Talks, Tours and Workshops
Get more from your visit by coming along to one of our tours. Book your place online or call the Box Office on 01234 718044. Use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to remove any transaction fee.
Concession prices are offered for most events to people over 65, students, those with disabilities plus their carer, National Art Pass members and adults receiving benefits.
Study Day
Saturday 13 September 11am-4pm
Tickets £20 - Booking essential
Join us for a day exploring the themes of Colour & Light with the exhibition’s curators and the creator of the exhibitions film installation ‘Light and Colour’. The day will start at 11am with refreshments and registration then an introductory tour of the exhibition by Victoria Partridge, The Higgins’ Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art, followed by a talk from Professor Christiana Payne on JMW Turner, Samuel Palmer and the painting of light. Christiana is Professor Emerita of History of Art at Oxford Brookes University and has curated exhibitions at The Ashmolean and Barber Institute, and most recently at Compton Verney where her exhibition Landscape and Imagination: from Gardens to Land Art [2024] was described as superbly – and wittily – curated in The Guardian’s five-star review. She is currently writing a book about Samuel Palmer for Reaktion Books.
After lunch Dr Alison Goodyear will share her journey from working with physical paint to working with virtual reality painting software and hardware, as well as her innovative approach to collaboration. There will also be a chance to have a go at VR painting. Alison is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher and educator, working in the expanded field of painting and drawing. Her work has been exhibited and screened in venues and film festivals across the globe including both the 2023 Bologna & Moderna Future Film Festival and the Montreal International Animation Festival where she was a finalist. For the exhibitions film installation, ‘Light & Colour, she was awarded a grants from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund.
For final talk of the day, Dr Mary O’Neill will consider the impact of travelling towards southern/eastern light on some of the artists in the exhibition such as JF Lewis and Edward Lear. Mary is the author of Cornwall's 'Fisherfolk': Art & Artifice and contributing author of Yale University Press’ Henry Scott Tuke. She curated, ‘Model Citizens: Myths and Realities’ at Penlee House Gallery and Museum and has co-curated two exhibitions for The Higgins Bedford as well as a third opening in 2026.
To book places on exhibition tours and workshops go to our Book Online page or call the Box Office on 01234 718044 (open Weds – Sat 10am – 4pm).
Exhibition Tour
17 October 12-12.30pm
Tickets £3.60 per person, concessions £3.05 Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a lunchtime tour of some of the highlights of the exhibition.
Being Human Festival 2025
Lunchtime Talk
A Queer Inheritance - Alternative Histories in the National Trust
Tuesday 11 November 12.30-1.30pm
Tickets are Free but Booking is essential
Hear from author Michael Hall about his experience of researching his book A Queer Inheritance: Alternative Histories in the National Trust.
National Trust houses and landscapes might seem to embody conventional family values, but for generations some very different stories were hidden away. These belong to owners now considered 'queer' for defying the norms of sexual orientation or gender identity: sometimes blatantly, occasionally as open secrets, but most often very discreetly.
Fresco by Jack Hastings at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire
Michael explores not only the best-known examples of sexual difference, such as Lawrence of Arabia at Clouds Hill, Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst and the 'Dancing Marquess' at Plas Newydd; he also covers more recently unveiled stories, such as the lesbian community at Smallhythe Place and the homosexual scandals associated with Clumber. Then there were the quietly confirmed bachelors, keen to pass their properties and collections to the Trust for posterity.
Michael is a former Architectural Editor of Country Life and Editor of Apollo, and was Editor of The Burlington Magazine (2017-2024).
This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 - 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org
Exhibition Tours
5 December, 6 February, 24 April 12–12.30pm
Tickets £3.60 per person, concessions £3.05 – Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a lunchtime tour of some of the highlights of the exhibition.
Talk on Noel Carrington by Joe Pearson
27 February 2–3pm Free – Booking Essential
Join exhibition curator Joe Pearson to learn more about the amazing career of Noel Carrington and the artists he championed. Joe is an established collector and writer on mid-century lithography. In 2015 he founded Design for Today, a press and publisher, with the aim of working with designers and illustrators to create limited edition books and cards.
Archive Session
6 March, 2pm–4pm
£13.25, concessions £10.65 – Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a delve through the Edward Bawden Archive. This is an opportunity to see well known works as well as pieces that have never been on display before.
Exhibition Tour
11 February 12–12.30pm
Tickets £3.60 per person, concessions £3.05 - Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a lunchtime tour of some of the highlights of the exhibition.