Gresham College provides outstanding educational talks and videos for the public free of charge. There are over 2,500 videos available on our website. Your support will help us to encourage people's love of learning for many years to come.
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 gave Chinese artists a government that had explicit policies for the arts, seeing them as an essential part of the creation of ‘new China’.
When the most famous diarist in English, Samuel Pepys, accompanied Charles II back to London for the Restoration of the monarchy he was given the task of carrying the king’s guitar. From this moment on, the instrument had a the royal seal of approval.
Starting with literary examples from Dickens, this lecture will untangle the complexity of shadow-meaning by exploring how artists have used shadows since ancient times.
In 1643 an English landowner, Sir Ralph Verney, fled to France in the depths of the Civil War. He settled in Blois and, while there, amassed a vast archive that is still unpublished. These records provide a wealth of information about the music they played and the guitars they bought.
What kind of people owned a guitar in the London of Elizabeth I and where did they go shopping for one? It is possible to assemble a remarkably full picture of the instrument’s place in the social life and trade and trade of Tudor England.