Lunchtime talks

Booking and admission

To obtain tickets please speak to a member of staff on our Welcome Desk or call us on 01752 304774. You can collect tickets by hand from the Museum or we will post them to you. Unreserved tickets will be available on the day although we cannot guarantee that any will remain! For all talks please turn up in plenty time if you wish to get a particular seat. For the enjoyment of all attendees we will not admit latecomers if the gallery is busy or full.

Summer 2010

Tickets are now available.

Tuesday 4 May - Sir John St. Aubyn’s Herbarium
Take another chance to discover more about Sir John St. Aubyn, who is the subject of our ‘The Secret Life of a Collector’ exhibition (13 March to 8 May). This time the focus will be on his fascinating pressed plant collection – otherwise known as a ‘herbarium’.

Tuesday 11 May - Behind Closed Doors: A Town Missionary’s Look at Life in Plymouth 1851 to 1869
Discover the story of our city from 1851 to 1869 as seen through the eyes of Town Missionary, Robert Armstrong Mack. Speaker, Jill Drysdale has spent nearly three years transcribing seven of his work journals for the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office. She will invite you to use your imagination as she transports you back in time – reading passages from the journals that describe the appalling social conditions many people lived in at that time. Come and listen and gain a new insight into mid-19^th Century Plymouth, the plight of the city’s poor and see how the foundation of an early Social Services was laid through the Plymouth City Mission.

Tuesday 25 May - Ice Age Plymouth
Find out more about the ice age cave sites in Plymouth! Acting Keeper of Natural History, Jan Freedman will explore the evidence of ancient animals in the local area and explain how we are still using these specimens to discover new things about the past.

Tuesday 1 June - St. Ives Series (1): St. Ives: Modern Art and Landscape in Post-War Britain
Immerse yourself in the landscape art of post-war Britain with Chris Stephens from Tate as we begin a month-long series of fascinating talks relating to our ‘Artists of St. Ives and the South West’ (ongoing) and ‘A Discipline of the Mind: The Drawings of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’ (22 May to 10 July) exhibitions. In the years after World War Two, a group of abstract artists gathered around the Cornish town of St. Ives and made an art inspired by landscape. Why was it at that moment and time that such an art emerged and seemed so important? Artists discussed will include Hepworth, Nicholson, Wallis, Gabo, Lanyon, Heron, Frost, Hilton and Wynter.  

Tuesday 8 June - St. Ives Series (2): St. Ives 1860-1930: The Artists and the Community
Learn more about the social history of the St. Ives art colony as author, David Tovey discusses his newly-published book also entitled, ‘St. Ives 1860-1930: The Artists and the Community’. This publication represents a totally novel approach to the colony and contains over 450 images, many of which have never been published before. This is your chance to get a glimpse into a unique social history of the St. Ives artists, which not only looks at the way of life they enjoyed but also assesses the impact they had on the town and townsfolk.

Tuesday 15 June - St. Ives Series (3): Bernard Leach, My Grandfather
Enjoy an illustrated talk by Philip Leach of Hartland's Springfield Pottery. Philip will talk about the extraordinary legacy his grandfather left to six family members who all continue to make pots.

Tuesday 22 June - St. Ives Series (4): An Exploration of Informal Education at Tate St. Ives
Join illustrator, gallery educator and Young Tate Peer Leader, Cassie Penn, for her take on St. Ives art. Find out about her work on exhibitions about Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Bernard Leach and Barbara Hepworth and the excellent collection of letters and photographs related to artists such as Hepworth and Alfred Wallis that are currently housed at The St. Ives Archive Centre.

Tuesday 29 June - St. Ives Series (5): Mind, Body, Landscape: Bryan Wynter’s Experiments in Life and Art
Enjoy another talk by author and art historian, Michael Bird who returns to the Museum following his successful lecture in June 2009. This time he will give an illustrated talk about his new book on the artist Bryan Wynter. Wynter’s isolated studio on the high moors of West Cornwall was the site of groundbreaking artistic experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. But his experiments weren’t restricted to art! He was constantly seeking new ways of exploring both his natural environment and the inner workings of the mind. Ranging from wartime Oxford to 1950s London and the modern artists of St Ives, the story is richly illustrated from Wynter’s work and the context of his multi-faceted career.

Tuesday 6 July - St. Ives Series (6): Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: The Uses of Drawing
Limited tickets available
Join curator and art critic, Mel Gooding, as he discusses the work of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, former member of the St. Ives Schools of Artists and the subject of our exhibition, ‘A Discipline of the Mind’. Places are very limited so don’t delay in getting your ticket if you want to come along! Attendees are advised that this tour will involve long periods of standing.

The programme will then break for the summer and will return for autumn/winter on Tuesday 21 September 2010.

Details are subject to change. Keep checking this page for information as it's updated or sign-up to our email mailing list to receive advance information.

If you are making a special trip to the Museum for a lunchtime talk we strongly advise that you contact us in advance to double check arrangements.

[Back to top]