Wokingham Town Council Town Hall Lectures

Wokingham Town Council Arts and Culture Committee have announced three lectures on Arts and Culture.

Thursday May 16th 2013
St Crispin’s School and the Millett Murals
Speaker: Robin Cops
St. Crispin’s School in Wokingham is a successful mixed comprehensive and for the past 40 years three remarkable murals have lain unseen and masked by layers of utilitarian paint. Astonishingly, as part of a school development programme in the 1970’s, the murals and all the original spectacular ‘50s decorations in the school were painted out. But now two murals have been professionally recovered and restored to their full glory and they bear an impressive testament to an intriguing story which combines art, aspirations and social history. Only recently has the importance and merit of these unique hidden art works been recognised.

Come and find out what is the significance of these murals, the increasing appreciation of the artist Fred Millett and why St. Crispin’s was the most important and most visited post-war secondary school in the country in a fully illustrated talk by Robin Cops, a former Governor at the school and local resident.

Thursday June 20th 2013
Diaghilev and his Ballet Russes – when art danced with music
Speaker: Christine Holley
An intriguing romp through a golden age of creativity – 1909-1929 Paris – a city already a mecca for radical artists when genius impresario Serge Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet arrived in 1909.
Sexily skimpy costumes, scandalous content and bold, vibrant colours defined their daring ballets and Picasso, Matisse, Miro, plus many other modernising artists lined up to design sets and costumes. Diaghilev courted the avant-garde; he also led the way, shaping the course of Modernism in the visual arts – a legacy still with us today.
Christine Holley is a practising visual artist/arts communicator and 2009 mature Fine Art graduate from UCA Farnham. She exhibits regionally and in London. Her Fine Art dissertation on Diaghilev, The Ballets Russes and their impact on Modernism in the visual arts is held at the National Art Library at London’s V&A plus other major establishments. www.holley-projects.co.uk

Thursday July 18th 2013
A Musical Diversion on the Life and Times of Jane Austen
Speaker: Austentation
The evening will chronicle the life, literature and musical accomplishments of Jane Austen, from her early days in Chawton, Hampshire, to her brief sojourn at the Abbey School in Reading, through to her prolific literary period in the gracious town of Bath. All this will be interspersed with music from her time, including one of her own compositions and her own musical favourites
Austentation, the costumed Regency music ensemble, have performed at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton in the Prince Regent’s opulent music room, at both the Jane Austen Centre and the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath and at Jane Austen’s cottage at Chawton, amongst other venues. Most recently, they have performed at the prestigious Keats House Festival in Hampstead Heath. And we should not forget their brief but enthusiastically received performance outside Anthony Blay during last year’s Wokingham Living Advent Calendar!
www.austentation.org

They all start at 7:30pm and last around an hour.

Tickets cost £5 per person per lecture and include refreshments.

Tickets from the Information Centre in the Town Hall.

Open 10am – 2pm Monday to Friday and 10am – 3pm Saturdays.
0118 978 3185