Bite-size Talk | Introducing the new British Impressionism Gallery
Tuesday 10 November 2026, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
2026 will see a new gallery dedicated to the display of Worcester City’s permanent art collection. Hear all about about these wonderful artworks, now on permanent display in the Shirley & Rolf Olsen Gallery of British Impressionism.
£4.95 for the talk. The exhibition [not yet open] and Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum are free to visit.
Bite-size Talk | Reflections
Tuesday 13 October 2026, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Artist Wayne Warren, curator of Reflections, will delve deeper into the concepts behind the works in this Bite-size Talk.
The exhibition features a diverse range of artists spanning the last three centuries – including works from Worcester City’s own collection as well as high profile loans from the National Gallery. Brand-new works by Wayne Warren and Jonathon Wright have been created especially for the exhibition.
£4.95 for the talk. If you’d like to visit the exhibition too, advance booking will be available online later in 2026. The rest of Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit.
Image: Blackbirds Singing to Me Across the Severn, 2004, Kurt Jackson © the artist.
Bite-size Talk | 54321! Counting down to a Great Exhibition!
Tuesday 14 July, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Bringing together this extraordinary collection of original screen-used props and puppets, faithful reproductions, original toys, memorabilia and paraphernalia dedicated to the science fiction TV shows of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Space: 1999 et al), was no mean feat.
See behind the scenes of this nostalgic exhibition and hear about some interesting local links at this talk by the exhibition’s curator.
£4.95 for the talk. This exhibition and the rest of Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum are free to visit.
Bite-size Talk | Glove Affair – Worcester’s Hand in the Global Gloving Industry
Tuesday 9 June 2026, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Learn about the forthcoming Glove Affair Gallery which will showcase Worcester’s glove collection and celebrate the skills of the local people that created them.
Worcester gloves were the choice of royalty, international fashion houses, and celebrities across the globe. Hear all about what led to Worcester becoming the fashion glove capital of Britain.
£4.95 for the talk. Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit.
Bite-size Talk | Textiles Unfolded: Caring for, and curating, the costume collection
Tuesday 12 May 2026, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Join the costume curator to learn about the importance of Worcestershire’s costume collection, how it is cared for and the collection’s significance to the county.
£4.95 for the talk. Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit.
Bite-size Talk | Treasure
Tuesday 14 April 2026, 2 – 2.30pm | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Learn about the stunning treasure items in the collections of Museums Worcestershire as the museum plans towards a major new exhibition in 2027.
£4.95 for the talk. Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit.
Spotlight Talk | Landmarks with David Birtwhistle
Saturday 14 March 2026, 11am – 12noon | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Artist David Birtwhistle takes us through his working processes in this Spotlight Talk.
Hear about his production methods and choice of materials, as well as how the exhibition David Birtwhistle: A Retrospective came together at the Art Gallery and Museum.
This will be an insight into his artistic practice, and you’ll have the chance to ask David about his working methods and choice of subjects.
The talk will end with a walk-through of his free-to-visit exhibition currently on show at the Art Gallery and Museum.
£10 for the talk.
Spotlight Talk | John Singer Sargent: landscapes, low life and high society
Saturday 25 April 2026, 11am – 12noon | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
In this talk, given in the context of the exhibition of Worcester’s collection of Sargent’s drawings, art historian Justin Reay explores the artist’s approach to his subjects, his use of light and colour, his unusual composition, and his significance as a painter who engages us with the person or the scene depicted.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born to American parents in Italy, travelled extensively in Europe and the USA throughout his life, established a successful career as a portrait painter in Paris and London, and became a celebrated and influential artist. Although living for many years in London, based in James McNeil Whistler’s former studio in Chelsea, Sargent frequently stayed with friends in Worcestershire and Oxfordshire, walking the hills and meadows around Broadway, painting the upper Thames, the Avon and the Cotswold countryside as well as informal paintings of family and friends.
He is perhaps best known for his compelling, often sumptuous portraits of British and American high society figures and celebrities, showing the character as well as the likeness of his sitters, but his figurative work includes the genre of real life, depictions of ordinary people at work to whom he gives the same degree of dignity. His landscapes and architectural scenes, in oil and watercolour, are notable for their attention to detail, interesting composition and an increasingly free mark-making. His style developed from initial formality towards Impressionism, and finally to a more relaxed, painterly depiction, even for portraits, and his landscapes achieve, at their best, a languid romanticism.
If you’d like to visit the exhibition too, advance booking is available online. There are a variety of admission options to choose from. The rest of the Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit as usual.
About Justin
Justin Reay FSA FRHistS
Retiring from a long career in business in 2001, Justin studied the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford, for whom he became a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library, advising research scholars, editing manuscripts and consulting on the university’s collections of maritime paintings. He is a published historian and a qualified teacher. He delivered courses in the university’s international residential programmes, and tutors the History of Art and Classical Studies for private students and colleges in Oxford.
Justin is an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, and a Member of the Walpole Society.