which might seem insignificant to the casual observer. To understand the meanings of these symbols and their origins adds immeasurably to the pleasure of reading art. 'Secret Languages' links lectures with visits to London galleries to study relevant works at first hand.

  • The Serene Republic - The Story of Venice and her Arts

    19 September 2006 - 26 June 2007

    At the height of her power in the 15th century Venice controlled a trading empire reaching from Northern Italy to the Eastern Aegean. This ruthless, wealthy and powerful city absorbed ideas from the east and the west to produce arts and architecture which were uniquely Venetian. 'The Serene Republic' will follow the fortunes of Venice, her rise and fall and the development of her sumptuous and exquisite visual arts.

  • The Development of Christianity and Christian Art

    4 October 2006 - 15 November 2006

    Christianity was one belief among many in the Roman world but by the fourth century AD it had become the religion of the empire and missionaries were beginning to take the Christian message beyond the imperial frontiers. From humble beginnings the Faith evolved complex and sometimes contentious doctrines and rich artistic languages. This short series of lectures examines some of the ways in which Christianity and Christian art developed from the 1st to the 16th centuries.

  • The London Course

    27 September 2006 - 27 June 2007

    Geoffrey Tom's programme of lectures and visits explored three different aspects of London. The 17th century city as it was known and described by Samuel Pepys. The supremely elegant London of the 18th century and in the third term, the Imperial City of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

  • A Handbook for Artists

    26 September 2005 - 26 June 2006

    The artists of the past were trained in the use of a variety of techniques and materials, some are still used but many have become redundant or else are used in quite different ways. This programme of lectures and demonstrations will give you some insights into the ways in which the artists of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 17th and 18th centuries created their works.

  • The Story of India

    20 September 2005 - 27 June 2006

    In the third millennium BC. the Indian peninsula was home to one of the great civilisations of the ancient world. Fresh ideas brought by subsequent migrating and invading peoples contributed to cultures which were regarded with awe by the Greeks and the Romans. The Hindu and Buddhist faiths fascinated Western philosophers long before the time of Christ and the sophisticated scholarship, technology and art forms generated in the Indian cities had a lasting impact on European thought. This course is designed to give you some understanding of the great cultural and artistic achievements of India and their impact on the outside world.

  • 'All That Has Been, And Is, And Shall Be'

    21 September 2005 - 28 June 2006

    This programme consists of three interrelated monthly courses, each is a separate study of aspects of the female principle in mythology and religion. They may be taken singly or in combination with one or both of the others to build a complete programme.

  • The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

    22 September 2005 - 29 June 2006

    We are accustomed to looking at the history of art as an evolution with new concepts constantly replacing the old. In fact some ideas have constantly informed western art and continue to do so in this century. This course traces some of these themes from their genesis to their modern manifestations.

  • The Arts of Pre Columbian America

    27 September 2004 - 20 June 2005

    Of the hundreds of Indian nations once living in the Americas, many were settled in permanent communities some of which were as large and sophisticated as any in the 16th century world and which shared trade and ideas along a vast network of land and water routes. These were complex social structures with highly skilled artisans, builders, farmers, mathematicians and doctors, an infinite variety of ways of life. This programme of lectures gives a brief introduction to the lost people and the arts of pre Columbian America.

  • The Arts of France

    21 September 2004 - 21 June 2005

    From the 17th century it was Paris which dominated the cultural life of France but long before the country was drawn together under the crown to become the most powerful European state, her provinces were producing rich and varied arts. This course explores the diversity of French art and culture and the ways in which the country came to be the arbiter of taste in the western world.

  • Older Than Time

    29 September 2004 - 22 June 2005

    A language of symbols has existed since humankind first began to make patterns and images and to tell stories. Some of these symbols exist in the arts of every culture and have been adapted and given fresh layers of meaning over the millenia. In this programme we will trace the roots of some of our most universal symbols and the ways in which they have evolved in the more recent cultures and arts of the world.

  • The Functions & Meanings of Architecture

    23 September 2004 - 23 June 2005

    Architecture is the most public of all western arts and was understood from the 15th century to be the central discipline of all artistic development. This course discusses the many roles required of architecture, the meanings of the architectural languages and the contexts in which they were used.

  • Art, Philosophy, Science & The Monastic Orders

    29 September 2003 - 14 June 2004

    It is generally known that the monasteries were the centres of learning in the early Middle Ages and that it was in the monastic libraries and scriptoria that vital texts were preserved and copied. What are less well understood are the roles played by the monastic and mendicant Orders in shaping thought and art in the Middle Ages, not only within the Church but across the wider spectrum of European learning and arts. This lecture series will examine the impact of some of the major Orders on the society of their time and the ways in which they may have contributed to modern attitudes.

  • Europa & The Barbarians, The Foundations of European Culture

    23 September 2003 - 22 June 2004

    The Greeks used the name 'Europa' to describe a vaguely defined mass of land west and north of the Mediterranean. To them and to the Romans the inhabitants were 'barbaraphonai', speakers of babble and inferior in every respect to the civilised inhabitants of the Mediterranean lands. So great was the impact of Greco Roman culture in Europe that it is easy to forget that anthing else existed and to assume that the destruction of the western Roman empire brought any cultural achievements to an end.

  • Born In The USA, The American Century

    24 September 2003 - 23 June 2004

    At the beginning of the 20th Century America was well on the way to becoming the wealthiest state in the world but it was still perceived by outsiders to be a country without any real culture. With very few exceptions, American artists and designers of the 19th century had been measured against their European contemporaries and found wanting. By the 1950s all of this had changed and America was at the cutting edge of the arts; a great dynamo which seemed capable of endless invention. No other country had the social and ethnic mix of the States.

  • The Triumph Of Albion, The Renaissance in England

    25 September 2003 - 24 June 2004

    When Henry VII, the first of the Tudors took the English crown in 1485, the old power structures of medieval Europe were already changing. Constantinople had fallen to the Ottomans in 1453, Italian dominance of international trade and banking was in decline and within Henry's own reign the discovery of the New World would change the patterns of trade and enterprise for ever. Under the Tudors and the Stuart monarchs who followed them, little England became a major player in the emerging political and commercial worlds.