Talks and Special Events
Throughout the year, West Dean College programmes exciting talks and special events alongside its Concerts and Short Courses
To book tickets for the following events, please call 01243 818314 or click here
Tickets can now be purchased in the West Dean Gardens shop, crafts shop and reception.
AFTERNOON GARDEN LECTURES
Venue: The Auditorium, Old Dairy Complex, West Dean Gardens
Suitable for all
Why Garden? RHS lecture with Ursula Buchan
Saturday 16 June, 2pm
RHS members £9 Non-members £12
In this lecture, sponsored by the RHS Growing For Success Programme, Ursula Buchan poses the question ‘Why do we collectively and individually feel impelled to make gardens? And why, once impelled to garden, do we love it so much?’ Ursula attempts to answer these questions in a witty, thoughtful and wide-ranging talk. Afterwards there will be an afternoon tea and you will have the chance to wander around the magnificent gardens.
Please click here for further course information.
Creating atmosphere in the garden
Saturday 6 October, 2pm £20
Luciano Giubbilei will talk about his personal approach to designing beautiful, contemporary gardens and he will show a selection of his recent work which includes his RHS Gold Medal Chelsea Gardens. His work explores the boundaries between architecture and art (interior and exterior) with a pursuit of the continuing tradition of simplicity in design, from both a visual and philosophical point of view. He has developed a very distinctive design style in which he uses simple and clean symmetrical lines, making the best use of nature, materials, light, space and art.
Please click here for further course information.
PUPPET SHOW
Circle of Tales
Sunday 10 June, 3pm
Adults:£9 Children (under 16): £6
Venue: The Auditorium, West Dean College
How the first story came to be told – a myth from Africa retold by Gcina Mhlophe. A show with African and English language, wood and wire puppets, video projection and the sweet, sweet sounds of music played on traditional African instruments.
Designed and directed by John Roberts, a West Dean short course tutor. For 4 years old to very grown-up
IMAGINATION, CREATION, STIMULATION – ART MATTERS
A series of talks By West Dean Tutors £10
Venue: The Old Library
Suitable for adults
Maps of Modern Life
Tilleke Schwarz, embroiderer
Tuesday 3 July, 8–9pm £10
Tilleke describes her work as ‘maps of modern life’, which at first glance remind the viewer of graffiti as she includes anything which moves, amazes or intrigues her. She will talk about her sources of inspiration, which often give a humorous reflection on modern society, as well as her favourite embroidery techniques. This talk is part of a short course run by Tilleke.
Crossing the bridge from Observation to Abstraction
John Meaker
Wednesday 25 July, 8pm £10
An illustrated talk concerned with Abstract Values inherent in both classical and modern art forms. A landscape beyond the photographic picturesque must stimulate imagination by discovering the relationship between the craft and dynamics of abstraction and the artist’s dialogue with the truth. In this talk John demonstrates that fundamental observational skills and analytical disciplines were never lost in the 20th Century but developed throughout the history of Art from the primitive to classical and into modernist ingenuities of transformation. This talk is part of a short course run by John.
Feeling and Emotion in Art: What do they mean?
Matthew Collings
Wednesday 8 August, 8pm £10
In art, feeling and emotion are often considered to be things that artists have, which they then get down in paint or mould or carve in whatever medium. In this talk Matthew will be exploring a different idea, that art itself is the generator of feeling and emotion, primarily based on the artist's experience rather than on his or her special difference with regard to feelings. The works we will be looking at are from many different periods of history – from the cave walls at Lascaux to medieval Renaissance, Baroque and Rococco, and right up to date with modern and post-modern works. This talk is part of a short course run by Matthew.
The dramatisation of the figure in Giotto’s Lamentation and Cezanne’s The Bathers
Bob Stone
Tuesday 4 September, 8pm £10
With reference to his own practise, Bob will explore the relationship between these two paintings, comparing strong similarities in composition and mood, while acknowledging the difference between a religious and secular vision. ‘I see the two painters as crucial indicators of their time and as liberators, both as to narrative and personal visions that strongly influenced the course of western and modernist tendencies.’ Key to the talk will be the sense of dialogue that exists amongst artists and how artists respond to one another's work as a natural way of working. This talk is part of a short course run by Bob.
Poetry Performance – THE GOLDEN AGE
Philip Wells
Saturday 8 September, 8–9.30pm £10
The Fire Poet ‘the foremost performance poet in England’ (Evening Standard)
Inspires and entertains with the earthly delights and soaring visions of a better time to come. Philip is teaching a short course Songs of fire – magical poetry writing.
Train your tastebuds – British cheeses
Friday 5 October £15
Venue: The Auditorium
With the emphasis on local, ex-deli owner and cheese enthusiast Rosemary Moon will guide us through the soft and the mild, the fresh and the cured, the pressed and the mould ripened of the UK cheese world in an amusing and revelatory evening for everyone who loves cheese.
