Saturday, 23 February, 2.15 p. m.
Ruskin, Morris, De Morgan, Leach: What Earthly Use in our Consumer Paradise?
Jonathan Chiswell Jones

Saturday, 8 March, 2.15 p. m.
William Morris and the Libertarian Tradition in Britain
David Goodway

Saturday, 29 March, 2.15 p. m.
Rossetti at Kelmscott
Peter Faulkner

Saturday, 19 April, 2.15 p. m.
William Morris and the ‘Ship of the Community
Anna Vaniskaya

Friday, 9 May, 8.30 a. m.
Visit to Kelmscott, Great Coxwell and Uffington

Saturday, 17 May, 2 p. m.
The William Morris Society's 53rd Annual General Meeting
Following the formal business of the afternoon the Penelope Fitzgerald Memorial Address will be given by Patrick O'Sullivan. He is the new editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies and the abstract of his talk is as follows: "Life at the tipping point: William Morris in a time of global change. Although her historical novels sometimes included famous people (e.g. Goethe, Fichte, Schlegel, Gramsci), in her fiction, Penelope Fitzgerald mainly wrote about the lives of ordinary people during extraordinary times. Although her writings refer to social and political conditions, we could easily apply this description to current environmental conditions, in which we are experiencing almost unprecedented global instability and change. The lecture will illustrate certain aspects of this current instability, and will explore ways in which the life, work and ideas of William Morris are still relevant, even in such "interesting times." Past and present environmental trends will be discussed in the context of the globalisation of production which has taken place over the past four hundred years - a process to which William Morris was militantly opposed on both social, economic and environmental grounds, even from the time of his earliest writings."

Saturday, 31 May, 11 a. m. - 5 p.m.
Cleaning Day at Kelmscott House
Admission free!

Saturday, 7 June, 10 a. m. - 5 p. m.
Kelmscott House Open Day
Open Garden Squares Weekend, organised by London Parks & Gardens Trust

Saturday, 14 June, 8.30 a. m.
Visit to Churches in the South Midlands

Saturday, 28 June, 2.15 p. m.
Cultural Labour and the Role of Art: Commitment and Practice in the Work of William Morris
Peter Smith
In this lecture Peter Smith, principal lecturer in art history and cultural theory at Thames Valley University, considers William Morris as a theorist and commentator on the visual arts. In particular he focuses on the terminology 'labour' and 'culture' and the social distinctions that attach to their common usage. Smith argues that the modern sense of culture as an exalted or superior mode of labour is limiting in the way it seeks to distance itself from the production of material life. Morris sought a reconciliation of intellectual and decorative art as a way of addressing recurrent divisions between culture and labour. Visual arts practices generally served as a useful model for Morris because they rely on the crucial connection between hand and brain which is forged by labour. The philosophical importance of labour as a concept that defines the human subject will be related to the Marxist thought that 'as individuals express their life so they are. Smith thus places emphasis on labour as an ontological category. It is this way of thinking about the centrality of work that inspired Morris when he read Marx and found support for ideas that he had already arrived at by other means. Smith argues that there is something exceptional in Morris's capacity to see the concept of work inscribed in all systems of valuation and this realisation motivated his political project. Making labour attractive was for Morris a socialist imperative and an essential feature of his picture of the society of the future.

21 - 24 July
Visit to the Lake District
There may be a few places available for this trip. If you want to be kept informed of the situation, please write to Kelmscott House with a self-addressed envelope, and mark your envelope "Lake District."

Saturday, 16 August, 2.30 p. m.
Arts and Crafts in Chelsea
This afternoon's walk will pass along the eastern edge of Chelsea, redeveloped from the mid-1870s, looking at the tall red brick houses, encrusted with oriels and terracotta sunflowers, in the then novel and cheerful Queen Anne manner. We shall see houses by such noted practitioners of that style as Norman Shaw, A. H. Mackmurdo, C. F. A. Voysey and Earnest George. The walk will end at Sloane Square where we shall visit Holy Trinity Church by J. P. Sedding, well-known for its wealth of Arts and Crafts decoration and its glass by Morris and Christopher Whall. We can then find refreshments in the new food store that occupies the former Peter Jones shop off Sloane Square. Those coming on the walk should meet in Basil Street, behind Harrods, a few moments from Knightsbridge tube station.
Tickets from Kelmscott House at £2.

Saturday, 6 September, 2.15 p. m.
William Morris and the Great Story of the North
This lecture, a synopsis of which will appear in the next edition of the UK Newsletter, will be given by Simon Dentith, Professor of English at the University of Reading. He has a lifelong interest in the work of William Morris, especially in Morris as a utopian thinker and as a poet. He lives in Gloucestershire, a county which has fostered his interest in the arts and crafts movement.

Saturday, 20 September, 1 - 5 p. m.
London Open House Day
This annual event is becoming ever more popular, certainly as far as Kelmscott House is concerned. We have five hundred visitors in the space of four hours. It is therefore evident that we need a team of volunteers to monitor the afternoon, both on and off duty. A detailed knowledge of William Morris's life is not essential; we have notes to help in this way. We are appealing to the membership to support the stalwarts who already do their duty, to contact our curator, Helen Elletson at Kelmscott House.

Saturday, 4 October, 2.15 p. m.
A Small Whirlpool of Industry: The Collaborative Genius of Morris & Company
Kelmscott Lecture
This year's lecture will be given by Peter Cormack, FSA, formerly keeper of the William Morris Gallery.

Monday, 13 October, 3 - 5 p. m.
Visit to the Palace of Westminster
Tickets from Kelmscott House £2, refreshments £5.

Saturday, 18 October, 2.15 p. m.
Recital by Quintetti, retiring collection

Thursday, 30 October, 10.30 a. m. - 12 noon
Visit to the Wellcome Institute Library
The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE) holds a large numbe rof books from Morris's library. Tickets from Kelmscott House £2.

Saturday, 1 November, 2.15 p. m.
The Enigma of Jane Morris
Professor JB Bullen

Saturday, 29 November, 2.15 p. m.
The Secret Life of Morris & Co at Hampton Court Palace, 1912-1941
Jenny Murray Bond

Exhibitions

Until 6 April
Chinoiserie
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
A celebration of Chinese influence in design including the famous "willow pattern."
www.bowesmuseum.org.uk

Until 30 March
Breaking the Rules: The Printed Face of the European Avant-Garde 1900-1937
British Library, London
www.bl.uk

Until 17 February
The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich Village, London
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Until 13 April
Victorian Celebrities in Photographs: G. F. Watts and his World
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
www.guildhall-art-gallery.org.uk

Until 24 February
My Boy Jack
Imperial War Museum0, London
Exploring the story of John Kipling, only son of Rudyard Kipling and great-nephew of Edward Burne-Jones, killed at the Battle of Loos
also Weapons of Mass Communication: War Posters
Until 30 March
www.iwm.org.uk

Until 1 June
William Blake: "I still go on / Till the Heavens and Earth are gone"
Tate Britain, London
www.tate.org.uk

Until 17 February
The Holiness of Beauty: G. F. Bodley (1827-1907) and His Circle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Location: Architecture, Room 128a. Marking the centenary of the death of the architect G. F. Bodley - drawings and works by him and his collaborators, including William Morris.
www.vam.ac.uk

Until 6 April
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, Norfolk
This delightful exhibition showcases the best of the Pre-Raphaelite collection held by the National Museums Liverpool. Works by the most popular Pre-Raphaelite artists are on display including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Edward Burne-Jones. Pre-Raphaelite Drawings offers a rare opportunity to view fascinating works, too delicate for permanent display. The artworks include pencil, charcoal, chalk, ink and watercolour drawings. They are a mixture of preparatory studies for well-known paintings as well as stand-alone works.
www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk

Until 25 May
Artful Practice: Architectural Drawings by Richard Norman Shaw RA (1831-1912)
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Norman Shaw changed the face of English architecture in the last third of the 19th century. Working in the spirit of local vernacular building traditions rather than to the letter of textbook historicism, he paved the way for the so-called free-style of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1890s. Developers of suburban housing have endlessly recycled the shadow of Shaw’s redefinition of English architecture well into our own day, to the point of parody and beyond. However to gain a sense of the impact that Shaw wanted his best work to have on posterity one need look no further than the magnificent series of pen-and-ink perspectives that he put into the Academy’s annual exhibition in the 1870s and ’80s. A selection of these, nearly all in his own hand, forms the core of this display, which is drawn almost entirely from the large collection of Shaw’s office drawings bequeathed to the Royal Academy by the architect’s son in 1959.
www.royalacademy.org.uk

Until 9 June
Michael Cardew: Ceramics from the Winchcombe Period (1926-1939)
Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria
www.blackwell.org.uk

17 June - 2 November
Fantasies in Clay: Martin Brothers Art Pottery (1873-1923)
Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria
www.blackwell.org.uk

Until 23 August
Hand, Heart and Soul; The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Schoolhill, Aberdeen
A celebration of Arts and Crafts practice across Scotland between 1880 and 1939. www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

27 September - 14 December
Masquerade & Spectacle: The Circus and the Travelling Fair in the Work of Jack B. Yeats
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
This exhibition looks at the intriguing world of the circus and travelling fair in the work of Jack B Yeats (1871-1957). Yeats became fascinated by the circus, its live dynamic and the characters he encountered, when he first visited fairs and small travelling circuses in his native Sligo. In 1887, at the age of sixteen, he joined his parents in London and became a regular visitor to the spectacular London circuses. Organised by Compton Verney in collaboration with the National Gallery of Ireland.
www.comptonverney.org.uk

15 March - 14 December
Art, Craft and the Village of Ditchling: A Collection Considered
Ditchling Museum, Ditchling, Sussex
www.ditchling-museum.com

11 October - 11 January 2009
Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaleite Vision
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
See all three versions of Hunt's most famous painting, The Light of the World, on display together for the very first time in this special exhibition. The three artworks include a Manchester version from Manchester Art Gallery's own collection, together with rare loans of the principal version from Keble College, University of Oxford and a later version from St Paul's Cathedral. Documents and original costumes used by Hunt, (many of which are on public display for the first time) are used to provide fresh insight into the life and works of this singular artist.
www.manchestergalleries.org

8 November - 1 March 2009
Craft and Design: Ernest Gimson and the Arts and Crafts Movement
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester
Leicester-born Ernest Gimson was one of the major designers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. He worked in London and in the Cotswolds until his death in 1919 but his reputation extended to Germany, Scandinavia and the USA. His work – furniture, metalwork, embroidery, plasterwork and architecture - represents the William Morris-inspired arts and crafts movement at its most pure and has continued to inspire designer-makers worldwide up to the present day. The exhibition will show Leicester's important collections relating to Ernest Gimson and the arts and crafts movement for the first time in over twenty years together with key objects loaned from public and private collections. It is also an opportunity to reassess the movement and to use contemporary work to look at its continuing impact on craft and design.
www.leicester.gov.uk

Until Easter 2009
Autumn Flowers
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Nina Saunders, who works principally with textiles, furniture and found objects, uses William Morris fabric to transform the 18th century stairwell in Pallant House. A padded dustpan, Mr William Morris’s Pan for the Application of Utilitarian Cleaning (2007) decorates the wall, three huge deep-buttoned shapes inspired by swarms of bees hang down the stairwell and an anarchic padded chair squats below, its shape breaking all rules. They are all upholstered in beautiful Morris velvet.
www.pallant.org.uk

Lectures and Conferences

Wednesday, 6 March, 7 for 7.30 p. m.
Art Wealth and Riches
Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester
A lecture originally given by William Morris at the Royal Institution, Manchester on 6 March 1883, delivered by Paul O'Keefe in Victorian dress. £5, including refreshments. No booking required.

25 May - 5 June
Arts and Crafts Gardens of Southern England and South Wales
This Arts and Crafts Garden Tour will be led by author Judith Tankard of the Landscape Institute, Harvard University, and numbers are limited to 18 participants.
www.jeffsainsburytours.com/Arts+Crafts2008.html

4 - 12 June
The Great Edwardian Gardens of Harold Peto
This Arts and Crafts Garden Tour will be led by Robin Whalley, a leading authority on Victorian and early 20th century gardens and author of the new book The Great Edwardian Gardens of Harold Peto.
www.jeffsainsburytours.com/Peto2008.html<

Saturday, 14 June, 11 a. m.
Edward Burne-Jones: Style, Substance and Spirit
Hilary Underwood
Talisman Art Lectures, Francis Holland School, Ivor Place, London
£12. with refreshments. Seats must be booked in advance. 020 82081567, talks@talisman-fine-art.com

Saturday, 21 June, 9.30 a.m. - 4.45 p.m.
Eminent Pre-Raphaleites: Rosseti, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Ruskin
Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham
Symposium sponsored by the Pre-Raphaelite Society and the School of Humanities, University of Birmingham, will take place on Saturday, 21 June, 9.30 a.m. - 4.45 p. m., at the Library Theatre, Birmingham Central Library. The speakers include Judith Bronkhurst, Stephen Wildman, Christopher Newall, Paul Barlow, and Simon Cooke. For more detials go the Pre-Raphaleite Society website, where a pdf with full detials and registration form may be downloaded.

Saturday, 12 July, 7.30 p. m.
William Morris . . . Not Overtaken by History
Peter Cormack
News from Nowhere Club, Epicentre, West St., Leytonstone, London
Regular interesting lectures, including a special talk for the Leytonstone Festival given by Peter Cormack, formerly Keeper of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, where he worked for over 30 years. Like Morris himself, Peter is a member of the Society of Antiquaries and is the Society’s Honorary Curator of Kelmscott Manor. 7.30 p. m. buffet, 8 p. m. talk and discussion.

18 - 20 July
Artistry and Industry: Representations of Creative Labour in Literature and the Visual Arts ca. 1830-1900
University of Exeter
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the nature and representation of artistic labour within the nineteenth century's expanding print and visual culture. Its focus will be on artistic "industry" in a variety of forms including, but not limited to, the nature of artistic work as conceptualised by writers and artists, artistry as a profession, art as commodity. Drawing together contributors from literature, art history, history, drama and beyond, the conference will also examine the connections and the separations between those artistic milieux regarded as high culture (painting, sculpture, literature) and those classed as "art-industry," such as pottery painting, art needlework or engraving – or even hackwork (such as Grub Street writing). Organizers: Sunie Fletcher, Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi, Sally Anne Huxtable, Patricia Zakreski
artindustry@exeter.ac.uk

31 July - 1 August
Aspects of 20th Century Stained Glass
Glaziers Hall, London Bridge, Lpndon
Lectures by: Julie Sloan, "Crystallization of Form: The Stained Glass of the Prairie School"; Libby Horner, "Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass"; Michael Barker, "A Survey of 20th Century Glass in France from the End of the Belle Epoche to Abstraction"; Iris Nestler, "The Influence of Modern Art on Glass in Germany"; Wilhelm Derix with Andrea McKay, "Glass as 'Fine Art' in Architecture from the Second Half of the 20th Century to the Beginning of the 21st"; Alexander Beleschenko discussing his work; Donald Buttress, "New Wine in Old Bottles, or New Glass in Old Windows"; Julie Sloan, "Restoring the Whitefriars Windows in St. Thomas's Church, New York"; Peter Cormack, "Teaching Stained Glass in the Arts & Crafts Era: 'a single grain of wheat, not a whole ear of corn'"; Martin Harrison, "The Persistence of Gothic."
www.bsmgp.org.uk

2, 9, and 23 Seotenber
Lectures at Emery Walker House
Emery Walker Hpuse, 7 Hammersmith Terrace, London
A series of three lectures:

• Tuesday, 2 September, 10 a. m. - 12.30 p. m.
  Furniture History, Designers and Makers at 7 Hammersmith Terrace
  Simon Swynfen Jervis
  Includes tea and coffee, (max 2 tickets per person), £30 per person.
• Tuesday, 9 September, 10.30 a. m. - 4 p. m.
  William Morris in Hammersmith
  Aileen Reid
  Includes tea, coffee and sandwich lunch (max 2 tickets per person), £60 per person. First half and lunch to be held at Kelmscott House, moving to 7 Hammersmith Terrace in the afternoon.
• Tuesday, 23 Septmeber, 10 a. m. - 12.30 p. m.
  Paintings and Works on Paper at Emery Walker's House
  Michael Hall, editor of Apollo
  Includes tea and coffee (max 2 tickets per person), £30 per person.
  

5 - 6 December
Envisioning Utopia: British Art and Socialist Politics, 1870-1900
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
The Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester will open a new display on 16 August 2008 entitled "Art and Labour’s Cause is One": Walter Crane and Manchester, 1880-1915. A close associate of William Morris, Crane was one of the most important, versatile, and radical artists of the nineteenth century--illustrator, painter, designer of decorative objects, wrier, and socialist. This exhibition explores the central role played by Manchester in Crane's fusion of art, labor, and politics. On 5 and 6 December the Whitworth Art Gallery hosts a conference, "Envisioning Utopia: British Art and Socialist Politics, 1870-1900," to examine the dynamic between the urban and the pastoral in utopian visions of a socialist future and explore the role of visual art in formulating and articulating these political ideals. Keynote address Friday at 5.30 p. m. by Tim Barringer (Yale University). Speakers include Matthew Beaumont (Univeristy College London), Jo Briggs (Yale Center for British Art), Michael Hatt (Warwick University), Ruth Livesey (Royal Holloway College, University of London), Sarah Turner (Courtauld Institute), and Anna Vaninskaya (King's College, Cambridge University).
More information: Morna O'Neil, waltercranearchive@gmail.com