‘Inspired Engineering’. This lecture is part of a series of events connecting art and science.  It features the artist Lisa Scantelbury and the engineer Richard Trask who will talk about how natural materials and structures inspire and challenge artists and engineers.

Richard Trask is a composites engineer interested in building the next generation of aeroplanes and rockets.  Lisa Scantlebury is an artist and fabricator who exploits the creative possibilities of composites.  Both draw on natural structures and materials, but both want to see how much further synthetic materials can go.  Come and watch as new ideas take flight.  

This lecture is sponsored jointly by The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery and  the Friends of Bristol’s Museums Galleries & Archives.

Port Eliot, the family home of the Earl and Countess of St. Germans, is an ancient, hidden gem set in stunning grounds on the banks of a secret estuary.  The present house was designed by Sir John Soane on the site of a former monastery, the park by Humphrey Repton, and has been the home of the Eliot family for 445 years.  .

This proved to be a very popular excursion, with the coach filling very quickly.  A second coach has been laid on, travelling to Port Eliot on Thursday 31 March (see below)

(This item updated on 9 December 2010)

Dr Esme Whittaker, Curatorial Assistant V&A since 2008 will talk to us tonight on “Aestheticism: Beauty in Art & Design 1860 – 1900″

A day excursion to the V&A to see this exhibition will take place on Sunday 17 April (see the entry below).

(This item updated 10 January 2011)