The Arts Society

A message from our President, Hilary Kay, for Volunteers’ Week.

Since becoming President in April 2025, I’ve been continually inspired by the passion and commitment of our volunteers across the UK and beyond.

This Volunteers’ Week, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who gives their time, whether you’re running Societies and Areas, supporting local arts projects, creating Trails of Discovery, or helping to record and conserve our heritage in places of worship, museums and historic buildings across the country.

Your time, skills and energy make a real difference. You help preserve, celebrate and share the arts and heritage in communities everywhere - and you are vital to everything we do.

Happy Volunteers’ Week, and thank you.

Find out more about volunteering: https://theartssociety.org/volunteering

For most of us, sight, smell, touch, sound and taste are separate. But for a synaesthete, one sensory pathway triggers another – letters of the alphabet may have colours; tastes may trigger shapes; and music may create vivid imagery in the mind’s eye.

In the spring issue of The Arts Society magazine, Isabella Smith explores how figures ranging from Wassily Kandinsky and Vincent van Gogh to Beyoncé have harnessed the multisensory magic of synaesthesia.

Seen here is ‘Candle in the Wind (Elton John)’ by artist and synaesthete Jack Coulter, who, with eyes shut, ‘sees’ forms and colours appear in response to sound – then paints these sights.

Did you know we have over 350 local Arts Societies across the UK? Here’s just a glimpse of what our members have been up to lately:

- In Thirsk, primary school children created nature-inspired artworks for display in public spaces at Herriot Hospice, in a project led by Liz Foster of The Arts Society Hambleton.
- A self-guided walk focused on public art in Acton, Hammersmith and Chiswick – a glimpse of which is seen here – was set up to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Arts Society Chiswick. Seen here is the Mosaic House in Chiswick, the home and studio of artist Carrie Reichardt.
- The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK, was given to The Arts Society Wrekin for its many and varied projects in its community.
- The Arts Society Taunton has scanned and categorised a collection of pre-1920s postcards donated to Hestercombe Archive by art historian Jeremy Cooper.

Bravo to all! Find more Society news in the latest issue of ‘The Arts Society Magazine’ – our gift to our members.

Photo: Maria Wold/Shutterstock

What do artists’ depictions of their mothers reveal? As Whistler’s famous portrait of his mother goes on show at Tate Britain in ‘James McNeill Whistler’ (21 May–27 September), Arts Society Lecturer Juliet Heslewood examines such works by artists ranging from Rembrandt to contemporary painter Caroline Walker.

Read on in the latest issue of ‘The Arts Society Magazine’ – our gift to our members. Find out how to become a member and receive your copy at the link in our bio.

🎨 ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1’, 1871, by James McNeill Whistler. Courtesy Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. Photo: © Tate, London, 2026

With two bank holidays this month, what better time to explore some of the exciting exhibitions on show around the UK?

Find fabulous textile art made by an African American community living in a remote Alabama hamlet in ‘Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend’ at the American Museum & Gardens in Bath until 21 June.

There’s still just enough time to catch ‘Seurat and the Sea’, the first exhibition devoted to the French painter’s seascapes, at the Courtauld Gallery in London until 17 May.

At V&A Dundee, discover the story of what was once (rather quaintly) called the ‘fashion parade’ in ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’; until 17 January 2027.

For more inspiration for your spring calendar, dip into the latest issue of ‘The Arts Society Magazine’ – our gift to our members. Find out how to become a member and receive your copy at the link in our bio.

Pictured: ‘Platform’ (2022) by Essie Bendolph Pettway. Photograph © 2025 ARS, NY and DACS, London

'I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.' – Frida Kahlo

Learn about the life and work of the iconic Mexican painter with Frida Kahlo: Painting, Politics and Patriotism (22 July), a study day led by Latin American art expert Chloë Sayer and organised by The Arts Society Greater London Area to accompany the forthcoming Tate Modern exhibition, Frida: The Making of an Icon (24 June 2026 – 3 January 2027).

As a member of The Arts Society, you can register for upcoming study days across our regional areas, which this season also include:
- Sicily: Cultural Crossroads (13 April)
- Too Many Cooks! Food, Fashion & Fine Dining in Art & Architecture (17 April)
- Soul of a Nation: Chopin, Grieg and Sibelius and the Destinies of Poland, Norway and Finland (1 May)

Discover the full programme in our award-winning magazine – exclusive to members of The Arts Society. Find out more and join us here: theartssociety.org

🎨 Untitled (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird), 1940, Frida Kahlo. Image courtesy Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art

An incredible article to read about The Arts Society Chiltern & Chalfont’s Young Arts Painting Competition 2026! We love getting to read about the positive ways local societies get involved within their communities. 🎨

Schoolchildren scoop top prizes in painting competition Ellie Hutchison, 10, and Harper O’Driscoll Dommett, 11, impressed judges at The Arts Society Chiltern & Chalfont’s Young Arts Painting Competition 2026.

‘John Vanbrugh, who died 300 years ago this March, would be a competitive applicant for the sexiest man of the 17th century.’

Historian Rory Fraser makes the case in our Spring issue, as he dives into the extraordinary life of this architect, playwright, spy, political hostage and adventurer.

A year-long festival, , has launched to celebrate this polymathic figure – the man who gave us Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and who might just be England's first ‘starchitect’.

Pick up the Spring issue of The Arts Society Magazine or sign up as a member to discover more, and mark Vanbrugh300 by visiting Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture at the Sir John Soane's Museum (until 28 June), alongside events at Castle Howard, Blenheim Palace, Seaton Delaval Hall, Grimsthorpe Castle, Kimbolton Castle and Stowe House.

🎨 Portrait of Sir John Vanbrugh, Sir Godfrey Kneller, c.1705. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery

When Nnena Kalu’s extraordinary sculptures and drawings won her the Turner Prize for 2025, a glass ceiling was smashed.

For the past 26 years Kalu has been working with ActionSpace, an organisation that supports learning-disabled artists. Kalu ‘wraps, folds and knots colourful streams of repurposed fabric, rope, parcel tape, cling film, paper and reels of VHS tape’ into assemblages that sometimes ‘resemble cocoons or nests,’ writes Arusa Qureshi.
In the latest issue of The Arts Society Magazine, Qureshi shares seven facts about the artist and her historic win of the £25,000 prize.

Keen to see the work for yourself? Discover Kalu’s art in the exhibition We Contain Multitudes at Dundee Contemporary Arts until 26 April.

Discover the full story in the Spring issue of The Arts Society Magazine – our gift to members. To find out more about joining, visit the link below.

Portrait: courtesy of the artist and Action Space�
Installation: courtesy of Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana; photo: Ivan Erofeev