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Art

Samson Kambalu Interviewed by Claire Armitstead

The Jive Talker: Or How to get a British Passport
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Andrew Logan

Reflections
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Roy Strong Interviewed by Richard Barber

The Stuart Image: An Introduction to English Portraiture 1603 to 1649
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Beatrice Searle and Ellie Evelyn Orrell Chaired by David Isaac

The Power of Art: Stone Will Answer and An Indigo Summer
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Adam Brookes Interviewed by Rana Mitter

Fragile Cargo: China’s Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidden City
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Vanessa Winship Interviewed by Jem Poster

The Speaking Image
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Paul Pettitt

Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Michael Collins

Raphael’s World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Geoffrey Batchen

Inventing Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot in the Bodleian Library CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Vicki Ambery-Smith Interviewed by Olivia Horsfall Turner

Jewellery and Silverware: Inspired by Architecture
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Christine Lindey

Art for All: British Socially Committed Art from World War Two to the Cold War
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Alexander Stoddart Interviewed by Gregory Platten

Art and Christianity
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Paterson Joseph, Samson Kambalu and Leta McCollough Seletzky Interviewed by Bidisha Mamata

BBC World Service The Arts Hour Recording
Worcester College 2:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Lily Le Brun Interviewed by Kelly Grovier

Looking to Sea: Britain Through the Eyes of its Artists CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event

Festival information:

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.