By Andrea Perugini
The Arts Society UK is a leading non-profit Arts and Culture Organization with over 380 affiliated societies and 90,000 members worldwide, bringing people together through a shared interest in the Arts. The Arts Society The Hague, whose patron is H.E. the British Ambassador, is one of the most active affiliated societies in Europe and will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in January 2022.
Our Lectures provide welcoming events where expert lecturers, academicians, researchers, historians, museum curators and art experts share their specialist knowledge and passion on a wide range of subjects – from music to architecture, from fashion to craftsmanship, from archaeology to glassware, from visual arts to history, from ancient traditions to photography, from historical cities to lost civilisations.
We normally organize – Live and via Zoom – eight one-hour lectures during the course of a season (October to May) in our main venue, the Warenar Cultural Centre, Wassenaar, where we can host over 200 people at a time. As you can see from our Website (https://theartssociety.org/the-hague) this year’s programme of lectures offers a wide range of fascinating topics on Postmodernism, Architecture, History of Fireworks, Modern Japanese Art, the Magic of Prague, Albrecht Dürer, the Renaissance, and two unusual stories of Ancient Rome. In addition we also organize Special Events, Lectures with local and foreign speakers and visits to Museums sometimes with exclusive guided tours.
Our lectures are given by selected speakers who are particularly skilled in communicating and stimulating the viewer’s interest. An attractive subject can soon become very boring if you don’t have the right speaker. It is a speaker’s ability to captivate the audience which, in addition to the subject itself, is one of the best features of our lectures. How many times have I been immersed in a new and different dimension, losing all notion of time and space listening to a lecture!
Our strength is our members: there are about 100 of them in The Netherlands alone, mostly based in and around The Hague and composed of expats as well as internationally oriented Dutch residents. We are connected by a common passion for the Arts, nourishing and empowering us all. In these times of hardship imposed by the pandemic we need now more than ever to rediscover how beneficial to our well-being the cultural and social dimensions of curiosity and human interaction can be.
We believe that Arts and Culture are at the heart of everything we do, as they have a universal ability to promote better mutual understanding and inclusiveness between peoples, and to act as a major instrument of peace and dialogue, thus enriching everyone’s lives.
As a retired diplomat and former Ambassador of Italy to The Netherlands, I am particularly persuaded that the Arts Society has real potential for enhancing connection between Embassies and Consulates in The Hague.
We can offer, in cooperation with Diplomat Magazine, a perfect platform for Arts-based lectures and performances to which our members would be invited. This could be an interesting springboard in outreach promotion for many Embassies and Consulates.
Host and event or become a member:
Is your Embassy or International Organization planning to host an event at which visitors to The Hague can hear an interesting lecture in English about culture and art in your country? Please contact me at: andrea.perugini58@gmail.com
