Enfilade

This year’s Attingham course offerings:

The Attingham Trust offers specialist courses for the study of historic houses and their collections based on contextual, in-situ study. Course members are drawn from different fields of the heritage sector, including curators, architects and architectural historians, conservators, academics, historic house managers, and decorative arts specialists from around the world. The clear objectives of the courses are to examine the architectural and social history of historic houses and palaces, to study their contents and collections, and to stimulate discussion on conservation, preservation, display, and interpretation. Group discussion is core to the programmes, and participants are expected to share their knowledge and expertise and engage with current debates.

Members of the Royal Collection Studies programme in the Print Room at Windsor Castle, looking at drawings by Holbein.

70th Attingham Summer School, 1–16 July 2023
Applications due by 29 January 2023

This intensive residential course will include visits to country houses in Sussex, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire. The course directors and visiting lecturers are established specialists in their fields, and the range of study is specifically chosen to address a wide curriculum with hands-on object study. In addition to architecture and planning, the focus is on the study of interiors, furniture, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, plasterwork, textiles, and other applied arts. Limited scholarship funding is available. More detailed information can be found here»

Royal Collection Studies, 3–12 September 2023
Applications due by 12 February 2023

This annual course, a collaboration now in its 27th year with The Royal Collection, provides a ten-day immersive opportunity to study the British royal collection, one of the most outstanding collections of art and decorative art in the world. Based near Windsor, the course also examines the history of the collection and the key roles played by monarchs and their consorts over the centuries. Combining a mixture of lectures and tutorials, visits to both the occupied and unoccupied palaces in and around London, and close-up object study, Royal Collection Studies aims to give experienced professionals in the heritage sector a deeper understanding of this remarkable collection. Limited scholarship funding is available. More detailed information can be found here»

Attingham Study Programme: Andrea Palladio, Venice, and the Veneto, 18–26 September 2023
Applications due by 12 February 2023

The 2023 Study Programme will consider the impact of Palladian architecture, Venetian painting, sculpture, and decorative art on the development of the country house in Europe, Britain, and the USA. Based in and around Venice and its lagoon and accompanied by specialists in their field, the course will also consider the preservation, conservation, and ecology of Venice and its artistic legacy. More detailed information can be found here»

The London House Course, October 2023
Applications details forthcoming

This non-residential week-long course studies the development of the London house from the Renaissance to the present. It combines visits to houses with lectures by leading authorities. Progressing broadly chronologically and exploring all over London, the course takes members inside grand aristocratic buildings, smaller domestic houses, artists’ studios, and the garden suburb. More detailed information can be found here»