The Arts Society Henley

THE Arts Society Henley has a new committee member, Simon Salisbury. He will be looking after our holiday programme from now on.

He used to run the Buckinghamshire Music Centre and has great experience of running music tours both in the UK and internationally. We hope he can bring this expertise to enrich the society’s offerings. We still plan to work via Arts Society-recognised travel agents but realise we need to be able to tailor the offerings for our members. Welcome, Simon!

We were visited at our April committee meeting by Ian Arnold, who is the new chief executive of the Arts Society nationally, and Joe Little, who is head of society development for the Arts Society.

They want to work with us in honing the marketing that the Arts Society offers nationally to increase membership. Our society is very healthy but not all the local societies are, so the national society wants to improve recruitment and retention.

They came to ask us to help test their new messaging and your committee welcomed this opportunity. We will let you know as this develops over the summer and autumn.

James Renshaw presented the April lectures on the topic of Persepolis.

What did the Persians ever do for us? We heard this at our last lecture about Persepolis and the Persian Empire. The answer includes trousers, modern coinage, many aspects of algebra and trunk roads.

The peak of the Persian Empire was 550-330 BC, with Persepolis as its ceremonial capital. Unlike earlier empires like the Assyrians, they ruled more by consent than force, and much of the Near East was included in the Empire.

The Persians were originally partly nomadic, and were great horsemen, and the economy and horsemanship was reflected in the art at Persepolis. Persepolis was burnt by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, and then not built on, so much of the bas relief carving and similar art survives.

The Persian Empire persisted in reduced form later, managing to resist the Roman Empire, and indeed is represented today with modern Iran.

The lecturer, James Renshaw, teaches classics, and was able to tell the story of the Empire, but also put it in context over the centuries, including in the Bible, where Cyrus is mentioned in the Old Testament and called the Blessed for freeing the Jews and allowing them to return to Israel and Judah.

The next lecture day is June 19 with the topic Soft Angelic Whispers: The Hidden History of the Medieval Harp, by Sarah Deere-Jones. The morning session is at 10.45am and the afternoon session is at 2.15pm.

Many people around the world today believe the harp to be an exclusively “Celtic” instrument and are unaware of its considerable presence in England since the 10th century.

Using references to literature and household accounts of the time and performing music and songs from medieval England using her own reproduction medieval harps, Sarah will reveal the hidden history of this delightful instrument.

For more information, visit henley.theartssociety.org, follow the group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheArtsSocietyHenley or reach out to Monnik at monnik.vleu gels@gmail.com