although you'd be forgiven for thinking that it has all been rain by the wonderful photo of a rather bedraggled John Hall Venice group here, as we headed for this year's Pizza Pub Quiz! In fact the weather has been improving, but with occasional setback - see above! It's also worth mentioning that, in the previous post, I'd put some photos of a wonderful opportunity that we'd had to visit the Palazzo Contarini Polignac for a memorable dance show by the Isadora Duncan Institut

Back from our fantastic trip to Ravenna and Pomposa, we had an optional visit to the fantastic Museum of Modern Art, in the sensational Ca'Pesaro, the Baroque palace of the 17th century that used to play host to the collection bought from successive Venice Biennale shows, and then the next thing on the itinerary was our drinks party in tne bohemian studio of Geoffrey Humphries Oh, and in the week before our Ravenna trip, Ca'Pesaro visit and drinks party we had our private vi

yes yes, I know, I know...it's been too long, I've taken too long to get this repoirt filed, but for some reason it's all been so hectic! We are all so delighted to be back in our wonderful lecture room in the revamped National Gallery Sainsbury Wing, which is not to say that our three years at The ICA was a banishment...but good to be home again! It was a great privilege to be welcomed, on our first day, by Sir Gabriele Finaldi, the director, and from there we launched into

Private Visitors in The Sistine Chapel The 2025 edition of the John Hall Venice Course came to a glorious conclusion in Rome. It has been...

It's a long and extraordinary path to The Eternal City. Dimly aware of that meeting in January, when the Class of 2025 gathered in the...

Sophie; Winner of the prize and Laura; Editor and Compiler of The Yearbook We couldn't possibly leave Venice without celebrating one of...

Our lovely lecturer Louisa Buck chats with Geoffrey Humphries during the final life drawing class Our six weeks in Venice drew gently to...

Sir Michael Burton delivers his annual address Most years, the alumni of John Hall 1965 meet those of the present year. Last night we...

In front of Villa Emo Our final day out, away from Venice was blessed by glorious weather, and we had a fairly early start, catching the...

Our massively popular cookery classes continued at the home of Marika Seguso with students making pasta and chichetti , the traditional...

Sometimes it's incredible to think that 61 years ago, in 1965, a group of teenagers posed for a photograph outside the church of San...

It was a really busy week. With our half term break beginning on Thursday there was a very compressed 'mere' three days of lectures, with...

our early tour of the Accademia introduced the group to what is essentially the National Gallery of Venetian Art, from Paolo Veneziano to...

At the end of our first week in Venice there was the opportunity to take a trip to see the wonderful Ca'Pesaro, known at the Museum of...

It's almost inconveivable to write this, but Geoffrey Humphries has been teaching our students Life Drawing for over fifty years!...

not only do we get to visit the extraordinary basilica at night after it's closed (and have the wonderful Patrick Craig sing for us) but...

We ended our first week with the inimitable Nigel McGilchrist and his fantastic practical demonstration of the technique of Egg Tempera...

The delighful Patrick Craig #pazzeck siungs Handel for us in Basilica San Marco as the lights come on. Stunning!

halfway through our first week in Venice and we are still bathed in glorious sunshine! We set of for our second 'Walkabout' which is...

This is a bit of a mad dash through the first two weeks of #jhv2025 and with gorgeous sunshine and a cheerful group ready to get...