On Tuesday 28th April 2026 in the Ballroom, Guildhall Arts Centre, join us for our next Special Interest Day on one of the most renown artists of his time, Jan Van Eyck.  Start time is 10.00 am for 10.30 am - 3 pm approximate finish. 

This study day on Van Eyck, is well timed to complement the National Gallery exhibition later in the year. Van Eyck was an innovative and technically brilliant observer of reality in an era when naturalism was becoming the goal of every artist. His paintings still astonish on account of their dazzling evocations of textiles, metalwork and distant landscapes, and their sophisticated illusionism, as well as for their sheer ingenuity and virtuosity. This Study Day discusses Van Eyck’s achievements, his career at the Burgundian court and his clientele in Bruges, and surveys his works, including the celebrated Ghent Altarpiece, and the so-called Arnolfini Marriage in the National Gallery.

Paula is a Specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely.  She has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020).  Before retiring in 2023, Paula was Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year Course and has taught at – among others – the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.  She now focuses on the Arts Society, her own online courses, and research. 

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Join us for our next Special Interest Day on Tuesday 7th October 2025 in the Ballroom, Guildhall Arts Centre 10.00 am for 10.30 am Start – 3 pm approximate finish. 

Sophie Matthews will be covering Music in Art in Three-Session Special Interest Day.  Listen to how instruments depicted in the paintings of Bruegal, Bosch and Hogarth may have sounded, explore different bagpipes played in the British Isles and Europe - not all are Scottish!- and discover the remarkable book published in 1539 called In Chaldaicam Lingua.  Refreshments and a Sandwich Lunch is included

Cost per person: £42 members    £45 guests/non-TAS members

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Join us for our next Special Interest Day on Tuesday 1st April 2025 in the Ballroom, Guildhall Arts Centre 10.00 am for 10.30 am Start – 3 pm approximate finish. 

Pamela Campbell-Johnston Art Deco will be lecturing on the centenary of the 1925 Paris Expo in Three-Session Special Interest Day.  Refreshments and a Sandwich Lunch is included

Cost per person: £42 members    £45 guests/non-TAS members

SPECIAL INTEREST DAY - FULL

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This Study Day has a simple purpose - to make the Wars of the Roses easy to understand. This is no small challenge. The events, actions, battles and reversals of fortune making up this series of civil conflicts in late mediæval England are complicated, to say the least. The key to it all is to find a way to clearly identify and understand the positions of the individual human beings involved, in what was a deeply personal and bitter dynastic feud. Achieving a meaningful sense of the key players is difficult however, since names and titles often repeat through several generations of the noble families involved. Also, very few portraits exist - in many cases we have no physical description of the 'Rose Warriors' at all.

Expressing the progression of events and the interpersonal relationships visually, in lively and creative ways, the lecturer draws on his academic and practical experiences, as both a scholar of the late Middle Ages and as one of the world's foremost mediæval martial artists, to bring this oft-misunderstood but remarkable period of British history to life.The lecturer also offers the chance to handle replica fifteenth-century arms and armour from his own collection.