The Arts Society St Albans

18/06/2026

10/06/2026

Monthly lecture on Wednesday 9th September 2026 at 10:30am-11:45am in the Abbey Theatre - St Albans

Bernini & Baroque Rome

Speaker: Jo Walton

• All visitors welcome
• Free for TASSA members
• £7.50 for non-members, but please contact the Membership Secretary, Jane Sayers in advance if you would like to attend

Rome is a city of many glories, from distant antiquity onwards, and amongst her remarkable churches, fountains and monuments are the spectacular works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. This complex, driven artist was the friend and confidant of Popes and princes, a child prodigy and a prolific, if understandably arrogant, genius. Find out about his architecture, sculpture, paintings, fountains – even plays – but also discover why such exuberance and magnificence became powerful weapons in a religious and political propaganda war.

Jo Walton has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She is now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, The National Gallery, The Art Fund, and local art societies.

09/06/2026

07/06/2026

01/06/2026

A message from our President, Hilary Kay, for Volunteers’ Week.

Since becoming President in April 2025, I’ve been continually inspired by the passion and commitment of our volunteers across the UK and beyond.

This Volunteers’ Week, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who gives their time, whether you’re running Societies and Areas, supporting local arts projects, creating Trails of Discovery, or helping to record and conserve our heritage in places of worship, museums and historic buildings across the country.

Your time, skills and energy make a real difference. You help preserve, celebrate and share the arts and heritage in communities everywhere - and you are vital to everything we do.

Happy Volunteers’ Week, and thank you.

Find out more about volunteering: https://theartssociety.org/volunteering

01/06/2026

Did you know that before taking up a career as a painter, Walter Sickert’s focus was on becoming an actor? 🎭

Born on this day 1860, Sickert appeared in a number of productions from Henry VII and The Lady of Lyons to Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When he decided to become an artist, he continued to be fascinated with all things theatre, as is obvious in many of his paintings and drawings. Sickert painted this work during the early part of the First World War. A party of vaudeville entertainers perform on the Brighton seafront under both the setting sun and artificial stage lights. In contrast to Sickert’s famous scenes of bustling music halls, many of the deckchairs are empty, perhaps hinting at the absence of so many men during the First World War. The gunfire of the Western Front could sometimes be heard along the south coast of England.
​
🖼️ Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), Brighton Pierrots, 1915, Tate, Purchased with support from Art Fund & Friends of Tate 1996. On free display at Tate Britain

20/05/2026

A grand day out for The Arts Society St Albans today, at Kew Gardens: Henry Moore: Monumental Nature