The Arts Society Chiswick celebrates ten years

What better way to celebrate than with a piss-up, thinly disguised as cultural enrichment?

The Arts Society Chiswick (TASCH) is celebrating its tenth anniversary this February. As the name suggests, they are an organisation which celebrates the arts in all its forms, from the architecture of Palladio, which has given us Chiswick House, to the enduring appeal of Carry On films.

Usually a bit more highbrow than Carry On, they pride themselves in offering an eclectic range of talks from top quality speakers, delivered in an entertaining and unpretentious way, and on their welcome to anyone who comes along. They organise ten talks a year on the second Thursday of the month at POSK in Hammersmith, as well as visits to museums and galleries and trips abroad.

Image: Alison Watson (L), former chair who has also served for several years on The Arts Society national committee

“Our usp is the quality of our speakers”

Alison Watson, the original chair of TASCH, and Diana Claridge, its current publicist, told me about the society and the kind of events they put on.

Alison first got involved when she picked up a leaflet at an opera talk at St Michael & All Angels Church. She had been wanting to join The Arts Society, but the nearest branches in Richmond and Ealing both had waiting lists for membership. She was delighted to learn from the leaflet that The Arts Society was looking to open a branch in Chiswick and was soliciting volunteers.

“Our usp is the quality of our speakers,” she told The Chiswick Calendar.

The Chiswick branch is one of 360 local societies affiliated to The Arts Society nationally and abroad, who keep a register of experts they consider good enough speakers to qualify to give talks at Arts Society meetings.

“Once a year there is a kind of speed-dating affair when the programme secretary goes to the Directory Day. New lecturers have two minutes to make their pitch, and the more established speakers enter a ballot to make a one-minute pitch.”

Like an old-fashioned hiring fair, the membership secretaries from all round the country then go and talk to the lecturers they fancy and deals are done, one on one, but probably not with a spit and a handshake.

Images: Tobias Capwell in action

One of Alison’s favourites was Tobias Capwell, an American historian whose principal interest is in European arms and armour of the medieval and Renaissance periods. He fell in love with old armour on at trip to the Metropolitan Museum of New York at the age of four or five and grew up to become the Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London, and a skilled jouster.

“I didn’t think I would be interested in armour, but he was so entertaining. He was one of the two knights in armour who led Richard III into Leicester Cathedral when he was re-interred.”

Capwell had been a member of the multidisciplinary academic team which studied the KIng’s remains when they were discovered in the undignified resting place of a Leicester car park.

Image: Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer

Diana’s favourite speaker was  Shauna Isaac, who gave a talk on ‘The Art of the Steal’, about the Nazis’ looting of art works during World War II. Shauna described how Gustav Klimt’s celebrated Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer and the stash of over 1200 artworks were found in possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer. She had set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served as a member of the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague.

Image: The tenth anniversary talk will be on the heritage of European wine

Talks, outings and trips

For their tenth anniversary talk on Thursday 13 February, TASCH have chosen Gillian Howell to give a talk in celebration of how the Ancient Greeks and Romans created our love of wine. Often on TV and radio, Gillian is an archaeologist, a lecturer for the British Museum and York University, and an award-winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives.

Talks for the rest of the year (every month except August and December) include:

13 March – The Cult of Splendour: the artistic legacy of the Knights of St John of Malta

10 July – Catherine the Great: The World’s Greatest Collector

9 October – Hot Stuff – The Birth of Studio Glass

Images: Previous TASCH trips

The Malta guest ties in with a trip – the most popular part of TASCH’s annual programme. Each year they arrange a trip abroad which takes in some art, history and culture, with good food and wine an essential part of the tour. In the past they have been to Berlin and Venice.

Day trips in Britain have included a trip to Bletchley and one to Liverpool.

“As a northerner, I was amazed how many of the group had never been to Liverpool before,” said Alison.

Image: TASCH socials

Coming up is a visit to Neasden Temple on Thursday 27 February. They organise trips to special exhibitions in the galleries and museums of London, with a talk from a specialist lecturer about the exhibition, and lunch as part of the package.

TASCH members volunteer at venues such as the William Morris museum and Emery Walker’s house in Hammersmith. The society sponsors an event each year at the Chiswick Book Festival – last year it was Bill Wyman speaking about his memoir and his guide to Chelsea. And they have outings to Chiswick Cinema at a special rate to watch productions as-live. Coming up is a screening of Swan Lake on Tuesday 4 March and one of Macbeth on Tuesday 25 March.

If you would like to know more about The Arts Society Chiswick, have a look on their website: The Arts Society Chiswick

Visitors are welcome to any of the talksfor a ticket price of £15, which if you decide to join for a year, is deducted from the £60 membership fee if you sign up on the night.

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar