Summer 2021

NEWSLETTER theartssociety.org/truro

Wed 10 Nov 2021 Lectures Booked Sept to Dec 2021 The Grand Tour Tom Duncan In this lecture Tom recreates the perspective of a “Grand Wed 8 Sep 2021 Tourist” of the eighteenth century. Who went, how did they travel, what did they see and what did they buy? Did the The Borgias: The Most Infamous Family in History Sarah Dunant experience have any lasting influence on those who went? Murder, poison, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for These and many other questions will be answered! sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad? In this lecture Sarah Thur 11 Nov 2021 DISCOVERY DAY reveals the real family that dominated the Papacy and Italian politics English Landscape Gardening and the Classical Picturesque Tom Duncan at the end of the 15th century. A remarkable number of Eighteenth century classical gardens such as Stowe and Stourhead survive. Landscape design owed much to the influence of artists such as Poussin, Claude and Wed 13 Oct 2021 Constable. Enjoy a day travelling through time on a Grand AGM followed by Photography as Fine Art Brian Stater Tour of an Arcadian world . Looking at the work of some of the acknowledged masters of Wed 8 Dec 2021 photography, Brian discusses whether photography can equal or The History and Art of the Nativity Crib Geri Parlby even exceed more traditional disciplines in portraiture, landscape Geri looks at the art form of the crib, from the carved masterpieces of the and still life. medieval era to the extraordinary semi-pagan variations of South America. Christmas will never be the same again! Brian Stater

Please note : At the time of going to press we’re not sure if lectures To this end, the committee will be discussing all options, including making for September to December can be LIVE or whether we shall have to arrangements to continue with Zoom lectures if necessary, and we will be continue with ZOOM. We are working hopefully towards returning to live in touch with you all as soon we can, giving you details of what lectures, with time and space for you to enjoy a coffee or glass of wine arrangements we’ve made. and a chat before the lecture, at Truro College. The College will welcome Meanwhile, we hope you keep well and enjoy the sunshine! us back, once Government restrictions allow, and we are satisfied that we can keep you all safe. theartssociety.org/truro

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for KROWJI joining the lectures on line this year. Also to say how much I appreciate the feedback you EMERGENCY have sent me. It’s great to get your comments as it helps me plan for the future. APPEAL Do always send me topics you would like to see covered or favourite lecturers you would like me to The Art Society South West Area Team, with the support book again - with over 380 lecturers all offering and agreement of the Arts Societies of Falmouth, South several titles there is an amazing choice available to Devon, Truro, Liskeard, Bodmin and West Cornwall have us. been pleased to make a donation of an Area Grant of £500 Have a lovely summer! to the Krowji Emergency Appeal. Karen - Programme Secretary

As well as our contribution, we send our sympathy to the Why not book for a wonderful evening of artists affected by the devastating fire on 16th May at Opera at Trevince Estate Gardens, Krowji, the creative workspace run by the charity Creative Gwennap, Redruth Kernow in Redruth. You may have seen it on the television You are sure to bump into other news. Art Society Truro members there! Kroji means workshop or shed in Cornish. This ‘upcycled’ Sun, 18 Jul, 18:30–21:30 Grammar School provides studios and workspaces for a Join the Intimate Opera Cornwall accompanied by Clive Ellison in the beautiful sur- diverse range of artistic businesses. Creative Kernow has roundings of Trevince Estate garden in celebration of the masterpieces of Italian launched the Krowji Emergency Campaign to provide opera. Beautiful arias and ensembles. emergency support for their community of tenants. Take a picnic or book one from The Cornish Italian when buying tickets. Read all about it by googling Trevince Opera Opera is £35 and an optional picnic for £10 All of the money raised will go directly towards supporting https://visittruro.org.uk/whats/intimate-opera-cornwall-trevince Krowji artists who have been worst-affected and help Krowji start to plan and rebuild for the future. We send our best wishes for a speedy return to a successful workspace for the future and If you would also like to help, go to: You can now become a member of the Arts Society Truro for a reduced fee of £30 - for the rest of 2021. Krowji Emergency Campaign - This £30 will enable you to access our September, October, November & Creative Kernow December lectures, as well as our member only events in 2021. Please note we do not organise lectures during our summer break, in July & August. Click here to join September to December 2021 theartssociety.org/truro Zoom walk around Florence Thursday 14th October 2021 11am I am sure like me many of you have missed a little cultural trip to Italy over the last two years. So the next best thing a Zoom walk around Florence with Anna Piperato. I know everyone who came on Anna’s walk earlier this year around Siena really enjoyed it. So do sign up and come along. Once again it is only £5 per person. Anna Piperato We will visit many of the main sites of Florence. Starting at San Lorenzo to learn about the Medici family. Then towards the Duomo and the Baptistry Campanile - and that famous dome. Heading down the Via dei Calzaiuoli (bonus points if you can pronounce It). We will marvel at the sculptures at the Orsanmichele before arriving in Piazza della Signoria (where a copy of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ guards the entrance to the Town Hall). Passing underneath the Uffizi Gallery we’ll finish with a beautiful view of the River Arno and Ponte Vecchio. Don’t miss out it will be a superb morning! For those of you who don’t know Anna she is a registered guide, passionate and contagious and a very knowledgable young woman. She grew up in the USA and studied Art History in New York and Manchester. Now living in Siena sharing her love for Italy. Karen Kitson

To join Anna’s walk, please click on the link below. Application Form

theartssociety.org/truro PRIVATE GUIDED TOUR OF POLGOON VINEYARD ON WEDNESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2021 (90 minute guided tour from start to finish, followed by a tasting of five wines and a Group lunch)

POLGOON VINEYARD THE TOUR Formerly a Cornish flower farm, Each tour begins with a walk through Polgoon has been transformed by John the orchards and then up into the and Kim Coulson into a thriving vines to learn about the apple and vineyard and orchard with a range of grape varieties, as well as care and award- winning Cornish wines, ciders pruning regimes. In the production and soft drinks. The very first vintage areas you will find out about pressing won ‘Best Still Rose in the UK’ in 2007 and fermentation and how the and a series of award -winning wines traditional method is used to make and cider vintages have followed. sparkling wines and ciders. (The vineyard is located just off the A30, The tour concludes with the tasting where it by passes Penzance on the way to of five of the Polgoon wines and Lands End. Postcode is TR20 8TE.) ciders.

THE COST AND BOOKING EATING OUT The cost is £30 which includes tour and The numbers booked so far have lunch. The menu for lunch is as follows: indicated a preference for the 11am Freshly baked bread & olives, ham, tour, so there will now be one tour at cheese and pickle platter, followed by this time, followed by lunch for Cornish strawberries and cream. To everyone at 12.30. follow there will be a choice of tea or This will be in a purpose-built coffee. outdoor barn area, which is Nearer the time there will be a further sufficiently large enough to allow for update, with greater detail of how to social distancing as required. get there. There are currently 14 places still To book, click on the following link: available. Booking link for Polgoon Vineyard AWARDS Seven times winner of Cornwall Life The International Wine Challenge The South West Vineyards Association Magazine’s Best Producer Award

Awarded Gold Taste of the West Medal The UK Vineyards Association The Independent English Wine Awards

theartssociety.org/truro DAME MAGDALENE ODUNDO Bertie Pearce,last month’s entertaining lecturer, has given us some further Dame Magdalene Odundo is one of the greatest reading ideas and links to websites ceramicists working today. One of her sculptural works broke a world auction record in ceramic art last year, "WE ARE AMUSED!" A PANORAMA OF and she is a key figure in arts education. Arts Society VICTORIAN LEISURE FROM THE Lecturer Helen Ritchie meets her to discuss the alchemy PARLOUR TO THE SEASIDE, VIA THE of making and what we must heed for the future of teaching art. NURSERY” The clay helps with healing. I think that all artists and PHOTOGRAPHY: CRISTIAN BARNETT Books creative people feel a lot better the minute they get Victorian Panorama - Paintings of Victorian Life back to the making.’ Magdalene Odundo is in her studio by Christopher Wood in Surrey. She’s at work on the first pots she has made The Pursuit of Leisure - Victorian Depictions of since 2018 – a group of masterful new pieces about to be shipped to New York, to be shown at Salon 94. She’s Pastimes- Catalogue of an exhibition curated by happy to be at work. A spell of serious illness has Gail-Nina Anderson and Joanne Wright stopped her temporarily from making, but she has Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain by Pamela Horn returned to it with gusto. Adam Bede by George Eliot Her practice demands her attention. Her blockbuster exhibition, Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things, was exhibited to huge acclaim in 2019 at both The Shops Hepworth and Sainsbury Centre, Norwich. Jaques of London - jaqueslondon.co.uk It showcased her own pieces as well as myriad global references that have informed her work. These Museums included vessels from ancient Greece and Egypt, Sudbury Hall and The Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire (National Trust) Modernist sculpture, Elizabethan dress and ceramics from Africa, Asia and Central America. And last year, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sudbury-hall-and-the-national-trust- along with being awarded a damehood for her museum-of-childhood contribution to arts and art education, her Angled The National Railway Museum, York railwaymseum.org.uk Mixed Coloured Vessel fetched a record price at auction Osborne House, Isle of Wight. English-heritage.org.uk for a work by a ceramic artist (£240,000). Exhibiting Toy Museum ilkleytoymuseum.co.uk continuously since her graduation from the Royal The Watts Gallery- wattsgallery.org.uk College of Art in 1982, Odundo has followed her own trajectory, ignoring the fashions in ceramics that have come and gone. Societies The Victorian Society - victoriansociety.org.uk For more of Dame Magdalene’s story, please click the link The Frank Matcham Society - frankmatchamsociety.org.uk https://theartssociety.org/arts-news-features/her-own-language-dame-magdalene-odundo The Magic Circle - themagiccircle.co.uk theartssociety.org/truro PLEASE NOTE: Although ’Very Curious, Very Curious’ started a few days ago, the lectures are all recorded, so you can dip-in at any time.

Anyone can sign up for the series, not just Arts Society members. It is all free, but you must sign up.

Please follow this link for more details and sign in. https://theartssociety.org/arts-news- features/very-curious-very-curious

We want to enrich lives through the arts, even if we cannot leave our homes. During the current situation many people will feel isolated and lonely. On this site we want to connect people through a shared love for the arts. Please click on the red panel above for further Talks and Lectures.

theartssociety.org/truro build-up to the 1745 Rising: Sir John St Aubyn (St Michael’s Mount) and Sir William A TOAST! by Jeni Fraser Carew (Antony). There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame. Raising a glass in a toast has long been an important social ritual. For Jacobites, gathering in secrecy to honour the exiled Stuarts, the toast possessed a special The church is in ruins, the state is in jars, significance. The most famous Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars; Jacobite toasts are those to ‘the king over the water’, during which glasses We darena week say’t, but we ken wha’s to blame; would be passed over a vessel There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame. containing water such as a finger bowl (to signify the gulf between the (Anon) British Isles and the French residence Approximately 600 miles separate Cornwall from of the Stuart claimant, nicknamed the Highlands (according to Google maps), yet the "The Old Pretender.") Even saying South-West was very nearly a vital area of “Amen” could have a Jacobite in Jacobite history. In 1715 it was earmarked for a context especially if your toasting (Image: foot of a Jacobite ‘Amen’ glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ) James Francis Edward Stuart major part of the Uprising planned for that year. glass was decorated with the Jacobite (1688-1766) The Cornish Uprising was to be led by James Anthem, a crown and a portrait of James III or his initials (examples, here). In the (The ‘Old Pretender’) Butler, the Duke of Ormonde, and involved many mid-18th century, there was often a flaw in the glass making process whereby a attr. To E. Gill leading High small tear shape appeared in some of the glasses. The Jacobites used this tear in the Tories who supported the Scottish King glass as a symbol of their sadness that they did not have their own king on the James. Butler’s flight into exile in France throne of Scotland. hindered proceedings, but soon afterwards Such was the perceived potency of such forms of words that the authorities made the plan was reactivated and many local some toasts and the possession of Jacobite glasses treasonable, and even delayed dignitaries, including Sir Richard Vyvyan, the provision of finger bowls at official functions until after loyal Hanoverian toasts were involved. The plot was betrayed to the had been drunk to prevent Jacobites from secretly honouring their cause. Government and most of the leaders Toasting the Stuarts in private was one thing: taking up arms to support them at the arrested. decisive moment was quite another. When Bonnie Prince Charlie (’The Young Despite the fact that the South-West never Pretender’) marched south towards Derby to reclaim the throne in 1745, Henry came to fruition in Jacobite plans, the region Jones and most other English Jacobites prudently stayed at home. The return of the still has a good Jacobite legacy. Vyvyan’s Stuarts remained a romantic dream at the bottom of a glass. house at Trelowarren survives, as do the houses of Henry Jones, president of the Wishing you a wonderful summer .. Gloucestershire Cycle Club, one of the oldest established Jacobite clubs (the name refers to CHEERS! the clubs' procedure of meeting in each of Cruikshank, Randulph Refusing to Drink the members houses in turn - hence 'cycle'), the King’s Health “over the water”, 1842 and of leading Cornish Jacobites from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash theartssociety.org/truro Liskeard and Tregony but there were many other places that those afflicted This is the sixth of a series of monthly articles, by Elizabeth Dale, with the disease were housed in a less formal capacity. In 1310 Thomas on some of the more unusual aspects of the history of Truro Bitton, the Bishop of Exeter, made donations to twenty three places in Cornwall where lepers were being looked after, these were mainly rural locations away from centre of populations such as Roche, Argal near Budock The Cornish Bird and Freewater near Probus. One of the facilities (perhaps that’s too former A BLOG ABOUT CORNWALL'S HIDDEN PLACES & UNTOLD STORIES a description!) to receive the sum of 12 shillings from Bitton was ‘Truru”. TRURO’S FORGOTTEN PAST – OUR CITY’S HIDDEN SECRETS Truro’s Lazar George Newman writes in his book Leprosy in the British Isles (1895) that the disease was in decline towards the end of the 13th century but that it House – a home had tended to for lepers. remain fairly common in rural A lazar house was the name areas like Devon and given to an institution that Cornwall and was set up to house and according to care for lepers. Truro’s Lazar Polwhele was still House was built around frequent in Cornwall Kenwyn Street seven hundred years ago in up until the 16th c1309. At that time it was century. It isn’t clear said to be home to 24 people suffering from leprosy. This terrible disease was when Truro’s Lazar thought to have been brought to England by crusaders returning from the Holy House finally closed Wars and was often taken as a sign of uncleanliness, meaning that sufferers and there is very little were often doubly ostracised. evidence that can Wiki Commons help us to pinpoint In Cornwall in 1300 there its location either. In are thought to have been 1657, however, a lease was granted for an area of ground called Park seven hospitals, that is Vedras. The document describes the land as being “near unto a paire of free standing institutions walls heretofore called The Leper’s House.” Park Vedras has been identified devoted to caring for the as being close to present day Stratton Terrace, which 700 years ago would sick and infirm. Of these have been well away from the main town in the valley below. Although any six were said to provide trace of the house or those walls has long since vanished, the plain fact of long term care for lepers their existence adds another layer to the history of the city and its people. at Bodmin, Helston, Launceston Castle Lanlivery, Launceston, Truro (c1824) https://cornishbirdblog.com/2021/01/02/truros-forgotten-past-our-citys-hidden-secrets/ theartssociety.org/truro Citizens of Love and Rage by Gavan Goulder 31 July - 7 November Portrait photography those involved in protests over the lack of action taken by leaders and government to address the climate emergency. Open Tues to Sat. 1000 -1600 Admission £5 Annual Pass Fragile What’s On Planet 14 Aug - 24 Time-Lapse December until 1 August A major Craftwork made in response to the Covid-19 lockdowns by the exhibition of Cornwall and Devon members of the craft network Design watercolours that Nation. illustrate the precariousness of Contemporary Art Medals wilderness and endangered until 8 August environments Tony Foster Bronze relief medals on the theme of climate emergency and the around the world. natural environment from the British Art Medal Society. We are grateful for support from the Foster Foundation.

Festival of Drawing Climate Conversations 14 Aug - 24 December until 5 September A display of community responses to our collection, with a focus Everyone is an artist! on climate change and the impact humans are having on the Take part in an extravaganza of drawing that includes an planet. exhibition of original works and prints by Old Masters.

Glimpsing Truro’s Past Cornwall College 18 September - 24 December 29 June - 10 July & 13 - 24 July The development of our great little city illustrated through Students from the Art & Design Practice degree course will be objects, stories and memories by the people that live and work showing their work of art and craft inspired by objects from the here. collection and final assessment work by graduating students.

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