Programme Membership year 2023/24 The lecture programme is subject to change so keep checking back to the website for the latest information about lectures. The meetings start at 7.30pm. 21st May 2025 Charlie Hall Peggy Guggenheim - A Life of Collecting Describing herself by writing, "I am a museum", Peggy Guggenheim's life took a clear path, from setting up a commercial gallery in London, going on a single-minded shopping trip to Paris in the late 1930's even as the German tanks were rolling in to the suburbs, to escape (with her selection of European artists) to New York. There the subsequent establishment of her museum (and Arts centre), and finally the purchase of the eccentric 'unfinished palazzo' in Venice, her collection remains one of the most iconic assemblages of Twentieth Century art in the world. Peggy Guggenheim Museum Venice. "Angel of the City". Photo: David Pirmann. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 25th June 2025 Antonia Gatward Cevizli Snuff-boxes Salons and Studios: Women Artists in the 18th and 19th Centuries In 1971 Linda Nochlin wrote her famous essay “Why have there been no great women artists?” Since then, much has been done to insert women into the canon and uncover their lives and works. Social Evening: Wednesday 16 July 2025 I am pleased to invite you to this year’s Social Evening to be held from 7.00 to 9.30 pm on Wednesday 16 July at Brookfield Electric bowling Club, 211 Kimberley Road, Leicester LE2 1AS. Doors will open at 7.00 pm for those of you who wish to have a drink in the bar and socialise with friends and fellow members before the buffet supper. The supper will be a savoury buffet, followed by a selection of sweets and tea or coffee and mints, all for the price of £25.00 per ticket. Should you have any dietary restrictions please indicate this when booking. Places at the evening will be allocated on a first come - first served basis. Guests will be welcome to come with you. There will be no speaker this year, as the aim of the evening is to give you the opportunity to enjoy conversation with friends and other members of the society. However, we hope to have an exhibition of past events at the society, including photographs of society excursions and holidays. Please bring along to the evening any photographs of excursions and holidays with the society. We need to know numbers attending by Wednesday 9 July. Click here for further details and a booking form. 24th September 2025 Ashley Gray Post War Textile Visionaries of Modern Art: Alistair Morton & Edinburgh Weavers Alistair Morton, a modernist visionary, was uniquely recognised for his talent of interpreting in fabric the full quality of an artist’s handwriting. He commissioned drawings from some of the greatest modern artists for textile production and through his designer's eye took their art to new levels. In the late 1930s his Constructivist range saw work from Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth translated into jacquard woven textiles for the top end of British Interior design. In the post war era, Morton continued to fuse modern art with textile design, keeping it in step with contemporary living. This is the last lecture of the 2024/2025 Membership year.