*This is now sold out*

Malcolm will talk about Cowards’ life in the theatre and why he remains influential and popular today.

Robert goes on a unique, live, musical cabaret journey including previouslyunperformed material.

Malcolm spent 10 years at the V&A lecturing and running theatre courses. He has also interviewed leading actors and directors.

Robert is an award winning cabaret performer and the Cultural Development Director for the Noel Coward Foundation.

Doors open 10am for 10.30am start in the Guildhall Sandwich CT13 9AH.

Cost £35 per person.

These three talks review the enormous changes in our homes over a hundred-year period encompassing aspects of household taste from Victorian clutter to the psychedelic throw away furnishings of the 1970s. Although in many ways light-hearted the lecture examines how social upheaval, war and technical advances transformed our houses.

Doors open 10am for 10.30am start in the Guildhall Sandwich CT13 9AH.

Cost £35 per person.

Please check availability at the next monthly meeting.

Presented by James Russell, this series of three hour long sessions is based on personal experience of a unique art colony.

Nowhere else in the USA have Native American, Spanish and Anglo cultures grown side by side as they have here, and this diversity, along with the glorious light of the high desert, has long attracted artists. The history of this thriving colony is rich, strange and full of remarkable characters, including eccentric Brits and the fabulous American artist Georgia O'Keeffe.

It's inspiring, funny and beautiful.

Doors open 10am for 10.30am start in the Guildhall Sandwich CT13 9AH.

Cost is £35 per person including a light lunch.

If you are interested in coming along please let us know at the next lecture.

Andy McConnell joined the Antiques Roadshow in 2005 and was the first expert to specialise solely in glass. He regularly keeps visitors entertained with his unique style, combining humour and an evident passion for his subject. His personal collection numbers over 30,000 pieces. As a journalist and historian he has written three major books about glassware.

Doors open at 10:00 for 10:30 start in The Main Room at The Guildhall Sandwich CT13 9AH

The afternoon session of this Study Day will offer attendees the opportunity to bring in their own interesting pieces for discussion.

Cost is £40 per person including a light lunch.

If you are interested in coming along, please contact Betty Flint (bettychrisrf@hotmail.com) or let us know at the next lecture.  

2022 is the centenary of the discovery of the Tutankhamun treasures. 2023 will celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the tomb for the first time in 3000 years. Tut-mania affected everything from jewelry and fashion to architecture and design.

The lecturer is Christopher Bradley who has a broad range of lecturing experience, including to the Royal Geographical Society.

This Study Day will give members and guests a great opportunity to learn more about the subject from an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. The cost is £35 which includes a light lunch and tea/coffee at the morning interval.

We want Christopher to have a full room.  Do come to enjoy the lectures and learn more of the mystery of the boy king, his possessions and other priceless Egyptian objects.  If interested, please contact Betty Flint (bettychrisrf@hotmail.com) or let us know at the next lecture.  

Traces the origins of the Chinese Emperors as patrons and collectors of art and antiquities, and the evolution of the Imperial collections through Imperial rule (221BC - 1911) and into the 21st Century.

This study day reveals the remarkable story of the fabled Ballets Russes company established by Diaghilev in Paris in 1909. He and his associates brought nothing less than a revolution in classical dance, which was dazzling to the eye and would have a lasting impact on all arts. The lecture will discuss how artists of the calibre of Bakst, Goncharova, Picasso and Matisse worked with composers such as Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, choreographers such as Fokine and Balanchine, and dancers such as Pavlova, Karsavina and Nijinsky to create ballet staging of genius.

It promises to be a fascinating day. The cost is £35 which includes coffee and a light lunch.

If you are interested and want to register your attendance please let Betty Flint know. Her email is bettychrisrf@hotmail.com and her telephone number is 01304 368324.

The Guildhall, Sandwich – 10.30am to 3.00pm

This study day will provide a fascinating insight into this topic following the course of this hard, determined, often brutal dynasty who ruled Russia for over three hundred years, from Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg, through his eccentric daughter Elizabeth, to Catherine the Great, the most powerful of all the Empresses of Russia who had no real claim to the throne, and on to the tragic figure of Nicholas II, the last Tsar and one of the most poignant figures in history whose death in a cellar in Ekaterinburg ended the reign of this turbulent and ill-fated family. 

The cost for the day with coffee and a light lunch is £35.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of  'The New Academy of Art Studies' for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at 'The Study Center', 'Christie's' course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe.

He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on'Whistler' and the exhibition video on 'William Morris.' Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, 'River of Light', has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France.

Susan has an extensive knowledge and passion for fine jewellery and is a regular expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. 

The 20th Century is a fascinating time for jewellery and fashion. Susan will guide us through the colourful world of jewellery and how design has evolved. Names such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and Tiffany will be integral to the presentation. Susan will also illustrate how fashion designers were influencing jewellery and how fashion houses such as Worth, Chanel and Dior, joined forces with jewellery designers to provide the complete look for each decade.

The committee will be taking bookings when we meet on 1st February. The cost will be £35 per person and will include a buffet lunch, as well as breaks for tea and coffee. 

If you are interested and want to register your attendance please let Betty Flint know, and her email is bettychrisrf@hotmail.com Alternatively, her telephone number is 01304 368324.