91-year-old founder member celebrates Newbury arts society’s 50 years
A special celebration of one of its longest serving members was the highlight of the Golden Jubilee of The Arts Society Newbury last Thursday [18].
Since its founding among 10 friends in 1974 the society has heard hundreds of lectures, visited historic houses, galleries, gardens, museums and significant artistic locations at home and abroad, and has grown to a membership of 460.
Sue Pring, 91, was one of the founders of the society 50 years ago and its current guest secretary. She was presented with a commemorative medal by the chief executive of the national Arts Society Florian Schweitzer.
Nearly 100 members of the society, along with the mayor of Newbury Andy Moore and Thatcham mayor Suzanne Adamantos, enjoyed wine and canapes at historic Shaw House, to mark 50 years of lectures on all forms of art, visits to historic houses, museums and gardens, as well as trips abroad.
There were speeches of appreciation from society chairwoman Kate Harwood and Mr Schweitzer and members of were treated to a history of Shaw House.
The society currently meets monthly at Arlington Arts.
For more information on The Arts Society: theartssociety.org
2024/2025 Season of lectures
September 24 Pepe Martinez: Banksy: Fraud or
Genius
October 22 Anna Moszynska: The Body as a Place:
The Sculpture of Anthony Gormley
November 19 Kathy McLauchlan: Peder Severin
Krøyer: Painter of Northern light
January 21 Lynne Gibson: Alchemy and Adventure: A
History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments
February 18 - Brian Stater: The Stirling Prize: British
Architecture’s Oscars
March 18 - Simon Whitehouse: Wilde About Oscar: Famous
for being Famous (and Infamous) 1854-1900
April 15 Clive Stewart-Lockhart: Betty Joel: Glamour and
Innovation in 1930s Interior Design
May 20 Amanda Herries: Opium - Seduction, Greed, Art
June 17 Christopher Garibaldi: Treasures of the Turf -The
Fine and Decorative Arts of Horseracing
July 15 Laurie Wickwire: The De Beers Diamond Cartel,
Romancing the Stone
