Arts & Culture at Bell House

Wider learning for all is at the core of the Bell House mission. The Arts & Culture programme offers a variety of talks from curators and authors, art exhibitions and themed walks. Many of these events are free but, where there is a charge, concessions are always available.

The events started in 2019 to encourage learning across the age range for people to explore different aspects of our cultural life. Over the past year Bell House has hosted a number of lectures and events which have included the curator of the British Museum talking about the Troy, Myth and Reality exhibition; Royal Academy curator Ann Dumas on Picasso and Paper ; a local graphic designer running a workshop on poster design; and David Crystal, the leading proponent on Shakespeare’s original language, presenting an insight into the work of Chaucer in the context of the history of English Pronunciation.

One of the important features of these events is to involve our audience and every event has provides an opportunity for questions – these Q&A sessions sometimes last longer than the talk itself!

Contact Us

At present all these talks are online but are attracting enthusiastic and lively audiences. If you have an idea for an arts or culture talk or event, or would like to offer one, please email [email protected]. We would love to talk to you.

If you are passionate about a subject and would like to be involved in our talks programme, send us an email [email protected].

Curator talk: Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear exhibition at the V&A

History of Muslin talk at Bell House.

Upcoming events
British Museum Lecture - Silk Roads with Curator Yu-ping Luk
Jan 27
Art Exhibition, Curator talk
British Museum Lecture - Silk Roads with Curator Yu-ping Luk
Art Exhibition, Curator talk

This talk with the British Museum unravels how the journeys of people, objects and ideas that formed the Silk Roads shaped cultures and histories. 

In-person | £5.60 | Book here

Art Exhibition, Curator talk
Past Recordings
British Museum: Staging the World of Stonehenge

Join Neil Wilkin, lead curator of 'The World of Stonehenge', as he explores the exhibition with the help of its key objects from across Europe, including the first loan to Britain of the Nebra sky disc.

"How to Age Joyfully" - book talk with Maggy Pigott

An evening with Nigel Osner In conversation with friend and author Maggy Pigott

Maggy shared how her sixties have become her happiest and most surprising decade (so far), including getting her first book, “How to Age Joyfully: Eight Steps to a Happier, Fuller Life”, published at 68!

"Haven't You Heard?" with Marie Le Conte

Journalist Marie Le Conte looks at the role gossip, whispers and tittle-tattle play in all areas of politics - for the MPs and their advisers, the press who cover them and the civil servants in the middle of it all. Here’s a taster of the evening spent with Marie.

Old, Middle, Modern: Chaucer as the turning-point in the story of English pronunciation

Leading writer and lecturer on the English language, David Crystal, illustrates the development of pronunciation from Old English (Beowulf) through Middle English (Chaucer) to Early Modern English (Shakespeare), and explains the sources of evidence that have been used to reconstruct 'original pronunciations’.

Dulwich Players present Open Your Ears 2020

Dulwich Players' first online offering, Open Your Ears, devised by Ignatz Ratskywatsky and Ruth Landowne Giordano, is a 30 minutes piece inspired by Shakespeare’s affection for actors and the theatre with illustrative sections from, among others, Hamlet, Henry V, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Horst Buchholz & Other Stories

Director Hayley Blundell explored scripts that would work on the Zoom platform and Matthew Wilkie’s “Horst Buchholtz and other Stories” with its pub quiz setting and revealing monologues fits the bill perfectly.