WEA Courses

The Irrepressible Lenny: The Music of Leonard Bernstein 1 meeting on Saturday 27/10/2018. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Gwyn Parry-Jones

In the centenary of Bernstein’s birth, we look at the American maestro’s prodigious achievements as composer, conductor and educator. Although best-remembered for the ever-popular ‘West Side Story’, his works include symphonies, choral works and chamber pieces. The course will chart Bernstein’s musical development, and also assess his ground-breaking recordings and legendary TV lectures.

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London's Great Railway Stations: Architectural Masterworks 1 meeting on Saturday 24/11/2018. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Mike Grundy

This study day uncovers the glories of London’s great railway termini. It celebrates the wonders of early Victorian design and engineering at Paddington and Kings Cross, the late Victorian Gothic of St Pancras, through to the post-war Modernism of Euston. The course reviews the story of each of London’s 12 great termini over the last 150 years, and reveals how after a century of neglect they have become treasured and enhanced over recent years.

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The Left in Britain: People, Ideas, Events 1 meeting on Saturday 01/12/2018. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Dan Renshaw

Here we will examine the evolution of the British left from the birth of New Unionism at the end of the 1880s to the current struggle for the future of the Labour Party. We will look at the contributions of key figures including Keir Hardie, Sylvia Pankhurst, Beatrice Webb, Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn, covering significant movements and events in the history of British socialism and trade unionism.

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Wrecking Balls, Safari Parks and the Tax Man: English Country Houses 1945-1980 1 meeting on Saturday 08/12/2018. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Adam Smith

Many country houses were abandoned or demolished after the Second World War while others survived by opening as visitor attractions. We will examine how and why this happened by looking at examples like Panshanger (Hertfordshire) which was demolished, Wentworth Woodhouse (South Yorkshire) which had its park open cast mined and became a teacher training college and Woburn Abbey (Bedfordshire) which was partially demolished and opened, together with a Safari Park, to help fund its survival.

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Language, Meaning and Truth 10 meetings on Mondays starting 14/01/2019. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Jumbly Grindrod

Why do words and sentences mean what they do? What is the difference between a meaningful and a meaningless sentence; or between speaking literally and speaking figuratively? In this course, we will analyse these questions by exploring key works in the philosophy of language. Doing so will reveal how philosophical insight has been indispensable to the study of linguistic meaning in the past century. We will explore the works of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, P.F. Strawson, H.P. Grice, J.L. Austin, and others more recent.

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What on Earth is that Noise? Music in the Twentieth Century 10 meetings on Mondays starting 14/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Gwyn Parry-Jones

Contemporary composers sometimes leave their audiences with the question: What are they up to? This course will cover composers from Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartok to the mysteries of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, and on to to those writing in a range of styles today.

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The Best Prime Ministers We Never Had…? 10 meetings on Mondays starting 14/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Philip Giddings

In this course we shall look at leading post-war British politicians who came close to becoming Prime Minister but in the event never made it. We will consider the path to party leadership and the role of the Leader of the Opposition as well as the wider political and electoral factors which affected their careers. The politicians we shall consider are R A Butler; Hugh Gaitskell; George Brown; Neil Kinnock; Margaret Beckett; William Hague; Ken Clarke; Ian Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard.

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Great European Museums and Their Collections 10 meetings on Tuesdays starting 15/01/2019. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Dalila Castelijn

Paris’s Louvre, Madrid’s Prado, London’s British Museum, Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage, Berlin’s Pergamon Museum and Altes Museum are among the greatest museums in Europe. We shall discover the fascinating origins and development of each museum; examine their distinctive architecture and explore in detail a range of characteristic masterpieces to be found there.

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From Rome to the Romanesque 10 meetings on Tuesdays starting 15/01/2019. 7:00pm - 9:00pm Tutor: Diana Matthews

As the world's first global capital, Rome pioneered a universally adopted architectural style which has outlasted time and has continued to influence building styles to the present day. This course will begin by studying key buildings of the Roman world  in order to understand the secret of their inspirational influence, before moving on to the fall of the Empire.  We then examine what happened to architecture when Rome fell, and how and why a new pan European style began to emerge by the 12C.

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Other Worlds: Exploring Fairy Tale and Myth 10 meetings on Wednesdays starting 16/01/2019. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Shirley Roberts and Lydia Massey

Explore differing realms of human experience through the potent and affecting fairy tales and myths that we usually meet early in life and continue to derive much pleasure from throughout our existence. Human truths can be discerned at many levels from close study of the texts. These will include poetry, short stories and extracts from plays, novels and film, around Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard and some lesser-known fairy tale characters, plus the myths of the Cyclops, Medea, The Labours of Hercules and The Minotaur.

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Ancient Egypt: Theban Temples Explored 10 meetings on Wednesdays starting 16/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: John Billman

The temples of ancient Thebes form a major visitor attraction. Defying a single narrative, tourists visit temples with different characteristics. These include the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses II (the Ramesseum), the cultic temple complex of Amun-Re at Karnak, and the temple of Medinet Habu. We will explore the purpose, decoration, evolution and development of key Theban temples which can be visited today in modern Luxor.

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The Art of Things 10 meetings on Wednesdays starting 16/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Sandra Smith

In the hierarchy of subject matter created by the great European art academies, pictures of still life, flowers and animals have always had a lowly status, despite their many charms. In this course we will investigate the study of things in pictures, and some sculpture, over time.

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The Art and Architecture of Tuscany 10 meetings on Thursdays starting 17/01/2019. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Diana Matthews

Tuscany is one of the most beautiful and artistically endowed areas of Europe. In this wide ranging course we aim to study the art and architecture of the Early Renaissance in the major cities such as Florence and Siena, and in the enchanting smaller centres, including Lucca, Arezzo and Pienza.

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Moscow and St Petersburg: The Fruits of a Century of Torment and Strife 10 meetings on Thursdays starting 17/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Mike Grundy

This course is an opportunity to learn about the rich nature and culture of the successive capitals of Russia, from the revolution through to the end of the Soviet regime and beyond. A tormented century of revolution, war and suppression has yielded a harvest of excellence in fine art, design, city planning and unique architecture. The magnificent Metros of these cities, built at Stalin’s command to be showcases for Soviet state excellence in construction, architecture and fabulous decorative design will provide much evidence.

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Behaving Abnormally 7 meetings on Thursdays starting 17/01/2019. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Marie Hughes

We all react differently to personal circumstances and social expectations, producing varying patterns of behaviour, some of which may be viewed as abnormal. What do we mean by this? How do we react to people viewed in that way? How should we treat them? What are the main causes of and therapies for conditions that range from depression, the ‘common cold’ of mental disorders, to bipolarity?

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