We heard it through the grapevine…
“By the way… Don’t touch the figs.”
Siân Phillips and Brian Blessed, I Claudius (BBC, 1976). Image here from: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/dont-let-dated-sets-and-stagey-acting-keep-you-from-this-brilliant-bbc-drama/
… and the word on the street (as no self-respecting Young Person would now say) is that our Great 2023 Experiment (fewer ten-week courses per term, ergo greater variety via more short courses) is welcome. Hurrah!
Several of you have, however, said that short courses can slip off your I’ll-sort-that-out-soon list.
As the general announcement of our autumn programme was way back in May, we thought that it might be useful to have a round-up of our currently-available shorter courses, now that term has kicked in.
So in calendar order, voila…
Rembrandt
Thursday 28 September & Thursday 5 October
Rembrandt’s been Having A Moment recently, with several exciting exhibitions throughout the world. We know that you Denizens are cultured and well-travelled bunnies, so I suspect that many of you will have recently seen - or are about to see - some fabulous Rembrandts in the flesh (as it were). Here’s a chance to have some Robertian context and thoughts - which might also serve as compensation for those of you who, like us, are not lucky enough to have been up close and personal with Rembrandt for a while.
The Viking Age (Pickering)
Friday 6 October - Friday 24 November (incl., with half-term break on 3 November)
This is the shorter, in-venue version of our current online Viking action, for them as prefer to have their Robertian Pearls of Wisdom (TM) In Real Life.*
*[NB For those of you who prefer In Real Life courses, please keep reading, as we’d like to sound you out with regard to the feasibility of an in-venue day school.]
The Valley of the Kings
Saturday 7 October & Saturday 14 October
…because we know that a lot of you especially like your history to be really old!
Next up, in calendar order, is our online 6-week Spectacular of Scandalous Sirens, namely…
Wicked Women
Tuesday 10 October - Tuesday 21 Nov (incl., with half-term break on 31 Oct)
Since we started Wright History, several of you have (rightly!) expressed surprise that I had never seen the 1970s-tastic I Claudius. I’m happy to confirm that I have now rectified this egregious omission, courtesy of the BBC - hence my choice of a fruit-based starting point for this post!
Unsurprisingly, I had some serious reservations about various aspects of the series (understatement ahoy!), but I was smitten by Siân Phillips’ Livia Drusilla, who is one of our chosen Frightful Females.*
*[Given several recent discussions about historical fiction and drama (especially during The Viking Age), it may be time for another Cultures of Histories post, building upon this one soon. In the meantime, those of you with a soft spot for I Claudius may find this interesting (and see also Phillips’ comment, in last weekend’s Times piece, on the acting register being an initially controversial directorial decision.]
We’re rather excited about this course, as it will give us all an opportunity to think about how changing trends in popular and academic historical thinking are influenced by what’s deemed important at any given time. Equally excitingly, we’ll get to meet a plum selection (see what I did there? And I’m not even sorry!), from across the centuries, of remarkably interesting historical characters - aka: some cracking stories!
Dali and Miró
Thursday 19 & Thursday 26 October
Each of these fabulous artists has been mentioned in previous courses as the next logical focus of an artist-based Short & Sweet course - and now here they are, as the main stars of the show!
El Greco and Velasquez
Saturday 4 & Saturday 11 November
There’s never a bad time to wallow in the beautiful light and shade of these artists’ respective oeuvres, but we hope you’ll agree that they’ll be especially welcome as November descends upon us!
Art Nouveau glass masters: Tiffany, Gallé, and their contemporaries
Saturday 2 & Saturday 9 December
We’ve long wanted to revisit Art Nouveau - which so many of you enjoyed way back in autumn ‘21 - and meeting a fabulous local lampworker inspired us to do so now!
Everyone who registers for this course is entered into a prize draw - for details of the gorgeous prize and, indeed, more on the gorgeous local lampworker, follow this link.
Phew! We’ve done our best to offer a tasty little something for everyone (would I be pushing this post’s ‘hook’ too much to say “a fruity little something”…?), and very much hope that you feel that we’ve succeeded!
Before I sign off, a question for those of you who prefer in-venue courses. We could potentially schedule an in-venue day school, on Saturday 18 or 25 November (pending venue availability). We can, however, only schedule this if we are sure that we won’t end up making a financial loss! Post-lockdown booking patterns suggest that not enough York-based Denizens are able to make it to Guppy’s, which is the York venue most accessible to all pre-lockdown regulars. Might this be of interest now, though, or should we stick with Pickering (where there tends to be enough registrations to make a course viable)? Do please email me if you’d like us to explore availability at Guppy’s!