Tickets £12 including coffee/tea and biscuits

There is a large car park at the rear of the gallery and good disabled access.

Organising Committee member - Sally Warnock (contact artfriendsmerseyside1@gmail.com or 07770785514)

Julian Treuherz has very kindly agreed to talk to us about his enjoyable and informative new book on the Art and Architecture of Sicily.  Julian is an art historian who was, as many of you will remember, Keeper of Art Galleries for National Museums Liverpool between 1989 and 2007.

He and his partner, Peter de Figueredo, who has taken most of the photographs, have over the past twenty years spent part of each year researching and studying the art and architecture of Sicily.  As a base they bought, surprisingly, a modern house but built in traditional style, overlooking olive groves.

Julian will use beautiful illustrations to show how Sicily’s strategic position in the Mediterranean shaped its multi cultural art and architecture and makes a compelling case for Sicilian civilisation itself as a unique and distinctive force.  Stories such as, in the 6th century more Greek temples were built in Sicily than in Greece and that Caravaggio spent his final years in Sicily creating some of his finest masterpieces, are part of the many fascinating insights into the island’s history.

Our morning will start with coffee/tea and biscuits at 10.30 followed by the talk at 11am.  For those who are interested, signed copies of the book will be available for purchase and Julian will also give members a code so that the book can be ordered at a 20% discount direct from the publishers, if they so wish.