Antonio Vivaldi is arguably the one Baroque composer whose music is a direct reflection of the city in which it was composed. Listen to a Vivaldi concerto and hey presto you are transported directly to the heart of 18thcentury Venice.

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

10:30am – 11:45am  A general introduction to Venice in the 18th century and the world in which Vivaldi lived and worked

11:45am – 12:00am 15-minute coffee break

12:00am – 1:00pm    A live recital from Peter’s music room on his 18th century chamber organ. This will be a performance of a range of pieces of Venetian music, as well as music by foreign composers influenced by Vivaldi

The cost of the morning is £20 pp for members / £30 pp for non-membersYou will receive the Zoom link nearer the time.

For further information, please contact Linda Stellman: 07958 342 540; lstellman@aol.com

For flyer and Booking form please click here

During the 19th Century when many Central european countries were still under the control of the Habsburgs in Vienna, art and culture were often the only ways in which the Empire's constituent crownlands could express national indentity. One hundred years after the end of the Habsburg dominance in Central Europe, this Special Interest Day looks at three case studies, the Czech lands, Slovenia and Hungary, through the prism of their capital cities.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster who appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4. He also ontributes to newspapers and magazines, and opera and concert programmes worldwide

TASHH is delighted that BBC Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum is hosting our next Special Interest Day. The three scheduled talks form a cohesive but diverse look at the history of collecting, the psychology behind what makes people collect, a sojourn through the fascinating influences of the fashionable Grand Tour and a captivating and personal appraisal of items brought in by the audience. Marc will also bring items from his personal collection to illustrate various aspects of the talks. This entertaining and enlightening format will be sure to enthrall.

For further information please contact Linda Stellman: 07958 342 540; lstellman@aol.com

for a booking form please click here

The programme will be:

 1. Introduction: c. 1600-1800:

"Opera" was developed in the Renaissance courts and commercial theatres of northern Italy as an attempt to combine all the arts in ways the Ancient Greeks were believed to have done. It soon became the entertainment of choice throughout much of Europe.

2. The Age of Romanticism: Opera in the 19th Century:

The French Revolution and its aftermath had a huge impact on all the arts, and opera audiences came to expect stirring works that gave passionate expression to dangerously erotic or political sentiments.

3. Opera Goes Global: The great Dictators to the Democratisation of Opera:

Opera spread across the Americas and to Australia and elsewhere, as newly invented technologies (eg: recording, film, radio) enabled the word - and sound - to become known worldwide. Stalin and Hitler used opera to boost their popularity, while in our own times efforts have been made to democratise a supposedly 'elite' art form. 

The cost of the day is £40 per person. In order reserve your place please complete the tear off slip on the flyer and send it together with payment to: 

Linda Stellman, 8 Hill Close London NW11 7JP

Friends and family are welcome to attend the day.

Our next Special Interest Day is on the 22nd November 2018 when the topic is The Emperor Quianlong (1736 – 1796), with David Rosier as our lecturer. It is going to be a very exciting day. 
As you might have seen on the news or in the press (see the article attached), the £14 million vase sold at Sotheby's recently comes from that period and David will be talking about it. 

On a more personal note, Linda Stellman, the TASHH Programme Secretary and Days of Special Interest Organiser, works sometimes at Sotheby’s during the auction viewing period
s.  She was there during the Chinese auction at the end of May. There was one cabinet containing a few items from the Paris Chinese auction,  including  this vase.
 She was carrying it happily, but little knowing then just how much it was worth.
 She  dreads to think what could have happened if she had dropped it! 

Please make a note in your diaries of 22nd November and consider coming along to the Special Interest Day. You are very welcome to bring  family and/or friends and to introduce them to The Arts Society Hampstead Heath.

For further details please contact Linda by phone on  020 8458 9668 or by email lstellman@aol.com

This Special Interest Day will look at the Roman Near East from the arrival of Pompey the Great in 64BC to the advent of Islam in the 7th century AD. One lecture will cover the establishment of Rome in the region in the 1st century BC down to the Jewish Revolts of AD 66-73 and AD 132-5. The next lecture will consider Rome's trade with the East. The last lecture will look at the rise of Christianity from the reign of Constantine into the subsequent late Roman and Byzantine periods. It will end with the Islamic conquests and the effects on classical civilisation of the Great Earthquake in the  late AD.

Dr Sam Moorhead is National Fund Adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins at the British Museum. His fee for the day will go to the British Museum to assist with its work in recording objects for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

For a booking form, please click here

The special interest day commemorates the centenaries of the deaths of Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin who both died in 1917. Camille Claudel was Rodin's pupil and interest in her life and career has come to prominence recently with the opening of her family home as a museum of her work. We will explore the relationships between these three fascinating and influential Artists and their wide ranging important work in all media.

Clare Ford-Wille is an independent art historian. She had led study tours to Europe and lectured on European art, architecture and sculpture for more than thirty years.

Clare has kindly agreed to replace Eric Shanes who died suddenly earlier this year.

The day consists of two lectures in the morning with a coffee break and one lecture after lunch. Lunch is not provided.

For a booking form, please click here

Thursday 23 March 2017, 10.30 am to 3.15 pm in the Lecture Room, Kenwood

No highway in the world is as laden with romance and adventure as the Silk Road. It was the world's largest trade link, linking China with the Mediterranean, crossing the most spectacular and inaccessible regions in Asia. Merchants, travellers and monks crossed "burning" deserts and snow-capped mountains, while carrying along the 5,000 mile long route their goods: silk, jade, carpets, spices, glass and lapis lazuli, and other luxury items.

The story of the exotic and mysterious 'Cross Roads' of Asia is filled with adventures and surprises and ideas.

These lectures concentrate on the magnificent archaeological discoveries of treasures left long ago on the ancient 'Silk' trade routes.

Hannes Sutcliffe  lectures to museums, art and historical societies, and is a NADFAS and Art Fund Lecturer. She is an Extra-mural lecturer at Leeds University and Harogate College, and a Council Member of the Oriental Ceramics Society.

For further information please contact: Linda Stellman, 8 Hill Close, London NW11 7JP
Tel: 07958 342540 E 

To download a booking form please click here

Artists and architects, film makers and philosophers, musicians and publishers, historians, psychologists and scientists - all brought something of their continental legacy to Britain.

A colourful and provocative introduction to the art and culture of our own lifetimes

Dr Irving Finkel Assistant Keeper at the British museum will talk to us about the Tower of Babel in Art and actuality, Rembrandt and the writing on the wall ending with Old Master Drawings on Tablets of Clay. For a booking form, please click here

Linda Smith makes a welcome return to HHDFAS. She will present three lectures, telling us about the avant-garde,the cubists, the traditionalists and the surrealists, touching on the work of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, David Smith, Joseph Beuys and Eva Hesse. She will wind up the day by discussing land art, performance art and other recent thought-provoking work.

The Lecture Room Kenwood House 10:30 - 15:30

A booking form for this event can be found on the 'documents' tab of the 'About us' page.

Our lecturer Douglas Skeggs will be discussing, how, during its 300 golden years as a powerful city-state , Venice used art to show off it’s wealth, prestige and influence. He will be talking about the work of artists such as Titian, Tintoretto and Canaletto then how, after years of decline and decay, the city was rediscovered by poets, painters and writers such as Turner, James Whistler, Henry James and John Ruskin who celebrated the art, architecture and faded beauty of this wonderful city. He will discuss the styles and techniques of some of the artists who have lived and worked in Venice and how each added their own unique contribution to the artistic legend of the city. for a booking form, please go to the 'About Us' page, 'Documents' tab.

Our lecturer Eric Knowles will begin by examining the influence of the Orient on British and European ceramics in both the 18th and 19th century on key ceramic makers such as Bow, Chelsea, Derby, Worcester, Meissen and other German and Continental European manufacturers. In the second session Eric will look at the British and European interpretation and adoption of Oriental themes and motifs in other mediums and architecture made manifest in both the resultant Chinoiserie and Japonais styles that emerged at this time. During the afternoon Eric will hold a surgery when he will look at members’ ceramics and oriental related objects - whether they are items of great value or sentimental value they will make for an interesting Q and A so don’t forget to bring along some of your favourite pieces. Many of you will recognise Eric Knowles as a familiar face on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. He appears to be one of those rare individuals who is able to share his considerable knowledge in a way that is exciting and easy to understand - this should be a most exciting day and we do hope you will be able to join us. For further information please contact: Gina Orloff 18 West Heath Gardens NW3 7TR Tel:l 0208 455 4528 Email gina@wheath.plus.com To download a booking form please go to the Documents tab on the 'About us' page.

We are delighted to welcome back Eveline Eaton who will provide a taste of Germanic art through the centuries. Durer arguably the most important Germanic artist ever, Cranach and Holbein represent Renaissance ideas whilst Romanticism blossomed in Friedrich’s emotive landscapes. The twentieth century is characterised by the powerful Expressionism of the Brucke and Blue Rider groups as well as the new “Wild Ones” (Fauves) like Kiefer and Baselitz in our own times. For full details and to book a place please go the the Documents tab on the 'About us' page.

You can find a booking form in the About Us/Documents page. For further information please contact Gina Orloff, 18 West Heath Gardens London NW3 7TR tel: 0208 455 4528 email: gina@wheath.plus.com