The Arts and Crafts Movement in Surrey. A cottage by Sir Edwin Lutyens at Munstead.

William De Morgan tile.

Recent and forthcoming lecture series

Helen Chapman Davies – The story of Onslow Village   27 January
Desna Greenhow – The Rob Dickins collection of Victorian photographs   24 February
Anne Anderson – Eglantyne Jebb, Charles Leland & the Home Arts Movement    1 April
Jean Vacher – Early 20th century textiles   29 September
Jeanne Dolmetsch – her grandfather   29 October
Simon Green – Arts and Crafts in Scotland   24 November

Note: the lectures will be held at Onslow village hall

Recent and forthcoming events

Whitelands College and De Morgan Centre  –  Friday 17 April
ACMS AGM  –  Thursday 14 May at the Tilford Institute
Goddards study day  –  Tuesday 16 June, with lecture by Gavin Stamp

External events

Events of interest external to the society.

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Spring lectures

Helen Chapman Davies
The story of Onslow Village – A Garden Suburb in an ancient landscape
Tuesday 27th January 2009 - 7.30pm for 8:00pm
at the Onslow Village Hall (location map)

An illustrated lecture by Helen Chapman Davies placing Onslow Village into context. The story begins with Guildford Park - a royal hunting park created by Henry II shortly after 1154. The talk continues with the Onslows, who bought Guildford Park, and the family’s rise to prominence. The creation of the Garden Suburb of Onslow Village follows, described at the time as ‘a new and greater Guildford’ and named in honour of the 5th Earl of Onslow who sold the land and who maintained a keen interest in the venture. The village was developed on garden city lines with the first houses ready for occupation in 1920.

Helen Chapman Davies has developed her interests as an author and local historian following retirement from the University of Surrey.

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Desna Greenhow
The Rob Dickins collection of Victorian photographs of artists, writers and the great and good of the nineteenth century
Tuesday 24 February 2009 - 7.30pm for 8:00pm
at the Onslow Village Hall (location map)

This lecture by Dr Desna Greenhow features the collection of over 4000 photographs and letters recently donated to the Watts Gallery, which she is transferring on line for research in the future. During the Watts Gallery refurbishment, it will be housed in the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute. Last year the exhibition ‘Victorian Artists in Photographs’, gave a taster of some of the plums in the collection. Now touring, it is to be shown at the Ruskin Library in the University of Lancaster in the spring. The lecture will give an idea of the flavour and potential of the collection. There are marvellous images of well-known figures from the nineteenth century, and entertaining stories about some of them.

Desna is member of ACMS, a historian who has restored a mill, producing flour by water power, and created and run a working water mill museum, gallery and workshops. Her present involvement is in nineteenth century idealism in art - working at Watts Gallery writing and editing publications, and organising exhibitions, including ‘Victorian Artists in Photographs’.

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Anne Anderson
Eglantyne Jebb, Charles Leland and the Home Arts Movement
Wednesday 1 April 2009 - 7.30pm for 8:00pm
at the Onslow Village Hall (location map)

The Home Arts Movement was invariably given a negative press by the art establishment, especially the members of the Art Worker’s Guild. Attitudes to the role and position of the amateur practitioner were ambivalent, as members of the Guild saw amateurism eroding the position of the professional, often male, worker. Yet the Home Arts Movement attempted to put Morris’s dictum into practice in terms of ‘Art by the People, For the People’. The Home Arts and Industries Association was at the forefront of promoting the crafts as ‘rationale recreation’; but as Anne Anderson will explain from the outset the intentions of the founders were at cross-purposes. Eglantyne Jebb saw the crafts as a means of elevating the tastes and morals of the labouring classes, while the American Charles Leland saw the crafts as a means of improving industrial production.

Dr Anne Anderson, trained as an Art Historian and Archaeologist; a researcher, author and lecturer, she is now based at Bristol University.

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Whitelands College, Roehampton and the De Morgan Centre, Wandsworth

Friday 17th April 2009 11:00am – 4:30pm

Whitelands College, formerly Parkstead House, was built for the 2nd Earl of Bessborough by the royal architect William Chambers circa 1760 to house the Earl's celebrated collection of classical artefacts from the continent. Whitelands College moved into Parkstead House in 2004 and is the oldest college for women in the country and has always attracted important benefactors including: John Ruskin, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Kate Greenaway who bestowed beautiful gifts to the College. In addition to an exceptional collection of paintings, other treasures at the College include 15 marvellous Burne-Jones stained-glass windows and a beautiful reredos by William Morris. After an introductory talk, Gilly King, the College Archivist will give the group talk a guided tour.

In 2002 The De Morgan Foundation brought together its extensive collection of the works of William and Evelyn De Morgan and archive material relating to their lives and their circle at the De Morgan Centre at West Hill Reference Library, a building dating from 1887. The collection encompasses the ceramics of William De Morgan and paintings of Evelyn De Morgan previously at Old Battersea House and includes the Foundation's collection of works previously on loan to Cardiff Castle, Cragside in Northumberland and Knightshayes Court in Devon.

The Centre is a major education amenity for study and research into late 19th Century arts and society, for as well as their creative work the De Morgans were involved in many social issues of the time, including women's suffrage, prison reform, pacifism and spiritualism. We shall have an introductory talk in the Gallery by Claire Longworth, the Curator, followed by the opportunity to view the collection.

Tickets: Members - £24, Non-Members - £26. To include guided tours, morning coffee, buffet lunch at Whitelands College and a donation to the De Morgan Centre. Numbers are limited to 25 so priority will be given to members plus one guest.
Booking forms have been sent to members; if you require another booking form please let us know.

Details of past events

Archive details of past events are available for the following years:

Events of 2008
Events of 2007
Events of 2006
Events of 2005
Events of 2004

 

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