The Arts Society Hawke’s Bay

Founded in 2013, The Arts Society Hawke’s Bay helps open up the world of the arts to everyone. We have a friendly and enthusiastic membership who come together to enjoy an annual programme of eight talks on a wide spectrum of arts-related topics. We also support the arts through a grant giving programme. Since inaugurating in 2013, The Arts Society Hawke’s Bay has contributed more than $40,000 to local and national arts projects and causes, including many with a youth focus.

Programme Details

We gather for eight talks annually covering a diverse range of topics from architecture, design, glass, fashion, porcelain, ceramics, art and art history, sculpture and literature. The success of the Society is built on the high quality of presentations delivered by accredited specialists, many of whom are approved in the UK for their proven subject matter expertise and presentation skills.

Talks are held on a Monday evening at 7.00pm. Our venue is the Magdalinos Room in the Havelock North Function Centre, 30 Te Mata Road. The Centre is situated beside the Library in the centre of the Village. Light refreshments with a glass of wine or juice are provided after each talk. Members and guests enjoy this opportunity to mingle with friends, talk with the speaker and meet other members. For news on The Arts Society Hawke’s Bay, please follow us on Facebook and also on Instagram.

With the speakers who deliver by live broadcast, there are opportunities to view additional topics from home. Links will be sent by email.

our 2025 programme

In 2025 we offer seven accredited The Arts Society speakers from the UK and one Australian-based. Six of these will be with us in person and two will come via live broadcast from the UK. With the online talks, there are opportunities to view additional topics from home, tuning in to the gatherings hosted by the other Societies around the country.

We hope that things will run smoothly but will be ready to adapt our programme arrangements if necessary.

Membership

Returning members:  Renewing members can simply pay their subscription as outlined below. You can email us to confirm or to update any changed details if necessary: hawkesbay@theartssociety.org

New members: To apply for membership please download and complete the 2024 TASHB Membership Form   which can then be scanned and emailed to the above email address or posted to the “Membership Secretary, TASHB, c/o 23C Chambers St, Havelock North 4130”.

Payment should be made by direct credit to The Arts Society Hawke’s Bay,  BNZ Bank Account: 02 0644 0164828 00
Please include your full name and reference as ‘2024 subs’ as a reference. 

Early Bird Special : Take advantage of a discounted subscription rate for the full year of 8 talks – $130.00 per person for subscriptions fully paid by the date of our first talk on 4 March.

This is a saving on our standard subscription of $160 for individuals and $300 for a couple living at the same address.

For subscriptions received after 4 March 2024, the annual fee is pro-rated to $20 per talk for the remainder of the subscription programme. The subscription fee covers the cost of the venue and equipment, travel and accommodation costs for the speaker and refreshments after the talk. As an incorporated charitable trust we are a non-profit organisation.

Guests are welcome to attend two talks a year at a fee of $25 per talk. Membership is not transferable. The fee for visiting members from other NZ Societies will be $15.  Please notify the Membership Secretary, Pamela Reading-Windle, by the Friday prior to the talk if you are bringing a guest – by phone: 027 568 8720 or email: hawkesbay@theartssociety.org

Please also notify Pamela if you wish to change any of your contact details.

Hawke’s Bay – 2025 Speaker Biographies and Topics

Peter McPhee

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 24 February 2025 – 7.00pm

Peter McPhee was appointed to a Personal Chair in History at the University of Melbourne in 1993. He had previously taught at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1980-87. He has published widely on the history of modern France, most recently Liberty or Death: the French Revolution (2016); and An Environmental History of France: Making the Landscape 1770-2020 (2024). He was appointed as the University of Melbourne’s first Provost in 2007-09. He was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to education in 2003 and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012. He is currently the Chair of the History Council of Victoria, the state’s peak body for history.

PAINTING THE FRENCH LANDSCAPE, 1770-2020: FROM WATTEAU TO COGNÉE

The French landscape has undergone many changes over the past 250 years, and so have artistic ways of capturing it. This lecture explores the paintings of Watteau, Millet, Courbet, Van Gogh, Monet, Soutine, Cognée and others less well known in the 1770-2020 period. Why did they paint the countryside, when this was not always the fashionable thing to do? And how did they paint it?

Christopher Garibaldi

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 31 March 2025 – 7.00pm

Christopher Garibaldi MA (Oxon), MBA, MPhil (Cantab), is an independent researcher and scholar. He recently completed an MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture at St John’s College, Cambridge where he is currently studying for his doctorate on aspects of the history of royal patronage.
2010–2019 Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art: 2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections. 1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000. 1994–1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

IRMA STERN (1894-1966) – FLOWERS AND FACES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

Irma Stern was one of the most important and influential artists to come out of South Africa in the twentieth century. A near contemporary of Munnings, her art shows some stylistic similarities although her subjects were very different. A similar concern with figurative painting was in Stern’s case directed at the production of luxurious flower paintings in the manner of Van Gogh whilst perhaps her most original achievement were the powerful portraits she painted of black African sitters in exotic locations and costumes. This lecture serves as an introduction to the art of South Africa whilst addressing important contemporary themes relating to the depiction of race, colonialism and the appropriation of African culture.

Lars Tharp

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 5 May 2025 – Broadcast Live from the UK – 7.00pm 

Since my 1986 debut on the BBC Antiques Roadshow (and all series since), I have spoken widely, within and beyond the UK. With over 40 years of experience in ceramics and other areas, I aim to combine several compelling narratives with enthusiasm and humour. Born in Copenhagen, I studied Archaeology at Cambridge and joined Sothebys where, as a director and auctioneer (1977-1993), I specialized in Chinese and European ceramics. Today my consultancy devises and curates exhibitions, advises on the acquisition, care and disposal of ceramics and other fields. I also speak a lot: many of my most popular talks concern the vast universe of clay and ceramics as well as the world and works of William Hogarth

THE COUNTESS, THE CAPTAIN AND THEIR 23,000 CHILDREN

Thomas Coram, a ship’s merchant who after years in Massachusetts, returned to London, resuming his paths through his former London haunts. As he passed tradesfolk dealing among piles rags discarded in the street something caught his eye. One morning, seeing a movement in one of the piles, he prodded it with his stick. It moved. A baby. Alive! In the following days and weeks, Coram criss-crossed the town’s many byways, his disbelief turning to anger. More and more bundles. Babies mostly but some alive. For the next seventeen and a half years -meticulously recorded Coram was on a mission. Unlike Continental cities, at this time England had no proper institution devoted to the saving of abandoned babies. “Something had to be done”.
Lars tells the extraordinary story bringing in Coram’s supporters including the young Charlotte Finch, Duchess of Somerset and later William Hogarth. Lars follows a narrative culminating in London’s Foundling Hospital. The many art donations made by Hogarth and his artist friends helped make this England’s first publicly funded charity, London’s first art gallery and in whose chapel each year was performed Messiah a – work written and donated by one of The Foundling’s most generous supporters, George Friderick Handel.
Lars, a former director of the Foundling, interweaves the lives of Coram, the Countess of Somerset and William Hogarth.

Note: With his online speaking circuit, Lars will be delivering six unique talks to all the NZ Societies so there is an opportunity to view additional topics from home. Details and links will be sent in advance.

Chris Aslan

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 9 June 2025 – 7.00pm

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent several years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came a couple more years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Since then, Chris has studied and rowed at Oxford, lived in Cambridge, but is now based in a mountain village overlooking the sea in North Cyprus. Chris writes fiction and non-fiction, and his most recent book is called Unravelling the Silk Road. Chris lectures for the Art Society during the first quarter of each year, and leads tours with Indus Experiences to Central Asia, having left a large chunk of his heart there.

COLOURING THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE: PROKUDIN-GORSKY, PIONEER OF COLOUR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

This lecture examines the rise of fall of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, and his pioneering use of digichromatography, creating stunning colour photographs decades before colour photography was supposedly invented. Dazzling Russian royalty with his photographs, he was commissioned by the Tsar to traverse the largest contiguous Empire in the world to document its land and peoples. The Tsar even gave him permits to travel into restricted areas and furnished him with a railway carriage, transformed into a dark room. He captured traditional ways of life from as far afield as Samarkand and the desert oases of the Turkmens and Tajiks, soon to be swept away by the Bolshevik revolution. Prokudin-Gorsky’s own fortunes would also change rapidly, as he planned a daring escape from the newly formed Soviet Union.

Alice Foster

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 14 July 2025 – 7.00pm

Alice has lectured for Oxford University, Department of Continuing Education since 1998. She lectures at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Her busy freelance career also includes organising themed study days with colleagues, and regular weekly classes in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire. In 2004 Alice joined The Arts Society and has lectured in Great Britain and Europe. Formerly President of Northleach Arts Society, she is also President of Banbury Fine Arts Society. Since its inception in 2003 Alice has led study holidays with Learn Italy Ltd to Italy and other parts of Europe. In 2024 she joined the team at the Argyll Hotel, Isle of Iona, Scotland, and runs History of Art Study weeks, specialising in the work of Scottish artists.

ABOUT FACE: HOW TO READ PORTRAITS

What do portraits tell us about the sitter? Are they shy? Are they powerful people? What aspects of character are revealed? What attributes do they include in their portrait painting? Why was the portrait made in the first place, and what does it tell us about the period in which it was made? All these questions are covered in my lecture. Today we expect a likeness of the face in our portraits, but this was not always a priority: sitters would be identified by their coats of arms or perhaps a family emblem. The development of the oil medium in the fifteenth century allowed painters to study the face and thus, the likeness in the portrait face evolved. The lecture is presented thematically rather than chronologically, and themes of family, friendship, power and status and costume are among those covered.

Pamela Campbell-Johnson

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 18 August 2025 – broadcast live from the UK – 7.00pm

With an MA Hons Art History, St Andrew’s University, Pamela has over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the RA’s Adult Education Department. She has also conducted numerous guided tours, residential trips and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialising in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art – Pamela has a particular love for the 1920s and 1930s. She’s had permanent career at Royal Academy of Arts for 12 years and work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register and National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer, she recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

THE ART OF ART DECO

100 years on: why do we still love the Art Deco Style? The Art Deco period of the 1920s and 1930s represented one of the most alluring and enduring of styles. We consider the Movement’s development within its social and economic environment whilst looking at specific examples of objets d’art and iconic representations of civic and domestic architecture in London, New York, Miami, Napier & Mumbai.

Note: With her online speaking circuit, Pamela will be delivering seven unique talks to all the NZ Societies so there is an opportunity to view additional topics from home. Details and links will be sent in advance.

Clare Blatherwick

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 29 September 2025 – 7.00pm

Clare Blatherwick is an independent jewellery consultant based in Scotland. She has over twenty-five years of experience in the jewellery business, ten of which were spent as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, a role which saw her travel internationally searching for wonderful jewels to be auctioned around the globe. She has a keen interest in the historical aspect of jewellery and has lectured extensively on her subject both in the UK and internationally, including Europe, South Africa and Australia. She has also appeared on various TV programmes in the UK and US as a jewellery expert. Clare is a member of The Society of Jewellery Historians.

THE WORLD OF PEARLS

The allure of pearls has been documented from ancient times and there is evidence of the use of pearls in the Arabian Gulf region dating back to 4000BC. In ancient Rome, according to legend, Venus herself was born of the sea like a pearl. The Romans thought pearls were formed from the teardrops of the gods, or perhaps as a result of clams capturing dewdrops in the moonlight. This talk looks at the amazing variety of types of pearls, from those produced by oysters to marine snails, how they are found and some of the most famous pearls in the world, including those that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots.

Anne Sebba

Hawke’s Bay Date : Monday 3 November 2025 – 7.00pm

Anne Sebba FRSL is the prize-winning author of ELEVEN books including the best-selling biography THAT WOMAN, a life of Wallis Simpson based on her discovery of 15 unpublished letters locked away in an attic trunk. Her next book was Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940’s about a wide variety of women and how they behaved in wartime Paris published in the US, UK, China, France and the Czech Republic, winner of the Franco-British award. She has also written biographies of Jennie Churchill, Mother Teresa and Laura Ashley among others.
She makes regular television appearances and has presented programmes for BBC R3 and R4 including two about the pianists, Harriet Cohen and Joyce Hatto. She began her working career as a foreign correspondent for Reuters news agency, the first woman accepted on their graduate trainee scheme, and has also worked for the BBC world services in their Arabic department, although she does not speak a word of Arabic. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, a Trustee of the National Archives Trust and a former chair of Britain’s 10,000 strong Society of Authors Management Committee.
Her most recent book is a life of Ethel Rosenberg, electrocuted in 1953 aged 37 for conspiracy to commit espionage following a trial with multiple miscarriages of justice, optioned by Miramax and shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. She is currently writing about the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, due for publication in March 2025, the 80TH anniversary of the liberation of the camps and also works as a reviewer, journalist, after dinner speaker and lecturer for the Arts Society as well as various other institutions and schools in the UK and US including the British Library, Royal Oak, English Speaking Union and the National Trust.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PARISIENNE? A SLAVE TO FASHION, A COLLABORATOR WITH THE NAZIS, A RESISTOR OR A MIXTURE OF THEM ALL?

My talk about women in wartime Paris, Les Parisiennes, describes how they lived, loved and died under Nazi occupation. This is a story of resisters, collaborators, spies and couturiers. Some of whom slept with the German occupiers for romantic reasons others for food for their children and still others because they wanted the Germans to win. Some bought designer clothes and commissioned jewellery from Cartier or Van Cleef & Arpels while others made their own clothes if they could, determined to look as chic as possible as way of defying the occupiers. Some went to the theatre, opera and cinema where artists performed to the Wehrmacht. These performers were picked up at the Liberation and punished for supporting the enemy. But other women in Wartime Paris were tortured or starving, courageous women fighting for freedom to believe in equality for all people, many of whom ended up in the concentration camp of Ravensbrück.
The climax of the talk is Christian Dior’s new look in 1947. But his sister, Catherine Dior, was sent to Ravensbrück but never talked about her life as a resister because she was living in sin with a married man and fellow resister. Her story and the stories of many other women, will be revealed in this lecture, but why has it taken so long for the varied and complicated role played by women in Paris to be openly talked about? In this talk I shall discuss some of the many reasons for this long silence, only now being broken.