Dear Member

July has come round and we shall be holding our AGM on 4th July.  I do hope you will attend as it is an important date in our year when the Committee will be refreshed and we can hear what lies ahead next season.  We are also asking the Membership to affirm an updated and revised Constitution for the Society.  This year the meeting will be held at 10.30am so please arrive by 10.15am and, after a short break, the lecture will begin at 11.15am and is for both groups – morning and afternoon together.  This month it will be The Punch and Judy Show (A Subversive Symbol from Commedia Dell’Arte to the Present Day) by Bertie Pearce.  During the break there will be a short PowerPoint presentation showing events which have happened over the past year, designed not only to entertain you while you wait, but also to show how much we have achieved during the year.  We must thank Edwina McConville for undertaking this for us.

You will also have received last month, either by email or as hard copy,  your Membership Renewal Papers.  I remind you that your subscriptions are due by the end of this month – July 31st and any late applications will incur a re-joining fee.  Please bring your cheque books to the July meeting to ensure efficient renewed membership.

A renewal form can be downloaded by clicking on this link

Many of you who attended the celebration dinner marking the national Golden Jubilee of the Arts Society and the Silver Anniversary of our own Society, have sent messages to say how much you enjoyed the event and Kate Varney must be congratulated on the buzz which accompanied a most successful evening.  Keith Roberts’ help was invaluable, too, not only with respect to the microphone and audio system but also for the photographs which he took as a record of the occasion.  We thank them both.  Catherine Leahy, who had travelled from the north of Scotland to be with us, spoke very amusingly about the setting-up of RLSDFAS and was welcomed back by her many friends who were among the guests.  She was delighted to feel that she had picked up where she had left off and that the distance in time and in miles had not affected her relationship with the Society.

Lady Hamilton gave a most personal talk on the history of Walton Hall and some of its inhabitants, bringing to life the building and the complexities of high society as it was at the end of the nineteenth century, and which caused Warwickshire’s notorious scandal regarding Harriet Mordaunt and the Prince of Wales.

You may be interested to know, as it ties in beautifully with our September lecture, ‘Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: The Golden Age of Mexican Painting’ that the Frida Kahlo exhibition has opened at the V and A.  Members can click on the link to the V and A on our website to find out more about it.

Our season will be drawing to a close, now, with the prospect of the Day Visit to Woburn Abbey  which Ann Pitt is organising on Wednesday 15th August, the last event in the calendar.  It has been another splendid year for us all and, as I take my leave as Chairman, I thank the Committee for making it so.

I look forward to seeing you all on 4th July for the AGM and lecture as detailed above.

With my best wishes
Elizabeth