 |
|
|
|
THE COURSE | LECTURES & VISITS | MULTIMEDIA | NEWS & EVENTS | STUDENT VIEW | ALUMNI | INFO | |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
  CLARE AUGARDE RETIRES NICHOLAS PENNY IS APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON RE-UNIONS IN VENICE, LONDON..... BILL BAKER - OBITUARY JOHN HALL VENICE REACHES OUT ON YOUTUBE PRESS NEWS : THE GRAND TOURS PRESS NEWS : THE ART OF LIFE
CLARE AUGARDE RETIRES Clare Augarde is retiring, after more than twenty-two years working with the Course in every capacity simultaneously – administrative secretary in her Ipswich office, organizer of lecturers’ and students’ travel from the era of steam trains via Eurostars to much-disapproved-of air flights, minder living in the eye of the storm (midnight to 4am) in the Hotels Atlantico and Messner, and in Florence and Rome, matron looking after the sick - “drink more water”, adviser and calmer to vulnerable students and to John Hall….and everything else. No one‘s birthday was forgotten, every cleaning lady in the hotels was brought a little present from England, the weekly menu in the Messner dining room was diplomatically kept open to improvements. In the last two or three years, when she hasn’t come to Venice with the Course, we can do almost nothing there without worrying and wondering about “what would Clare think”, so strongly has she established her very high standards in everything connected with the Course. Like a few other major characters from the past, her presence will always be with us in Venice. We all have the warmest memories of Clare and we thank her for all she has done for all of us. Clare’s successor is Vicky Gillions, who worked for ten years in the marketing and administration of Christie’s educational courses. She and Clare get on very well, so the passing on of twenty-two years’ experience is happening smoothly. She brings us from the habits of snail mail, handwritten and stamped envelopes into the electronic (or partly electronic) world of today. A sign of the times is the launching of our first video of the Course - more to follow - on our website and YouTube, which puts us in more immediate touch with our alumni around the world. NICHOLAS PENNY IS APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON We were all delighted with the news of Nicholas Penny’s appointment as Director of the National Gallery. Nicholas was on the Course in 1968 and has frequently lectured to our students in Venice, Rome and London. He writes : “ I owe more to the months spent on the Venice Course than I do to the whole of my time in the Sixth Form at Public School or even to my three years as undergraduate at Cambridge. The instruction provided was excellent and also so enjoyable that I cannot think of it as separate from the outings we were encouraged to organize independently. Our exploration of Italian Art and Architecture was particularly exhilarating because it was inseparable from our introduction to a foreign way of life.” RE-UNIONS IN VENICE, LONDON..... There have been many hugely successful re-unions arranged by John Hall Venice alumni, both in Venice and London. If you happen to be a student from 1974 and are interested in a reunion expedition to Venice at some point in the next few years please do contact James Nimmo (Student,1974) on James@arkios.co.uk giving a percentage degree of interest for the concept of a reunion expedition, and a percentage degree of preference for that to be in 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014. For inspiration, please read on for an account of the wonderful 60th Birthday reunion of the alumni who were on the first John Hall Venice Course in 1965. VENICE REVISITED I returned to Venice exactly 42 years after my first visit – to celebrate my 60th birthday in the city where I celebrated my 18th birthday. It was to be a very different kind of celebration and much had happened in my life in the intervening years. However, not everything had changed as I was celebrating with some of the same friends who had been there first time around. There is something about the ‘John Hall Venice Course’ which bonds friends for life. We decided to arrange a number of events and excursions around the birthday party taking place on the Saturday night. This gave our friends the option of when they began and finished their trip. We did not arrange the accommodation or flights and left this up to individuals. The events and meals were all arranged with the invaluable help of John Hall without whom the whole trip would not have happened. A more informed and well connected contact would have been hard to find and it is to him I owe a debt of thanks for organising the visit to the St Marks and the Cini, the CIRCOLO SOCIETA DELL’UNIONE for the drinks reception and the choice of restaurants for the meals. The following is our itinerary: WEDNESDAY 28TH MARCH THURSDAY 29TH MARCH FRIDAY 30TH MARCH SATURDAY 31ST MARCH CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION* DINNER* SUNDAY 1ST APRIL ‘To taste in all their fullness his first impressions of Venice the traveller should arrive there by sea, at mid-day, when the sun is high………..He who comes for the first time to Venice by this route realizes a dream – his only dream perhaps ever destined to be surpassed by the reality;’ Charles Yriarte Our first afternoon was spent at leisure finding our bearings and enjoying the sunshine waiting for various friends to announce their arrival. It transpired a number of guests had booked in the same hotel and others were dotted about the city. With everywhere in such close proximity it was never a problem meeting up and occasionally bumping into people who were exploring on their own. A truly memorable lunch took place impromptu on the Zattare after we met three friends by chance and we sat down to a delightful fish lunch in the open air taking in the wonderful view especially that of San Giorgio. Memories are made of such things. Whilst the highlight of our trip was the fantastic party which took place on Saturday night, when asked, all our guests without exception agreed that the private viewing of St Mark’s on the Friday night was their own personal favourite event. With just our party in the confines of the church and an exuberant guide in the form of Bruna Caruso we were treated to a guided tour and account of the history of the church as the lights gradually lit each area as if somehow magically bringing it all alive; a truly unforgettable experience in everyone’s minds. By this time all our guests had arrived and the partying really began. On Saturday night we began the evening with a reception at the CIRCOLO SOCIETA DELL’UNIONE overlooking the Grand Canal. We drank prosecco and nibbled on delicious canapés while listening to speeches. The party then moved on to the restaurant La Furatola where we arrived and were treated like royalty. We had taken over the main part of the restaurant and the staff had decorated the tables with beautiful fresh flowers and spent the evening attending to our every need. Michael Burton and I rolled out the Cici song yet again. This was the opening song of the student’s review which we had co- written back in 1965! To this we added a few songs written for the occasion including my version of Volare which had caused a bit of a stir with some Germans at Michael’s hotel when we had been practising on the landing the day before! We had a diverse group of people not all of whom knew each other but new friendships were formed and everyone joined in the spirit of things. A few were unable to make the boat on Sunday morning after taking the party to a nightclub after the rest of us had left the restaurant! The trip on Sunday was the perfect antidote to the partying of the previous few days as we spent a leisurely few hours on the boat visiting Torcello and Burano and taking in the sights and smells of Venice from the sea followed by lunch at Romano on Burano. All good things have to come to an end and we left reluctantly on Monday already planning our return for my next ‘big’ birthday in 10 years time. BILL BAKER - OBITUARY Bill Baker was a major presence on the Course of 1973 - already very large in girth and character. He became a leading figure in the wine trade. In recent years he presided over the final Friday evening event of our pre-Venice London week, giving a tasting of Italian wines with characteristic outspoken judgments. His last tasting for us was in January 2008: it was the last wine appointment he had: he died that same weekend, after driving from Quaglinos to Bristol and then to Cornwall. Here are some extracts from an obituary in The Daily Telegraph February 4, 2008. Hugh Gilliam Baker was born on July 6, 1954 and educated at Charterhouse and Peterhouse, Cambridge., where he won a scholarship to read History but ended up studying History of Art. It was here that his passion for food and wine were kindled. “The Dean of my college, a priest, had done someone a favour and was given a special bottle of wine - which turned out to be a Chateau Latour 1961,” Baker recalled in a recent interview. “He invited a couple of us to taste it after dinner and I was blown away. I couldn’t believe that something could be that powerful and that complex.” His wine lists would regularly feature unflattering tasting notes and he was never afraid to tell customers if he thought a vintage of a wine wasn’t up to scratch – “crap” being one of his most chacteristic epithets. He would frequently stop off at one of the Michelin-starred restaurants in Bray to have lunch en route from London to his home in Somerset. Friends would recount how they had seen him at a favourite restaurant at lunch only to be corrected by someone else who had seen him at another establishment that same day. A former President of the University of Bristol’s Wine Circle recalled that as host of their port tastings he would provide “fantastic bottles of port older than we were and went to great efforts to get them for us“, an, when hosting the Circle’s first tasting of the year he was able “ to keep the rabble under control and amused and interested for the full two hours and still walk away smiling.” In an interview in 2005 Baker predicted that he would remain in the trade for at least ten years, to pay the school fees: “And then I think I will have to make a decision about how disgustingly politically correct this country has become….I will probably be off to Italy. I fancy being a woodcutter there. I’m a log obsessive: I love cutting trees and the smell of them and stacking them. And, best of all, I can bring that axe down and imagine it’s Tony’s head.” According to his business partner, his last drink was of a poor vintage of Pauillac Chateau Latour which he pronounced “disgusting”. JOHN HALL VENICE REACHES OUT ON YOUTUBE So, why John Hall Venice? View our new film at www.JohnHallVenice.com/Multimedia.htm or on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/JohnHallVenice. Hear John discuss the Course and learn why, for generations of students, John Hall Venice has been a defining experience, leading to many a successful career in the arts and opening many a door to a lifelong passion for the arts and culture of this extraordinary city. Taking in music, cinema, wine and global issues as well as art history, John Hall Venice is an experience in the very art of life itself! Don’t miss out - book your place now! PRESS NEWS : THE GRAND TOURS Charlotte Metcalf reports on the art you can enjoy on your travels this year Insider’s Venice Last year I joined a tour. Our guide was Dr Bruna Caruso, a tiny but robust grandmother whose knowledge of her city was breathtaking and her passion for it infectious. Hall knows how to entertain his guests after a few hours of peering at altarpieces or Titians in dank, chilly churches. Lunches and dinners are lavish and the wine flows. We were also housed in great comfort at the Hotel Monaco right on Piazza San Marco. Perhaps the highlight of the tour was when we took sole possession of the church of San Marco one evening and sat in the dark as the lights came on, slowly illuminating every gold mosaic with blazing drama. The trip would have been worth it just for that. 11 to 16 October 2009 PRESS NEWS : THE ART OF LIFE Gap-year students try Italy, not Vietnam, says Charlotte Metcalf. Writing in The Spectator of 2 February 2008, Charlotte Metcalf includes some fascinating insights into the John Hall Venice Course. "A wise friend once said that you only regret what you don’t do. Until I met John Hall....I had never really thought about it but ever since I have been regretting that I didn’t spend my time between school and university... in Italy." "John Hall formed his Pre-University Course in 1965 when he decided he was bored being a schoolteacher and fled Kent for Venice. Over 40 years on, his passion for all things Italian, from sculpture to wine, remains undiminished." Metcalf writes of Hall’s ability to boost "students' souls by exposing them to the wonders of Italian culture" and she continues "Hall is proud that many of his current students' parents attended his course. His formula has stood the test of time. As Sophia Seymour, a recent student, says, 'Whether you love art or cinema, food or poetry, the John Hall course has offered us a rounded knowledge that is hard to come by . . . we have all taken something away from this course which we will always remember and treasure.’" "I think of my various godchildren trudging rather aimlessly round India and Vietnam, looking for meaningful experiences. Thirty years ago such a trip would have been extraordinary. Today, travel is so affordable and accessible that a gap-year trek round Namibia has become almost commonplace." She says that what John Hall Venice is offering is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... true education is about opening young souls and minds to life’s wonders and potential — in a safe, clean environment. What more could a parent want? If I were you, I’d confiscate that dreary rucksack immediately. Lest she have regrets later, I’m signing my three-year-old up now to ensure a place." |
||||
|
||||
|
|
Copyright © 2009 John Hall Venice | Sitemap | |
