Program 2025

Presented by Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE

Elizabeth Macgregor will explain how MCA-Australia became the most visited Museum of Contemporary Art in the World.

After two transformational decades at the helm of The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, ended her tenure as Director October 2021.
When Elizabeth Ann Macgregor left the MCA Australia in October 2021, MCA Chairman, Lorraine Tarabay, said Ms Macgregor left an enormous legacy. “Liz Ann is a visionary who has expertly steered the Museum from the brink of insolvency when she arrived to the vibrant, thriving organisation The Art Newspaper has declared the most visited contemporary art museum in the world,” she said.
“During her tenure, the MCA expanded to include the National Centre for Creative Learning (NCCL) and increased its audience more than tenfold. The Museum is renowned globally for its curatorial excellence, putting artists at the centre of all it does.

Date:

Monday 17 February 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Presented by Sue Rollin (UK)

GLORIOUS DOMES: FROM THE PANTHEON TO THE TAJ MAHAL
Stories of impressive domes: Hadrian’s Pantheon in Rome boasts the world’s largest concrete
dome, while the brick dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople, commissioned by 6C emperor
Justinian, is a Byzantine masterpiece. A thousand years later Ottoman architect Sinan strove to emulate its genius in the mosques he designed for his sultanic masters. In Samarkand, a brilliant blue ribbed double dome rises over the 15C mausoleum of Tamerlane, the precursor to the domes of the Mughals, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, clad in marble and resembling a large pearl, a fitting crown to a magnificent monument to earthly love.

Date:

Monday 24 March 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM 

presented by Kathleen Olive

While in recent years we’ve become more familiar with the work of Japanese woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai, the 19th-century prints of Utagawa Hiroshige remain less known. From conventional portraits of beautiful women and actors to series of landscapes, birds and flowers, Hiroshige’s career was distinguished by an unerring sense of line and the power of composition. Propelled by popular demand and enlivened by the subtle tweaks made possible by reprints, his prints demonstrate the refinement of Japanese tastes and the tradition of collaboration. With seasonality as our key, we focus on Hiroshige’s wintry scenes, exploring their appeal in the context of national aesthetics and geographies.

Date:

Monday 21 April 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Presented by Alice Foster (UK)
What occupies a woman’s day? From depictions of farm workers and hearth keepers in the Middle Ages, to picture restorers in the 21st century, Alice’s lecture explores the responsibilities of women at work. Women participated in brewing, baking and textile weaving. During World War 2 they made armaments; were researchers in science and the arts and eventually were allowed to become priests. All these jobs were depicted, sometimes by famous artists such as Edouard Manet and
Laura Knight, sometimes by less well-known artists. Some women became artists themselves,
facing challenges of work in what was considered a man’s world.

Alice Foster has lectured for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education since 1998. She
lectures regularly at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in
Woodstock.

Date

Monday 19 May 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00

 

Presented by David Banney
Leonardo and Palestrina, Picasso and Stravinsky, Debussy and Matisse - Art and Music are never produced in a vacuum, and the histories of art and music have run similar courses, with music always a little way behind. This lecture traces the major historical movements of the last 1000 years, exploring the parallels between sound and visual images. How can we “hear” perspective? How can we “see“ sonata form? What does Rothko sound like, and what does Philip Glass look like? Why does music take longer to catch up?

 

Described by pianist Roger Woodward a ‘quite simply one of the best conductors in the country’. David is one of Australia’s most highly regarded musicians, with success as a conductor, composer, string player and educator.

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Date

Monday 16 June 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM 

Presented by Chris Aslan
Uzbekistan boasts glittering mosques, madrassahs and minarets in the Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, contrasting with the brutalist Soviet buildings in Tashkent, Urgench and Nukus.

This lecture provides a primer for anyone thinking of visiting the country. Ewe explore the Russian Avante Garde art collection of the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, assembled when these styles were banned by the state. We consider the revival of Islamic miniature painting in Bukhara and the resurgence of handicrafts that ceased during the 1930s, with t he Soviet drive to industrialisation. Finally, we consider how tourism is affecting production of high-quality handicrafts.

 

Date

Monday 21 July 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM 

Presented by Toby Faber
As a pioneer of literary modernism, T S Eliot inevitably influenced his counterparts in the visual arts. He was friends with several artists. Edward McKnight Kauffer and David Jones illustrated his work: Patrick Heron and Wyndham Lewls painted him; Jacob Epstein sculpted him. There are paintings inspired by his poems. And the reverse is also true; ‘The Waste Land’ famously employs techniques borrowed from modern art. This lecture will explore some of sketches connections, while also taking the chance to display some of Eliot’s own artistic creations: the jokey little sketches he included in letters to children.

An experienced lecturer, Toby Faber began his career with Natural Sciences at Cambridge, followed by investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber. Tobey is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music.

 

Date

Monday 18 August 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Presented by Lydia Bauman (UK)_
About a third of 17th century Dutch paintings feature musical instruments or scenes of music-making. Music was celebrated as a means of social or familial bonding and as an expression of love, while also feared for its seductive, immoral connotations. A strict etiquette surrounded the act of performing music by men and women and the middle and lower classes. This talk includes musical excerpts played on original period instruments, illustrating particular instruments shown in paintings.

Lydia was born in Poland and studied for her BA in Fine Art at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (John Christie Scholarship and the Hatton Award), and an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She has since divided her time between painting and exhibiting as well as lecturing widely to adult audiences. She has taught at London's National Gallery for more than 35 years, and intermittently at London’s Tate Gallery and National Portrait Gallery,

 

Date

Monday 15 September 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM 

Presented by Georgina Buxton (UK)

Shrines, stupas, cave temples, colonial grandeur and modernist architecture – a look at the history of this beautiful island through its intriguing art and culture. For much of Sri Lanka's past, Buddhist and Hindu have lived alongside each other peaceably and much of the nation’s culture is evidence of this spirit of tolerance and generosity. This talk examines the fascinating story of Sri Lankan art and the original minds, talents and spirits that created this unique visual world.

Georgina Bexon is an international art historian who has lived and worked in the UK, Europe, USA and Singapore. Her practice includes lecturing, writing, consulting and collecting and she has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India, which she visits regularly. Consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club in London and an official tour guide at Tate Modern, Georgina also presents at leading art institutions and international art conferences in New York Paris London

Date

Monday 27 October 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Presented by Sally Butler
This lecture explains how the modern Aboriginal art movement developed since the 1970s and how it maintains its connection to visual traditions going back to rock art created many thousands of years ago.

The lecture focuses on how cultural traditions are reinvented and reinvigorated through innovative art of today.

Examples include Indigenous art from the Central Desert, North Queensland, the Kimberleys and Arnhem Land.

Sally Butler is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Queensland and formerly a Senior Education Officer at the Queensland Art Gallery and an Associate Editor and feature writer for Art Collector magazine. She has published widely in Australian and international journals and several books.

Date

Monday 17 November 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM