WEA Courses

Steam, Steel and New Horizons: How the Victorian Railways changed Life in Britain 10 meetings on Tuesdays starting 11/01/2022. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Richard Marks

Victorian Britain created the world's first railway network which changed the way Britons lived, worked and played forever. In this course we will examine the impact of the Victorian railways upon people's daily lives. We shall look at how the railways made branded goods available across the country at affordable prices from the tip of Cornwall to the far north of Scotland. We shall examine how the building of the railways impacted upon people's lives and property and how working for the railway companies created opportunity for all.

 Information and Booking >
Rossini and the Tradition of Bel Canto 10 meetings on Wednesdays starting 12/01/2022. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Robin John

Rossini is mostly known today for his comic opera 'The Barber of Seville' and the much-played overtures from 'The Thieving Magpie' and 'William Tell', but his contribution to opera was much broader than that. A child musical prodigy, he was famous by age 20 and dominated the Italian opera scene in the early decades of the 19C, composing both comic and serious operas, the latter being rarely performed today. With audio and video excerpts from his operas, this course will chronicle Rossini's life and his influence over 19C opera and the 'bel canto' era.

 Information and Booking >
Egyptian Art Revealed 10 meetings on Wednesdays starting 12/01/2022. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: John Billman

After the pyramids, some of the most memorable images of ancient Egypt are provided not by royal monuments, but from the art of the tombs of private (albeit elite) officials who served the pharaoh. In this course we will explore a range of tomb images from the Egyptian New Kingdom. We will discuss specific elements within these scenes, identify canonical iconography, typical Egyptian artistic techniques and discuss the purpose and symbolism of such scenes.

 Information and Booking >
Origins of Development of the Villa, from Antiquity to today 5 meetings on Thursdays starting 13/01/2022. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Dalila Castelijn

From ancient times onwards the villa has provided a retreat from the strains of daily life and a way of getting close to nature. The course will consider the origins and evolution of the villa as a specific architectural form affording a variety of styles and a variety of functions. Palladio’s La Rotonda, Earl of Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye are some of the villas we will survey.

 Information and Booking >
Post Impressionism in Britain: The Bloomsbury Painters & Camden Town School 5 meetings on Thursdays starting 13/01/2022. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Sandra Smith

In 1910 an exhibition called Manet and the Post Impressionists was held in London.  The term Post Impressionist had not been used before and was adopted by the organisers to characterise the work of a varied and exciting selection of artists working in France at the end of the nineteenth century, all of whom had been associated at some time with the Impressionist group.  This exhibition was organised by Roger Fry, an English artists and writer who is also associated with the more literary Bloomsbury Group, whose most famous member was Virginia Woolf.  Fry’s exhibition also in

 Information and Booking >
The Nature and Existence of God 10 meetings on Thursdays starting 13/01/2022. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Karim Esmail

This course is a rational and rigorous consideration of God's nature and existence. To begin with, we'll consider his (traditional) nature:   properties such as being all-knowing,  being all-powerful, being morally perfect,  being incorporeal,  and being eternal. We'll then consider arguments for and against his existence:  an ontological argument;  some cosmological arguments;   some design arguments;  an argument from religious experience;  and  the problem  of evil.

 Information and Booking >
Portraits 1 1 meeting on Monday 17/01/2022. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Diana Matthews

Our course begins with an examination of what the patron in the ancient world expected of his artist, and then fasts forward to the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, north and south of the Alps, with artists such as Van Eyck, Memling and Holbein, to explore how and why the relationship between the two changed. Finally we study how the royal image of the 16C and 17C developed in paint, medal and miniature, both in Britain and in Europe, under the influence of some major artists, among them Hilliard, Van Dyck, Raphael, and Titian.

 Information and Booking >
The Once and Future King: King Arthur in Literature 8 meetings on Tuesdays starting 18/01/2022. 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tutor: Lydia Massey

King Arthur and his knights have appeared in British (and French) literature for a number of centuries, beginning with brief mentions of such a leader in early Medieval writings and the Mabinogion, embellished and transformed by Thomas Malory and Tennyson and leading to modern writing from authors such as TH White and Bernard Cornwall, culminating with Monty Python. We shall look at these various manifestations, accompanied by a wide range of pictorial representations, and consider why the 'once and future king' has remained such a powerful figure in our culture.

 Information and Booking >
Portraits 2 1 meeting on Monday 24/01/2022. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Diana Matthews

This course opens with the career of Sir Joshua Reynolds and the founding of the Royal Academy, before exploring the achievements of his rivals, Hogarth and Gainsborough. We move to France to study the important work of David, Ingres and Manet, before completing our day with the major portraitists of the late 19C such as James Mc Neill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. This study day will form the second part of this course but each day course can be taken independently.

 Information and Booking >
The Heyday of Vienna in Art & Architecture 1 meeting on Saturday 29/01/2022. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Mike Grundy

In the final 70 years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna experienced a wave of revolutions in its society, its cityscape, architecture and art. Change was driven forward by new generations of architects and artists, but sternly resisted by the Viennese Establishment. In architecture, the creation of the Ringstrasse boulevard produced new institutional buildings such as the Parliament, Royal Palace and City Hall in historical Classical and Gothic styles.

 Information and Booking >
Rails to the West: The Great Western Railway 1 meeting on Saturday 05/02/2022. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Richard Marks

Brunel's Great Western Railway is one of finest examples of an engineer's work, and changed the South of England and Wales forever. In this study day we shall examine how Brunel's masterpiece came about, and the impact of Sir Daniel Gooch on the company. We will look at how Swindon Works cared for its staff and its impact upon the modern health-care system we enjoy today. We will discover how the Great Western created the idea of Cornwall as a holiday destination.

 Information and Booking >
Unarmed and Dangerous: British Peace Campaigners in the First World War 7 meetings on Wednesdays starting 16/02/2022. 7:00pm - 9:00pm Tutor: Symon Hill

This is a chance to explore stories of people who are often overlooked – and who some would rather forget. We will explore opposition and resistance to World War One, from conscientious objectors who refused to fight to women peace activists who held an international peace congress in the Netherlands, from religious groups that split over the war to soldiers who mutinied. We will focus on Britain, although international comparisons and influences will also be mentioned.

 Information and Booking >
Female Suffrage: a County Perspective 6 meetings on Tuesdays starting 01/03/2022. 7:00pm - 9:00pm Tutor: Margaret Simons

Women’s suffrage had been a hotly debated subject for over 50 years prior to the passing of the Representation of the People Act on the 6th February 1918. However, the vote was only extended to women over 30 and then only if they met the £5 property qualification. In this course we explore this journey from the Berkshire perspective, using local press coverage and suffrage literature to establish the progress of the movement within a contextual framework and follow its progress until legislation finally gave women franchise equality.

 Information and Booking >
Napoleon, the Arts and the Cult of Personality 6 meetings on Thursdays starting 03/03/2022. 10:00am - 12:00pm Tutor: Dalila Castelijn

On the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte we shall study Napoleon’s relationship with arts. Artworks were commissioned to enhance his image and to cultivate patriotism and revolutionary ideas. Art was looted during military campaigns to enrich French collections. During the course we shall examine David’s paintings and Canova’s sculpture, architectural projects and Sevres porcelain.

 Information and Booking >
The “King of Concertos”: Exploring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto 1 meeting on Saturday 12/03/2022. 10:00am - 4:00pm Tutor: Tony Short

This course should appeal to anyone interested in appreciating how this ‘King of Concertos’ came to fruition. In addition to exploring the work’s genesis, it will consider the progress of public reception over more than two centuries. The concerto will also be compared and contrasted with other significant contemporary violin concertos by lesser-known composers such as Viotti, Kreutzer and Rode. We will, of course, hear many extracts from a century of recording by the greatest violinists.

 Information and Booking >