The History of the Musical
Jamie Hayes  Thursday 26th March 2026
At Blooms Garden Room on Horndean Road. This is open to friends and family too.

"A SPECIAL INTEREST DAY would be fun", said Jamie Hayes after we had enjoyed his History of the Opera lecture.  "Beginning with 'The History of Musicals' lecture which is great fun and a 'Gilbert and Sullivan' plus a  'Miss Saigon; the Making of a Musical', 'page to stage', a personal story which goes down well in the telling. So perhaps a SID entitled 'THE HISTORY OF THE MUSICAL' (which will include TOMMY, of course!), incorporating all could work nicely and be good fun. The journey would cover from the birth of the musical, right up to now, and focus in on my personal journey with Miss Saigon. Q&A, show and tell could be factored in. The route through would be informative - with lots of illustrated musical clips to enjoy."

A wonderful Special Interest Day with a personal and local perspective from someone with immense experience in the world of musicals and opera.

If you'd like to know more, here are the details of each of the lectures and a little background about Jamie himself.

After training at RADA, Jamie worked for Kent Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The BBC, The RSC and the ENO.  He was Associate Director on the original production of the hit musical Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway.

The History of Musicals
A talk which examines the journey of the musical, from its almost accidental beginnings of The Black Crook of 150 years ago through to the modern phenomenon which is Hamilton. This illustrated lecture will highlight the great musical productions which have graced London’s West End and Broadway and focuses upon the game changing moments of both composers and productions. From Jerome Kern to Lin-Manuel Miranda, every great musical has its own story; from page to stage. Enjoy the great music, the great stories and the dynamic theatricality of their finest moments.

Gilbert and Sullivan: Their Topsy Turvy World
The story of two remarkable Victorians and the birth of English comic opera. Their quarter of a century long partnership began in 1871, when the pair were brought together by the remarkably entrepreneurial theatre manager Richard D’Oyly Carte, with whom they collaborated on fourteen unique comic operas.  Perhaps best known for The Mikado, H.M.S Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe, their satirical brilliance can still inspire and impress today. Enjoy the bouquets, brickbats and their extraordinary popularity and fame. Their success was unprecedented in the history of music theatre and their creativity inspired the likes of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.

Miss Saigon: The Making of a Musical
Jamie’s own personal journey as Associate Director on the original production of Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway. Illustrated with unique film clips of the original rehearsals and world premiere. This lecture looks at the journey, the process, the creativity required for a major musical production, from page to stage, and demonstrates the many elements and talents it takes to produce a West End hit. Producing, directing, auditions, script development, set design, lighting, costumes, orchestrations, choreography, advertising, and even the challenge of landing a helicopter on stage!

Cost is £43 per person including coffee and lunch. Friends and family are welcome to join this. If you are interested in coming along please email taspsids@gmail.com for details of how to pay.

A Social History of the High Street, and the High Cost of Fashion

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’.

This fascinating day brings to life the untold stories behind objects, institutions and people of the ‘golden age’ of shopping.

1: London’s Lost Department Stores

Starting on Oxford Street’s ‘golden mile’, we’ll set off on a cultural and architectural tour of the capital’s big stores at a pivotal point in retail history: the Edwardian age of excessive consumption. From snooty Marshall & Snelgrove to crowd-pleasing Arding & ’obbs, you’ll remember how to tell your Barkers from your Bodgers, your Gorringes from your Gamages… while learning about striking workers, the rise of the middle-class shop lifter, and the game-changing arrival of Selfridges.

2: The Secrets of an Edwardian Shopaholic

An extraordinary personal collection of Edwardian couture clothing lies in the vaults of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, once worn by a debutante named Heather Firbank. When Heather’s maid persuaded the museum to accept her former mistress’s entire wardrobe, the V&A’s Fashion and Textile department was born. Who was Heather, and what secrets do her clothes yield up? From her ‘coming out’ trousseau, to the country house party, to the risqué fashion shows of couturier Lucile, this is an intimate portrait of shopping, high society, seduction and ruin in the years leading up to the Great War.

3. Art Deco and the Department Store

Bold publicity stunts, statement architecture, suave dining: the 1930s was a supreme era for London’s great emporia. Starting on Piccadilly with Joseph Emberton’s Moderne masterpiece, Simpsons, we’ll explore the capital’s department stores through an Art Deco lens – from Derry & Toms’ roof garden, to the soaring escalator hall of D.H. Evans; from the curved glass wall of Peter Jones, to the ship-like silhouette of the new-build Barkers. Then off to the suburbs where superb Deco buildings are springing up in surprising locations: Shinners of Sutton, Holdrons of Peckham, Bodgers of Ilford… 

Who were the personalities behind these facades? How did they woo their customers? And what future today for obsolete Deco emporia?

We are at Blooms this year. 77 Horndean Rd, Emsworth PO10 7PU

Coffee is available to purchase in the cafe at the above address from 9.00am.  Special Interest is just along the road at their new extension. Filter coffee and tea are available at the lecture.

Timetable for the day

10.15am    Registration

10.30am    Lecture 1

11.30am   coffee and biscuits

12.00pm   Lecture 2

1.00pm     buffet lunch , hot drinks and cake

1.45pm      Lecture 3

3.00pm      finish

Price for the full day £43 per person

To book a place please contact Victoria Smith taspsids@gmail.com

Please click below for full information:

The Jean Bolton Memorial Study Course 2025theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.ukhttps://theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.uk › Special

The art of the three main 'Bloomsbury' artists (Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry) cannot be separated from their astonishing lives. This study day looks at their work and reviews the multi-faceted relationships between Bell and Grant, Bell and Fry, Grant and (inter alia) Lytton Strachey, and several others.

Venue: The Spring  Date: Thursday 6th March 2025

Registration at 10.15am; Start 10.30am; Finish 3.00pm

Cost: £40 to include buffet lunch, morning & afternoon refreshments.

Please book your place by emailing: taspsids@gmail.com

The Constable Research Project (CRP) was established by Sarah Cove in 1986 to study John Constable's oli painting materials and techniques. To date over 250 oils from 1799 to 1837 plus two paint boxes and Constable's final palette have been examined. The main aim was to deepen our understanding of Constable through a thorough study of his working methods and materials. It was also hoped that the knowledge gained would have a wider application in assisting scholars with questions of dating and attribution. These ambitions have been more than realised and have resulted in some of the most ground-breaking and accessible 'technical art history' yet produced for a British artist.

Venue: The Spring  Date: Thursday 28th November 2024  

Registration at 9.45am; Start 10am; Finish 2.45pm

Cost: £40 to include buffet lunch, morning & afternoon refreshments.

Please book your place by emailing: taspsids@gmail.com

A study day on the textile visionaries of modern art given by Ashley Gray.

Ashley will present two lectures followed by a show and tell of fabric samples.  Firstly an epic tale of two extraordinary figures who were destined to change the world of fashion and design.  Secondly a lecture about the post war female textile designers, whose energy and innovation was destined to revolutionise design internationally and came to symbolise the soul and spirit of the 60s.

Venue: The Spring  Date: Thursday 7th March 2024  

Registration at 9.45am; Start 10am; Finish 3pm

Cost: £40 to include buffet lunch, morning & afternoon refreshments.

Please book your place by emailing: taspsids@gmail.com

Sarah Dunant says: "As a writer and historian, I’ve written five best selling novels featuring the lives of women in the Italian renaissance *(see below). From infamous figures like Lucrezia Borgia and the patron Isabella d’Este to the unknown and unsung; painters, writers, courtesans and nuns. Thanks to recent feminist history, their stories are now being brought to light, shining a different torch beam onto art and culture.

I’d like participants to read (library loan is fine by me) one of my novels* – not necessarily the same one.  We will then come together to discuss this slippery, wonderful thing called historical fiction. How do novelists do it? How much is fact, how much made up? Can fiction get to parts of the history that other disciplines just can’t reach. 

This is a study day where what the participants think is as important as what the lecturer knows."

This study day offers two lectures in the morning:

1.     Introduction lecture: The second Sex: the rich history of courtesans and nuns. 

2.     A portrait of one great woman – patron, collector, fashion icon and political manipulator, Isabella d'Este.  

3.     The afternoon session will be not a lecture but a book group. 

*The Birth of Venus; In the company of the Courtesan; Sacred Hearts; Blood and Beauty; In the Name of the Family

Venue: The Spring  Date: Thursday 30th November 2023  Registration at 9.45am; Start 10am; Finish 3pm

Cost: £40 to include buffet lunch, morning & afternoon refreshments.

To book, please email: TASPSIDS@gmail.com

To pay using debit or credit card, please click https://the-arts-society-portsdown.sumupstore.com/products  or by bank transfer to The Arts Society Portsdown; 52-30-04; 30652324; ref SID Nov

This study day will be presented online via Zoom, with a recording to view for a limited time afterwards. Please contact Ann Joyce on ann@aejoyce.me.uk if you would like to register to receive the link.  The charge will be £10, payable by bank transfer if at all possible, to sort code 40-52-40, account 00014465, with reference 'Study' and your name.  Otherwise, please pay by cheque.

Lucia Gahlan is an Egyptologist who works in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but mostly lectures. Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology. Has taught Egyptology at several UK universities. Works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Leads tours to Egypt. Former Director of Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL. Chairs the Friends of the Petrie Museum. Publications include Egypt: gods, myths, religion.

 Lucia has extensive experience in Egyptological research, teaching, museum work and excavation, and a well-deserved reputation for making Egyptology exciting and accessible to a diverse audience.  She also leads tours.  She is an Honorary Research Associate at University College London's Institute of Archaeology and teaches on-line Egyptology for the university of Exeter

 The ancient Egyptians had the most extraordinarily elaborate burial practices and funerary beliefs. In this lecture I shall explore the mysterious world of the Ancient Egyptian afterlife through the exploration of the art on the walls of their tombs. I shall focus on the tombs of the New Kingdom period (c1500 – c1000 BC), when Egypt was at the height of its power and prosperity under pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. I shall explore the scenes on the walls of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the nearby tombs of their high officials, and the small but colourful tombs of the artists responsible for all funerary art on the west bank at Luxor during this time. I shall also introduce you to the stunning array of funerary goods with which they chose to be buried – both a feast for the eyes, and of much religious significance. 

This Study Day will look at fascinating treasures accumulated over the centuries by the Livery Companies of the City of London.  This will include quirky, little known and intriguing objects which represent their craft and trade and reveal their history and their vital importance to the commercial life of the City of London.

Joanna Mabbutt is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and Freeman of the City of London.

Tickets: £35

This Study Day is based on three lectures: one on Colour which will include unexpected aspects of colour history, one on Embroidery covering how a 17th century middle-class girl prepared herself for marriage, one on Tapestry which will talk about how Charles I loved tapestry.  It was he who bought the cartoons for the Raphael tapestries which now hang in the V&A.

Susan Kay-Williams is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace.  A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists.

Tickets: £35

Cross-cultural encounters between Japan and the West from the mid-16th century onwards produced fascinating artistic results.  At first, Europe influenced Japan but by the mid-19th century the movement was reversed and Japanese art had a revoulutionary impact on the West, known as 'Japonisme'.

The day includes 3 digital presentations, display of objects and discussion of Arts Society members' treasures.

£29 (includes coffee and a light lunch)

During the 1880s the city of Glasgow emerged as a major cultural centre rivalling the nation's capital, Edinburgh.  New money and a determination to collect modern art provided great opportunities for a generation of up and coming artists.  The Glasgow boys paved the way for the Glasgow style of the 1890s, an amalgamation of Art Nouveau with the Celtic revival.

In 1900 their influence in Europe was profound, forging a new design ethos in Vienna.  The sensuous lines of Art Nouveau were renounced in favour of clean geometric forms: the square, the circle, the triangle and above all the cube.  This design ethos is now seen as the origin of European Modernism.

£32 (includes coffee and a light lunch)

With the restoration of the Palace of Westminster in the news, this highly topical study day covers a thousand years of the history, art and architecture of Britain's most famous building: from the disastrous fire of 1834, through the rebuilding of Barry and Pugin's new Palace, to the damage of the Second World War and finishing with an update on the current multi-billion-pound proposals to restore the Palace for the 21st century.

£38 (includes coffee and a light lunch)

This study day links together three lectures:

'The Conservation and Restoration of Paintings'; 'A Day in the Life of a Picture Restorer'; 'A Tale of a Million Brushstrokes. The Conservation of English Portraits'.

After lunch there will be an 'Antiques Roadshow' style assessment with recommendations for conservation.  Advice on packing and transport is given in advance so the attendees can bring in their own pictures.

NB. Only 12 paintings will be assessed - oils or acrylics only.  More details available on request.

With its intimacies of scale and meaning, jewellery is one of the most personal of all the arts.

In this study day we shall trace its eclecticism, elegance and excess - from the historicism of the mid-Nineteenth Century to the minimalism of the mid-Twentieth - with portraits to illustrate context and capture a sense of individual glamour.

Each artwork tells its own story.  'The Inside Stories' is a 'Top 10 looted art cases' lecture looking st that the most famous works of art that were looted by the Nazis.

Their provenance and their journeys from their wartime owners to where they are now will be discussed.

Examples of works discussed will be Vincent van Gogh's 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' and Pablo Picasso's 'Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto', which was once owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The Hindu temple complex of Angkor is the greatest archaeological site in Asia.  The day will start with its artistic heritage and religious symbolism.  We will then look at the influence of the French from the 19th century and conclude with contemporary Cambodia and the revival of the living arts, silk weaving and especially the classical Khmer ballet performed at the temples in celebration of the gods.

Venice was well known in Britain through the paintings of Canaletto but comparatively few Englishmen visited.  It was put on the artistic map by J.M.W. Turner and John Ruskin.  Whistler arrived in Venice in the autumn of 1879.  Sargent made two trips between 1880-1882 and in 1895 Walter Sickert made the first of a number of visits and has remained an influence to this day.

In 1801 London's population was just under a million and the city was expanding in all directions.  The fashionable West End was transformed by the Prince Regent's architect John Nash.  The city was famous for its shops, coffee houses, gambling dens, theatres, museums and entertainments of all kinds and magnificent new aristocratic mansions were built, of which Apsley House is the sole survivor.

George III is unjustly remembered solely as having been mad and having lost the American colonies. In fact, he was a discerning art collector, patron of the arts and artists, friend of America and Americans and a committed family man. The Royal Collection contains over 485,000 objects collected by the Royal family from King Henry VIII to the present Queen.

Oliver Everett was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales 1978-80, and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-83. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984-2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad.

England has created some of the most beautiful gardens in the history of garden art. In this study day, we shall trace the development of the English garden from Tudor times through to the twentieth century. 1. The formal English garden: Tudor to Baroque 2. The English Elysium: the creation of the 'naturalistic' landscape garden 3. The Garden of Ideas: Follies from the Victorian garden to Lutyens and Jekyll

Barbara Peacock is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a director of Wessex Fine Art Study Courses. Her particular interest is in the development of the country house and garden.

Learning to look at architecture in a more critical and analytical way can add enormously to our visual understanding of our surroundings. There is the architectural language which has been used, whether it is Gothic, Classical or Modern, for example, and how to recognise it and also the organisation of space in a building both outside and inside.

Mary Acton recently retired as Course Director of the Undergraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma in the History of Art at Continuing Education, Oxford University and continues to teach there. She is the author of Learning to look at Paintings and Learning to look at Modern Art.

The British seaside holiday started in the 18th century when wealthy people began going to coastal towns like Scarborough and Brighton to partake in the seawater cure. It was the building of the railways and the earlier steam boat excursions that opened up the seaside resorts to the masses, small towns on the coast rapidly expanding to cater for the ever increasing crowds of visitors. This study day takes a compelling look at how seaside holidays have evolved over the years, helping to shape our lives and memories.

Mrs Marsh-Hobbs is a freelance lecturer, guide, researcher and teacher, working at the Royal Pavilion, Preston Manor and other museums. She is a guest lecturer at the University of Brighton.

Mr Davies is an extra-mural tutor for London, Essex and The Open University. He is the author of 9 books, including 'The East End Nobody Knows'. He is a frequent contributor to radio and television, has lectured all over the world and organises walks to complement his lectures.

Mrs Eaton is a freelance lecturer in Fine Arts and tour guide to Berlin/Dresden/Munich/Cote d'Azur/Normandy/New York.

Douglas Skeggs is a writer, artist and TV presenter. He is a lecturer to many London art courses. He is the Director of the New Academy of Arts and the author of 6 novels.

Anne is currently Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University; a Fletcher Jones Fellow of the Huntington Library, CA; a Fellow of the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum and Library; Cumming Ceramic Research Foundation Fellow (2007 and 2010) and consultant for Lord Frederic Leighton's Studio-House, Kensington.

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