Welcome to Artfully Said

In this episode of Artfully Said, painter and Arts Society Accredited Lecturer Alice White joins artist, writer and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie to explore how artists have made paintings across thousands of years. From prehistoric ochre and Renaissance workshops to Rembrandt’s impasto, art-school training and AI, they discuss the materials, skills, accidents and technologies that shape a work of art. Together they investigate what understanding the process of painting can add to, and even chance, how we look at an artwork. Alice White is a contemporary painter and Arts Society Accredited Lecturer who teaches practical painting and drawing at Central Saint Martins. Her work and lectures explore art through the materials, techniques and physical experience of making it. Lachlan Goudie is a Scottish artist, writer and broadcaster. His book The Secrets of Painting: The Hidden Art of the Masterpiece from Prehistory to Today explores how great paintings were made and how changing materials have shaped art history.

Why are we still talking about women artists?

What really happened in the race to the South Pole? Did Captain Oates really say "I'm going outside, I may be some time?" Were the British Heroic Age explorers like Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton “brave but foolish,” or has history simplified a far more complex story? And how are modern explorers like Preet Chandi, reshaping what heroism looks like in the twenty-first century? In this episode of Artfully Said, Dr Henrietta Hammant and Dr Max Jones revisit this dramatic era of Antarctic exploration beyond the familiar narrative of Scott versus Amundsen to uncover the wider context of the “scramble for the Antarctic” on the eve of the First World War. The episode considers how empire was packaged for audiences at home through stirring tales of endurance, sacrifice and masculine heroism, and why Scott’s tragic death resonated so strongly on the eve of the First World War. Discover the extraordinary story of Captain Oates’ reindeer-fur sleeping bag, tracing its journey from Sámi craftsmanship to the Antarctic ice and eventually to the Scott Polar Research Institute. Revisit Shackleton’s Endurance expedition, one of the most remarkable survival stories in history, and learn how his reputation has risen and fallen over time. Dr. Henrietta Hammant is a museum anthropologist with a love of the polar regions. She holds degrees in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology from the University of Oxford. Recently, she has completed her PhD in the Anthropology of Heritage at the University of Reading, with a focus on Heroic Age Antarctic explorers and their representation in British museums. She has worked in museums across Canada and the UK, including as Assistant Curator at the Itsanitaq Museum in Churchill, Manitoba, and Collections Coordinator at the Polar Museum, part of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. She has visited Antarctic twice, and is now an Impact Fellow at the University of Nottingham, working to decolonise Nottingham City Museums and Galleries’ collection of North American ethnographic objects. Formerly a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Christ's College, Cambridge, Dr. Max Jones, teaches at the University of Manchester and has previously won the university’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ award. He specialises in modern history since 1750, with particular interest in the cultural history of war and heroism, and is currently writing a new history of British heroes. His research and teaching focuses on heroes, heroism, gender & sexuality; the Arctic and Antarctic, exploration, technology & empire; the media and celebrity and the cultural history of war. He has analysed how heroic reputations are constructed and disseminated in order to offer insights into a range of research questions regarding empire, gender, sexuality, the media and the state.

This episode of Artfully Said brings together Irving Finkel (British Museum curator and Assyriologist) and Sarah Burles (museum educator and collections specialist). Together, these Arts Society accredited lecturers embark on in-depth conversation about collecting, museum collections, and what drives humans to gather, preserve, and care for objects. Well known for his work on cuneiform tablets, ancient Mesopotamia, and the hidden stories of the British Museum, Irving Finkel explores the philosophy and history of collecting at every scale, from global institutions to deeply personal collections. Sarah Burles brings examines educational and curatorial perspectives, focusing on accessibility, learning, and how collections are interpreted for the audiences of today.Together, they discuss the origins of museum collections, the role of collectors in shaping public institutions, the difference between collecting and hoarding, and how to balance preservation, display, ethics, and relevance in the modern world.

What made the 1970s such a defining decade for both music and fashion? In this episode, Arts Society accredited lecturers Steve King (music historian) and Scott Schiavone (fashion curator) explore how sound and style collided to create one of the most inventive eras in modern culture. From disco’s sweltering dance floors and punk’s raw rebellion to glam rock’s theatrical excess, they trace how identity, politics, and creativity reshaped what people listened to and what they wore while doing it.From Barry White, George McCrae, and Donna Summer’s electronic revolution to Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s punk provocation, the episode unpacks how the 70s mixed rebellion with glamour. They trace disco’s roots in marginalized communities, the rise of designers like Halston, Scott Barrie, and Diane von Fürstenberg, and the way icons like David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and Jimi Hendrix5 blurred boundaries between performance, art, and identity. From Studio 54 to Northern Soul, funk, and New Wave, Steve and Scott reveal how the decade’s fearless creativity still shapes today’s music, fashion, and culture.