Dame Laura Knight talks 2024 at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum

Dame Laura Knight - I Paint Today. Sundown, c.1955.

The Art Gallery and Museum’s spring exhibition, Dame Laura Knight – I Paint Today, is accompanied by an exciting programme of talks by guest speakers.

Each talk is approximately 1 hour long and takes place on Saturdays during the exhibition. Please book via the links below as there are limited spaces.

Please note that if you would like to visit the exhibition on the day of the talk, exhibition tickets must be booked separately either in advance or from the museum shop on the day of the talk. You can book exhibition tickets online here.

Saturday 16 March 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Enjoy an illustrated talk by Alison Bevan BEM BA FMA, Director RWA (Royal West of England Academy), about Laura Knight’s relationship with the Newlyn School and Lamorna art colonies, and the lifelong friendships she formed in her Cornish years, including Alfred Munnings, Ella Naper, Eileen Mayo and Bernard Walke.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Saturday 20 April 2024, 11am – 12noon.

A talk by Claire Cochrane, Professor Emeritus of Theatre Studies at the University of Worcester, focusing on Laura Knight’s fascination with the theatre as an environment for creativity in action, giving us an invaluable glimpse of the theatre world backstage. Her close friendship with the Birmingham Rep founder and theatre impresario, Barry Jackson, gave her privileged access to the theatres he managed, including the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in post-war Stratford.

This illustrated talk will draw on pictures in the current exhibition as well as other typical examples of Knight’s observational power to capture the theatre of her day.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Saturday 4 May 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Philip Serrell is an auctioneer, antiques expert, and television personality who appears regularly on BBC TV antiques programmes such as Bargain Hunt and Flog It!

Join Philip for a fun and fascinating insight into his life as an auctioneer in Worcestershire and his love of antiques and porcelain, with a special look at his connection with Dame Laura Knight.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Saturday 18 May 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Vardo Project Curatorial Officer, Georgie Stevens, focuses upon Dame Laura Knight’s relationship with Travelling communities and how her interactions with them informed the depictions within her Romany artworks.

The talk will explore how these depictions differ to those by earlier artists and the long-standing impact, through representation, that they have had, and continue to have, on Travelling communities today.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Saturday 1 June 2024, 11am – 12noon.

A talk by Pamela Gerrish Nunn, author & professor of Art History & Theory at Canterbury University, New Zealand. In the 1938 book Women of To-day, Laura Knight was declared to be ‘at the top of the tree’, one of the leading artists of the day and an inspiration to other women.

This illustrated talk looks at Knight in comparison with others of her generation, famous and not-so-famous, putting her success in context.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Saturday 8 June 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Dame Laura Knight: Objects that Tell, is a unique opportunity to hear about and handle selected items from the Dame Laura Knight Archive, giving you the opportunity to gain a rare insight into the life of one of the most successful and popular women artists in Britain. Becoming a Dame in 1929, Knight became the first woman elected to full membership of the Royal Academy in 1936 following founder members Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser.

This session is with Heather Whatley and Marian Chester from the Dame Laura Knight Society.

£6.50; please book via the link below.

Sundown, c.1955 (oil on canvas), Knight, Laura (1877-1970) / Wolverhampton Art Gallery, West Midlands, UK / © Wolverhampton Art Gallery / © Estate of Dame Laura Knight. All rights reserved 2023 / Bridgeman Images.

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