THE HISTORY OF THORPENESS ART GROUP

Bill formed the Group in 2012 as a not-for-profit, socially responsible concept dedicated to delivering art history to the locals.  The Thorpeness Almshouses Tower Room provided an ideal venue, hence the Group’s name.  Presentations were made to an audience of around a dozen using an old overhead projector and somewhat rickety screen.  Keeping the light out of a room that is south facing, with huge stained- glass windows, was a recurrent problem.  The sun always shone fiercely on Wednesday afternoons, lecture days.  The Group now numbering thirty and rising outgrew the Tower Room so we accepted a kind offer by David James at The Dolphin Inn.  This also had its problems with light pollution, and inquisitive pub customers who from time to time thought they might join the audience.  Finally, after a spell at the Aldeburgh Cinema, during Covid, the Group alighted on the excellent facilities provided by the Old Generator Station, Kings Field, Aldeburgh.  Now the Group’s permanent venue.

Bill, has lectured throughout Suffolk with occasional forays further afield.  In all over a hundred talks have been researched and delivered since 2012.