WEA Courses

Post-war challenges to provide housing, schools and university expansion were taken up by architects like James Stirling, before he moved into Post-Modern architecture. In the 1980s and 90s London became a hub for architects of international reach - the High-Tech approach led by Norman Foster and Richard Rogers being joined by the complex curved forms produced by Zaha Hadid’s practice.

Discover the real men and women who inspired The White Queen and Shakespeare’s Histories. We will explore themes including kingship, faith, witchcraft and women’s roles as we examine the political intrigues and dramatic conflicts between the Houses of York and Lancaster that brought England’s Middle Ages to a close.

This innovative and far reaching course will study the art and architecture of the 12C - 14C across Europe in the age of the Crusades, of pilgrimage, and of the rising mercantile communes of Italy when new styles emerged to express the values of these social and economic changes. We shall study the extensive programmes of painting, sculpture and stained glass in buildings as diverse as St Mary Magdalen in Vezelay, San Marco in Venice, Trani Cathedral, and Krak des Chevaliers.

Peter Warlock, Frank Bridge, Lord Berners, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland – names perhaps not forgotten, though not as celebrated today as their admirers feel they should be. Amid the rightly acclaimed works of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Tippett, the composers we encounter on this course often get lost somewhere in between. Our aim is to try and redress that situation by exploring the lives and works of these brilliantly gifted and in some cases anarchic figures, each of whom made vital contributions to the richness of our musical culture.

Since 1822 when hieroglyphs were first deciphered Egyptology has become a historical discipline. In this course we learn the basic principles of Hierogyphics and the Middle Egyptian language that will enrich visits to museums and monuments, learning to read kings’ names and simple offering formulae as well as reviewing basic grammar and vocabulary. This will be a fascinating and enlightening course, helping to decode apparent complexities.

One of the most enduring influences on European literature has been Homer’s Iliad, describing the Trojan War as it reaches its end, and the people involved in its turmoil. This course will examine The Iliad and the literature it has inspired, from Classical Greek drama such as The Oresteia by Aeschylus, through to contemporary writing such as The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Pat Barker’s recently published Costa-nominated novel, The Silence of the Girls.

One hundred years ago Walter Gropius founded one of the most influential schools of architecture and applied arts of the modern age; the Bauhaus. Centred at various times in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, it stressed the importance of the craftsman-designer for industrial mass production, aiming to reform design education and giving rise to an uncluttered stripped down style which was to influence modernism and today’s world. We will examine works by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Oskar Schlemmer and Wassily Kandinsky, as well as considering the ongoinginfluence of the School.