Free, no need to book

‘Perfectly painted’ or ‘catastrophe’? Join Manchester Art Gallery’s curator Hannah Williamson for a gallery tour to consider what Ruskin had to say about works in Manchester’s collection.

2.15pm

Speaker: John Blewitt

John Ruskin was a major influence on William Morris but many of Ruskin’s political views were decidedly conservative. Morris was a libertarian eco-socialist who imagined a utopian future with no masters and no hierarchies; Ruskin looked at the laissez faire capitalism of his day and yearned to recreate social relationships characterised by a reciprocal bond between wise masters who would look after their godly and honest workers. This lecture will explore their contrasting socio-political visions.

John Blewitt is a Distinguished Fellow of the Schhumacher Institute and a member of the William Morris Society.

Tickets for the lecture are £12/£10 (member)/£5 (student)

SPECIAL OFFER: book for all three William Morris Society lectures at the special rate of £30/£25 (member)/£12 (student)

In July 1857 John Ruskin came to Manchester to deliver A Joy Forever, a pair of lectures presented over two evenings. These lectures, subtitled The Discovery and Application of Art and The Accumulation and Distribution of Art, will be re-enacted at The Portico Library and Manchester Art Gallery respectively during the Ruskin in Manchester bicentenary festival. Actor and art historian Paul O’Keeffe will perform these original lectures in two of the most important architectural treasures remaining from Victorian Manchester.

Sponsored by Ruskin in Manchester, Guild of St. George and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The second lecture, The Accumulation and Distribution of Art, will be held at Manchester Art gallery, Saturday 13th July 2019 at 12pm.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ruskin-lecture-re-enactment-the-discovery-and-application-of-art-tickets-60125288356

Dawn Scything – (6am – 9am) – Help cut part of our wildflower meadow – experienced mowers welcome. Breakfast provided at 9am.  Free event.  Please confirm your attendance by contacting the Estate Team on estate@brantwood.org.uk.  Meet in Brantwood car park.

More information can be found www.ruskinprize.co.uk

Held in the setting of Brantwood’s lakeside meadow. Bring your own seating. Gates open at 6pm. Show starts at 7pm.  Performance will last circa 2h 20m including a 20 minute interval. Adults £12.00. Children & students £8.00. Coniston Launch will be running a ferry service to and from the performance, leaving Coniston Boat landings at 6.15pm and returning after the performance.  Adults £3, children £1.50.  Ferry must be booked in advance through Brantwood box office.

Shakespeare’s final play, is also believed by many to be his finest comedy, presented in Illyria’s slick, physical and imaginative style. A magician marooned on an island with his daughter conjures up a storm to shipwreck his enemies on the shore of the island. Which is greater – his desire for revenge or his aptitude for forgiveness?

6-7:30pm

19th-century artist, critic and social reformer John Ruskin said “I perceive that Manchester can produce no good art and no good literature”. In his eyes, this city saw the price of everything and the value of nothing – not grasping art’s true potential as a tool for social change and for the development of an ethical society. In 2019, his bicentenary year, what does Manchester have to say to this influential but controversial thinker’s ideas? Pose your questions to the new Director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth, Alistair Hudson, and Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera, who have responded to some of Ruskin’s challenges by proposing to “put art to use” through the movement of Arte Útil. Hosted by Tunde Adekoya, Director of Big People Music, this lively debate will be an opportunity to ask important questions about art, power and society.

Book online

Meet: Manchester Art Gallery, 11am.
Booking: Please press here to book with eventbrite.

£1 per child. Usual admission for adults (£4/£5)

All welcome, family-friendly workshop

Inspired by Ruskin’s writing and painting featuring clouds, families will enjoy some cloud spotting, and write poems based on what they’ve observed. There will also be the chance to paint some clouds using cotton wool.

Patricia and Mike have worked together for over twelve years and share a love of the Lake District and a visionary approach to interpreting the landscape with their different mediums.

To quote Ruskin  “Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth”

Exhibiting paintings and photographs together is not really known in England, but it has long been a tradition in other countries, particularly America where, in the 291 Gallery in New York (early 20th century), as the Arabian Nights). Young Ali Baba stumbles across an enchanted cave when he overhears the magic words that open it: “Open Sesame!” Inside the cave he finds and steals untold amounts of gold and jewels. But what will he do when the Robber King comes looking for revenge? The show is notable for the most riotously funny scene Illyria has created in its 28 year history, where one character polishes off all the thieves – yes, all 40, and you get to count each one!

1-3pm

Family Friendly | £1 per child. Usual admission for adults (£4/£5)

Children and their adults can try this traditional craft, using wool, ribbon and thread to create rustic artworks using twigs and cardboard looms.

7.30pm

A special event of the Lake District Summer Music Festival

www.ldsm.https://www.ldsm.org.uk/international-festival/2019-08-04-ruskin-and-musicorg.uk

1-3pm

Family Friendly event | £1 per child. Usual admission for adults (£4/£5)

Inspired by Ruskin’s focus on close observation of nature, this workshop will involve looking closely at sea shells, feathers and leaves (the latter from the garden at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House) using magnifying glasses, and drawing on sketch paper in pencils and pen.

To celebrate John Ruskin’s bicentennial year, this exhibition looks at John Ruskin’s connections with the local area, based on his associations with three residents: George Allen, Sir John Lubbock and Charles Darwin. The central hub of these was Sunnyside, Tubbenden Lane, Orpington, the home and business address of George Allen.

Sobue will create a portrait installation of Ruskin calling forth his love of nature, his spirituality and the conflicting sensitivities of this visionary man.

10am-4pm

Tickets: £55 | Book here | Limited to 15 spaces

Drawing on the inspiration of Ruskin our much-loved workshop, led by urban sketcher Liz Ackerley, will teach you how to capture special places using pen, pencil, watercolour and other simple materials in a sketchbook. From drawing special items like lamps and furniture, to details, features and views, this day workshop will give you the skills and tools to get started, in the delightful historic setting of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. As well as creating line drawings, textures, and adding creative colour, you will also have fun recording your visit in a sketchbook, and will take away useful tips and tricks for future sketching.

During this mid-summer workshop, you’ll have the chance (weather permitting!) to get out into the glorious garden for inspiration too.

2pm

Speaker: Prof Stephen Wildman

Informed and inspired by ideas of chaos and order, control and surrender, Russell Mills will exhibit new mixed media works and an ‘aleatoric’ soundwork, made specifically for Brantwood. Mills creates works that mirror and explore many of Ruskin’s ideas about nature: as matter, as force, as school, as metaphor for transformation, and as being profoundly political and economic.

Russell studied at Canterbury, Maidstone and the Royal College of Art. His work encompasses painting, installation, sound, film, and design for contemporary dance and music. He has worked with Brian Eno, Nine Inch Nails, David Sylvian and Peter Gabriel amongst many others.

A one day hands-on workshop to explore some techniques that Sally uses when painting flowers with watercolour. Time in the gardens with the flowers, with huge views across Coniston Water in a peaceful and calming setting. Painting in the airy loft house studio with large vases of cut flowers. If it’s raining please bring a hooded rain coat and walking boots or wellies.  10.00am – 5.00pm.  £70 per person

7.30pm (doors open at 7.00pm).  Tickets £7 (includes glass of wine on arrival).  Pre-talk supper can be booked in advance by email theterrace@brantwood.org.uk.

Through his Talk, Hideyuki will explore the relevance of John Ruskin’s legacy to our contemporary context, and consider his exhibition in the light of that.

Tickets and Information can be found: www.holytrinityartsandcrafts.org

7 pm

A keynote address as part of the Art for the Nation, John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change conference

10am – 5pm

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/calendar/art-for-the-nation-john-ruskin-art-education-and-social-change 

Art for the Nation: John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change’ is a two-day conference scheduled for 20-21 September 2019, hosted at the National Gallery, and organised by Susanna Avery-Quash (National Gallery) in partnership with Janet Barnes, a former Director of the Guild of St. George. The conference forms part of a collaboration with the Ruskin Foundation, whose annual lecture will be given by Prof Robert Hewison (Chair, Ruskin To-day), at the National Gallery on the Friday evening of the conference.

The conference will look specifically at Ruskin’s interactions with, influence on and legacy for the museum world and art education. The conference will look at the extent Ruskin was working alongside or outside the British art establishments well as the contribution
Ruskin made to the emerging discipline of art history, including canon formation, formal criticism and other genres such as exhibition guides. A further, crucial set of issues will address Ruskin’s ongoing legacy, including the reception of his writing about artists and curating, and art in relation to social, environmental and economic questions. We will ask what can his ideas teach future generations of museum goers, artists, curators and funding bodies?

The two day conference is directed towards academics (established and emerging), art professionals and the general public, especially those interested in Ruskin, Italian Renaissance art, British 19th-century art, art education, and the history of museums. The conference will be structured around the themes: Art Education and Museums, British Art and Photography, Language and Writings and Ruskin Today.

All enquiries to Susanna Avery-Quash, National Gallery: Susanna.Avery-Quash@ng-london.org.uk

This conference aims to celebrate the life and work of John Ruskin during his bicentenary. This two-day event will create a space for theologically engaged conversations about Ruskin, religion and the arts. We seek to focus on Ruskin’s religious and aesthetic writings informed by his relationship with Christianity, as well as examine his influence on those within the Victorian art world, specifically the Pre-Raphaelites.

https://www.visualtheology.org.uk/booking/ 

Artists of interest may include: Stanhope, Rossetti, Millais, Burne-Jones, Beardsley

£25 Booking Essential | Book Here | Adults only

Join us for an afternoon poetry workshop inspired by the beautiful surroundings of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. Taking inspiration from John Ruskin’s ideas about observation, and in honour of our Ruskin exhibition, you will use the exquisite features of the House and garden to write original pieces of poetry based on focused contemplation. Led by poet Rachel Sills, the 3-hour workshop will include the opportunity to explore the House, and to share your work (if you like) for feedback. Afternoon workshop, 12 – 3pm

More details https://sites.google.com/a/unive.it/ruskin2019venezia/ 

Come and join Pippa Little and Geraldine Green on a 4-day residential poetry course at Brantwood, Coniston Cumbria, former home of John Ruskin. Brantwood is beautiful at any time of year and autumn in the Lakes is especially magical. Using a variety of writing prompts and stimuli new writing will be produced in a safe and friendly environment. There will be an opportunity for group feedback at the end of each session and one-to-one tutorials with Geraldine and Pippa. There’ll also be time to enjoy your own quiet writing time, if you choose.  Pippa and Geraldine will give a reading on Friday evening and you’re all welcome to read a poem or two on Saturday evening when the group give a reading to the tutors.  Residential and non-residential options are available.  Friday 2.00pm – Monday 2.00pm.  £285 per person

6.00-7.15pm

Join poet Geraldine Green and other Cumbrian creative talent at the annual winter open mic night at the Terrace at Brantwood. Supper at 7pm followed by readings. Open mic slots available. Tickets £14. Pre booking essential.

10.30am until 5pm (4.00pm on Sunday)

A wide range of quality crafts from around the North West, on display throughout Brantwood house. Crafts include: Ceramics, jewellery, fused & stained glass, felt bags, swill baskets, wood turning, photographs,  silk pictures, cakes and preserves, original artworks, prints and cards.

£2.50 admission for craft fair & house, inclusive. No charge for child admissions.

1.00 – 1.45pm

Speaker: Max Donnelly, Curator, Furniture, Textiles & Fashion

The first in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free

1.00 – 1.45pm

Speaker: Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The second in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free.

1.00 – 1.45pm

Speaker: Sarah Quill

The third in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free

1.00 – 1.45pm

Speaker: Julius Bryant, Keeper of Word & Image Department

The last in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free.

5 – 7pm

Join University of Birmingham 19C Centre staff to celebrate the centenary year of John Ruskin’s birth. A panel of short papers offer fresh views on Ruskin, followed by discussion.

https://blog.bham.ac.uk/19cc/2019/03/11/views-on-ruskin/ 

Marcus Bicknell and Margaret Brett

Jim Spates (Professor Emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and Dr. Gabriel Meyer (Executive Director, Ruskin Art Club), Coordinators

Speakers include Clive Wilmer (Master of The Guild of St. George), Dr. Sara Atwood (The Guild of St. George and Portland Community College), Gabriel Meyer (President, Ruskin Art Club), Jim Spates (Professor Emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges)