Online Talks

Learn From Experts, Anywhere in the World

Spearheaded by ArtscapesUK Founding Director and Art Historian, Rose Balston, expect fresh, invigorating and charismatic talks, full of anecdotal detail and a wealth of storytelling.

Explore art that spans across the centuries and around the globe, from ancient Egypt to ground-breaking contemporary artists.

With the flexibility to learn around your busy schedule, we have content to keep you entertained from home, throughout the year. You can purchase a full series to get the most from a period or theme, or select any of the talks independently.

How It Works

1

Choose a series or individual talk from the library below

From the day of purchase, you have 7 days per lecture to watch on catch-up via the Tixoom platform. Each series comprises 6-8 x 1 hour talks.

2

Buy the series, or gift to the art-enthusiast in your life

Once you have chosen the series or individual talk, select ‘Buy Now’ and purchase via Tixoom. Keep an eye on your inbox (and junk folder) for a link to the content.

3

Watch from home at your own pace

Login with your email via Tixoom and watch the series via your private portal, whenever works for you. We are always delighted to receive questions and feedback so please feel free to be in touch.

Explore our lectures

UPCOMING

Art and Our Climate: A Story of Ice and Time

  • 22nd April, 12:30pm. Recording will be available for one week after the live event

    Across time and place, the artists of our world have expressed what matters most to society: our joys and hopes, our fears and challenges, our politics, religion and more. They are – and always have been - a critical mouthpiece to society. The climate crisis is one of today's greatest challenges. How are our artists responding to this? What difference do they make and can they really bring about change? To celebrate Earth Day 2024, Rose Balston will explore these questions by looking closely at both contemporary and nineteenth century art. This fascinating talk will illuminate the way art can be an important vehicle for discussion, and how artists remain a powerful voice in this global conversation.

  • Length: 1 hour

PAST

Influencers: Women Who Shaped the Art World

  • Throughout the ages, female patrons have used art as a crucial form of social and political expression. Their patronage allowed them to explore their passions, nurture artists and build unique collections. Rose Balston will look at women who were revered as taste makers, thinkers and leaders in their field during their lifetimes, yet have remained in the shadows as history took hold.

    Rose will journey from the 16th to the 19th centuries to discover a selection of leading female patrons and how they influenced the art world and their own social and political status. Women will include Marguerite of Austria, Isabella d’Este, Madame de Pompadour, Catherine the Great of Russia, Queen Victoria of England and Isabella Stewart Gardner.

  • (1) Isabella d’Este: In the Court at Mantua
    (2) Marguerite of Austria: The Spanish Netherlands
    (3) Eleanor of Toledo: The Medici Rise Again
    (4) Catherine the Great: Empress of Art
    (5) Queen Victoria and her husband Albert: Passionate Patrons

PAST

Uncovered: The Body in Art

  • Across human history the body and art have always been irrevocably entwined. In this six-part series, Rose Balston will analyse the body - drawing examples from ancient art through to contemporary, to explore how the body in art has helped shaped our understanding of the world.

  • (1) The Eyes
    (2) The Nude
    (3) The Wounds
    (4) The Hands
    (5) The Foot
    (6) The Expression

PAST

The Greatest Storytellers of the European Baroque

  • Art Historian and TV presenter Rose Balston is delighted to continue her “Greatest Storytellers” series. As the high drama of the 17th century takes centre stage, Rose will bring you tales of seven revolutionary artists from the Baroque period. This is a time of extraordinary artistic prowess where we see art adopted as a political and religious weapon. Art became shockingly real, emotionally potent and more driven by spectacle than ever before. This is the art of persuasion, of prestige, of power.

  • (1) Caravaggio: Saints and Sinners in Baroque Rome
    (2) Bernini: Living Sculpture
    (3) Rubens and Van Dyck: The Secret Weapon of Kings
    (4) Rembrandt: Journey to the Soul
    (5) Velazquez: Art and Illusion
    (6) Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age

PAST

The Greatest Storytellers of the Long 18th century

  • The 18th century in Europe was bursting at the seams with extraordinary people and ground-breaking events. Art and artists were unleashed onto the wider society as a proliferation of talent burgeoned expansively across the continent. The Grand Tour was consolidated, aristocrats began to obsessively collect art, public art galleries evolved, the Royal Academy and French Salon was consolidated and new synthetic pigments were invented. And charging alongside were the roars of colonialism, industrialization, the Enlightenment, the rights of man, Darwinism and political revolution. A vivid, thrilling and complicated time that has led British historians to term it the “Long 18th Century”, encapsulating events in the centuries before and after - to make greater sense of the Homeric nature of this time

  • (1) Art and Love: Rococo Romance in 18th century France
    (2) Canaletto and the Lure of Venice
    (3) Toffs, Taverns, Whores and Hoorays! Hogarth’s London
    (4) David: The Art of Revolution
    (5) The Golden Age of Portraiture: Reynolds and Gainsborough
    (6) The Hidden Truths of John Constable
    (7) The Sun is God: JMW Turner the “Father of Modern Art”

PAST

The Greatest Storytellers of the 19th century

  • The 19th century tells a long and extraordinary story. Change is afoot in all walks of life. It is a whirlwind of productivity and creativity but also of shocking drama. In this series, Rose Balston will dive deep into the lives and works of just a few artists practicing in this tumultuous time: among others Vigée Le Brun, Canova, Goya, William Blake, the Pre-Raphaelites and Whistler. Through their art, Rose will explore the social, political, economic and religious upheaval that challenged every sector of society.

  • (1) Women, Art and Power: Le Brun, Labille- Guiard & Marie Antoinette
    (2) Canova & the Bonapartes: Of God & Men
    (3) William Blake: Identity and Nationhood
    (4) The Lure of the East: Holman Hunt and J.F Lewis
    (5) Francisco Goya: A Time of Unreason
    (6) Liberty! Equality! Solidarity!
    (7) The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
    (8) Whistler: “Individualism” and Modernity

PAST

Old Mistresses: Women Artists from the 16th to 18th Century

  • As the high drama of the 17th century takes centre stage, Rose will bring you tales of seven revolutionary artists from the Baroque period. This is a time of extraordinary artistic prowess where we see art adopted as a political and religious weapon. Art became shockingly real, emotionally potent and more driven by spectacle than ever before.

  • (1) Blazing the Trail: Sofonisba Anguissola
    (2) The Secret Renaissance: Women of Bologna
    (3) Dutch Leading Ladies: Top of their game, side-lined in history
    (4) Restoration: A new dawn for British women
    (5) Rococo Rock Star: Rosalba Carriera
    (6) Angelica Kauffman: Prodigy, Pioneer

PAST

The Northern Renaissance Part 1

  • When we look at 15th-century Netherlandish paintings, we find ourselves time-travelling. Through some of the most astonishing paintings in the canon of western art history, we are given privileged access to a long-lost world from 500 years ago. This was a time of uninterrupted innovation where we see artists push their creative skills to new limits.

  • (1) Oil! Oil! Oil! Jan Van Eyck
    (2) The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers
    (3) Rogier van der Weyden: Celebrity in the North
    (4) Bridging North and South: Hugo van der Goes and Hans Memling
    (5) The End of Days: Hieronymous Bosch
    (6) The Dutch Revolt: Pieter Bruegel the Elder

PAST

The Northern Renaissance Part 2

  • This is a series about Art, Politics, and Power. Following on from Northern Renaissance Part One: A Window Onto the World, we’ll move into the 16th century via the artists of Germany, France, Scotland, and England – Dürer, Cranach, and Holbein to name a few. As the shape of patronage changed, we’ll see how art was bound in the politics of the Protestant Reformation, England’s break from Rome, Henry VIII’s tally of wives, Elizabeth I’s thrilling power struggle, and her fight against Spain – this is one of the most fertile and fascinating periods in Northern European history. Art – as ever – is the most potent and relatable illustration of these extraordinary times.

  • (1) Durer: Portraits, Prints and Promo
    (2) Cranach and the Reformation
    (3) Holbein: The Renaissance Comes to England
    (4) The Lady with a Unicorn: Tapestries in France
    (5) The French Renaissance: Francois Premier and Catherine de Medici
    (6) Elizabeth I of England: Power and the Face

PAST

Artemisia Gentileschi

  • Artemisia. A woman who shouts out 'I belong here’. Who believed in her artistic greatness. Who took her place among the most revered and sought after painters of the Baroque period. Drama, passion, anger and moral turmoil, Artemisia's paintings have it all.

  • Length: 1 hour

PAST

MAGI

  • This talk celebrates the spectacular landscape of winter: not a bleak and monochrome season, but one that is filled with light and a myriad of colour. Looking at winter through the eyes of Pieter Breugel the Elder, JMW Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Pissarro, Monet and others, its inspirational force quickly becomes apparent.

  • Length: 1 hour

PAST

The Story of Angels

  • What have angels meant to the history of art? What is their role in the Christmas story and how have artists attempted to illustrate their transcendent forms. Join this enlightening talk on the magical role of angels in art history with Rose Balston.

  • Length: 1 hour

PAST

The Winter Landscape

  • Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. What do these gifts really mean? And who were the men that carried them?

    In this talk Rose Balston will traverse the extraordinary story of these kings from the East, and how they have been portrayed in the great art works of history. Ranging across the ages from 6th century Ravenna through to the Renaissance, we’ll look at some of the most glorious and recognisable images of the Three Magi and their precious gifts. This is a talk filled with wonder, mystery, a lot of gold and some stunningly beautiful art.

  • Length: 1 hour