It’s good news and bad news this month! First of all, we are excited and proud to say that TASLA will be trialling Zoom lectures for 3 months, starting in May. The bad news is that at the recent Area meeting the consensus of opinion was that we might not have live lectures this calendar year. With that in mind, your Committee decided to face the challenge and see if we too can benefit from modern technology!

Our first online lecture will be

‘First Catch a Squirrel - Historical materials and techniques of painting 15-18th century’ and will start at

11 am on Tuesday 11 May - our normal date and almost our normal time.

The speaker is Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe, a trained painting restorer who worked at Sotheby’s for 29 years.

We will be contacting you nearer the time with details of how to join – and there will be help before and during the lectures for those who have never used Zoom before. Please do save the date and have a go at attending, even if this is your first time.

Virtualtrips.io My latest, find thanks to Anne Bernard!  It is free although you can leave a tip if you want!  So far in the last week I have been to Seville, the Jewish Quarter, Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, the Terracotta Warriors (we were inside to see it all!) and Delft.  The tours last from ½ to 1 hour.   Unfortunately, it is all indoors as everything is closed but there were a lot of people sitting in cafes in Barcelona!

Arthistoryinfocus.com also does virtual tours £10.The next on 22 April.  A walking tour of Lisbon 

YouTube. History of the Arts & Craft Movement by Miceli Atanasio.  Highly recommended.

Also look up Robert Thompson “The Mouseman”!