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16 September 2026Cities of Castile: Hidden Treasures of Avila, Salamanca and Toledo
20 May 2026The Schroder Collection of Renaissance Silver
15 April 2026Carl Fabergé: Jeweller to the Tsars
18 March 2026The Art of the Japanese Garden: from Tradition to Modernity
11 February 2026David Hockney - 'The Old Master of the Modern World'
21 January 2026Gustav Mahler: the man, his music, and his passions
03 December 2025Christmas Special Event: “A Cornucopia of Christmas Custom”
19 November 2025Shakespeare Onstage 1660-1914
15 October 2025'Didn’t you used to be…?’
17 September 2025Wilde About Oscar: Famous for Being Famous (& Infamous) 1854-1900
21 May 2025Simon de Montfort, At Home and At War
16 April 2025Caravaggio: Violence and Veneration
19 March 2025Imperial Calcutta: Arts and Architecture
12 February 2025The First Ghosts
15 January 2025Cantiones Sacrae 1575: the lives and music of Tallis and Byrd
04 December 2024Christmas special event: Shepard's Christmas - A celebration of EH Shepard
20 November 2024Graveyards to die for
16 October 2024The manufactured woman: the story of Pandora
18 September 2024Banksy – Fraud or Genius
15 May 2024Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
17 April 2024Music in Art
20 March 2024The Grand Tour
21 February 2024Books of Hours
17 January 2024A Bit of a Carry On
06 December 2023Christmas Special Event: Monopoly – a game we know so well. Or do we?
15 November 2023Seaside Modern Art and Life on the Beach
18 October 2023The skilled practice and history of Book Bindings
20 September 2023400 years of Garden Design in Oxfordshire
17 May 2023Hogarth: harlots to pots
19 April 2023The Great Jan Van Eyck Altarpiece
15 March 2023The English Miniature
15 February 2023The Minoans of Crete
18 January 2023Architecture Through the Ages
16 November 2022The Dark Side of the Boom
19 October 2022A Virtual Tour - Mauritshuis
21 September 2022The History of the Harp
17 May 2022Cabbages, Carrots and Lamb, Spanish Still Life 1600-1812
20 April 2022Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime
16 March 2022Soviet Realism Art
16 February 2022The Founders and Treasures of the Wallace Collection
19 January 2022A Carpet ride to Khiva
17 November 2021Sunken Treasure from the East
20 October 2021 Pictures on Stone
15 September 2021The Collections of Napoleon and Josephine at Chateau de Malmaison
19 May 2021Dumfries House - Saved for the Nation.
21 April 2021Alchemy and Adventure, A history of exotic colours and poisonous pigments.
24 March 2021A Brief Story of Wine
24 February 2021A Garden Like no other: Edward James & Las Pozas
20 January 2021Moorish Architecture: The Legacy of a Vanished Kingdom.
18 November 2020Two Women Who Scandalised the Art World.
21 October 20205000 Years of Glass in 60 Minutes- Online presentation
16 September 2020The Journey of the Magi, Myth & Reality - Online presentation
20 May 2020Cancelled - AGM followed by Sunken Treasures from the East: Tales of Oriental Shipwrecked Porcelain.
22 April 2020Cancelled - Pictures in Stone - The Art of Pietra Dura.
26 February 2020Silk and the Silk Road - all aspects.
15 January 2020The Dowager Empress Cixi: Ruling from behind the Yellow Silk Screen.
20 November 2019The Talent in Tite Street.
16 October 2019The paintings & wit of Winston Churchill and Noel Coward
18 September 2019Reception followed by "The Eagle, Dan Dare and the Art of Frank Hampson"
15 May 2019AGM followed by Art Behind Bars.
17 April 2019Thomas Heatherwick - the 'Leonardo da Vinci' of our time.
20 March 2019Christopher Marlow: dramatist, poet, spy.
13 February 2019"A load of Old Balls"
16 January 2019This is Wren: from Classical, Baroque to City Churches.
21 November 2018Treasures of Far Cathay
17 October 2018The Richest of Legacies: architecture of the British Raj
19 September 2018Reception followed by 'Art and Music in the age of Vermeer'
23 May 2018AGM followed by Faber and Faber
18 April 2018Art of the Islands.
21 March 2018The Art and Artists of Northern Norway.
14 February 2018Sir John Soane - Architect of a lost London.
17 January 2018From Egg to Bacon
06 December 2017Christmas Party - The 12 Days of Christmas
15 November 2017As if by Magic.
18 October 2017Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture.
20 September 2017Reception followed by Living with History.
17 May 2017The Beauty of Frames - preceded by the AGM
19 April 2017Caravaggio: the Bad Boy of the Baroque.
15 March 2017Children's Book Illustrators.
22 February 2017William Cobbett "The Rural Rider Ridiculed"
18 January 2017The Art of Enamelling.
07 December 2016MHDFAS Christmas Party :- A Dickens of a Christmas and God Bless Us.
16 November 2016At the Sign of the Falcon The extraordinary life of H. G. Murphy - Silversmith & Goldsmith.
19 October 2016The World of Islamic Art
21 September 2016The Art and Meaning of Maps - preceded by Reception
18 May 2016Mr. Langshaw's Square Piano.
20 April 2016Life and Times of the Sundial.
16 March 2016Leipzig: Architecture, Art and Music
24 February 2016Paris, the City of 365 Sundays.
20 January 201618th Century Georgian Furniture.
18 November 2015The Fascinating World of Playing Cards.
21 October 2015Top Gallants and Royals: British maritime Painting.
07 October 2015The Silver Thread: Silver Filligree and Traditional Arts in Kosovo.
23 September 2015Rescuing Zeugma from the floodwaters of the Euphrates.

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Cities of Castile: Hidden Treasures of Avila, Salamanca and Toledo Gail Turner Wednesday 16 September 2026

The lecture is about the hidden treasures of the Cities of Castile. Each of these cities has its own individual personality, and art treasures. Toledo has its Visigothic and Moorish background. Avila, active in the campaign for Christian re-conquest, has its fortified walls and was the birthplace of the 16th century reformer St Teresa. Salamanca has its university and great ‘plaza’. 

Biography of Gail Turner

Gail is a historian, art historian, and painter. She is passionate about Spain and Spanish topics. She has been a long-time lecturer for The Arts Society, and before Covid she taught on courses at the V&A, and for Art Pursuits, the National Gallery and the Art Fund. She has lectured on Cambridge University Summer Schools, the Courtauld Institute Summer Courses, Inscape, and for many arts organisations in Europe. In the past she led tours to Spain for The Arts Society and Martin Randall Travel. Gail lectured in the Prado and Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid in the 1980s, and was Deputy Curator of Keats Shelley Memorial House, Rome, before that. She was also once a Christie’s consultant in Illuminated Manuscripts. In 2015 Gail was awarded the Encomienda de Isabel la Católica (the equivalent of the CBE) by the King of Spain for promoting Spanish culture among British audiences. She is President of The Arts Society Colchester.

Photo of the Puente de San Martin, Toledo by Volodymyr Vlasenko, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0