Podcasts about royal collection

Saira Baker chats with senior curator of photographs at the Royal Collection Trust and curator of the exhibition, Alessandro Nasini, in The King's Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh.‘Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography' charts the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, revealing the stories behind the creation of some of the most iconic images of the British Monarchy.Bringing together more than 90 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives, the exhibition – which follows a successful run in London – will also consider the artistic and technological advances in photography as it evolved into a recognised art form.Visitors will see glamorous images from the first half of the 20th century, taken by some of the most respected photographers of the era. All of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer – and the earliest works date from the 1920s and 30s, the golden age of the society photographer. In the mid-20th century, no royal photographer had a greater impact on shaping the monarchy's public image than Cecil Beaton. The exhibition will present some of Beaton's most memorable photographs, taken over six decades. These include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's famed 1939 shoot in the Buckingham Palace Gardens, dressed in gowns designed by Norman Hartnell, and Beaton's original Coronation portraits of Queen Elizabeth II – arguably the most prestigious photography commission of the century.The bold and colourful later photographs in the exhibition will demonstrate the extraordinary variety, power, and at times playfulness of royal portrait photography over the past four decades. These works range from Andy Warhol's diamond-dust-sprinkled screen print of Queen Elizabeth II to well-known photographs by David Bailey, Nick Knight, Annie Leibovitz and more. The exhibition runs until 7 September 2025. For more information about the portraits discussed in this podcast, visit the Royal Collection Trust website and visit the exhibition in person. To book tickets and discover the events programme, see: https://www.rct.uk/collection/exhibitions/royal-portraits-a-century-of-photography/the-kings-gallery-palace-of-holyroodhouseTo find out more about visiting the other royal residences and exhibitions mentioned in the episode, see: https://www.rct.ukRoyal Collection Trust is a charity caring for the Royal Collection and welcoming visitors to the royal palaces. We bring our shared history to life through world-class experiences that involve and inspire people, wherever they are. Income from tickets and retail sales helps us to conserve the Collection so that it can be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come.

Netflix is raising their rates... AGAIN, and people are somehow blaming Meghan and Harry despite Netflix signing SEVERAL multi-million dollar contracts for many years prior to signing their contract with the Sussexes. Let's dissect the ridiculousness. The Ethiopian government will reportedly be demanding that King Charles return "immoral" artifacts that have been kept in Britain since the 1868 Battle of Magdala. Per a report published by The Telegraph on Friday, Jan. 24, officials in Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa will be pushing for the return of items from the Royal Collection as well as treasures kept elsewhere in the United Kingdom, such as the British Museum. The items kept by the King are sacred to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, per the outlet, which also notes that the government in the United Kingdom will be asked to support Ethiopia's push for the items' return next year. The Ethiopian Heritage Authority will lead the move for the return of the items alongside the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, according to The Telegraph. EXCLUSIVE: The memoir of a choreography teacher who secretly taught Princess Diana to dance is to be turned into a 90-minute feature documentary. Canadian producer-distributor Sphere Media has secured rights to Anne Allan's ‘Dancing with Diana: A Memoir‘ and will co-produce it with Alan Clements' Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media. Sphere Abacus, the sales arm of Sphere, will shop the doc internationally. It's early days for the project so no network or streamer is attached yet. Scottish-Canadian dancer and London City Ballet mistress Allan was the late Princess Diana's dance teacher, and co-choreographed her ‘Uptown Girl' routine at London's Royal Opera House, which she surprised Prince Charles with in 1985. Allan's memoir, which recounts the performance, was released last year. Sources: IMDB | Is Netflix Raising Prices Because of Prince Harry and Meghan: https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65090314/?ref_=nmnw_art_perm Statista | Most Expensive Netflix Original Series as of 2024: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1249573/most-expensive-netflix-original-series-production-cost-per-episode/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CStranger%20Things%E2%80%9D%20was%20by%20far,18%20million%20U.S.%20dollars%2C%20respectively. People | Harry and Meghan Docuseries Breaks Records: https://people.com/royals/harry-meghan-logs-netflixs-best-ever-premiere-week-for-documentaries/ People | King Charles Could Face Demands To Return Immoral Treasures: https://people.com/king-charles-could-face-demands-to-return-immoral-treasures-by-ethiopia-government-report-8779898 Deadline | Memoir of Princess Diana's Dance Teacher To Be Developed as Documentary:  https://deadline.com/2025/01/princess-diana-dance-teacher-memoir-feature-doc-1236262278/

Season 3 Episode 23️ Clift Livestock NILE Club calf & heifer sale and On The Rocks Elite All breed Frozen Sale details. Ethan Propp of ECP Cattle of Oklahoma . We go into detail on his upcoming sale entries October 25th at the Royal Collection sale and his CK online sale October 31st. We visit about a great set of bulls and heifer show prospects.

In this episode, host Ellie Woodacre interviews Charlotte Boland, the curator of the Six Lives exhibition currently running at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In this interview we discuss the inspiration behind the exhibition, new approaches to the history of the Six Lives and the unusual and diverse selection of visual and material culture in the exhibition.The exhibition is running until 8 September 2024--click here for more information or to book tickets.If you are not in the UK or are listening to this episode after the exhibition has finished you can purchase the exhibition catalogue, which includes all of the material exhibited and features a range of articles from academics in the field on the Six Lives.Guest Bio: Dr Charlotte Bolland is a Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery—she joined in 2011 as Project Curator for the Making Art in Tudor Britain project. Her role combines responsibility for the acquisition, research and interpretation of portraits dating from the sixteenth century, with co-ordination of research activity within the curatorial department. She has co-curated a number of exhibitions at the NPG, including The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered (2014) and The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (2017). Charlotte studied for her PhD at Queen Mary, University of London, in collaboration with The Royal Collection as part of an AHRC funded CDA—her doctoral thesis was entitled Italian Material Culture at the Tudor Court. It explored the many items that were owned by the Tudor monarchs that had been brought to England by Italian individuals, either through trade or as gifts. Selected Publications:C. Bolland and T. Cooper, The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (National Portrait Gallery, 2017) C. Bolland and T. Cooper, The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered (National Portrait Gallery, 2014)

If you have ever wanted to get a bit closer to the state coaches and carriages that His Majesty King Charles III and the Royal Family ride in for state occasions such as Royal weddings, trouping the colour and the state opening of parliament?   Well, through the recorded audio described guide to the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace where all the state coaches and carriages are housed you definitely will be able to get up close and marvel at the grandeur, workmanship and fine detail of many of the state coaches and carriages that are on display at the Royal Mews. The Royal Collection Trust who manage the opening of some of the official residences of His Majesty King Charles III to the general public as well as looking after the Royal Collection also provide access to the collection and some of the residences of King Charles III through live descriptive tours and recorded audio described guides.  Amy Stoker, Access and Inclusion Manager, Royal Collection Trust gave a tour of the Royal Mews to RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey which included a visit to the Queen Alexandra Coach, the Diamond Jubilee Coach and the Gold State Coach.  At the Royal mews there is also the opportunity to find out what it might be like sitting in one of the state coaches and going for a ride by climbing up and sitting in a model Landau coach too.  As well as following Toby on his tour of the Royal Mews with Amy you will also hear extracts from the Royal Collection Trust's recorded audio described guide to the Royal Mews with descriptions of the Queen Alexandr Coach, the Diamond Jubilee Coach and the stunning Gold State Coach too. To find out more about the Royal Mews and the recorded audio described guide for blind and partially sighted people do visit the following pages of the Royal Collection Trust website - https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-royal-mews-buckingham-palace Image shows the Golden Jubilee State Coach © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024 | Royal Collection Trust.

Enlightenment publications on human anatomy changed the way artists understood their place in the world. Check out these examples of life-changing images brought to you by prints in books!   In s2e31 of Platemark's History of Prints series, Tru and Ann continue their discussion of the Enlightenment. This time they look at several publications that put forward new discoveries about human anatomy: William Hunter's The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, Bernhard Siegfried Albinus' Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani, and Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty's Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. They conclude with Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, a 17-volume tome that attempted to define and codify all of human knowledge.   At the end of the episode, Ann and Tru wax philosophical about how incredible this blossoming of human knowledge is, and how talking about it makes each of them think about our place as humans on the planet. It gets a bit deep, but worthwhile. A. Hadamart. Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre, 1699. Engraving. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780). Vue du Louvre en l'année 1753, 1753. Etching. Plate: 5 13/16 x 7 1/8 in. (14.8 x 18.1 cm.); sheet: 6 ¼ x 7 5/8 in. (15.8 x 19.3 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). View of the Salon of 1785, 1785. Etching. Plate: 10 7/8 x 19 1/8 in. (27.6 x 48.6 cm.); sheet: 14 1/4 x 20 3/4 in. (36.2 x 52.7 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). View of the Salon of 1787, 1787. Etching. Plate: 12 11/16 x 19 5/16 in. (32.2 x 49.1 cm.); sheet: 14 x 19 3/4 in. (35.6 x 50.2 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797), after Johann Heinrich Ramberg (German, 1763–1840). The Exhibition of the Royal Academy 1787, 1787. Engraving. Plate: 36.1 x 49.9 cm. British Museum, London. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). The Oath of the Horatii, 1784/85. Oil on canvas. 10.8 x 13.9 ft. Louvre Museum, Paris. Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792). Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to Graces, 1765. Oil on canvas. 242.6 × 151.5 cm. (95 1/2 × 59 3/4 in.). Art Institute of Chicago. Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792). Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar, 1787. Oil on canvas. 142 x 113.5 cm. National Gallery, London. Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). Salon de 1787: view of the Salon Carre at the Louvre during the painting exhibition in Paris, 1852. Engraving. From Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828). Voltaire Seated, 1781. Terra-cotta. 120 cm. tall. Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806). Les hasards heureux de l'escarpolette (The Swing), c. 1767–68. Oil on canvas. 81 x 64.2 cm. The Wallace Collection, London. Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828). Benjamin Franklin, 1778. Marble. 23 1/8 × 14 1/2 × 11 1/4 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rembrandt (Dutch, 1606–1669). The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas. 216.5 × 169 ½ cm. (85 1/4 × 66 5/8 in.). Mauritshuis, The Hague. William Hunter (British, 1718–1783). Title page from The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774. Jan van Rymsdyk (Dutch, c. 1730–1790). Plate VI from The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. London: S. Baker & G. Leigh, 1774. Engraving. Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519). Sketchbook page: the fetus in the womb, c. 1511. Black and red chalk, pen and brush and ink. The Royal Collection. Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519). Sketchbook page: the female genetalia and fetus in the womb, c. 1511. Black and red chalk, pen and brush and ink. The Royal Collection. Johann Zoffany (German, 1733–1810). William Hunter Lecturing, 1770–72. Oil on canvas. Royal College of Physicians, London. Roman copy of Greek marble. The Dying Gaul, late 3rd century BCE. Marble. Capitoline Museums, Rome. William Pink (British, 1809–1857), after Agostini Carlini (British, born Italy, c. 1718–1790). Smugglerius, c. 1834. Plaster. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Thomas Banks (British, 1735–1805). Anatomical Crucifixion (James Legg), 1801. Plaster cast. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Dutch, born German, 1697–1770). Title page from Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani. London: H. Woodfall, 1749. Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Dutch, born German, 1697–1770). Page from Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani. London: H. Woodfall, 1749. Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Dutch, born German, 1697–1770). Page from Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani. London: H. Woodfall, 1749.  Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Dutch, born German, 1697–1770). Page from Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani. London: H. Woodfall, 1749. Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Dutch, born German, 1697–1770). Page from Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani. London: H. Woodfall, 1749. Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. Paris: Gautier, Quillau, Lamesle, 1746.  Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. Paris: Gautier, Quillau, Lamesle, 1746.  Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519). Sketchbook page, c. 1511. Black and red chalk, pen and brush and ink. The Royal Collection.  Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Anatomy of the head, in printed images, representing the natural appearance of the brain at different levels, the distribution of the vessels, the sensory organs and part of the nervous system; taken from dissected and prepared portions of the subjects, 1748. Wellcome Library Collection, London. Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Exposition anatomique des organes des sens. Paris: Demonville, 1775.  Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Exposition anatomique des organes des sens. Paris: Demonville, 1775.  Jacques Fabien Gautier D'Agoty (1717–1785). Plate from Anatomie générale des viscères. Paris: 1752. Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (French, 1716–1785). Plate from Anatomy of the head, in printed images, representing the natural appearance of the brain at different levels, the distribution of the vessels, the sensory organs and part of the nervous system; taken from dissected and prepared portions of the subjects, 1748. Wellcome Library Collection, London. Jacques Fabien Gautier D'Agoty (1717–1785). Plate from Anatomie des parties de la génération de l'homme et de la femme. Paris, 1773.' Pregnant Woman Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828). Denis Diderot (1713–1784), 1773. Marble. Height (bust): 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.); height (stand): 4 11/16 in. (11.9 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Title page and frontispiece from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Anatomy pages from the Encyclopedia Britannia, 1963. Flags pages from the Encyclopedia Britannia, 1963. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French, 1717–1783). Plate from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris: André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72. Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828). Plate 43 from Los Caprichos: The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la razon produce monstruos), 1799. Etching and aquatint. Plate: 8 3/8 x 5 15/16 in. (21.2 x 15.1 cm.); sheet: 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (29.5 x 21 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

‘Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920' is an ambitious group show at TATE BRITAIN that charts the 400 year long journey that it took for women to become recognised as professional artists which paved the way for future generations and established what it meant to be a woman in the British art world.  On Tuesday 14 May 2024, at the Press View of the exhibition ‘Now You See Us:  Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920', RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Tim Batchelor, Assistant Assistant Curator of the exhibition, to find out more about the 400 year journey that it took for women to become recognised as professional Artists along with an insight into the work of some of the 100 Women Artists featured in the exhibition. About the exhibition ‘Expressionists - Kandinsky, Münter And The Blue Rider' - The exhibition ‘Now You See Us: Women Artis in Britain 1520-1920' covers the period in which women were visibly working as professional artists, but went against societal expectations to do so. Featuring over 100 artists, the exhibition will celebrate well-known names such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Julia Margaret Cameron and Gwen John, alongside many others who are only now being rediscovered. Their careers were as varied as the works they produced: some prevailed over genres deemed suitable for women like watercolour landscapes and domestic scenes. Others dared to take on subjects dominated by men like battle scenes and the nude, or campaigned for equal access to training and membership of professional institutions. Tate Britain will showcase over 200 works, including oil painting, watercolour, pastel, sculpture, photography and ‘needlepainting' to tell the story of these trailblazing artists. ‘Now You See Us' begins at the Tudor court with Levina Teerlinc, many of whose miniatures will be brought together for the first time in four decades, and Esther Inglis, whose manuscripts contain Britain's earliest known self-portraits by a woman artist. The exhibition will then look to the 17th century. Focus will be given to one of art history's most celebrated women artists, Artemisia Gentileschi, who created major works in London at the court of Charles I, including the recently rediscovered Susannah and the Elders 1638-40, on loan from the Royal Collection for the very first time. The exhibition will also look to women such as Mary Beale, Joan Carlile and Maria Verelst who broke new ground as professional portrait painters in oil. In the 18th century, women artists took part in Britain's first public art exhibitions, including overlooked figures such as Katherine Read and Mary Black; the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer; and Margaret Sarah Carpenter, a leading figure in her day but little heard of now. The show will look at Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, the only women included among the Founder Members of the Royal Academy of Arts; it took 160 years for membership to be granted to another woman. Women artists of this era are often dismissed as amateurs pursuing ‘feminine' occupations like watercolour and flower painting, but many worked in these genres professionally: needlewoman Mary Linwood, whose gallery was a major tourist attraction; miniaturist Sarah Biffin, who painted with her mouth, having been born without arms and legs; and Augusta Withers, a botanical illustrator employed by the Horticultural Society. The Victorian period saw a vast expansion in public exhibition venues. Now You See Us will showcase major works by critically appraised artists of this period, including Elizabeth Thompson's monumental The Roll Call 1874 (Thompson's work prompted critic John Ruskin to retract his statement that “no women could paint”), and nudes by Henrietta Rae and Annie Swynnerton, which sparked both debate and celebration.  The exhibition will also look at women's connection to activism, including Florence Claxton's satirical ‘Woman's Work': A Medley 1861 which will be on public display for the first time since it was painted; and an exploration of the life of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, an early member of the Society of Female Artists who is credited with the campaign for women to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools. On show will be the student work of women finally admitted to art schools, as well as their petitions for equal access to life drawing classes. With the exhibition ending in the early 20th century with women's suffrage and the First World War. Women artists like Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Helen Saunders played an important role in the emergence of modernism, abstraction and vorticism, but others, such as Anna Airy, who also worked as a war artist, continued to excel in conventional traditions. The final artists in the show, Laura Knight and Ethel Walker, offer powerful examples of ambitious, independent, confident professionals who achieved critical acclaim and finally membership of the Royal Academy. ‘Now You See Us - Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920' continues at TATE BRITAIN until 13  October 2024.  Description tours are available for blind and partially sighted people but need to be booked in advance via hello@tate.org.uk or on 020 7887 8888. More details about ‘Now You See Us:  Women Artists in Britain 1520 - 1920' at Tate Britain can be found by visiting the following pages of the Tate website- https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/women-artists-in-britain-1520-1920 Image shows: Gwen John, Self-Portrait, 1902. Photo Tate (Mark Heathcote and Samuel Cole), a painting of a white woman wearing a red blouse and a broach with her hair light brown tied up against a dark brown background.

We're joined by Karly Allen and Lucia van de Drift from the Lumina Collective, to learn about art mindfulness; how slow-looking and guided mindfulness techniques can transform your experience of looking at art, calm your system and help you find joy in your everyday life.Karly and Lucia have worked with The National Gallery, The British Museum, Manchester Art Gallery, The Royal Academy, The Royal Collection and many more, delivering art mindfulness sessions both in person and online. Karly is an art lecturer and museum educator, and Lucia is a teacher and writer in meditation, mindfulness and Buddhism.Kate heads to the National Gallery to take part in one of their live art mindfulness sessions, while Gwen joins a session online, which you can enjoy too, here:  liminacollective.com/workshops/To find out more about their work head to liminacollective.com/ In this episode we also mention our episode on the importance of rest, with BBC's Claudia Hammond. You can listen here: https://rightupmy.buzzsprout.com/1337593/14946320-ep-53-the-importance-of-rest-with-claudia-hammondThank you to our team:Music - Andrew GrimesArtwork - Erica Frances GeorgeSocial Media - Kate BallsIf you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, share with your friends and leave a review. It takes less than 60 seconds and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. Thank you!Join the RUMP Club! Support the team and access exclusive content from as little as £3 p/month at: https://www.patreon.com/rightupmypodcastOr, if you'd like to make a one-off donation, you can buy us a virtual coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rightupmyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rightupmy/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552599655093TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rightupmypodcast

In this podcast episode, I sit down with my former colleague at the Royal Collection Trust Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures from 2005-2021. In this episode, we discuss the particular role of royal collectors, and if there is really a motivation for art collecting as a Prince and how that sometimes becomes a form of ‘national' collecting (if there is such a thing). During my ten years working at the Royal Collection, Desmond and I worked closely on a range of curatorial matters: in particular exhibitions. The First Georgians (2014) was led by Desmond; likewise he led on Charles I at the Royal Academy ( 2018, with Per Rumberg), while I worked on the coeval exhibition on Charles II at The Queen's Gallery (2017, with Martin Clayton). We also spent a lot of time thinking about ‘palace display' - we both worked on the improving the appearance, picture hang and arrangement of furniture and objects in the State Apartments at Windsor Castle, all of which came under the broader ‘Future Programme' project, which was mostly completed just prior to lockdown in March 2020. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rufusbird.substack.com

Join us for worship from Seal Church. A copy of the service sheet can be found on the church website. www.sealpeterandpaul.com   Preacher: Canon Anne Le Bas Image: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, by Jan Brueghel the Elder https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Jan_Brueghel_the_Elder_%28Brussels_1568-Antwerp_1625%29_-_Adam_and_Eve_in_the_Garden_of_Eden_-_RCIN_405512_-_Royal_Collection.jpg Today's hymn is: All creatures of our God and King sung by St Martin's Voices 1 All creatures of our God and King lift up your voice and with us sing Alleluia, alleluia. Thou burning sun with golden beam, thou silver moon with softer gleam, O praise him, O praise him, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. 2 Thou rushing wind that art so strong, ye clouds that sail in heaven along, O praise him, alleluia. Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice, ye lights of evening, find a voice; Chorus 3 Thou flowing water, pure and clear, make music for thy Lord to hear, Alleluia, alleluia. Thou fire so masterful and bright, that givest hearts both warmth and light: Chorus 4 Dear mother earth, who day by day unfoldest blessings on our way, O praise him, alleluia. The flowers and fruits that in thee grow, let them his glory also show: Chorus 5 Let all things their Creator bless, and worship him in humbleness; O praise him, alleluia. Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit, Three in One; Chorus William Henry Draper (1855-1933) based on Laudato sii, O me signore St Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun (Public Domain) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anne-le-bas/message

Curator Hammad Nasar expands ideas of miniature painting, moving around South Asia and Western Europe from the 17th century to now, with Nusra Latif Qureshi's 2009 digital print scroll, Did You Come Here To Find History? Beyond the Page, a touring exhibition of South Asian miniatures, is truly historic and historical. At its core are more than 180 detailed, small-scale works on paper, dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the time when the Mughal Empire ruled over much of South Asia. But these miniature paintings are borrowed not from contemporary India or Pakistan, but the British Museum in London, the Tate and V&A, and the Royal Collection. So how did this wealth of South Asian miniature paintings come to be held (and hidden away) in Britain's greatest collections – and what does it mean for this sheer quantity to be here now? Hammad Nasar, one of the exhibition's curators, puts these works in conversation with those by leading contemporary artists from South Asia and its diasporas, including Hamra Abbas, Imran Qureshi, Shahzia Sikander, Khadim Ali, and Ali Kazim. We consider their practice across media, highlighting the different forms in which miniature practice lives and lives on, whether in sculpture, film, or architectural installations. Travelling along Nusra Latif Qureshi's digital-printed scroll, we unpick the layers of portraits, from contemporary passport photographs, to traditional portraits from Venice and Mughal India. With a miniature painting of Saint Rabia, the first female saint in Sufi Islam, Hammad also highlights how women and the body have been represented in Islamic cultures, pluralising perspectives on the past. Connecting Britain and South Asia, we consider the foundation of the world-renowned Miniature Department of the National College of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, and how artists have long engaged with a range of non-Western/European media, including Japanese woodblock prints. Hammad defies the marginalisation of miniatures – due to their size, and ‘non-conventional' means of distribution and display – suggesting that art markets and institutions must ‘grow up' in their appreciation of the media. We also trace migrations and two-way flows, how courtly and Company paintings influenced well-known Dutch Masters like Rembrandt, to Anwar Jalal Shemza, a multidisciplinary artist of modernist and abstract works. Plus, Hammad talks about the ‘empire-shaped hole' in British history, and why it is important that we share uncomfortable histories like the legacy of the East India Company to challenge the displacement of empire, as something that happened over there and then. ‍Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now runs at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes until 28 January 2024, then The Box in Plymouth in 2024. For more, you can read my article in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/small-and-mighty-south-asian-miniature-painting-and-britain-1600-to-now-at-mk-gallery. Part of JOURNEYS, a series of episodes leading to EMPIRE LINES 100. WITH: Hammad Nasar, curator, writer and researcher. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, where he co-leads the London, Asia Programme, and co-curator of the British Art Show 9 (2020–2022). He is the co-curator of Beyond the Page, an exhibition supported by the Bagri Foundation. ART: ‘Did You Come Here To Find History?, Nusra Latif Qureshi (2009)'. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast And Twitter: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

This week: live art and activism. Performance art has long been used as a vehicle for protest and political activism and now, in its tenth edition, the Performa Biennial in New York has a new programme dedicated to artists exploring the subject. Protest and Performance: A Way of Life, which started as part of the 19-day festival this week, features eight events involving artists from across the world but with particular links to the Middle East, While it was programmed months ahead of the present war in Gaza, it has inevitably gained further relevance. We talk to Defne Ayas, the senior program advisor, and Kathy Noble, the senior curator at Performa, about the programme. In the UK, the National Trust, which looks after historic buildings and landscapes across Britain, has become the subject of a row between its current management and campaigners who argue that it has strayed from its essential remit. The Art Newspaper's associate digital editor, Alexander Morrison, speaks to Martin Drury, a former director-general of the Trust, about why it has prompted such an intense debate. And this episode's Work of the Week is Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Derich Born from 1533, a newly restored painting that features in an exhibition at the Queen's Gallery in London, one of the principal venues for the UK's Royal Collection. The show, Holbein at the Tudor Court, is curated by Kate Heard, and she tells us about the picture.Performa Biennial 2023, New York, until 19 November. Visit performa2023.org for details of events in the Protest and Performance strand.Holbein at the Tudor Court, Queen's Gallery, London, until 14 April 2024 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part two of our autumn 2023 edition of Unearthed! includes potpourri, repatriations, shipwrecks, art, and a few perfect October entries. Research:  “Early humans deliberately made mysterious stone 'spheroids'.” PhysOrg. 9/10/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-early-humans-deliberately-mysterious-stone.html Alutiiq Museum. “Archaeologists Recover 3,000-year-old Weavings from Ancestral Alutiiq Settlement.” Alaska Native News. 8/26/2023. https://alaska-native-news.com/archaeologists-recover-3000-year-old-weavings-from-ancestral-alutiiq-settlement/69558/ Australian National Maritime Museum. “Exploring South Australia's oldest shipwreck.” Phys.org. 8/15/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-exploring-south-australia-oldest-shipwreck.html Barker, Christopher. “Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in an Ikea Bag.” Smithsonian. 9/14/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dutch-art-detective-recovers-a-van-gogh-stolen-in-2020-180982896/ BBC News. “Man finds 8,000-year-old dolphin bones in back garden.” 7/31/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-66361506 BBC News. “Tiny Roman dog remains found during Oxford archaeological dig.” 7/25/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-66294261 Beazley, Jordan. “ANU museum to hand back stolen 2,500-year-old vase to Italy.” The Guardian. 9/13/2023. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/14/anu-to-return-2500-year-old-vase-to-italy-after-link-to-art-trade-exposed Bebber, Michelle R. et al. “Atlatl use equalizes female and male projectile weapon velocity.” Scientific Reports. 8/16/2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40451-8 Beimfohr, Chelsea. “109-year-old survivor of Tulsa Race Massacre pens new book, speaks at King Center.” Atlanta News First. 9/26/2023. https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/09/27/109-year-old-survivor-tulsa-race-massacre-pens-new-book-speaks-king-center/ Ben Crump. “Ben Crump and Family of Henrietta Lacks Announce Settlement.” https://bencrump.com/press/family-of-henrietta-lacks-announce-settlement/ Binswanger, Julia. “Forgotten Winnie-the-Pooh Sketch Found Wrapped in an Old Tea Towel.” Smithsonian. 8/28/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/winnie-the-pooh-sketch-wrapped-tea-towel-180982800/ Briseida MEMA. “Archaeologists uncover Europe's oldest stilt village.” Phys.org. 8/11/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-archaeologists-uncover-europe-oldest-stilt.html British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog. “Showing Elizabeth I in a new light.” 7/15/2023. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2023/07/showing-elizabeth-i-in-a-new-light.html British Library Press Office. “British Library researcher throws new light on Elizabeth I.” July 2023. https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2023/july/British-Library-researcher-throws-new-light-on-Elizabeth-I?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=press&utm_content=camdens_annals#:~:text=Helena%20Rutkowska%2C%20DPhil%20student%20at,to%20explore%20hundreds%20of%20previously Cell Press. “Ancient metal cauldrons give us clues about what people ate in the Bronze Age.” 8/18/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-ancient-metal-cauldrons-clues-people.html Chappell, Bill. “Iconic female artist's lost painting is found, hundreds of years after it was created.” NPR. 9/25/2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/25/1201501653/artemisia-gentileschi-susanna-and-the-elders Cin, Muharrem. “Makeup materials from Roman era unearthed in ancient city of Aizanoi in Türkiye.” Andalou Agency. 9/24/2023. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/makeup-materials-from-roman-era-unearthed-in-ancient-city-of-aizanoi-in-turkiye/2999909 Delgado, Maria Jesus. “Oldest hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, 9,500 years old, discovered in Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol (Granada, Spain).” EurekAlert. 9/28/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1003066 Dowell, Stuart. “Ghoulish remains of ‘vampire child' found in ‘grave of the damned'.” The First News. 8/7/2023. https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/ghoulish-remains-of-vampire-child-found-in-grave-of-the-damned-40397 Efford M, Taft S, Morin J, George M, George M, Cavers H, et al. (2023) Archaeology demonstrates sustainable ancestral Coast Salish salmon stewardship over thousands of years. PLoS ONE 18(8): e0289797. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289797 Flavell, Julie. “The Dog Who Served on Both Sides of the American Revolution.” Smithsonian Magazine. 8/25/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dog-who-served-on-both-sides-of-the-american-revolution-180982781/ Gillett, Francesca. “Ancient 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck found off coast of Italy.” BBC News. 7/28/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66337902 Gorski, “119-year overdue book returned by WVU Library.” 12WBOY. 7/27/2023. https://www.wboy.com/news/monongalia/west-virginia-university/library-book-returned-and-it-was-only-119-years-overdue/ Handwerk, Brian. “Famed 5,300-Year-Old Alps Iceman Was a Balding Middle-Aged Man With Dark Skin and Eyes.” Smithsonian. 8/16/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/famed-5300-year-old-alps-iceman-was-a-balding-middle-aged-man-with-dark-skin-and-eyes-180982744/ Hanson's. “Panko game made to aid suffragettes a century ago found during house clearance.” 7/18/2023. https://hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/panko-game-made-to-aid-suffragettes-a-century-ago-found-during-house-clearance/ Jarus, Owen. “2,200-year-old remains of sacrificed giant panda and tapir discovered near Chinese emperor's tomb.” LiveScience. 8/18/2023. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2200-year-old-remains-of-sacrificed-giant-panda-and-tapir-discovered-near-chinese-emperors-tomb Kent State University. “Atlatl weapon use by prehistoric females equalized the division of labor while hunting, experimental study shows.” 8/18/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-atlatl-weapon-prehistoric-females-equalized.html Kindy, Dave. “Piece of wood found at garage sale was part of the sunken USS Maine.” Washington Post. 9/17/2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/09/17/uss-maine-mast-arlington-cemetery/ Kuta, Sarah. “‘Perfectly Preserved' Glassware Recovered From 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck.” Smithsonian. 7/27/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/glassware-2000-year-old-roman-shipwreck-180982615/ Kuta, Sarah. “See Underwater Wreckage From the Battle of Midway in Stunning Detail.” Smithsonian. 9/22/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/battle-of-midway-shipwreck-photos-180982938/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Virginia Museum Repatriated a Nigerian Sculpture and Received a High-Tech Replica in Return. Could the Exchange Shape Future Restitutions?” ArtNet. 7/7/2023. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/chrysler-museum-factum-foundation-high-tech-facsimile-restitution-2332938 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Woman Bought a $4 Painting at a Thrift Store for Its Frame. Now, It's Been Revealed as an N.C. Wyeth, Worth as Much as $250,000.” ArtNet. 9/6/2023. https://news.artnet.com/market/thrift-store-buy-nc-wyeth-2355493 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Two 10th-Century Stone Idols, Which Were Stolen From a Temple in India and Found in a Garden Shed in the U.K., Will Be Repatriated.” ArtNet. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/10th-century-idols-found-in-garden-shed-returned-to-india-2335670 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Ancient Amazonians intentionally created fertile 'dark earth.'” Science Daily. 9/20/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230920152306.htm Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. “The scent of the afterlife unbottled in new study of ancient Egyptian mummification balms.” Science Daily. 8/31/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230831121651.htm Mayorquin, Orlando. “Overdue Book Is Returned to a Library After Nearly 120 Years.” New York Times. 7/9/2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/09/us/massachusetts-overdue-book-119-years.html net. “Strange burial of 9th-century teenager reveals tragic story.” https://www.medievalists.net/2023/08/strange-burial-of-9th-century-teenager-reveals-tragic-story/ Miller, Ken. “Researchers exhume seven sets of remains in search for Tulsa Race Massacre victims.” The Oklahoman. 10/2/2023. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2023/10/02/tulsa-race-massacre-oklahoma-seven-graves-exhumed/71036617007/ MOLA Headland. “An Unusual Burial and a Tragic Story from Early Medieval Cambridgeshire.” 8/14/2023. https://molaheadland.com/an-unusual-burial-and-a-tragic-story-from-early-medieval-cambridgeshire/ Nowakowski, Teresa. “Historians Discover ‘Remarkably Intact' Shipwreck, Undisturbed Beneath Lake Michigan for 142 Years.” Smithsonian. 9/6/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-an-almost-entirely-intact-142-year-old-shipwreck-in-lake-michigan-180982848/ Nowakowski, Teresa. “The Netherlands Repatriates Nearly 500 Looted Artifacts to Sri Lanka and Indonesia.” Smithsonian. 7/11/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/netherlands-repatriation-sri-lanka-indonesia-180982514/ Osborne, Margaret. “Archaeologists Uncover Oldest Evidence of ‘Curry' Outside of India.” Smithsonian. 7/24/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-uncover-oldest-evidence-of-curry-outside-of-india-180982589/ Parker, Christopher. “4,000-Year-Old Cemetery Discovered Beneath Future Rocket Launch Pad in U.K.” Smithsonian. 8/1/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bronze-age-cemetery-rocket-launch-uk-180982633/ Parker, Christopher. “Divers Pull Wreckage of Tuskegee Airman's Plane From the Depths of Lake Huron.” Smithsonian. 9/5/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/divers-haul-engine-of-tuskegee-airmans-plane-from-lake-huron-180982845/ Parker, Christopher. “Manchester Museum Returns 174 Artifacts to Indigenous Australians.” Smithsonian. 9/7/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/manchester-museum-returns-174-artifacts-to-indigenous-austrailians-180982853/ Pendergraff, Gavin. “State archaeologist provides another update on excavation work in Tulsa.” KTUL. 9/14/2023. https://ktul.com/news/local/state-archaeologist-provides-another-update-on-excavation-work-in-tulsa Pittalà, Maria Gaetana Giovanna et al. “Count Dracula Resurrected: Proteomic Analysis of Vlad III the Impaler's Documents by EVA Technology and Mass Spectrometry.” Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 34, 12732–12744. Publication Date: August 8, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01461 Potter, Lisa. “Daughters breastfed longer, and women accumulated greater wealth in ancient California matriarchal society.” EurekAlert. 7/12/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/995404 Public Library of Science. “Stone Age artists carved detailed human and animal tracks in rock art in Namibia.” 9/13/2023. PhysOrg. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-stone-age-artists-human-animal.html Ritter, Moira. “Detailed mosaic floor — with Medusa's face — unearthed in ancient Roman villa.” Miami Herald. 7/27/2023. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article277706663.html#storylink=cpy Royal Collection Trust. “Lost Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Rediscovered in the Royal Collection.” 9/24/2023. https://www.rct.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/lost-artemisia-gentileschi-painting-rediscovered-in-the-royal#/ Schrader, Adam. “British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer Will Step Down, Leaving the Unresolved Parthenon Marbles Debate to His Successor.” ArtNews. 7/28/2023. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-director-hartwig-fischer-step-down-next-year-2342951 Schuster, Ruth. “Synagogue From Late Second Temple Period Found by Black Sea in Russia.” Haaretz. 8/16/2023. https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-08-16/ty-article-magazine/synagogue-from-late-second-temple-period-found-by-black-sea-in-russia/00000189-fae4-d0b9-a5a9-ffef91b90000 Shaw, Garry. “‘Thunder floor' found at ancient Andean site in Peru.” The Art Newspaper. 7/18/2023. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/07/18/ancient-dance-floor-sounding-platform-andes-peru-archaeological-discovery Solly, Meilan. “Hidden for 400 Years, Censored Pages Reveal New Insights Into Elizabeth I's Reign.” Smithsonian. 7/18/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hidden-for-400-years-censored-pages-reveal-new-insights-on-elizabeth-is-reign-180982554/ Sullivan, Will. “Archaeologists Uncover Notched Logs That May Be the Oldest Known Wooden Structure.” Smithsonian. 9/22/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-uncover-notched-logs-that-may-be-the-oldest-known-wooden-structure-180982942/ Sullivan, Will. “Henrietta Lacks' Family Settles Lawsuit Over the Use of Her Cells Without Consent.” Smithsonian. 8/2/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/henrietta-lacks-family-settles-lawsuit-over-the-use-of-her-cells-without-consent-180982644/ The History Blog. “14th c. shipwreck cannon may be oldest in Europe.” 9/13/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68252 The History Blog. “2,000-year-old synagogue found in southern Russia.” 8/16/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68050 The History Blog. “8-year-old finds 1,800-year-old silver denarius in school sandbox.” http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68120 The History Blog. “Giant panda found in Western Han imperial tomb.” 8/6/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67972 University of Geneva. “New discoveries on the wreck of Antikythera.” 7/24/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-discoveries-antikythera.html University of Gothenburg. “Shipboard cannon found off the Swedish coast may be the oldest in Europe.” EurekAlert. 9/13/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1001404 University of Montreal. “New evidence of plant food processing in Italy during Neanderthal-to-Homo sapiens period.” Phys.org. 6/29/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-evidence-food-italy-neanderthal-to-homo-sapiens.html University of Southampton. “Archaeologists reveal largest palaeolithic cave art site in Eastern Iberia.” Science Daily. 9/11/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230911141015.htm University of Valencia. “Pigment production adapted to cultural changes and availability of mineral resources 40,000 years ago in Ethiopia.” PhysOrg. 9/11/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-pigment-production-cultural-availability-mineral.html Walls, Alex. “Salmon bones confirm sustainable chum fishery for 2,500 years under Tsleil-Waututh Nation.” PhysOrg. 8/30/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-salmon-bones-sustainable-chum-fishery.html Watts, Rachel. “Divers find long-lost artifact from sunken Empress of Ireland in St. Lawrence River.” CBC. 9/9/2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/divers-find-long-lost-artifact-from-sunken-empress-of-ireland-quebec-compass-platform-1.6959176 Weiwei Wang et al. ,Earliest curry in Southeast Asia and the global spice trade 2000 years ago.Sci. Adv.9,eadh5517(2023).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adh5517 Yirka, Bob. “Arrowhead housed at Bern History Museum found to be made from meteoritic iron.” Phys.org. 7/31/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-arrowhead-housed-bern-history-museum.html Yirka, Bob. “Placement of ancient hidden lamps, skulls in cave in Israel suggests Roman-era practice of necromancy.” Phys.org. 7/14/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-placement-ancient-hidden-lamps-skulls.html    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part one of our Autumn 2023 edition of Unearthed!, we have some oldest things, books and letters, projects specifically related to gender, edibles and potables, and animals.  Research:  “Early humans deliberately made mysterious stone 'spheroids'.” PhysOrg. 9/10/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-early-humans-deliberately-mysterious-stone.html Alutiiq Museum. “Archaeologists Recover 3,000-year-old Weavings from Ancestral Alutiiq Settlement.” Alaska Native News. 8/26/2023. https://alaska-native-news.com/archaeologists-recover-3000-year-old-weavings-from-ancestral-alutiiq-settlement/69558/ Australian National Maritime Museum. “Exploring South Australia's oldest shipwreck.” Phys.org. 8/15/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-exploring-south-australia-oldest-shipwreck.html Barker, Christopher. “Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in an Ikea Bag.” Smithsonian. 9/14/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dutch-art-detective-recovers-a-van-gogh-stolen-in-2020-180982896/ BBC News. “Man finds 8,000-year-old dolphin bones in back garden.” 7/31/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-66361506 BBC News. “Tiny Roman dog remains found during Oxford archaeological dig.” 7/25/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-66294261 Beazley, Jordan. “ANU museum to hand back stolen 2,500-year-old vase to Italy.” The Guardian. 9/13/2023. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/14/anu-to-return-2500-year-old-vase-to-italy-after-link-to-art-trade-exposed Bebber, Michelle R. et al. “Atlatl use equalizes female and male projectile weapon velocity.” Scientific Reports. 8/16/2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40451-8 Beimfohr, Chelsea. “109-year-old survivor of Tulsa Race Massacre pens new book, speaks at King Center.” Atlanta News First. 9/26/2023. https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/09/27/109-year-old-survivor-tulsa-race-massacre-pens-new-book-speaks-king-center/ Ben Crump. “Ben Crump and Family of Henrietta Lacks Announce Settlement.” https://bencrump.com/press/family-of-henrietta-lacks-announce-settlement/ Binswanger, Julia. “Forgotten Winnie-the-Pooh Sketch Found Wrapped in an Old Tea Towel.” Smithsonian. 8/28/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/winnie-the-pooh-sketch-wrapped-tea-towel-180982800/ Briseida MEMA. “Archaeologists uncover Europe's oldest stilt village.” Phys.org. 8/11/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-archaeologists-uncover-europe-oldest-stilt.html British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog. “Showing Elizabeth I in a new light.” 7/15/2023. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2023/07/showing-elizabeth-i-in-a-new-light.html British Library Press Office. “British Library researcher throws new light on Elizabeth I.” July 2023. https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2023/july/British-Library-researcher-throws-new-light-on-Elizabeth-I?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=press&utm_content=camdens_annals#:~:text=Helena%20Rutkowska%2C%20DPhil%20student%20at,to%20explore%20hundreds%20of%20previously Cell Press. “Ancient metal cauldrons give us clues about what people ate in the Bronze Age.” 8/18/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-ancient-metal-cauldrons-clues-people.html Chappell, Bill. “Iconic female artist's lost painting is found, hundreds of years after it was created.” NPR. 9/25/2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/25/1201501653/artemisia-gentileschi-susanna-and-the-elders Cin, Muharrem. “Makeup materials from Roman era unearthed in ancient city of Aizanoi in Türkiye.” Andalou Agency. 9/24/2023. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/makeup-materials-from-roman-era-unearthed-in-ancient-city-of-aizanoi-in-turkiye/2999909 Delgado, Maria Jesus. “Oldest hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, 9,500 years old, discovered in Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol (Granada, Spain).” EurekAlert. 9/28/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1003066 Dowell, Stuart. “Ghoulish remains of ‘vampire child' found in ‘grave of the damned'.” The First News. 8/7/2023. https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/ghoulish-remains-of-vampire-child-found-in-grave-of-the-damned-40397 Efford M, Taft S, Morin J, George M, George M, Cavers H, et al. (2023) Archaeology demonstrates sustainable ancestral Coast Salish salmon stewardship over thousands of years. PLoS ONE 18(8): e0289797. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289797 Flavell, Julie. “The Dog Who Served on Both Sides of the American Revolution.” Smithsonian Magazine. 8/25/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dog-who-served-on-both-sides-of-the-american-revolution-180982781/ Gillett, Francesca. “Ancient 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck found off coast of Italy.” BBC News. 7/28/2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66337902 Gorski, “119-year overdue book returned by WVU Library.” 12WBOY. 7/27/2023. https://www.wboy.com/news/monongalia/west-virginia-university/library-book-returned-and-it-was-only-119-years-overdue/ Handwerk, Brian. “Famed 5,300-Year-Old Alps Iceman Was a Balding Middle-Aged Man With Dark Skin and Eyes.” Smithsonian. 8/16/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/famed-5300-year-old-alps-iceman-was-a-balding-middle-aged-man-with-dark-skin-and-eyes-180982744/ Hanson's. “Panko game made to aid suffragettes a century ago found during house clearance.” 7/18/2023. https://hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/panko-game-made-to-aid-suffragettes-a-century-ago-found-during-house-clearance/ Jarus, Owen. “2,200-year-old remains of sacrificed giant panda and tapir discovered near Chinese emperor's tomb.” LiveScience. 8/18/2023. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2200-year-old-remains-of-sacrificed-giant-panda-and-tapir-discovered-near-chinese-emperors-tomb Kent State University. “Atlatl weapon use by prehistoric females equalized the division of labor while hunting, experimental study shows.” 8/18/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-atlatl-weapon-prehistoric-females-equalized.html Kindy, Dave. “Piece of wood found at garage sale was part of the sunken USS Maine.” Washington Post. 9/17/2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/09/17/uss-maine-mast-arlington-cemetery/ Kuta, Sarah. “‘Perfectly Preserved' Glassware Recovered From 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck.” Smithsonian. 7/27/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/glassware-2000-year-old-roman-shipwreck-180982615/ Kuta, Sarah. “See Underwater Wreckage From the Battle of Midway in Stunning Detail.” Smithsonian. 9/22/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/battle-of-midway-shipwreck-photos-180982938/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Virginia Museum Repatriated a Nigerian Sculpture and Received a High-Tech Replica in Return. Could the Exchange Shape Future Restitutions?” ArtNet. 7/7/2023. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/chrysler-museum-factum-foundation-high-tech-facsimile-restitution-2332938 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Woman Bought a $4 Painting at a Thrift Store for Its Frame. Now, It's Been Revealed as an N.C. Wyeth, Worth as Much as $250,000.” ArtNet. 9/6/2023. https://news.artnet.com/market/thrift-store-buy-nc-wyeth-2355493 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Two 10th-Century Stone Idols, Which Were Stolen From a Temple in India and Found in a Garden Shed in the U.K., Will Be Repatriated.” ArtNet. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/10th-century-idols-found-in-garden-shed-returned-to-india-2335670 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Ancient Amazonians intentionally created fertile 'dark earth.'” Science Daily. 9/20/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230920152306.htm Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. “The scent of the afterlife unbottled in new study of ancient Egyptian mummification balms.” Science Daily. 8/31/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230831121651.htm Mayorquin, Orlando. “Overdue Book Is Returned to a Library After Nearly 120 Years.” New York Times. 7/9/2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/09/us/massachusetts-overdue-book-119-years.html net. “Strange burial of 9th-century teenager reveals tragic story.” https://www.medievalists.net/2023/08/strange-burial-of-9th-century-teenager-reveals-tragic-story/ Miller, Ken. “Researchers exhume seven sets of remains in search for Tulsa Race Massacre victims.” The Oklahoman. 10/2/2023. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2023/10/02/tulsa-race-massacre-oklahoma-seven-graves-exhumed/71036617007/ MOLA Headland. “An Unusual Burial and a Tragic Story from Early Medieval Cambridgeshire.” 8/14/2023. https://molaheadland.com/an-unusual-burial-and-a-tragic-story-from-early-medieval-cambridgeshire/ Nowakowski, Teresa. “Historians Discover ‘Remarkably Intact' Shipwreck, Undisturbed Beneath Lake Michigan for 142 Years.” Smithsonian. 9/6/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-an-almost-entirely-intact-142-year-old-shipwreck-in-lake-michigan-180982848/ Nowakowski, Teresa. “The Netherlands Repatriates Nearly 500 Looted Artifacts to Sri Lanka and Indonesia.” Smithsonian. 7/11/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/netherlands-repatriation-sri-lanka-indonesia-180982514/ Osborne, Margaret. “Archaeologists Uncover Oldest Evidence of ‘Curry' Outside of India.” Smithsonian. 7/24/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-uncover-oldest-evidence-of-curry-outside-of-india-180982589/ Parker, Christopher. “4,000-Year-Old Cemetery Discovered Beneath Future Rocket Launch Pad in U.K.” Smithsonian. 8/1/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bronze-age-cemetery-rocket-launch-uk-180982633/ Parker, Christopher. “Divers Pull Wreckage of Tuskegee Airman's Plane From the Depths of Lake Huron.” Smithsonian. 9/5/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/divers-haul-engine-of-tuskegee-airmans-plane-from-lake-huron-180982845/ Parker, Christopher. “Manchester Museum Returns 174 Artifacts to Indigenous Australians.” Smithsonian. 9/7/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/manchester-museum-returns-174-artifacts-to-indigenous-austrailians-180982853/ Pendergraff, Gavin. “State archaeologist provides another update on excavation work in Tulsa.” KTUL. 9/14/2023. https://ktul.com/news/local/state-archaeologist-provides-another-update-on-excavation-work-in-tulsa Pittalà, Maria Gaetana Giovanna et al. “Count Dracula Resurrected: Proteomic Analysis of Vlad III the Impaler's Documents by EVA Technology and Mass Spectrometry.” Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 34, 12732–12744. Publication Date: August 8, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01461 Potter, Lisa. “Daughters breastfed longer, and women accumulated greater wealth in ancient California matriarchal society.” EurekAlert. 7/12/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/995404 Public Library of Science. “Stone Age artists carved detailed human and animal tracks in rock art in Namibia.” 9/13/2023. PhysOrg. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-stone-age-artists-human-animal.html Ritter, Moira. “Detailed mosaic floor — with Medusa's face — unearthed in ancient Roman villa.” Miami Herald. 7/27/2023. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article277706663.html#storylink=cpy Royal Collection Trust. “Lost Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Rediscovered in the Royal Collection.” 9/24/2023. https://www.rct.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/lost-artemisia-gentileschi-painting-rediscovered-in-the-royal#/ Schrader, Adam. “British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer Will Step Down, Leaving the Unresolved Parthenon Marbles Debate to His Successor.” ArtNews. 7/28/2023. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-director-hartwig-fischer-step-down-next-year-2342951 Schuster, Ruth. “Synagogue From Late Second Temple Period Found by Black Sea in Russia.” Haaretz. 8/16/2023. https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-08-16/ty-article-magazine/synagogue-from-late-second-temple-period-found-by-black-sea-in-russia/00000189-fae4-d0b9-a5a9-ffef91b90000 Shaw, Garry. “‘Thunder floor' found at ancient Andean site in Peru.” The Art Newspaper. 7/18/2023. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/07/18/ancient-dance-floor-sounding-platform-andes-peru-archaeological-discovery Solly, Meilan. “Hidden for 400 Years, Censored Pages Reveal New Insights Into Elizabeth I's Reign.” Smithsonian. 7/18/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hidden-for-400-years-censored-pages-reveal-new-insights-on-elizabeth-is-reign-180982554/ Sullivan, Will. “Archaeologists Uncover Notched Logs That May Be the Oldest Known Wooden Structure.” Smithsonian. 9/22/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-uncover-notched-logs-that-may-be-the-oldest-known-wooden-structure-180982942/ Sullivan, Will. “Henrietta Lacks' Family Settles Lawsuit Over the Use of Her Cells Without Consent.” Smithsonian. 8/2/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/henrietta-lacks-family-settles-lawsuit-over-the-use-of-her-cells-without-consent-180982644/ The History Blog. “14th c. shipwreck cannon may be oldest in Europe.” 9/13/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68252 The History Blog. “2,000-year-old synagogue found in southern Russia.” 8/16/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68050 The History Blog. “8-year-old finds 1,800-year-old silver denarius in school sandbox.” http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/68120 The History Blog. “Giant panda found in Western Han imperial tomb.” 8/6/2023. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67972 University of Geneva. “New discoveries on the wreck of Antikythera.” 7/24/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-discoveries-antikythera.html University of Gothenburg. “Shipboard cannon found off the Swedish coast may be the oldest in Europe.” EurekAlert. 9/13/2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1001404 University of Montreal. “New evidence of plant food processing in Italy during Neanderthal-to-Homo sapiens period.” Phys.org. 6/29/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-evidence-food-italy-neanderthal-to-homo-sapiens.html University of Southampton. “Archaeologists reveal largest palaeolithic cave art site in Eastern Iberia.” Science Daily. 9/11/2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230911141015.htm University of Valencia. “Pigment production adapted to cultural changes and availability of mineral resources 40,000 years ago in Ethiopia.” PhysOrg. 9/11/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-pigment-production-cultural-availability-mineral.html Walls, Alex. “Salmon bones confirm sustainable chum fishery for 2,500 years under Tsleil-Waututh Nation.” PhysOrg. 8/30/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-salmon-bones-sustainable-chum-fishery.html Watts, Rachel. “Divers find long-lost artifact from sunken Empress of Ireland in St. Lawrence River.” CBC. 9/9/2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/divers-find-long-lost-artifact-from-sunken-empress-of-ireland-quebec-compass-platform-1.6959176 Weiwei Wang et al. ,Earliest curry in Southeast Asia and the global spice trade 2000 years ago.Sci. Adv.9,eadh5517(2023).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adh5517 Yirka, Bob. “Arrowhead housed at Bern History Museum found to be made from meteoritic iron.” Phys.org. 7/31/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-arrowhead-housed-bern-history-museum.html Yirka, Bob. “Placement of ancient hidden lamps, skulls in cave in Israel suggests Roman-era practice of necromancy.” Phys.org. 7/14/2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-placement-ancient-hidden-lamps-skulls.html    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On two separate trips, he traveled throughout the southeastern corner of the North American continent. He collected plants, and seeds, which he sent to interested amateur plantsmen and gardeners, as well as some of the foremost naturalists of the age. But he also collected animals and birds, and spent his time making drawings of birds. Eventually he would even read a scientific paper before the Royal Society in London that was the first to describe the migration of birds.  This pioneering naturalist was not, as some of you might have guessed, John James Audubon. Nor was it, as some of the smart kids in the front row might think, either John or William Bartram. It was Mark Catesby, whose two separate sojourns in Virginia and South Carolina–lasting together over a decade–led many years later to the publication Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first ever illustrated account of American flora and fauna. And yet very few of you have ever heard his name. With me to talk about Mark Catesby and his world, both natural and cultural, is Patrick Dean, author of Nature's Messenger: Mark Catesby and his Adventures in a New World. He was last on the podcast in Episode 223 describing the first expeditions to reach the top of Denali, described in his first book A Window to Heaven. For Further Investigation A digital edition of the Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands--Patrick Dean writes, "I used it a lot, as you can imagine!" For more on Catesby's era and context, see Julian Hoppit, A Land of Liberty?: England, 1689-1727; Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England, 1727-1783; and John Brewer, Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century And if you're into coloring books for adults, why not Mark Catesby's Nature Coloring Book: Drawings from the Royal Collection

With great pleasure, I welcome Gee Cooper back to the show to discuss the afterlife of Titian. Given his proliferation and international appeal, the works of Titian and his role as court painter had a ripple effect in courts throughout Europe. Among the most important figures is Charles I of England who looked to expand the Royal Collection after a visit to Spain where he saw Titian's poesie series and was permanently changed. The Titian List is the inventory of his works by Titian until his execution and the dispersal of his collection. Charles I wanted a Titian of his own. He employed Antony Van Dyck as his court painter, who would emulate Titian, reproduce his works, and adjust his own style to the preference of the King.  In this conversation, we cover essential aspects of the poesie series in Spain to understand the impact that it had on Charles I. We then look at two types of Imperial portraiture to determine the direct influence of Titian's work in the seventeenth-century, not merely as items in an inventory, but as a highly praised style that infiltrated courtly painting. Instagram: italian_renaissance_podcast Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ItalianRenShop Get additional content by becoming a Patron: patreon.com/TheItalianRenaissancePodcast Support the show

What a brilliant week we have had with the pomp and pageantry of Trooping The Colour to mark The King's birthday and The Order of The Garter Service and Procession at Windsor Castle. In today's Royal Podcast episode, we are chatting about the controversy surrounding Catherine's outfit choices - especially surrounding her Order of the Garter Outfit, which was very similar to one she already owns. We are asking the questions:    Are Catherine's outfits too similar?  Should Catherine re-wear a similar outfit?  Is Catherine wasting money on outfits that are very similar? Should The Princess of Wales be buying whatever she wants?  We are also keeping you up-to-date with the this week's Royal engagements during our Royal Round-up including:    The King's upcoming appearance in a BBC documentary and portrait commission for The Royal Collection celebrating the Windrush Generation Queen Camilla is appointed Order of the Thistle and attend the naming ceremony of the amazing Shire horse, Juno (Michelle was very happy) The Prince of Wales announces a new social housing project for The Duchy of Cornwall The Duchess of Edinburgh is invested as Grand President of St John's Ambulance The Princess of Wales opens the National Gallery after a 3 year refurbishment  The Duchess of Gloucester celebrates her 77th birthday Plus so much more…  

The Royal Collection Trust looks after the public opening of the Official Residences of The King and cares for the Royal Collection. When the Covid pandemic hit the Royal Collection Trust took their regular free audio described tours online via Zoom and they have continued to do so post Covid. The next Royal Collection Trust audio described online Zoom session will take place on Tuesday 4 July 2023 at 2pm and will be focusing on the Gold State Coach which of course did feature in the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6 May 2023. RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Amy Stocker, Access Manager at the Royal Collection Trust to not only give a bit of background to the work of the RCT but also a hint of what blind and partially sighted people will experience during the online audio described Zoom session on the Gold State Coach.  Amy also mentioned that there is a recorded audio described guide for the Royal Mews where you will be able to get a bit closer to the Gold State Coach, other coaches and vehicles which are on display at the Royal Mews. To find out more about both the free online audio described Zoom sessions and details about the recorded audio described guide for the Royal Mews do visit the Royal Collection Trust website - https://www.rct.uk (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Donne (1573-1631), known now as one of England's finest poets of love and notable in his own time as an astonishing preacher. He was born a Catholic in a Protestant country and, when he married Anne More without her father's knowledge, Donne lost his job in the government circle and fell into a poverty that only ended once he became a priest in the Church of England. As Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, his sermons were celebrated, perhaps none more than his final one in 1631 when he was plainly in his dying days, as if preaching at his own funeral. The image above is from a miniature in the Royal Collection and was painted in 1616 by Isaac Oliver (1565-1617) With Mary Ann Lund Associate Professor in Renaissance English Literature at the University of Leicester Sue Wiseman Professor of Seventeenth Century Literature at Birkbeck, University of London And Hugh Adlington Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Donne (1573-1631), known now as one of England's finest poets of love and notable in his own time as an astonishing preacher. He was born a Catholic in a Protestant country and, when he married Anne More without her father's knowledge, Donne lost his job in the government circle and fell into a poverty that only ended once he became a priest in the Church of England. As Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, his sermons were celebrated, perhaps none more than his final one in 1631 when he was plainly in his dying days, as if preaching at his own funeral. The image above is from a miniature in the Royal Collection and was painted in 1616 by Isaac Oliver (1565-1617) With Mary Ann Lund Associate Professor in Renaissance English Literature at the University of Leicester Sue Wiseman Professor of Seventeenth Century Literature at Birkbeck, University of London And Hugh Adlington Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Donne (1573-1631), known now as one of England's finest poets of love and notable in his own time as an astonishing preacher. He was born a Catholic in a Protestant country and, when he married Anne More without her father's knowledge, Donne lost his job in the government circle and fell into a poverty that only ended once he became a priest in the Church of England. As Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, his sermons were celebrated, perhaps none more than his final one in 1631 when he was plainly in his dying days, as if preaching at his own funeral. The image above is from a miniature in the Royal Collection and was painted in 1616 by Isaac Oliver (1565-1617) With Mary Ann Lund Associate Professor in Renaissance English Literature at the University of Leicester Sue Wiseman Professor of Seventeenth Century Literature at Birkbeck, University of London And Hugh Adlington Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham

Curious what it was like to work for the Queen? Historian Kathryn LaMontagne, Ph.D. '01, '03G worked in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and joins the Providence College Podcast to discuss what that means, what it was like to meet the late queen, and her continuing scholarship on Catholic women in Britain.  LaMontagne is a lecturer at Boston University, a member of the Providence College National Alumni Association Council, president of the South Coast Mass. Alumni Club, former president of the London Alumni Club, and has completed several distinguished academic fellowships at Boston University and Roger Williams University. Learn about the history and future of the British monarchy (among other topics) in this royally interesting episode of the Providence College Podcast.Subscribe to the Providence College Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and YouTube.  Visit Providence College on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. 

Harriet Hastings launched Biscuiteers in 2007 after identifying a gap in the market for luxury food gifting. Over the past 15 years she has grown the business from a small startup to a unique artisan business working at scale and employing over 150 people. Biscuiteers' beautiful hand-iced biscuits are sold directly online as post-able biscuits and are available to buy in retailers including Selfridge's, Hamley's, Harvey Nichols, and at the Royal Palaces. Outside of the UK, Biscuiteers ships to countries around the world, with the US and Australia the next biggest markets after the UK. Corporate clients include Google, Barclays, Chanel and Christian Dior.  The business is headquartered in Wimbledon at the Ministry of Biscuits, a purpose-built head office and bakery, where over 3 million biscuits are iced each year. In 2012, Biscuiteers expanded its offering, opening the world's first ever Icing Cafe located in Notting Hill where both adults and children can learn how to ice like a Biscuiteer. It now has an additional flagship location in Belgravia (opened in 2021) where customers can see live icing on display for the first time. Biscuiteers holds the license for Paddington, Mr Men, Beatrix Potter, The Snowman, the RHS and Monopoly, and has achieved some impressive biscuit feats over the years, having recreated Covent Garden, Leeds Castle and Waddesdon Manor in gingerbread, the latter taking 500 hours to complete. In 2022 it even got the royal seal of approval with a Biscuiteers x Buckingham Palace collection created with the Royal Collection for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Listen in to find out more about Harriet's journey and how she was able to collaborate with fantastic brands.Find out more about Harriet Hastings via: LinkedIn.Find out more about Biscuiteers via: website, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn.A new episode EVERY WEEK, showcasing the journeys of inspirational entrepreneurs, side hustlers and their mentors. We discuss their successes, challenges and how they overcame setbacks. Focusing mainly on what they wish they had known when starting out. The podcast aims to give aspiring entrepreneurs the confidence to START UP and START NOW by showcasing real and relatable entrepreneurs. After all, seeing is believing! Join the conversation using #startupstartnow and tagging us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Don't forget to leave a review as it really helps us reach those who need it and allows us to get the best guests for you! Connect with START UP. START NOW. and to nominate a guest please visit: www.startupstartnow.co.uk.  To connect with Sharena Shiv please visit: www.sharena.co.uk.

Join the Hello! team of Emmy Griffiths, Andrea Caamano, our Royal Editor Emily Nash and a whole host of special guests as we delve into the very heart of all things Royal.Launching Christmas 2022, our first episode will take a sneak peek inside Windsor castle, hearing about the intricacies of decorating from the Royal Collection themselves and we'll also hear first hand what it takes to create a Christmas lunch fit for Royalty from the former live-in chef to The Prince and Princess of Wales.In future episodes, we'll be looking at Harry and Meghan's new life in the USA including an in-depth look at Harry's new book 'Spare', followed by a look at what the makes the young royals AKA 'Royal Rascals' tick, we'll also look at how a royal tour is put together by those with first hand experience plus we'll deep dive into King Charles' new life and what we can expect from his reign following the sad passing of the Queen.For the royal fan, or for those who want more of an understanding of the intricacies of the world's most famous family this is always an entertaining, fun and informative listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nữ hoàng Elizabeth II sở hữu một trong những bộ sưu tập trang sức tư nhân lớn và đắt giá nhất thế giới với tâm điểm là khoảng 50 chiếc vương miện lộng lẫy. Sau khi bà qua đời, ai sẽ được kế thừa bộ sưu tập đắt giá đó, bạn hãy cùng “Từ điển lịch sử” khám phá trong video ngày hôm nhé! Theo The New York Post: “Điều gì sẽ xảy ra với những chiếc vương miện của cố Nữ hoàng Anh và ai sẽ là người được thừa kế phụ thuộc vào việc chúng đến từ bộ sưu tập trang sức nào. ” Một số vương miện, trâm cài áo, vòng đeo tay, quyền trượng, nhẫn của bà tạo thành một phần của Crown Jewels (tạm dịch: Báu vật) được trưng bày tại Tháp London và thu hút khoảng 2,5 triệu khách du lịch thưởng lãm mỗi năm. Bộ sưu tập vô giá này gồm chủ yếu là vật phẩm được sử dụng trong nghi lễ trang trọng, có thứ tồn tại từ 800 năm trước, và là tài sản của hoàng gia. Tương tự, Royal Collection (tạm dịch: Bộ sưu tập Hoàng gia) chứa hầu hết tác phẩm nghệ thuật và đồ trang sức của gia đình hoàng gia. Đây là bộ sưu tập tư nhân lớn nhất trên thế giới với tổng cộng 1 triệu đồ vật, một số có từ thời Vua Henry VIII. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tu-dien-lich-su/message

EPISODE NOTESSkip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends January 31st 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://decisionhouse.co.uk/https://twitter.com/decision_househttps://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-mills-0528661b/ Steve Mills set up Decision House in July 2017, having spent 15 years at leading insight agency BDRC where he was Board Director and Head of the Culture & Tourism team.His work focusses on generating and sharing insight to further understanding of both how to deliver better experiences for existing visitors, members, customers or other stakeholders and how to effectively grow audiences and develop new markets. During the pandemic, Steve provided regular insight to the sector through ALVA, producing regular reports and webinars on public sentiment towards returning to visitor attractions and reaction to the ‘new' visit experience in a Covid world.  In more ‘normal' recent times he has delivered insight for clients across the culture and leisure attraction sector including Historic Royal Palaces, Royal Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Royal Museums Greenwich and the National Trust, as well as developing Voice of the Visitor, a new template helping attractions to gather and benchmark visitor feedback.    Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world.In today's episode, I speak with Steve Mills, founder of Decision House. What does the cost of living crisis mean for attractions as we move into winter and beyond? Steve gives us a snapshot of how your potential visitors are feeling, and what the next few months might hold for the sector.If you like what you hear, subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue. We have a small issue with Steve's audio, but don't let that detract from the important content. This is a really, really important episode.Kelly Molson: Steve, thank you so much for joining me on Skip the Queue podcast today. It's really good to see you.Steve Mills: Pleasure. Thanks for inviting me, Kelly.Kelly Molson: I've got a few icebreaker questions for you, Steve.Steve Mills: Go for it.Kelly Molson: You can only save one of the Muppets. Which Muppet do you choose, and why?Steve Mills: Oh my God. Well, I'll tell you the one I'd like to be, I'd like to be the drummer, Animal. Aspiring to be fun and exciting and a bit off the wall, really, to be honest. But I would say very much it's an aspiration rather than reality with me, to be honest. I'm probably more like Scooter, who is the more rational, down to earth, logical one.Kelly Molson: I think that might come across in what we talk about today, Steve.Steve Mills: Okay. Fair enough, fair enough. No, that's definitely it for me.Kelly Molson: All right. How would you describe your job to a two year old?Steve Mills: I find out all the fun stuff that people like doing.Kelly Molson: That's a great answer. That is a great answer. You nailed that, Steve.Steve Mills: Good.Kelly Molson: Okay. Last show that you binge-watched on your television viewing platform of choice? I don't know why I've done that. I'm not the BBC. No one cares what I say.Steve Mills: No, no, it's all right.Kelly Molson: Netflix, Amazon, whatever. Disney+.Steve Mills: I'm quite sporty, so Disney+, I've been watching this series called Welcome to Wrexham, which is all about Wrexham Football Club and the fact that Ryan Reynolds and the other guy whose name everybody always forgets ... Jim, Joe, McElhenney or whatever it is, taking over the football club. And it's a kind of fly on the wall documentary about how they've taken over the club, and trying to make a success of it. But very interestingly, there's lots of these fly on the wall, football type documentaries, and this one is made for an American audience. It has some quite subtle differences in there, so they have things like translations between English and American phrases for things like bloke means buddy and that kind of thing. It has got a little twist in it, which I quite enjoy.Kelly Molson: That's interesting. That's on my list, to watch that one. But we've watched the Tottenham one that was on Amazon, because we're big Tottenham fans. And we watched ... What was the one ... Was it Sunderland? Was there one about-Steve Mills: Yeah.Kelly Molson: Yeah, we watched that one as well, that was really good. Okay, we'll watch that one, and there's little, subtle differences because it's for Americans.Steve Mills: Yes.Kelly Molson: All right, Steve. What is your unpopular opinion?Steve Mills: That's an interesting first question because given my profession, which we'll come on to, my job is really about conveying others' opinions rather than having them of my own, to be honest with you. But my unpopular opinion is sticking with the sporting theme, really, is that I think that there's no better sporting drama than a five day cricket test match.Kelly Molson: Oh God.Steve Mills: Which is definitely an unpopular opinion, to be honest. Or even a four day cricket county championship match that's watched by three men and a dog on a wet Tuesday in April, to be honest. Because I know it's difficult to believe that anyone could be interested in a sport where you could have a draw after five days' worth of activity, but for me, it's like reading a novel, but it's being played out in front of your eyes, in many ways. There's time to get to know all the characters properly, and story kind of ebbs and flows, and you get these unexpected instances happening that change the plot. And you can see these individual battles gradually unfolding during five days that you'd never get in a couple of hours.Steve Mills: And what I like about it is it's a kind of test of character and a test of patience for the players, not just the audience, as well as pure, sporting ability. Yeah, I'm sure it's a very unpopular opinion, but I think it's a kind of antidote to where we're going as a society generally, so it's the whole antidote to having low attention span, these quick rewards and these superficial pleasures. You don't want any of that, go and watch a five day test match. Which ironically, I don't think I've ever done, to be honest with you. But it's certainly something I've got in mind when I retire in a few years' time.Kelly Molson: Steve, it was a really beautiful analogy. I really enjoyed your analogy about it being like a novel, and playing out the roles and the characters and stuff, but you have not sold it to me.Steve Mills: I wasn't intending to.Kelly Molson: But well done on the analogy. All right, listeners, let us know what you think about Steve's cricket is a novel analogy, and we should all be in watching cricket for five days. I know that I've got a lot of different things that I could be spending my days on, but there you go. Thank you for sharing.Steve Mills: That's all right.Kelly Molson: Right, Steve, I've asked you to come on today because we're going to do a bit of a state of the nation chat. But tell us a little bit about you and what Decision House does, for our listeners that haven't heard of you, which I will be surprised if they haven't.Steve Mills: Okay. No, thank you, yeah. I started Decision House back in 2017. I used to head up the Tourism and Culture team at BDRC, which is now called BVA BDRC. I headed those up for a good few years before that. Decision House really specialises in generating insights that help organisations in the culture and tourism sector specifically, and particularly attractions, really. Just helping them to make better decisions for their organisation, hence the Ronseal type name, Decision House.Steve Mills: And we mainly do that by conducting fresh, primary research, either with your current customers, so whether you call your current customers visitors or bookers or members, and that helps with making sure that we deliver, or they can deliver, optimum experiences for their visitors. Or, we do research with prospective customers, so more market and audience research to understand how they can grow their customer bases, actually. We can do that. We do both quantitative research, so the typical surveys, online surveys, face-to-face surveys et cetera, or we also do qualitative research as well, so things like focus groups, in-depth interviews, which really get under the skin of the issues that organisations have. Typically, quantitative surveys will measure visitor opinion, whereas qualitative gets to the root of why visitors have those particular opinions.Steve Mills: That's really what we do, and during COVID, we did an awful lot of work to really track public sentiment. And that led us to setting up visitor benchmarking surveys to understand reactions the visitors had to COVID measures being put in place once attractions reopened back in 2020. And that's really, both of those surveys, public sentiment work for ALVA and the visitor benchmark and consumer views for the last couple of years and still going now, really, albeit they've evolved into pieces of work that aren't COVID related anymore. They're more general sentiment work now.Kelly Molson: And they've been incredibly valuable, Steve. And I reference them continuously, and I do reference the BVA BDRC's work as well. And they've been incredibly insightful. Now, we spoke a couple of weeks ago about coming on to talk about the state of the nation and where people at, because what had been happening is I had been contacted by a few attractions, saying, "What have you heard? Numbers are down a little bit. What have you heard? What's the sentiment like?" And I always fire them your way, but I thought why not get the man in himself to talk us through where we're at?Kelly Molson: We've got a really weird situation at the moment in the UK. I mean, we're recording this. It's the fifth of October. We're in the run-up to what is usually a busy half-term, and then the run up to Christmas which can be quite quiet for a number of attractions, depending on what you're doing. But we've got the cost of living crisis, we've got the pound was at its lowest since the '70s, which blows my mind. We've had the death of our monarch, we have a new king, and a new prime minister, all happening at once. I mean, that's quite a lot to be dealing with. But I guess, what does all of this mean for attractions as we move into that winter period and beyond? And I thought this is what we could talk about today, Steve. So, where are we at? It's big question, but where are we at?Steve Mills: A massive question. I'll try my best to try and pick some of those issues apart, really. I think if we deal with the death of Her Majesty the Queen first of all, and what the ramifications of that might be ... And this is, I guess, a personal opinion, first of all, really. I mean, I think domestically, it's not going to have a huge impact, if I'm perfectly honest. People will move on relatively quickly from that. I suspect attractions won't see ... Unless you are something that is specifically related to the monarchy, you probably won't see a huge amount of difference. I mean, clearly somewhere like Windsor Castle is already seeing queues of people outside the gates, for example.Steve Mills: But I think outside of that niche, domestically, I doubt we'll see a huge difference. But then, obviously, internationally, it has raised the profile. And actually, I think showcased all the positive associations that people abroad associate with the UK, and why they travel here. It has emphasised our heritage, it has emphasised our amazing ability in terms of the pomp and ceremony, et cetera. And it has been a great showcase for London sites, to be honest. I think internationally, it should have a significant impact going into next year, allied of course with the low value of the pound. Now, it's not all good, obviously, but obviously, in exchange rates terms, it's a good thing for next year, particularly [inaudible 00:10:48]. I guess that's where I'd see the death of the monarch situation.Kelly Molson: It's interesting, what you said about the pomp. I mean, as we watched the funeral here, a very emotional day, actually. And I was transfixed to the ceremony for the entire day. It was quite mesmerising. But in my head, I just kept thinking, people outside of the UK that watched this, it's strange, isn't it? It's quite strange, and it's very grand, and it's a real sense of what the UK is about, that kind of level of ceremony, and people coming together. It was quite phenomenal. And it did make me think ultimately, it's a really sad day, but it's such a big thing for the UK to be able to do. I wonder if that does represent a surge in international tourism because of that, and people wanted to come and be a small part in that kind of thing.Steve Mills: Yeah. I think increasingly, whether it's people from the UK or people coming into the UK, people want to do things now that is different. And they want to be seen to be doing things that you can only do in one particular location. And I think the UK, I don't think there is anywhere quite like it in terms of ability to deliver on things like the pomp and ceremony. And that's what really sets us apart from many other countries around the world. And I think we shouldn't forget that, and not be afraid to promote it.Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. And then that brings us to the new king. There will be a coronation at some point.Steve Mills: Yeah, it's similar, similar.Kelly Molson: So, similar kind of reaction to that, probably, and something very positive to celebrate as well.Steve Mills: Yeah. But then yeah, the other side of it is I think you mentioned cost of living.Kelly Molson: Small, little issue that we're all struggling with.Steve Mills: Probably yeah, less positive. I think with that one, as a lot of listeners will know, we have been commissioned by ALVA throughout COVID, and also a couple of waves this year, just to gauge public sentiment into how people are feeling about visitor attractions. We did a wave back in June this year, which first highlighted some financial concerns for the attraction-visiting public. And it also said at that point that COVID actually was still a noticeable barrier, particularly for the older generation and those who are more vulnerable. We're just literally hot off the press at the end of September, so we did another wave the 22nd and 27th of September, just to update that and try to understand how people are feeling about visiting attractions in the autumn and the winter, up until about February next year. So, how attractions are going to cope.Steve Mills: And one of the key questions we asked is just a completely open question. People can respond in any way they like to this question. But we just ask, "At the moment, how are you feeling about visiting attractions over the next few months?" As I said, they could say absolutely anything there. We've not prompted them with anything. And I think the issues that are coming up here, first of all on the positive side, is that COVID is being mentioned by less and less people. I think the assumption is that it's completely not an issue any more, but I wouldn't say it has done that. But back in June, we still had 15% of people at that point saying something to do with COVID was putting me off going to visitor attractions, which was partially explaining why we hadn't seen that bounceback to pre pandemic levels.Steve Mills: That has now, in the September wave, come down to 9%, so it's disappearing. That said, you've still got one in 10 people who have still got some sort of concerns around COVID. As I say, it's particularly older people and vulnerable people that are still saying that. But that's quite positive.Steve Mills: But then on the other side, the financial concerns have gone up considerably. Again, back in June, we had about 15% of people mentioning some sort of financial concern as a barrier to why they wouldn't be visiting attractions, or would maybe think twice. But that has now gone up to 24, 25%, something like that. So, quite a significant increase. And again, it's as you would expect, it's especially among those with lower incomes, but also families are increasingly expressing financial concerns. And this time around, we asked a specific question as well about whether there was any positive benefit of all the government support around energy bills. And actually, we're finding that it's probably not because any sort of positive benefit of government support is being negated by just the still absolute rises in energy costs.Steve Mills: It's a difficult situation at the moment, and we've now got around about half the country really feeling that they feel worse off than they did at the same point last year. Clearly, that's going to have an impact.Kelly Molson: Yeah. I wonder, I mean, I can give you an example. I went to an attraction on Monday. I took my daughter, I met up with some friends, and went to Paradise Wildlife Park for the day. And I definitely thought more about what I was going to spend when I got there than I usually would. And I thought well, I'm quite lucky. My daughter is a big eater. She's not fussy. She eats anything. But I went, do you know what? I'm going to just pack her a packed lunch, so she has got sandwiches, fruit, whatever, and I'll buy myself my lunch when I'm there, and that just saves just a tiny, little bit of money. And it sounds silly. It's insignificant, but it was enough to make me, in my head, go, "I feel a bit better about that."Kelly Molson: And I probably spent longer at the attraction as well, because in my head I was like, well, "I've paid, I want to get my money's worth. We'll go here and we'll go in the Tumble Tots place and we'll do the soft play." And I just really extended the time that I was at the attraction as well, for the money that I paid for it. And it wasn't unreasonable at all. We had a great day, it's a brilliant, brilliant day out. But it did make me think about just small changes I wouldn't have thought about six months ago.Steve Mills: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think you've picked up on secondary spend there. I think that is one thing that's going to be a challenge. And also, memberships as well. We were, a bit earlier in the year, seeing people saying things like, "Well, I'll squeeze as much as I possibly can out of my existing memberships," which is a good thing. Makes you more likely to renew. But I think now we've reached the stage where people are starting to do that a bit less, because they've actually scared of any visit occasion because there is secondary spends associated with even a visit occasion that is associated with a membership, because you've got to travel to get there. And then you've got to potentially have something to eat there, or buy something in the shop. And I think the situation is now with some people that they're, even when they have a membership of some organisation, they're actually more reluctant to use it now, more than trying to squeeze as much as possible out of it.Steve Mills: I think it's going to be a tough time for memberships over the next few months, definitely. We've got, again, evidence from that piece of work that is saying people are less likely to renew and less likely to acquire new memberships over the next few months, because of their personal financial situation. And it's all within that 50% of people who are feeling worse off, obviously. Which I guess on the positive side, what we're seeing is that I guess if there was going to be a prediction, it's that at the high end, limited supply-type products, there's virtually going to be no change there. If you've got limited supply of something that's priced at a high level, I think there is still going to be plenty of demands for that sort of thing. And you see it all the time, really.Steve Mills: I mean, I think things like the Christmas lights displays, for example, at attractions, I have a feeling they're still going to be okay and do well. I mean, I tried to go to, there's one reasonably local to me at Walterstone. And I don't know if it's completely sold out yet, but I know the slots that we wanted to try and book, we booked three or four weeks ago for it. I think those sorts of events and the higher price point end with limited supply should be okay, in my view.Kelly Molson: Yeah. And I would agree with that, again from personal experience of trying to book the Audley End miniature railway Christmas experience. All of the weekends are gone. I did manage to get a Friday, thankfully. More for me, to be perfectly honest. I can't wait to go on it. But yeah, those peak Saturdays and weekend slots sold out within hours, and they're all gone completely. Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that.Kelly Molson: Do you think that that then leads attractions to they're just going to have to try harder in terms of the experience that they're putting on? Should they be looking at trying to offer things that are a bit more unique, at a higher price point?Steve Mills: Yeah, I think yes, definitely. I think as well, it's important to point out that this isn't going to be across the board. Again, there's a lot of evidence for ... Again, I guess this is all very intuitive, but there's going to be a much higher negative impact on paid attractions than free attractions, so again, there's very strong evidence that people will be switching out from paid attractions to free attractions. But then even within that, within paid attractions, it's perhaps starting to emphasise that this is all going to be about value message. And what else can you do to add value to whatever ticket price is, really?Steve Mills: Yeah, and again, a third of people said they will visit paid attractions less than normal, and only 13% said more. Whereas on the free attractions side, you've got a third saying they will visit free attractions more than usual, and only 8% said less. And again, that's all driven by those that feel worse off. Yeah, I think it's all completely about that value message over the winter. Need that reassuring communications around it.Steve Mills: And I think as well, what has also come out of this is there's this assumption that the cost of visiting attractions will be rising at the same rate as everything else in the economy. There were quite a few people saying things like, "just assuming that the cost of visiting attractions was going to be going up". I think there is a really important communications message to put in there, some thought actions to come across, is that we are maybe holding our prices at '22 levels, or whatever it is. Or only increasing it by a small amount, or adding this extra value item in or whatever it is. I think something that is related to value and price has to be the message this year, just to reassure people that actually, we're not going up at the same price as energy and wheat and sunflower oil and all the rest of it. Actually, it's going to be fairly marginal, if anything, for visitor attractions, which I thought was one of the quite interesting things that came out of it.Kelly Molson: That's really interesting, isn't it? Yeah, I hadn't considered that. I mean, look, it's unfair to say that attractions won't be putting up their prices, because their energy bills are going up just as ours are. Actually, their energy bills are going up more dramatically than ours, because there's currently no cap on businesses. There isn't a reassurance piece to be done, but I think that has to be done quite tactically by the attraction because they can't come out and say, "Look, we're not putting our prices up. We're not doing this," because they might have to because of the cost of living. Okay, but that's something that I wasn't expecting, that they just assumed that it would rise that rapidly.Steve Mills: Yeah. And coincidentally, I read something somewhere recently in the trade press as well of just someone had done some research across other sectors as well, and was seeing a very similar sort of scenario as well. Actually, when you think about it, average Joe Public, if inflation is at 10%, your immediate thought is well, everything is going up 10%. Why wouldn't it be? Most members of the public wouldn't think about the nuances of what's going up and what isn't going up.Steve Mills: I think it's just something to bear in mind. Although again, what I would say is that I'm of the view that attractions should try and hold their nerve in terms of pricing. And I suspect there won't be much merit in reducing prices or holding prices as they are just for the sake of it, because I don't think we're talking here about those people who are financially squeezed. The odd pound or two lower admission price at a visitor attraction I don't think is going to make a huge amount of difference to whether they visit or not, to be honest. All you'll be doing is rewarding the people who would visit anyway. Why would you do that? I think it's holding your nerve and being confident that you offer a good value, worthwhile experience.Kelly Molson: Yeah. Good advice, Steve. And that also backs up the last interview that we had with Simon Addison about being confident in what you're delivering, and the price that you're charging for it. Yeah, really, really good advice. Okay, what else have you discovered?Steve Mills: I think they were probably the main points, really. Yeah, I mean I think as I said, it's going to be pretty tough for membership, so existing members, we're now seeing they're less likely to renew than they were back in June, and they're less likely to acquire new memberships as well. And yeah, just more reticent about using and squeezing as much value out of their existing membership as well.Kelly Molson: Yeah. It's interesting, the membership one, because my National Trust membership is up for renewal in January time. We were very kindly gifted it for a wedding present last year. And I'm absolutely going to renew, because for me, it's such incredible value for money. And we were literally talking about it last night. We were like, "Well, that's fine. We'll renew our membership. We'll make sure that we are not only using the brilliant National Trust parks that are around us, like Wimpole and Anglesea Abbey, et cetera, Ickworth, but go further afield as well. Actually, if we're going to use that membership, then we don't mind traveling a little bit further, even though that's going to cost us a bit more in petrol, to go to that attraction because you're then not paying the attraction fee on top of the travel costs as well. Yeah, it's funny. I'd never even considered not renewing it.Steve Mills: Yeah. And I'm exactly the same. And I guess, let's be clear, here. I said 50% of the population are feeling worse off than they did at this point last year, but then 50% are feeling okay, the same or better. And I think it was something like 15% or so were actually feeling better off than last year, which I think says something about where we're going as a society. You've got people dividing even further, to be honest with you. There are still significant proportions of people that are feeling fine about things, and will renew their memberships, or see them as a charitable donation.Kelly Molson: Steve, I want to ask you a little bit about pre booking, because I mean we've talked about this for years now, pre booking. Obviously, it was kind of forced upon attractions during the pandemic, when they were allowed to open. I still don't know why anyone wouldn't pre book in advance, but then I am an organised planner. I need to know that I've got my ticket and I'm going to get in. I'm not going to have a wasted journey. And obviously, from an operational side, aspect from attractions, it's a brilliant thing to be able to do.Kelly Molson: What's the kind of sentiment now from general public? Are they still happy with it? Are they starting to want to go back to the old days, where things were just a little bit more flexible and bit more spontaneous?Steve Mills: Yeah. Well, I think almost, it's switching that around a little bit. I mean, I think obviously COVID was this fantastic opportunity to almost change the culture of the public to one where, as you said, it's why wouldn't you pre book an attraction in the same way that you would pre book lots of other things in society, like going to the theatre or going to a restaurant or whatever? Certainly, paid attractions. There was a really good opportunity to change the culture. And so I think the main point for me is that attractions need to be proactive in encouraging that behaviour.Steve Mills: It's not something that will naturally come to the public, and public sentiment won't change unless attractions are proactive in changing it. Why would it, really? I think it's incumbent upon attractions to really create that appetite for pre booking. And I think to an extent, we're beginning to get there. But I think there's a lot more to be done in terms of what nudges can we put to the public to encourage to pre book? I think things like online discounts that are notable, or switching it around premiums to walk-ups, depending on which way you want to look at it, should be used more than they probably are at the moment.Steve Mills: And things like dynamic pricing for advanced booking, for example. Again, I know you talked to Simon Addison about dynamic pricing last week. But the more that that can be used, in particular for things like advanced booking, I think just will encourage pre booking. And then gradually over a period of time, it then gets ingrained into the people's psyche, "I'm going to an attraction, therefore I will pre book."Steve Mills: I think it's just one of those that I think the industry as a whole almost needs to come together and say, "Right, we're going to push pre booking as much as we possibly can because we need to change the way that society thinks about booking attractions." Easy for me to sit here and say that, and much more difficult to do. But I think that's what needs to be done because yeah, as we've seen, there's huge benefits in terms of creating that relationship with anybody as soon as you grab their email address. And that investment or the discounts you offer may well pay dividends in years to come because you've managed to keep that relationship going, which means you get more repeat visits, you get more top of mind so you get more recommendation being spread around, et cetera. I think it's a worthwhile investment.Kelly Molson: Brilliant, yeah. Good advice. I agree with every, single word you have said, Steve. Thanks for backing up everything that I put online about it as well.Steve Mills: It's all right. And to be honest, it helped me as well on my visitor surveys. I now try and make sure that they are online, post visit surveys, which tend to help the more pre bookers people have got. It makes that research a lot more cost effective, shall we say, as well.Kelly Molson: Helping us all round, Steve. That's what I like. Sector collaboration and all that. Right, Steve, thank you for sharing your insights today. It's really appreciated, and I know that this will help a lot of people that are feeling a little bit anxious about what's going on and just not really sure how to approach things. Thank you very much.Kelly Molson: I always ask our guests to recommend a book that they love or something that has helped shape their career in some way. What have you got for us today?Steve Mills: Okay. I've read this book called Silt Road, silt road rather than silk road, by a guy called Charles Rangeley-Wilson or Rangeley-Wilson. Not quite sure, to be honest. And he's quite niche based, so be prepared. It tells the social history of High Wycombe, which is where I live, through the lens of the River Wye, which sort of runs through it, although most of it has been culverted and put under a shopping centre and a flyover, these days. Yeah, it tells that story through the lens of a river. It tells a story about things like the mills on the river, the history of Wycombe as a furniture and chair making town, which led to me actually being ... I'm now Chair of the Wycombe Chair Museum, which is rather ironic.Kelly Molson: That's niche as well, isn't it? I love it.Steve Mills: It is. It's incredibly niche. It's incredibly niche. And it also tells the story of things like how trout became ... Trout are a thing in New Zealand, apparently, and they are a thing in New Zealand because they were taken from the River Wye and transported over thousands of miles to New Zealand many years ago.Steve Mills: But the reason why I mention it is because I'm not originally from Wycombe. I've lived here for about 15 years. But it really helped me form this identity with the town, because Wycombe is a few miles outside London. It's very commuter-able, which means that actually, there's not many people live in Wycombe who are originally from Wycombe. I'm a big believer in getting pride in your local area so you look after it better and make you want to contribute to the community.Steve Mills: Books like this help with that because it has really helped me to understand Wycombe in more detail, understand the social history, and feel more proud of the place I live.Kelly Molson: Steve, I love that.Steve Mills: It's not really a recommendation to read that specific book. It's more of a kind of a plea to go and find out a bit more about your local area, read about the social history, so that you feel more proud about the places you live in.Kelly Molson: And more connected to it as well.Steve Mills: Completely, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pride and connection.Kelly Molson: Steve, I think that's lovely. It's amazing, the stuff that you can learn on this podcast. Who knew? Who knew? Who knew that Wycombe ... I had no idea that it was a big chair and furniture manufacturing place, and that you had got a Chair Museum as well.Steve Mills: We do, yes. It's mentioned in Gavin and Stacey as well.Kelly Molson: Is it?Steve Mills: Yeah, there you go.Kelly Molson: Well, I mean I'm an Essex girl, so that fits for me too.Steve Mills: Well, James Corden is from High Wycombe, so that's why it's mentioned in there.Kelly Molson: Got you. Right, okay. Well, look, listeners, if you want to win Steve's book, and why wouldn't you? If you go over to our Twitter account and you retweet this episode announcement with the word, "I Want Steve's Book", then we'll get you a copy of that book. We'll get you a copy of it, and you could be in with a chance of winning it, and then you can find out about High Wycombe as well. Thank you, Steve. It has been an education.Steve Mills: Absolute pleasure.Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Richard Stone has painted portraits of the Royal Family for more than four decades. At the age of 22, he became Britain's youngest royal portrait artist since Sir Thomas Lawrence painted Queen Charlotte in 1790 at the age of 21. Although he has had little formal art training, Richard Stone's success is a direct result of a natural talent and a strong determination to succeed in the career he has pursued since childhood.Born in 1951 the son of a Colchester postman, Richard began cultivating his talent following an accident at the age of four that left him with a fractured skull and permanent deafness in his right ear. The young artist began sketching in a notebook and later painted to communicate with his family and teachers, demonstrating a keen sense of perspective and mixing colours.From the age of eight, he was actively encouraged by his next-door neighbour, Frederick Heron. An amateur Essex painter, Heron taught Richard the basics of art. Then when he was fourteen, Richard went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, where he saw a portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly. With the directness that has subsequently characterised his career, he wrote to Sir Gerald, saying how much he had admired the portrait and asking if he could possibly help and advise him. The result was prompt. Sir Gerald could offer him all the reasons against being a portrait painter, but if he would like to call and see him, and bring his work, he was welcome. Richard took along what work he had done, listened to Sir Gerald's reasons, and would not be dissuaded. It was the start of a friendship that was to last until Sir Gerald's death in 1972.Sir Gerald had been an ideal tutor. With his help and advice, Richard set about becoming a portrait painter. The achievements are formidable. Following Sir Gerald's advice, he started knocking on doors in an attempt to find work, and he was successful. One of his earliest subjects was Sir Arthur Bliss, the Master of the Queen's Musick. As well as Sir Adrian Boult, another contact Richard made was at Clarence House, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother's London residence. When he was put through to the Comptroller of the Household, Lord Adam Gordon, Richard made his mark with a memorable phrase, “Don't ring off, I could be the latter-day Rembrandt”. This singular lack of modesty paid off and Lord Adam listened to his reasons for wanting to paint the Queen Mother. After accepting a commission to produce a likeness of Lady Adam Gordon, Richard was invited to paint the Queen Mother's portrait. The finished work was greeted with tremendous critical acclaim, but many were sceptical that the young artist could sustain a successful career.Defying the critics, Richard saw this as the first step that would lead to the achievement of his childhood ambition. Unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in 1992, his portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II is his most famous work. Commissioned by the burghers of Colchester, the eight-foot by five-foot canvas hangs today in the town's Moot Hall, and represents three years of work and some seven sittings. The portrait has been hailed as one of the finest painted during Her Majesty's reign and was subsequently chosen by Her Majesty as the Royal Mail airmail stamp. To commemorate HM becoming Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch, Richard was commissioned by The Realms to paint Her Majesty's portrait again in 2015. Upon completion, it was acquired by The Royal Collection and now hangs in St James's Palace, London.Richard continues to paint senior members of the Royal Family, alongside other prestigious commissions. His sitters have included Nelson Mandela, Luciano Pavarotti, Baroness Thatcher, Dame Joan Sutherland and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.Richard is married and has a son and two daughters. He lives in Colchester where he maintains a studio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the proclamation of King Charles III, Ben Luke speaks to the former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, Desmond Shawe-Taylor. They discuss the Royal Collection, the late Queen's taste in art, the new King's commitment to art education, and how the modern era compares to the past in terms of Royal patronage of visual art. As lights in museums and on monuments are turned off across Europe, UK institutions are facing soaring energy bills that could prove an existential threat. Lisa Ollerhead, director of the Association of Independent Museums, discusses how they can respond. And this episode's Work of the Week is The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli—the Swiss-born artist's most famous work. Two versions of the painting are in Fuseli: the Realm of Dreams and the Fantastic, a new show at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.Association of Independent Museums: aim-museums.co.ukFuseli: the Realm of Dreams and the Fantastic, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, until 23 January 2023 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's podcast:  We reflect on the life and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.  For The Spectator, A.N. Wilson writes that Queen Elizabeth was a constant in a country that has changed so much, and he is joined on the Edition podcast by Graham Viney author of Last Hurrah: The 1947 Tour of Southern Africa and the End of Empire (00:59).  Also this week:  Michael Hall takes us inside the Royal Collection and discusses the Queen's relationship with art. He is joined by Susan Ryder, who was commissioned to paint her portrait in 1997 (13:28).  And finally:  Scott Methven recalls his time as piper to the sovereign with Anne Denholm, a former personal harpist to the now King Charles III (22:58).  Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

On this week's podcast:  We reflect on the life and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.  For The Spectator, A.N. Wilson writes that Queen Elizabeth was a constant in a country that has changed so much, and he is joined on the Edition podcast by Graham Viney author of Last Hurrah: The 1947 Tour of Southern Africa and the End of Empire (00:59).  Also this week:  Michael Hall takes us inside the Royal Collection and discusses the Queen's relationship with art. He is joined by Susan Ryder, who was commissioned to paint her portrait in 1997 (13:28).  And finally:  Scott Methven recalls his time as piper to the sovereign with Anne Denholm, a former personal harpist to the now King Charles III (22:58).  Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

Today I'm so happy to be talking to Karly Allen about her work. We're talking about how mindfulness can help us to connect with and engage with art, how we can bring mindfulness practices to the experience of drawing.  Karly Allen is a UK-based gallery educator, drawing tutor and mindfulness teacher. She has worked for the National Gallery, London, over the past 20 years and has taught widely for UK art collections including the National Portrait Gallery, Wallace Collection and Royal Collection. In 2018, Karly co-foundedhttps://www.liminacollective.com/ ( Limina Collective) to bring mindfulness and reflection practices to museum and online spaces.   We explore how mindfulness and meditation practices, observation of the artwork and drawing interrelate with each other. And how drawing with mindfulness creates connections, opens us up to creativity and helps us to overcome any resistance we might have to drawing or the fear of the blank page. We talk extensively about the benefits and how it help us to tune into a mode of being being open, letting go of preconceptions and habitual patterns of looking.  Links Masterclass: Mona Lisa - Experiments in Drawing with Mindfulness Tuesday 19 July at 17.00 hrs CET This masterclass offers an experimental space to explore drawing and mindfulness, with Leonardo's iconic painting as our focus. Sign up here: https://buy.stripe.com/aEU00A3Th8pP1Wg5ks (https://buy.stripe.com/aEU00A3Th8pP1Wg5ks) https://buymeacoffee.com/clairebown (Support the Show) Find out more about Limina Collective and contact Karly via their website https://www.liminacollective.com (https://www.liminacollective.com) Join the https://liminacollective.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7703085289b8bfad27fbb899b&id=e09f01af3f (Limina Collective monthly newsletter ) Connect on Instagram: @limina_collective @karlykallen Limina Collective's exhibition audios for Manchester Art Gallery, 'Room to Breathe': https://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/room-to-breathe/ (https://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/room-to-breathe/) Limina Collective's series of films for the Royal Academy, 'A Slow Look': https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/articles/tag/slow-look (https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/articles/tag/slow-look) Limina Collective's film for The Wallace Collection, 'Taking Time to Look': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVp4h27aeos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVp4h27aeos)

The Royal Collection Trust which looks after the public opening of the Official Residences of The Queen and cares for the Royal Collection will be marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with accessible events for blind and partially sighted people  RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Amy Stocker, Access Manager from the Royal Collection Trust to find out more about their accessible events for blind and partially sighted people in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The Royal Collection Trust events that are on from the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration Weekend, through out the summer and beyond with audio description include: The Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace with a display of portraits of The Queen taken by Dorothy Wilding alongside items of Her Majesty's personal jewellery worn for the portrait sittings, from July to October. On display at Windsor Castle are the  Coronation Dress and Robe of Estate worn by the Queen for her Coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, from July to September. And at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh there will be a display of outfits worn by Her Majesty on occasions to celebrate the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees, from July to September. Audio described recorded guides are available via a handset for each display and personal descriptive tours with a guide can be booked in advance with two weeks notice to ensure that a guide will be available.    Amy also picked out an object from the RCT collection which for her sums up the Queen's 70 years of service. The Royal Collection Trust run monthly online audio described tours of works of art from the collection via Zoom on the first Tuesday of the month and more details about these tours along with more about the Jubilee celebration events can be found by visiting their website - https://www.rct.uk (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

On this episode of Showcase, watch: Crypto Art Historian Evaluates the NFT Market 00:02 Guest: Martin Lukas Ostachowski, Crypto Art Historian NFT Goes Hollywood 09:36 Cannes Film Festival Line Up 11:46 Museum of Islamic Civilisations in Turkey 13:07 Making Mosaics in Sudan 16:18 Ignoring the Male Gaze in Cinema 18:46 Japanese Art in Buckingham Palace 21.14 An Olfactory Exhibition at the Prado Museum 23:32

The Royal Collection Trust looks after the public opening of the Official Residences of The Queen and also cares for the Royal Collection too. When the Covid pandemic hit and many museums, galleries and heritage sites were forced to close their doors to the public the Royal Collection Trust took their regular audio described tours online with descriptive Zoom talks for blind and partially sighted people and they are continuing to do so as the Covid restrictions start to ease.  RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Amy Stocker, Access Manager from the Royal Collection Trust to find out more about the RCT and their online audio described tours for blind and partially sighted people  Amy also gave Toby a flavour of what is coming up in the next few online Zoom audio described tours including a descriptive tour of one of the most famous works of art from the collection which normally hangs in the picture gallery of Buckingham Palace. The online Audio described tours happen on the first Tuesday of the month from 2pm via Zoom. For more information about up-coming online described tours at the Royal Collection Trust do either email access@rct.uk or visit the What's On pages of the Royal Collection Trust website -  https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/1071118/Descriptive-Zoom-talks-for-blind-&-partially-sighted-people (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

Our palaces are home to many significant works of art.  This series taken from our archives explores the history of art in the palaces, from royal patronage to its modern influence. In this talk we explore the role of Charles I as a collector of masterpieces. As the first British monarch to collect art for art's sake, he lay the foundations of today's sumptuous Royal Collection. This talk was originally recorded at Hampton Court Palace in 2015. For more information on the history and stories of our palaces visit: www.hrp.org.uk/history-and-stories

This week we meet portrait artist Ralph Heimans as the RAD prepares to celebrate a landmark in its 100 year history - a move to a new purpose built headquarters - with a brand new portrait competition. The competition will invite artists of all abilities to create a portrait of world famous ballerina and founding President of the RAD Dame Adeline Genée. Ralph sits on the judging panel of this competition and will be responsible for selecting the new commission, which will hang pride of place for all to enjoy in the new building when it formally opens in 2022.Known for high profile commissions of royalty, how would Ralph approach the portrait of a dancer? And what's the point of portraiture in this selfie-ridden age? Join us for this portrait of the artist.About Ralph HeimansLondon-based Australian artist Ralph Heimans is one of today's leading portrait artists. His official portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth, produced for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, hangs in Westminster Abbey, while his portraits of the Duke of Edinburgh (2017) and Prince of Wales (2018) are in the Royal Collection. In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery of Denmark held a mid-career retrospective, including portraits of artists like Dame Judi Dench, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Margaret Atwood. Ralph's large-scale portraits are renowned for innovative compositions that offer engaging narratives about his subjects and their life stories. His works are held in major international collections and in 2014 he became a Member of the Order of Australia.Find out more about the RAD: https://bit.ly/3qqFBrWFollow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with host David JaysInstagram @royalacademyofdanceFacebook @RoyalAcademyofDanceTwitter @RADheadquartersYouTube / royalacademydanceDavid Jays @mrdavidjaysSign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5 Ralph Heimans' website: https://www.ralphheimans.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcastIf you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this episode.Competition ends August  27th 2021. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references:https://www.stephenspencerassociates.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/customerexperiencespecialist/ Stephen Spencer + Associates is a collaborative consulting and training organisation with a simple purpose: to help you extract maximum value from your customers' experience of you. Transcription:Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in, or working with, visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. In today's episode, I speak with Stephen Spencer, Founder of Stephen Spencer + Associates, a collaborative consulting and training organisation. We discuss why customer experience is so important right now, how to maximize interactions to drive value, and what attractions can do to foster a more innovative culture. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching, "Skip the Queue".Kelly Molson: Stephen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, it's really lovely to see you again.Stephen Spencer: It's an honour and a pleasure, thanks very much, Kelly. Kelly Molson: So many people have recommended that we speak to each other. But, as ever, this podcast, we're going to go straight into our icebreaker questions. So, I would like to know, what is the worst job that you have ever had?Stephen Spencer: Oh, that's easy. One Easter, when I was a student, I worked for an employment agency, so it's a different job every day. And, the worst job was cleaning out the undercarriage of a private jet that belonged to an Arab Sheik. There's a bunch of us put in a van, we had to wear so much protective clothing, and visors, and things over our heads, that you literally couldn't see, and then you had high-pressure hoses. And, you could just glimpse the luxury within the jet through the open door, but we were underneath just spraying out the oil, and grease, and dirt, and god knows what else. It was a horrendous, horrendous day. I sort of thought, "My life is over before it's begun. If this is how I'm going to spend my life..."Kelly Molson: You were so close to the luxury, you could almost touch it.Stephen Spencer: It was. You could see it was all very beautifully, ornately designed, in keeping with the culture inside. But, underneath it was just a regular old, filthy old bit of kit. Kelly Molson: I feel like that sums us all up, right? Inside, we're all just regular, normal, filthy old people. Stephen Spencer: Well, you speak for yourself. I thought we were all looking up to the stars. "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up to the stars." That's the quote, isn't it?Kelly Molson: Maybe, I'm trying to keep real, Stephen. I've gone a bit retro with this one, so I'm hoping that you remember this program. Do you remember a program called Stars in Their Eyes? Stephen Spencer: I do.Kelly Molson: Excellent. Okay. So, let's go back. If Stars in Their Eyes was a thing now, who would you perform as?Stephen Spencer: Oh, it's easy, Elvis. Absolutely. Elvis is my go-to for karaoke. Funnily enough, I've been a massive fan of Elvis since the day he died, because he wasn't obviously relevant in 1977, but the day he died I spent the whole day playing all his music. I just got absolutely hooked. And years later, there's an attractions connection here, I got to meet and work with a heroine of mine, the late Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, at Chatsworth. I discovered that she was a massive Elvis fan. And, what I didn't know, but later read in her autobiography, was that she too became a fan the day he died, because she saw all the programs and heard all the music. Anyway, yes. No contest, I would be Elvis.Kelly Molson: What song? You said he's your karaoke go-to, what's your karaoke song?Stephen Spencer: Funnily enough, it's a song that he did I think very well, but not originally his song, it's My Way. Which, kind of also is my personal theme tune. Kelly Molson: I love this.Stephen Spencer: I never do things anybody else's way, it's always my way. But, not in a command and control way, just, "This is my way, and if it facilitates stuff, that's great, if you don't like it, there are lots of other people who will do it your way.Kelly Molson: Excellent answers, I'm enjoying this very much. Let's move on. I would like to know what your unpopular opinion is.Stephen Spencer: Well, I think my unpopular opinion is that Line of Duty is increasingly disappearing up its own fundament.Kelly Molson: Oh, gosh.Stephen Spencer: ... Or should we say, that Jed Mercurio has believed his own hype. The last series was a sort of ragbag of references to the previous series, a completely flimsy plot. I'm not just saying the ending was disappointing because it was, spoiler alert...Kelly Molson: You can't do that, what if no one's... Stephen Spencer: I said spoiler alert, people could have switched off at that point. The thing that got me slightly suspicious of Jed Mercurio was The Bodyguard, that one-off series that he did. Where, we were expected to believe that a man wearing an explosive vest would be allowed to walk from one end of London to the other to go and visit his wife and children, rather than being taken out before he could put the entire population of Central London at risk. I just thought, "This is ridiculous." So, I spent part of lockdown watching all the previous series of Line of Duty, and the early ones, absolutely brilliant. Stephen Spencer: But I tell you a series that's better than Line of Duty, and that's Spooks. There was never a bad episode of Spooks. I think it was nine series, we watched about 100 episodes, and there wasn't a single bad episode. And also, they constantly refreshed the central characters. Whereas we all love Ted, obviously...Kelly Molson: Who doesn't?Stephen Spencer: ... And Kate, and Steve, it is inconceivable that that man would still be in that job, considering everything that he's, for the best of intentions, done and got himself mixed up in. It's ridiculous. Kelly Molson: Oh my gosh, Stephen.Stephen Spencer: I'm sorry if that's an unpopular opinion.Kelly Molson: I think it is an unpopular opinion.Stephen Spencer: Now we can nearly go back to the pub, or we can go back and sit outside, we need to keep ourselves warm, there's no point in everyone just sitting around saying, "Did you see Line of Duty, it was really good wasn't it?" No, let's actually be real here.Kelly Molson: I think this is really going to split our listeners. I do know that there was a lot of people that were really unhappy about the ending. And, if I'm completely honest, I was one of them. However, I have loved every single minute of Line of Duty. And, I did love the final season, if it is the final season, we're not quite sure.Stephen Spencer: I don't think it will be. Clearly, if they want to do another series, there's more to uncover. Maybe they shouldn't bring it back. Unfortunately, it's a bit like what happened to Doctor Who, which was amazing when it was rebooted with Chris Eccleston. I'm not talking about the latest incarnation of the Doctor, I'm all for that, but it's just the fact that the writing got more and more self-indulgent. And, if you're writing Doctor Who and it's unbelievable, you really should take a look at yourself, I would suggest. Kelly Molson: Okay, let's move on. So, Stephen Spencer + Associates, it's a collaborative consulting and training organisation. You've got a simple purpose, and that is, "To help extract maximum value from your customers' experience of you." A few topics that I really want to cover today, but let's start with the biggest one which is, why is customer experience so important right now?Stephen Spencer: I think right now, clearly, it is really important because it has changed so much, and the changes are going to be with us for the foreseeable future. We've had this dramatic, probably five years of accelerated adoption of online and, as we're doing now, remote meetings and so on, people shopping from home, in a year or less. So, straightaway, businesses don't have that personal contact with customers that previously they could have actually exploited or at least known what was going on. Stephen Spencer: Secondly, there's still going to be an element of public health and social distancing, people are going to be nervous. There's going to be a need for businesses to continue to demonstrate that they're providing a safe, healthy environment for customers, which risks creating an experience that's compromised. Stephen Spencer: And thirdly, I think, for the foreseeable future, there's probably going to be less customers around. There may well be fewer staff serving them. And, there's probably going to be less money in the system as well. For many attractions, obviously, the international market is going to take, quite possibly, two to three years, if not longer, to recover. That's what all the predictions say. So, it means we've got to do more with less. So, fundamentally, how do we focus in on every customer's experience, and maximize every interaction so that we get maximum value out of it, both for the customer and for the business?Kelly Molson: Maximizing interactions. And, I guess, it's understanding what elements of the experience drives the most value. How do attractions do this at the moment? What are the steps that they need to go through to look at how they can make that happen? Stephen Spencer: Well, I think something that could be done a lot better in many attractions, and I've worked in many attractions and with many attractions, is a much more joined-up approach between marketing and operations, and possibly finance and strategy as well. The challenge with being a Customer Experience Consultant is a lot of what you're saying, sounds like stating the bleeding obvious. But, the reason you have to state it is because it passes a lot of organisations by, for all sorts of reasons, good and not so good. But, really, really understanding who are your customers, breaking them down into recognisable subsets.Stephen Spencer: I'm a great believer in developing customer personas. And, one of my favourite ways to do this working with organisations is, "If this group, or this couple, or this individual was a celebrity, or a band, or a team, or a character in a soap, who would they be?" You find as soon as they've identified that person, then they can really start to put layer, and layer and a layer of, "How would we treat this person? What would this person want from us? What kind of communication would they appreciate? What would make them go, "Wow"?" Stephen Spencer: And, I think what often happens is, the marketing focus tends to be on idealised segments, and the reality on the ground is real people. What really works is when marketing gets out there, and gets stuck in, and talks to the customers, and sees who's coming in, and there's a complete consistency between strategy and execution. Because, at the end of the day, whatever you do, the most powerful thing you can do for a customer is speaking to them and treat them the way they would want to be treated. And, the only way you can do that is if you are able to look and listen, and observe, and take that time to engage, and, again, keep listening, and give that customer the response they're looking for. Stephen Spencer: You see it time and time again, the most high-tech attractions, attractions that have incredible properties, whether it's heritage properties or brands brought to life in amazing ways, it's still the human interaction that's the most powerful thing. So, understanding, which is important also, to give your team the confidence to talk to customers in the right way, understanding who they are, is fundamental for me, and that being consistent through the whole organisation. Kelly Molson: How does that change? We're recording this, it's the 11th of May today, so next week, the 17th, most indoor attractions will be able to open. We're still looking at capped capacity, we're still looking at a reduction in operation staff, probably front of house staff, for attractions. How do you look to monitor that now? And, how does that change as restrictions start to get relaxed and you get more, and more, and more people through the doors? How does that process change? What can people do? Stephen Spencer: I think, given what I've said, the most important thing you can do is to maximize your customer's every interaction. Many people know this, some people won't know this, in customer journey mapping, which is the classic way to think about your customer's experience, you identify all the touchpoints, so all the interactions between the customer and the attraction. Obviously, starting with before they ever visit, so advertising, or the website, or review sites, whatever it is. And, you map all those touchpoints. Then, you identify, what we call, the moments of truth, which are the real make or break touchpoints. So, the points at which you could really deliver on the value proposition or not. Stephen Spencer: By doing that, and then matching that customer journey to those customer profiles, you can start to say, "Right"... I think, for example, the work that people like BVA BDRC and Decision House have been doing, in terms of sentiment research, really plays into this as well. Because, they've identified some COVID personas, in terms of where people are at, in terms of their willingness to go back, their nervousness, or confidence about interacting again. So, you build all this in. Stephen Spencer: So, what I'm saying is, bring your team together and say, "Let us work through the experience that we're going to give to our visitors when they come back when we're able to reopen. I hope that attractions have already been thinking about how they add something extra, really make visitors feel, not just welcomed back, but that there's something extra special that's been laid on to welcome them back. And again, that doesn't have to be something very expensive, it doesn't have to be something high-tech, but it just has to be something that is appropriate to the brand and relevant to the customer. Bearing in mind, obviously that we're talking, for most attractions for the foreseeable future, it's the local/staycation market, rather than international. So again, just a great opportunity to say to the team, "Everything's changed. Everything's new. Isn't it exciting? We're opening up again, maybe we've done some work behind the scenes, a new exhibition, new information that we've had the chance to research about our site that we can share. Whatever it is. Let's now plan the reopening or the next stage of reopening, almost as if we're planning a family Christmas or a celebration. And, think what we can do." Just get everybody involved, and everybody shares the excitement. Stephen Spencer: We know that there are challenges for teams coming back who've been maybe furloughed, or new staff being recruited in a lot of cases as well who have never had the experience of working at the attraction before. And now suddenly We're reopening, it's a big deal. But, some of us weren't here before, some of us are nervous about being back. It's all a bit strange. Some of us have been here the whole time and we're knackered. So actually, that is another reason to bring people together, not just for, what I call, pre-opening training, which is almost like going through the motions, but to make it really, really special.Stephen Spencer: We've been recently working with a museum that actually was closed already before the pandemic for a major refurbishment, and also rebrands, and a repositioning of the museum. And, we created, first of all, with a workshop that we ran for all teams across all departments, a fact-finding workshop. And then, translating that into pre-opening training that was much more about exactly what I've been talking about, "What are we going to do? How do we take this great new shiny vision that we've got and turn it into customer interactions? Who are our customers? What do we know about them? What do we need to do? What would we do if it was our granny, or our brother, or our friend coming, what would we do?" And, just turning it into a mission that is translatable to everybody's role and everybody's capabilities.Kelly Molson: I love that idea, that you position it as a real celebratory event. It's such a nice way of looking at it. And, what does that mean to people? Like you say, for attractions, you've got such a different range of people that will visit, what does that celebration mean to them? How do you apply it to that individual person? I think that's such a nice way of framing it. Also, one of the things that attractions have been really good at as they've been talking about reopening and that process of how they do that, is most attractions haven't been talking about reopening and going back to normal. They've actually been embracing the idea that they don't have to go back and do the things that they used to do, they can embrace something different. And, like you say, they might have a new attraction, they might have a new collection, they might have something new that they've got to celebrate. But, even if you don't, you still can improve that customer experience by shifting the way that you do things. Kelly Molson: And, that's the next thing that I want to talk about. How do attractions reimagine what they've been doing and be a bit more innovative moving forward from being able to open again?Stephen Spencer: For just the reasons that you said, I've always been slightly wary of the expression, "Build back better" because, superficially, great. But actually, I think it implies that we're trying to get back to what we were doing before but just a little bit better. Well, I don't know about you, but before the pandemic and before I knew there was going to be a pandemic, I had this feeling, and I think a lot of people did, that we couldn't go on the way we were going. Whether it was overtourism, obviously there was a lot of inequality and division in the world, we were literally on course to destroy the planet. And, it just felt like this isn't great. And then, we had that period of reflection in the first lockdown when if you had a garden, if you had access to green space, you had time on your hands, it was just wonderful to be able to reflect on, "Wouldn't it be great actually if the birds every year we're able to be born into a world that was that much cleaner? Or if the canals in Venice, bring it back to tourism, ran clear all the time, rather than views of Venice being dominated by these enormous ships?"Stephen Spencer: So, I've really tried to talk about building forward better, because I think it is about this process of true innovation, which is actually creating something new and different. So, to do that I think you have to be really, really clear on, what is your purpose? What is your reason for being? What is your vision? Organisations and consultants use smoke and mirrors to talk about purpose, and mission, and vision. But, when I talk about mission, I'm really referring to why we're in business, what we're trying to achieve. It's different for the public sector, and private sector, and third sector organisations. For the private sector, it may be about share price, or it may even be about selling the business at some point in the future. For museums and charities, it's about a very long-term project.Stephen Spencer: And then, vision, I say, "Why is that of interest to the customer, the visitor, the person that you're aiming that experience at?" And, within purpose is also values, and I think it's a great time to revisit mission vision values and say, "This is what we believe. This is the difference that we want to make in the world. Now, how do we go about it?" An example of that, back in 2012 I was helping to launch the Emirates Air Line cable car, in the run-up to the London Olympics and Paralympics. It had a very complex structure because it was ultimately owned by Transport for London, TFL, and then Docklands Light Railway, DLR, and then it was operated by the cable car company Doppelmayr. The front of house team was Continuum, which I was working for. The sponsor was Emirates. There was a security company and a cleaning company. I think there were about eight different stakeholders. Stephen Spencer: And, we had to design what the passenger experience would look like. And, we created, what we call, a passenger charter, which is basically everything you need to know as a new employee, and they're all new employees, and they're all coming from Newham in Greenwich. Most of the recruitment had already happened in Newham in Greenwich for the Olympics. So, we were sort of hoovering up what was left in a way. And, I mean that actually very positively, because what we got was a whole load of people who'd never worked in customer-facing roles before. Some of them had really interesting and quite often harrowing backstories about how they came to even be in London. And, there were 40 ethnic backgrounds across 100 initial recruits. And then, as I say, all these different brands. Stephen Spencer: So, how did you bring it all together? We came up with the very simple, what we called our vision statement, "Inspiring Journeys", and so everything had to be measured against inspiring journeys. So, the uniforms, they looked, rather than TFL uniforms, they looked like airline uniforms. But, when it came down to more mundane things like selling a ticket, issuing a refund, handling a lost property inquiry, we did not use the TFL standard procedures, which were, to put it mildly, bureaucratic and not very customer-friendly, because it wasn't inspiring journeys. We talked earlier about pre-opening training, when we ran pre-opening training on the passenger experience and presented each of the new recruits with their passenger charter, they were whopping, and cheering, and yelling, and stamping their feet at the end of these workshops. I've never had a reaction like it.Stephen Spencer: I had people asking me to autograph the charter for them because they felt it was such a special thing that they were doing. And within three months... Bearing in mind, we opened literally... It was such a steep learning curve. We had 30,000 passengers a day, almost from week two. We were moving ropes and stanchions around. I had to move 1000 people while they were all standing in these ropes and stanchions because it wasn't working, the queuing system. Again, that goes back to every interaction. You don't just look at a load of cattle in a pen and say, "Okay, that's the guest." You think about, "Hmm, the way they're queuing, it's not right, it's not working." The end of that story is that we came top of the TFL passenger survey for London within three months. From a standing start, never had a cable car before, these people had never worked in customer-facing roles before, but they all got what we were trying to deliver.Stephen Spencer: So, for attractions, obviously, not everyone can open a cable car, but you can go back to, "What is your essence?" This museum I was talking about earlier, they were founded in the 19th century and had quite a set offering, and they have re-imagined it for the 21st century in a way that makes it accessible to everybody. It's totally accessible. There's no one who can't actually find an angle for this to be relevant to them. So, I think it starts with that. We've created, not just for COVID, but for the long term, what we call our innovation toolkit, which facilitates this process. And, the middle part of the process is the fun part, because it's the brainstorming, it's the innovation facilitation. Where we say, "You've clarified your purpose. You've clarified your vision. You've also identified your assets. Because you've got some challenges, you've got some burning issues you have to deal with, whether it's financial or other issues that you have to deal with right now because otherwise, you'll be out of business. But, beyond that, you've identified what are your core assets. Now, we need to think about who are the potential audiences for those assets. And, of course, some of them, who were there before, are not there for the foreseeable future, or they've changed. So, we look at trends as well as segments. Stephen Spencer: Then, we look at all the different business models, all the different revenue models that you could... It doesn't have to be purely revenue, but because we're very much about sustainability and recovery, I think it's important that we identify every revenue opportunity. And we say, "If you take your asset where you're particularly strong, and you apply it to these audiences where it really resonates, and you've got these potential business models that you could..." I'm talking for attractions, it could be anything from a virtual curator tour to a new family play area, to a new petting zoo, it could be anything. Virtual, physical, or a combination of the two. Stephen Spencer: And then, you do some evaluation based on effort vs reward. There's a simple matrix that just allows you to prioritise your long list down to a shortlist, and now you can start to work out, "Which of those ideas can we turn into reality?" Some of them we can probably do very quickly, some of them are medium-term, others are longer-term aspirations. But, what should come out of that is something completely new. Because, you didn't start with, "This is what we do now, how can we make it a bit better?" You started with, "Why do we exist? We don't exist in a vacuum, so for whom does that matter? And what could we do?"Kelly Molson: One of the things that you talked about earlier was about getting the whole team involved, from marketing to operations, to front of house, in that whole customer experience journey. How do you do that from an innovation perspective? What can attractions do to foster a more innovative culture within their organisation so that people feel that they're part of that process, they can input to it? Stephen Spencer: I think one of the exciting things that definitely happened in the last year was that organisations had to become less siloed. Kelly Molson: Definitely.Stephen Spencer: You see lots and lots of organisations for all sorts of reasons, some of it historical over very long periods of years, but others quite new. When we had the cable car, we found that there was a different culture on the north side to the south side. The team members started saying, "Can we work on the south side today?" And when you probed and said, "Why?", "Oh, it's like being on holiday over there, it's lovely." And, part of the reason was because the management team was on the north side, so there was a bit more scrutiny, a bit more structure. And, we were like, "Crikey", that shows how quickly culture forms because that was within three months that happened. Stephen Spencer: So, not being siloed is a really difficult thing. But, because of COVID, so many organisations had to think across all departments, across all of those touchpoints, because they had to plan safe and also viable visitor experiences, visitor journeys. I think it's really important to keep that going. It's really important that departments all work together. The organisation and it surprises people when I say this, that I've worked in that was the least siloed was actually The Royal Collection. I'm very old, so I was lucky enough, one of the perks of age, to be around when Buckingham Palace first opened to the public, so I got to do the shop. We had a single mission at that time, which was to raise £37 million to restore Windsor Castle after the fire of 1992. I realise for many of your listeners it will be a revelation that Windsor burned in 1992 because they probably weren't even born, but look it up in the history books, it happened. And, it was really important that we raised this money, because the Government had tried initially to say the Government would pay, and there'd been a public outcry, and so it was declared that the Royal Household would raise the money itself. And so, opening Buckingham Palace to the public was one of the ways that it did this. Stephen Spencer: What I found was, we worked in an office where it didn't matter which department you were in, curators, curatorial people, marketing, commercial people, we were quite a small team, but we literally worked all cheek by jowl. So, you could pop into the office of the keeper of Queen's pictures and say, "I want to crop this picture to put on a range of stationery. I can't quite decide which bit to crop." In a lot of organisations, I know the curator would say, "You can't crop it. Don't put it on a range of stationery, it's not appropriate." Whereas, in an organisation where you might think that would be the reaction, it would just, "Yeah, I'd take that bit, because that's really fun if you do that. Look at the expression on that woman's face, that will really capture people." They loved helping. Stephen Spencer: Part of the reason was because we had a single objective, "We've got to raise £37 million, everything we do has to be commensurate with who we represent." Sorry, I always get a bit... It was such a powerful mission that we're all on. We didn't have big budgets. I was talking about the Duchess of Devonshire earlier, she was one of our trustees, and back before the current Queen's Gallery, the old Queen's Gallery was a real Heath Robinson affair. The shop was awful, it was a brightly lit Formica unit, harsh, totally unsuitable environment for what we were trying to do. Back in the day it turned over about £400,000 a year, even however bad it was. But, the Duchess kept saying, "This shop is a disgrace. It absolutely is a disgrace. Something needs to be done." We didn't have a big budget, but we had to do something because we had Debo on our case. So, we were given 25 grand, and it was about 1500 square feet of shop, and it needed everything doing, so it wasn't a lot of money.Stephen Spencer: We managed to get an off-cut of a carpet that was being woven as part of the restoration of the castle, which literally an off-cut carpeted the entire space. We borrowed some antique furniture. We found a fantastic designer called George Carter, who can make things look amazing with paint, and just great design, and great lighting. We transformed the shop, and the following year it took one and a half million pounds. The point was, we did not have a big budget. We had to use our ingenuity to find somebody who could do something on a very small budget, relative. We had to really translate what we thought a shop that was attached to Buckingham Palace should look and feel like, so that we could showcase products that people would want to buy. Because, they clearly couldn't get them anywhere else, and because they felt they were almost buying literally a product from the Royal Palace. That's what actually is important, that people are excited, people are emotionally stimulated. Stephen Spencer: On that customer journey, there is... Somebody I really admire called Colin Shaw, who is a bit of a guru of customer experience, and he talks about the peak and the end experience being the two most important for the overall creation of emotion and memory. And, of course, creating the right emotions, the right memories, is so important because so much now is dependent on word-of-mouth, and recommendation, and of course loyalty as well. So, the peak experience, if you go to The Tower of London, visiting the Crown Jewels. Is that a fantastic experience, or is it absolutely awful because you had to queue for an hour and there was no entertainment or cover, and it was raining, and you were shoved through, and everyone was rude to you, it just felt like it was a blur? Or, was that experience facilitated because there was entertainment for the queue, maybe Henry VII's jester was wandering up and down, and when you got inside you were allowed the time to interact with the exhibits, and you came out saying, "Wow, that was incredible"? Obviously, straight into the shop. Stephen Spencer: And then, the end experience, which of course for different attractions might mean different things. It might be the toilets. Really important, Duchess of Devonshire took us into her toilets, the gents toilets at The Orangery Restaurant at Chatsworth, to show us the mint and hand-painted tiles. And, told us, "The toilets are the most important part of the experience", and I've never forgotten that. But, it might be whether somebody says, "Thank you", or wishes you a safe journey, or crouches down to the children's level to talk to the children to find out what they thought of the experience. It's that that sends you off... We always talk about first impressions last, but last impressions are incredibly important. It's like when you have a lovely meal in a restaurant and you build up a rapport with the waiter or the waitress, and at the end, somebody else brings you a bill, and it's like, "Oh". It's like you're having dinner in a friends house and suddenly a complete stranger came to bring you your coats, and you didn't get to say goodbye to your friends. So, it's really powerful, but yet actually really quite simple. Stephen Spencer: Going back to what we started with, you go back to, "Who are my customers? What do they want? What's that emotional journey, as well as that physical journey? How well does it deliver on the brand promise, the value proposition? What are those memories that we're creating, and those emotions?"Kelly Molson: It feels like, from that story that you just shared as well, that the one thread that runs all the way through this, from all of the things that we've covered today, is about everybody in that team having one shared vision. Stephen Spencer: Yes.Kelly Molson: That everybody has that one shared vision. And, that is the core that runs through everything that you do from a customer experience.Stephen Spencer: Yeah. I was incredibly fortunate in my career to go and study at the Disney Institute. The Disney Institute, they don't currently, but they did run programs in the UK, and I know quite a few colleagues who've been on them. They weren't as good, because you weren't at Disney. Going to the Disney Institute is a totally immersive experience. But, the point is, the person in the laundry, the cleaner, it doesn't matter who you talk to, they have the same vision. And, that's how it always was from when Walt was around. They went through a wobble after Walt and then his brother Roy died. There's a really interesting book by Michael Eisner, who now runs Portsmouth Football Club, but he turned Disney around in the 90s about that. It is that idea that everyone has the same vision. Everyone knows and has the same vision of who the customers are. Everyone knows what we should be doing for them.Stephen Spencer: If you follow that up as far as possible with empowering people to do the right thing, which is probably a whole other podcast, that is very powerful too. Because, if people are on the same page they will know what is the right thing, and it's giving people confidence. We recommend teaching people storytelling techniques and communication techniques, as well as just teaching people about service standards. If you teach people that actually this is a skill, and it's a science, and it's an art... Going back to my earliest days in customer experience, we used to talk about French waiters and the fact that they have this immense pride in being a waiter. It's a profession, it's not a job that you just do while you wait for something better to come along. Stephen Spencer: So, if you can convince the people on the front line that they genuinely are as important... I go back to this museum that I was talking about earlier, that's their new approach, is that front of house and back of housework together. Back of house will regularly appear at the front line and talk to visitors. Is one team, because everyone's role is equally important. I don't know many organisations that really, really practice that. A few that might preach it. And, I'm not saying that it's not difficult to do, it's jolly difficult to do. It's jolly difficult, because if you're the leader of the organisation you have other pressures on you that quite often people out in the organisation don't know about or see. But, by the same token, I also learnt that delegation is just the greatest skill to learn, because the more you delegate, if you do it right, the more you empower people, the more you build them up, the more you develop them, the more you allow them to reach their full potential. And then, when the going gets tough, people don't stand back and say, "What are we doing now, Boss? What's your plan?" Everyone just instinctively gets stuck in. As we know, in visitor attractions, you never quite know what's going to happen from day to day. If everyone gets stuck in no matter what, it's more fun, it's definitely more productive, and it's definitely better for the customer. Kelly Molson: I think that's a very good note to end our podcast interview on.Stephen Spencer: I thought so, a little sound bite there.Kelly Molson: I've got one more question for you before you go, where can people find you? If they want to find out more about what you do and what you offer, where's the best place that they can find you?Stephen Spencer: Absolutely. The website is stephenspencerassociates.com. On social media, is Positive Stephen. On LinkedIn, we have a company page, and I'm on there as well. Do have a chat. We may have something specifically that we can offer, our Toolkit we're very excited about, and we'll be rolling that out over the next two to three months to show how it can work in different sectors. As you can tell, I just love talking about this stuff. So, if somebody just wants to have, let's say, a discussion about Line of Duty vs Spooks, then call me.Kelly Molson: Okay. If you want to do that, listeners, we will put all of Stephen's details in the show notes. So, if you missed the website address don't worry, just head to the show notes and they will all be there. Kelly Molson: We always end the podcast by asking if you have a book that you would recommend, so something that you love, or something that's helped shape your career in some way? Whatever you like. Stephen Spencer: Absolutely, I'll show it to you, although the listeners won't be able to see it. It's a book called The Pursuit of Wow! By Tom Peters. I didn't know who Tom Peters was, in 1997 I was very lucky to go on a five-star fam trip to Atlanta to find out about the merchandise mark there, and the facilities for retail buyers. But also, we were shown the very best of Atlanta from Martin Luther King's church, to the Jimmy Carter Library, to CNN, Coca-Cola. We had breakfast with Tom Peters. Stephen Spencer: For those who don't know, Tom Peters wrote the first business bestseller called In Search of Excellence, in 1982, which identified, "What are the traits that make companies successful over the long term?" They're still the traits that we would talk about today. Tom's still going strong. He blew me away with the power of his message and his delivery. It was very much about, We need to get back to, and he still talks about this today, people being the most important raison d'être for any organisation. The little things being the big things, so the details being the really crucial things that make or break experiences, make or break the business. He's passionate about women, as he says, "Women buy all the stuff, they make all the decisions, they're far better leaders than men." He's been saying that for about 30 years.Stephen Spencer: The Pursuit of Wow!, which is a book I went to buy when I'd heard him speak, I was just like, "Wow, I need to know more", is literally about how you can take any experience, however small, whatever size your budget, whatever sector you're in, and you can turn it into a, "Wow!" Experience. In other words, "Why should anyone be excited by this?" How many meetings have we sat in where we've planned things that, quite frankly, we're not excited about, so why should anybody else be excited about it? So, although it was written 20, 25 years ago, it is still my favourite book of Tom's. Stephen Spencer: His brand new book, which is just out, is called Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism, so you can tell he's still talking about the same things, and this is his post-COVID. He's 78 now. I've met him a couple of times, I've interacted with him on social media. And, I said to him, "I can no more believe that you're 78 than I can that Captain Kirk is 90." I got some smiley faces in response. Stephen Spencer: He's basically saying what I'm saying, which is it comes downs to customers interacting with people, and everything else is the luxury that you're afforded by either the fact that you have a site that is already set up, or you have big budgets. But, it will stand or fall on that human interaction. So, that's a message for everyone.Kelly Molson: Absolutely. I very much like the sound of Tom. Stephen Spencer: You'd love him, honestly, he's brilliant. Kelly Molson: I'm going to go and follow him.Stephen Spencer: Yes.Kelly Molson: Listeners, if you are interested in winning a copy of that book, as ever, if you head over to our Twitter account and you retweet this episode announcement with the words, "I want Stephen's book", then you will be in with a chance of winning it. Stephen, thank you so much for coming on today, I think this was an excellent discussion. I'm intrigued as to what the response will be for your unpopular opinion. Kelly Molson: I do hope that people take you up on your offer to have a chat, because I think that there's some really exciting concepts that you talk about there, and I think that they should be at the heart of what attractions are looking to do now they're reopening. So, thanks for coming on and sharing that.Stephen Spencer: An absolute pleasure, Kelly, thank you so much for having me.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five-star review, it really helps others find us. And, remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. 

In this episode, Michael and Charles talk to John Scott, the former keeper of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's royal philatelic collection. Scott discusses the duties he held in his position, the debate of whether a collection should be fluid and adaptable over time or preserved in its original historical state, and how to get the greater community more engaged in philately.

Vyobrazenia antických atlétov by dnes už museli podliehať cenzúre, napriek tomu ich telá obdivujeme už viac ako 2000 rokov. Kde sa začali preteky za tým, kto lepšie vyobrazí ideál krásy? Cez staroveké Grécko, stredovek a renesanciu sa pozrieme lepšie na to, ako bol chápaný ideálny muž v dejinách umenia. Obrazy sú v podcaste spomínané: grécka socha kouros: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253370 https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/10930/unknown-maker-kouros-greek-about-530-bc-or-modern-forgery/   Diskobolos (hádzač disku) https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-43   Hildegarda z Bingenu: ideálny muž https://www.foliamagazine.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Hildegard-of-Bingen_Liber-Divinorum-Operum_I-2_Lucca_MS_1942_fol_9r.jpg   Leonardo da Vinci: Vitruviov muž https://www.leonardodavinci.net/images/gallery/the-vitruvian-man.jpg   realisticka busta rimskeho muža: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248722   Gualino:  Madonna (13 st.) https://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/duccio/gualino-madonna.jpg!Large.jpg Giotto: Madonna and child (1320/1330) https://postalmuseum.si.edu/sites/default/files/art-of-christmas-stamps-w-2009-127.jpg Duccio: Madonna and child (cca 1280) https://www.ducciodibuoninsegna.org/thumbnail/78000/78593/mini_normal/Madonna-And-Child-1280s.jpg?ts=1459229076   Micheangelo: Dávid https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Michelangelos_David.jpg   Caravaggio: Bacchus https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Baco%2C_por_Caravaggio.jpg   Hans Holbein ml.: portrét Henry VIII https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/After_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/300px-After_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg   portrety renesančných mužov v Taliansku https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Portrait_of_a_gentleman_by_Girolamo_Romani.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dosso_Dossi#/media/File:Dosso_Dossi_045.jpg https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/moretto-da-brescia-portrait-of-a-young-man https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Moretto_da_Brescia_010.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Girolamo_Romanino_%28Brescia_c._1485-1559%29_-_Portrait_of_a_Man_-_RCIN_406370_-_Royal_Collection.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Portrait_of_a_man_by_Girolamo_Romani_3.jpg https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/2-portrait-of-francesco-delle-opere-pietro-perugino.jpg   Albrecht Durrer: autoportrét https://miro.medium.com/max/782/1*2TokdAlHhDoKSt-dx8ffeA.png  

Polar Bear Swam in The ThamesHave you ever been to London? Seen pictures of The Tower of London The River Thames? Have you thought about the wild life in England? Think about standing looking out at the river and watching a polar bear. We will absolutely have an episode about this soon or a season, but the Tower of London was once what you might have considered a zoo. King John in 1210 began keeping caged lions at the entrance so in 1252,King Henry the III, King John’s son, was given a polar bear as a gift from King Haakon IV , The King of Norway. This was not terribly unusual and you can see in history where animals were given as gifts to rulers for many very interesting reasons.If you have ever had a pet you know they require a lot of attention, special care, and feeding. Now think about how you would do that for a POLAR BEAR. Polar Bears are not just large they can be voracious eaters.The feeding and care became costly. The London sheriffs were to feed and care for the bear with a very small budget. Too small to adequately care for such an animal, so an arrangement was made.They decided the bear should be able to help by catching some of its’ own meals in the river.The carer for the bear would put what looked to be a leash and muzzle on the bear and walk it from the tower to the river.There was a longer leash that would attach from the bear in the river to the shore where the handler would wait for the bear. Though if the bear was feeling run down it was known to fish from the river banks.It is important to not that at the time The Thames was clean enough to have wild fish and salmon in it. Up to 1577 it was reported that the water was very clear and that fat salmons were regularly fished out of The Thames daily.Visitors, dignitaries, and trades people would enter London by boat and be greeted by a most unusual dignitary.This became a popular pastime for Londoners at the time to go and visit the fishing polar bear.If you can get to The Tower they have an exhibit of the various animals that had been kept there. This was, after all, the start of the London ZooBibliography:The Tower of Londonhttps://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/the-tower-of-london-menagerie/#gs.qjh7agHistoric UKhttps://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Henry-III-Polar-Bear/The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600- Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious BeastsDaniel Hahn 2003 Penguin Publishers See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Waldy and Bendy go gaga over the Royal Collection, and things go from baaaad to worse when they try to select the best sheep in art. See the show notes at ZCZ Films.

With the help from visually impaired Sight Loss Council members on a couple of pilot tours the Royal Collection Trust  (RCT) has just  launch free monthly audio described tours, opening masterpieces from the Royal Collection to blind and partially sighted people across the country.    RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey caught up with Amy Stocker, Access Manager, Royal Collection Trust and Steven Ewens from the Bristol Sight Loss Council who helped out with the pilot audio described tours.  For more information about the Royal Collection Trust audio described online tours please email  access@rct.uk (mailto:access@rct.uk) or call 07860 612393.

A brilliant discussion on the many twists and turns of tartan, involving an Englishman, rebellions, monarchs and our very own Lord Mungo Murray. Join Rebecca Quinton, Glasgow Museums' Research Manager for Art and Dr Sally Tuckett, Lecturer in History of Art at University of Glasgow as they go a journey. This episode of the Glasgow Museums podcast was recorded August 2020 via Zoom. 07:00 - Description of the painting and the practicalities and status of Highland dress and plaid, use of painting for dress historians 07:00 - 10:00 - How to style a huge piece of tartan plaid 10.15 - 14.00 - How kilts came to be 14:00 - 19:00 - Bonnie Prince Charlie, Jacobite Army and the influence and rebellion of plaid 19:00 - 24:00 - The politics and banning of Highland dress 24:00 - 26:00 - Military use of tartan and how it became a symbol of the Empire 26:00 - 31:00 - Tartan manufacturers, commercialisation and clan tartans 31:00 - 34:00 - Protection of Highland identity and organisation and registering of of clan patterns 34:00 - 42:00 - George IV’s Royal visit to Edinburgh in 1822 and the beginnings of tartan becoming fashionable Links Lord Mungo Murray, John Michael Wright, Glasgow Museums https://bit.ly/2G2vc0r The Tartan Register https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/index Act of Proscription http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-growth-of-tartan/the-act-of-proscription-1747/ The Highland Society of London http://highlandsocietyoflondon.org George IV (1762-1830) by Sir David Wilkie (1745 - 1841, Royal Collection) https://bit.ly/2Huu0Ub

Chris and Rifa's weekly review of our adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watch unsettling low key film The Assistant, starring Julia Garner, which shows the entertainment industry normalising abuse and suppressing dissent. We also watch Beyoncé's vivid and arresting semi-abstract musical Black Is King on Disney+ made in response to her involvement with The Lion King reboot. Finally, we venture on our first post-corona trip to a physical exhibition, donning masks for the Prince's Treasure exhibition at Brighton's Royal Pavilion, where priceless items originally bought for the Pavilion by George IV have been loaned back to the building by The Royal Collection. Rifa is reading Glennon Doyle's memoir Untamed, while Chris is reading Layla F Saad's anti-racism workbook Me And White Supremacy. Thank you so much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Insta.

Marzia Faietti"Raffaello 1520-1483"Scuderie del QuirinaleMostra aperta fino al 2 agosto 2020https://www.scuderiequirinale.it/Le Scuderie del Quirinale si trovano a Roma, in via XXIV Maggio numero 16Da domenica a giovedì dalle ore 8.00 alle ore 23.00 (ultimo ingresso ore 21.30)Venerdì e sabato dalle ore 8.00 alle ore 1.00 (ultimo ingresso ore 23.30)Prenotazione obbligatoria.curatori: Marzia Faietti, Matteo Lafranconicosto del biglietto: Intero 15 € | Ridotto 13 €informazioni: +39 02 9289 7722email: info@scuderiequirinale.itsito: http://https://www.scuderiequirinale.it/L'esposizione, intitolata semplicemente RAFFAELLO, costituisce l'apice delle celebrazioni mondiali per i 500 anni dalla scomparsa dell'Urbinate e rappresenta l'evento di punta del programma approvato dal Comitato Nazionale appositamente istituito dal Ministro Dario Franceschini e presieduto da Antonio Paolucci.Realizzata dalle Scuderie del Quirinale (appartenenti alla Presidenza della Repubblica e gestite dal Mibact attraverso la società in-house ALES), in collaborazione con le Gallerie degli Uffizi, la mostra è curata da Marzia Faietti e Matteo Lafranconi con il contributo di Vincenzo Farinella e Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro.Un autorevole comitato scientifico presieduto da Sylvia Ferino ha affiancato e approfondito il lavoro del team curatoriale, stimolando un dialogo fruttuoso tra gli specialisti del settore più accreditati al mondo, come Nicholas Penny (già direttore National Gallery di Londra), Barbara Jatta (direttore Musei Vaticani), Dominique Cordellier (Musée du Louvre), Achim Gnann (Albertina, Vienna), Alessandro Nova (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Firenze).In occasione della mostra, è stato raccolto un vastissimo corpus di opere di mano di Raffaello: oltre 100, tra dipinti e disegni, per una raccolta di creazioni dell'urbinate mai viste al mondo in così gran numero tutte insieme.Anche in termini di capolavori in prestito (oltre che di lavoro scientifico svolto), è stato determinante il contributo delle Gallerie degli Uffizi, con circa 50 opere delle quali oltre 40 dello stesso Raffaello. Ma anche tanti altri musei di importanza internazionale hanno contribuito ad arricchire la rassegna con capolavori dalle loro collezioni: tra questi, in Italia, le Gallerie Nazionali d'Arte Antica, la Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, il Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, il Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, la Fondazione Brescia Musei, e all'estero, oltre ai Musei Vaticani, il Louvre, la National Gallery di Londra, il Museo del Prado, la National Gallery of Art di Washington, l'Albertina di Vienna, il British Museum, la Royal Collection, l'Ashmolean Museum di Oxford, il Musée des Beaux-Arts di Strasburgo. Complessivamente saranno più di 200 le opere in mostra.La Fornarina come non l'avete vista maiA Palazzo Barberini il capolavoro di Raffaello viene sottoposto a un'indagine per rilevare lo stato di conservazione e fornire nuove informazioni utili alla ricerca, prima di partire alla volta delle Scuderie del Quirinale.L'esposizione, che trova ispirazione particolarmente nel fondamentale periodo romano di Raffaello e che lo consacrò quale artista di grandezza ineguagliabile e leggendaria, racconta con ricchezza di dettagli tutto il complesso e articolato percorso creativo. Ne faranno parte creazioni amatissime e celebri in tutto il mondo, quali, solo per fare alcuni esempi, la Madonna del Granduca delle Gallerie degli Uffizi, la Santa Cecilia dalla Pinacoteca di Bologna, la Madonna Alba dalla National Gallery di Washington, il Ritratto di Baldassarre Castiglione e l'Autoritratto con amico dal Louvre, la Madonna della Rosa dal Prado, la celebre Velata di nuovo dagli Uffizi.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

A huge thanks to B-S.E.A. member Sara Ford as she presents us with a flight of whisky from Crown Royal's Noble Collection that definitely changes our opinion on The Crown.  This month we drink Crown's Cornerstone, Wine Finished, Bourbon Mash 13, XR Blue, and 75th Monarch Blend.  Should have saved this for 1 July, as it is a salute to all nations, but mostly Canada. “If you came here to learn, drink what you have learned.  If you came here to share, share what you drink. If you came here a stranger, may you exit as a friend; and if you came here for and adventure, drink up!” Facebook Group

Karly explores how meditation and awareness practices in museums can bring us deeper connection, understanding and joy. She is part of the Limina Collective delivering 'slow looking' and mindfulness-based practices in UK art collections. Before her current venture, she has enjoyed over 20 years of delivering learning events for the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Collection, Wallace Collection, Dulwich Picture Gallery, British Library, and V&A.

https://www.dellasposa.com/events/ralph-heimans-marks-club-2019/ Director of Dellasposa Gallery, Jessica McBride, hosted a special evening with internationally renowned portrait painter Ralph Heimans in conversation with art historian Louise Stewart, Cross-Collections Curator of the National Portrait Gallery, London. Ralph Heimans large-scale portraits are recognised for their innovative compositions that offer engaging narratives about his subjects and their life stories. His sitters include extraordinary individuals who have made a significant contribution in the fields of arts, academia, law, business, politics and philanthropy. Heimans was the only artist chosen to paint an Official portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II in Her Diamond Jubilee Year, which now forms part of the permanent collection at Westminster Abbey. Tracing the evolution of portraiture and the trajectory of Heiman's artistic career, the discussion will provide insight into the artist's practice and submersion into royal portraiture, covering his experience painting The Queen, and his recent portraits of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and HRH The Prince Charles, along with other portraits of leading cultural figures. Heimans' works are held in major international collections including Westminster Abbey, The Royal Collection, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, The National Portrait Gallery of Australia, The National History Museum of Denmark, Australia's Parliament House and The European Court in Luxembourg. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for services to portraiture. In 2018, The National Portrait Gallery of Denmark at Frederiksborg Castle held a mid-career retrospective of Heimans' work, which was officially opened by HM Queen Margrethe II.

Memoir Of War,based on Marguerite Duras's book “La Douleur” is set in Occupied France. Critical opinion has varied widely from 'dreadful' and 'empty' to 'masterpiece'. What will our reviewers make of it? King Hedley II starring Lenny Henry, has opened at the Theatre Royal Stratford East Gerald Murnane's novel A Season On Earth tells the tale of a lustful teenager in Melbourne in the 1950s. It was originally published in 1976 and is now reissued as was originally intended; with two previously unseen new chapters Marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham palace brings together more than 200 of his drawings from the Royal Collection, forming the largest exhibition of Leonardo's work in over 65 years. When They See Us is a new series beginning on Netflix. Directed by Ava DuVernay which tells the true story of the 1989 Central Park Jogger case in which five juvenile males – four African-American and one Hispanic – were convicted of the crimes. They spent time in jail and were eventually cleared 25 years later Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Laura Freeman, Jim White and Lynn Shepherd. The producer is Oliver Jones Podcast Extra recommendations: Jim: Free Solo and Dawn Wall Laura: Barbara Hepworth/Ben Nicholson at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Gallery Lynn: Don Giovanni at Garsington Opera Tom: BBC podcast Shreds

Painter, sculptor, architect and engineer- Leonardo da Vinci is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. To mark the 500th anniversary of his death, 144 of his drawings from the Royal Collection are to be exhibited in 12 galleries and museums nationwide. Senior curator Natasha Howes, and Mark Roughley, medical illustrator and Art in Science lecturer at Liverpool School of Art and Design discuss the Renaissance master's anatomical work on show at Manchester Art Gallery.Green Book - a film about an Italian-American bouncer turned chauffeur for an African-American concert pianist, driving through the Deep South in Jim Crow America, arrives in the UK garlanded with awards and Oscar and Bafta nominations. Al Bailey, Co-founder and Director of Programming at Manchester International Film Festival, reviews.As Sian Edwards prepares to conduct Opera North's latest production of Janáček's Katya Kabanova, she discusses the appeal of the Czech composer's music, and what she plans to bring to his dark tale of a woman in search of love but trapped by convention.Earlier this month, the Department for Education announced plans for a new model music curriculum with the aim of stopping the decline in the number of pupils studying music at GCSE and A Level. The plan has faced criticism including thirty academics with backgrounds in music and education signing an open letter to the DfE. The Right Honourable Nick Gibb, Minister for School Standards, and Dr Jonathan Savage from Manchester Metropolitan University, and former Chair of Expert Subject Advisory Group for Music 2013, join Gaylene to discuss if the proposed new curriculum is the right answer to the right question.

Catch up with this talk by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures at the Royal Collection, as he discusses 'Charles I (Le Roi à la chasse)'. The painting is one of the most emphatically understated of Van Dyck’s royal portraits, yet one of the most significant in Charles I’s collection.

Craig Brown, Afua Hirsch, Robert Jobson, A. N. Wilson and New Generation Thinker Joe Moshenska discuss the monarchy as the Royal Academy and the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace stage exhibitions exploring the painting collections of Charles I and II. How has patronage changed and, in this year of another Royal Wedding, what impact are depictions in TV dramas such as The Crown and biographies including Craig Brown's Ma'am Darling having on our view of royalty? Philip Dodd presents. Charles I King and Collector runs at the Royal Academy, London from January 27th until April 15th Charles II: Art & Power is running at the Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace until May 13th Ma'am Darling 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown is out nowBRIT(ish) by Afua Hirsch is out this week Dr Joe Moshenska is the author of A Stain in the Blood: The Remarkable Voyage of Sir Kenelm DigbyA. N. Wilson's Victoria: A Life is available nowDiana: Closely Guarded Secret by Robert Jobson is out nowRadio 3's Early Music Show on Sun 11th Feb at 1400. Lucie Skeaping presents a concert recorded at Windsor Castle with flautist Ashley Solomon, double-bass player ChiChi Nwanoku and harpsichordist Julian Perkins.Repertoire including Handel, Telemann, Dragonetti, and Barsanti, played on instruments from the Royal Collection. The instruments are a porcelain flute probably owned by George III, a chamber bass bequeathed to Prince Albert by Dragonetti and a harpsichord owned by Frederick Prince of Wales.Producer: Debbie Kilbride

Paul Benney is a London based visual artist who has worked in both the U.K. and in the U.S. He is represented in public collections world wide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, and The Royal Collection.  In this episode, Stephen talks with Paul about his painting Speaking in Tongues, which is now on exhibit in Venice, Italy. Paul describes his secularist approach to the Pentecost story and tells how his exploration of the human spirit led him to a modern interpretation of the biblical narrative.  The Speaking In Tongues exhibition is accompanied by a "holophonic" sound installation of recorded narratives from each of the painting's subjects. You can hear each person depicted tell a personal, transformative story as you view the painting. See the video on http://www.makersandmystics.com This episode concludes season two of the Makers & Mystics podcast! Please visit our Patreon page and consider partnering with us the production of these conversations. Thank you so much for listening!

Danny Boyle directs Michael Fassbender in the title role of Steve Jobs - a biopic of the technology genius. Kenneth Branagh's Theatre Company launches with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. An exhibition Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace allows the public a chance to see some Dutch masters from The Royal Collection. ENO is staging Verdi's Force of Destiny; great music (the Jean de Florette tune!), a chorus of 49 singers, an orchestra of 69 musicians and a crazy plot, what does it all add up to? The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre was the 2013 winner of France's most prestigious book award, the Prix Goncourt. It looks at the aftermath of WW1 on a group of very different soldiers. Main Image: Miranda Raison (Hermione) and Kenneth Branagh (Leontes) in Theatre Company's The Winter's Tale. Credit: Johan Persson.

Even though he's banned from making films in his home country, Iranian director Jafar Panahi's film Taxi Tehran won this year's Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Was this a largely political or aesthetic award? Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser became an award-winning film in 1983. A new version for BBC TV stars Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen Hampton Court houses just a few paintings from The Royal Collection in The Cumberland Gallery. It's a small sample of the glorious riches The Queen holds in trust for the nation. David Mitchell's new novel Slade House tells a spooky tale of mindbending, timeslips and soul-stripping. David Hare's play The Moderate Soprano is about the beginnings of Glyndebourne Opera in the 1930s and its eccentric founder Capt John Christie Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Deborah Bull, Rebecca Stott and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Dr Cordula Van Wyhe (University of York) The fabric of Female Rule in Leone Leoni's statue of Mary of Hungary, c. 1555 Desmond Shawe-Taylor (Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures) Abstracts Desmond Shawe-Taylor As part of a campaign to capture all of the information from the inventories held within the Royal Collection and Royal Archives, Royal Collection Trust is examining the comprehensive inventories of the collection made during the Regency period and at the same time considering William Henry Pyne’s The History of the Royal Residences of 1819. Together, these provide one of the most comprehensive accounts of an historic paintings collection. Accordingly, this talk provides an opportunity to stand back from what is essentially a mechanical task and examine what these inventories tell us about the display and appreciation of paintings in this period. The purpose of the session is more to ask questions and to gather feedback from the audience than to provide theories, however, a number of key themes emerge. Firstly, the way in which, within the Royal Collection, long outdated decorative schemes survive alongside completely up-to-date ones and, secondly, how Old Master paintings seem to be valued for two, often quite separate, reasons, the aesthetic and the antiquarian. This period also allows us to contrast the collection of The Prince of Wales at Carlton House with the paintings accumulated at other royal residences.

The final episode in our four-part exploration of British monarchy, as told through objects in the Royal Collection. The presenter is the BBC's Arts Editor Will Gompertz. This week, Will looks at objects that testify to the power of the monarchy beyond the British Isles, including a shard of wood from the coffin of George Washington.

The BBC's Arts Editor Will Gompertz continues his examination of 1000 years of British monarchy by discussing items in the Royal Collection. This week, Will looks at an idea as old as royalty itself: magnificence. How has the Royal family tried to project its wealth and status through its objects?

Will Gompertz continues a four-part exploration of almost 1000 years of the British monarchy as told through the objects of art they collected. In part two, he examines items from the Royal Collection that are associated with war.

Will Gompertz begins a four-part exploration of almost 1000 years of the British monarchy as told through the objects of art they collected. In part one, he looks at some of the most personal images in the Royal Collection.