Home Workshops, Courses and Talks

Autumn & Winter Term:

Thursdays, 19 September - 24 October & 7 November - 12 December (12 weeks)

£330 | Friends £297

Mary Watts established the tradition of Thursday evening courses at the Artists’ Village. Over 100 years later these continue to take place in our historic galleries and purpose-built studios. Work with professional artists, hone your skills, learn new techniques and make art to take home. Suitable for beginners and improvers.

Pottery

6.30 - 8.30pm

Foyle Pottery Studio

Pre-booking required

Led by Joshua Schoeman

Build your confidence in working with clay with guidance on making pinched, coiled and slab-built forms, as well as handbuilding and surface decoration. Learn more about glazing and firing, and gain experience in throwing on a potter’s wheel. Your finished creations will be fired in our kiln for you to keep.

Autumn & Winter Term:

Thursdays, 19 September - 24 October & 7 November - 12 December (12 weeks)

£330 | Friends £297

Mary Watts established the tradition of Thursday evening courses at the Artists’ Village. Over 100 years later these continue to take place in our historic galleries and purpose-built studios. Work with professional artists, hone your skills, learn new techniques and make art to take home. Suitable for beginners and improvers.

Drawing

6.30 - 8.30pm

 Main Gallery

Led by Jane Allison

Gain an understanding of the techniques, materials and tools for drawing portraits and the human form. Using pencil, charcoal, pastels and different coloured papers, learn more about proportion, shading, expression and capturing facial characteristics.

Islamic Pattern

Plaster Carving

Two-day course

Friday 23 & Friday 30 August 

11am - 4pm | £140 | Friends £126

Clore Learning Studio

Led by Adam Williamson

Design and carve geometric and biomorphic patterns in plaster with sculptor, Adam Williamson, founder of Art of Islamic Pattern. Gain a unique opportunity to work with traditional Moroccan chisels and explore ancient techniques.

Linocut Printing

Saturday 31 August 

11am - 4pm | £75 | Friends £67.50

Clore Learning Studio

Led by Jennie Ing

Create a series of lino prints using two or three colour reduction with Greenwich Printmaker, Jennie Ing. Develop your design before learning how to cut and register your colour layers, gaining new skills that will enable you to continue printmaking at home.

Unfolding Orientalism in Art & Architecture

Mondays, 30 September - 28 October, 11am - 1pm

£150 | Friends £135

 Old Kiln 

During the artistic career of John Frederick Lewis, many Western artists sought to capture the architecture, landscape and culture of the Middle East. It was Edward Said who later described this approach as ‘Orientalism’, situating it in relation to white European colonisation. This course will examine the ways in which Lewis and his contemporaries encountered, explored and depicted Islamic art and architecture, investigating both the historical and representational issues of British Orientalism.

Unfolding Orientalism in Art & Architecture

Mondays, 30 September - 28 October, 11am - 1pm

£35 | Friends £31.50

 Old Kiln

During the artistic career of John Frederick Lewis, many Western artists sought to capture the architecture, landscape and culture of the Middle East. It was Edward Said who later described this approach as ‘Orientalism’, situating it in relation to white European colonisation. This course will examine the ways in which Lewis and his contemporaries encountered, explored and depicted Islamic art and architecture, investigating both the historical and representational issues of British Orientalism.

An Evening with Tracy Chevalier

Wednesday 2 October

Doors open 6.30pm

£20 | Friends £18

Includes a book signing

Join international best-selling author, Tracy Chevalier - whose novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), has sold over five million copies - as she discusses her new release. A Single Thread (2019) tells the moving story of Violet Speedwell, following the death of her fiancé and brother in the First World War. Leaving her mother’s home, Violet moves to Winchester and becomes involved with a local society of broderers - women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral. She is soon entwined in their lives and secrets and, as the threat of a second Great War looms on the horizon, she begins to collect a few secrets of her own.

The Land Beyond: A Thousand Miles on Foot through the Heart of the Middle East

Leon McCarron

Wednesday 4 September

Doors open 6.30pm

£12.50 | Friends £11.25

Includes a book signing

Travel writer and BBC presenter, Leon McCarron, has walked the world in search of the stories of humanity. Beginning his journey in Jerusalem, he travelled 1000 miles on foot through the heart of the Middle East in 2015. Along the way, Leon collected the thoughts and stories of the people he met. In this special evening, combining a film screening and talk, McCarron will explore the various layers of culture, history, faith and politics at work in one of the most complex places on Earth - the Holy Land.

Violet Moller : The Map of Knowledge

Wednesday 9 October

Doors open 6.30pm

£12.50 | Friends £11.25

Includes a book signing

In collaboration with Guildford Book Festival, join Violet Moller as she discusses her new book, The Map of Knowledge (2019). Tracing the ideas of three great classical scientists and philosophers - Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy - the book takes readers on a journey through seven cities and across more than a thousand years of history. This talk will explore the exchange of knowledge from century to century, revealing an intimate web of connections between the Islamic world and Christendom.

Pre-Raphaelite Girl Gang - Kirsty Stonell Walker

Friday 11 October, 12pm (available), 2pm (sold out) 

£10 | Friends £9

Limnerslease | Includes a book signing

Hear more about the remarkable women who contributed to the Pre-Raphaelite movement in this afternoon talk with biographer, historian and author of Pre-Raphaelite Girl Gang (2018), Kirsty Stonell Walker. This talk will uncover the stories behind some of the familiar and less familiar women who influenced the movement, including Ellen Terry, Lily Langtry and our very own Mary Watts.