Canterbury Decorative & Fine Arts Society (CADFAS)

Founded in 2001, CADFAS (Canterbury Decorative and Fine Arts Society) was the first NZ overseas member society of The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) in the UK. The success of the Society is built on the high quality of the monthly lectures which are given by lecturers of proven ability who are specialists in their field and are endorsed by The Arts Society. CADFAS is twinned with both the Harrogate and Brisbane River Societies.

CADFAS Programme Details

The lectures are held in the Charles Luney Auditorium, St Margaret’s College, 12 Winchester Street, at 7.30 pm on a Monday evening. They last approximately one hour and wine and sandwiches are served afterwards. Guests of current CADFAS members are most welcome ($25.00 per guest) and $15 for visiting members of other New Zealand DFAS Societies but we would appreciate their names in advance so name tags may be prepared. Please phone or text Jan Rutherford 027 227 7149 or Libby Harrop 027 473 0028.

our 2026 programme

In 2026 we offer seven accredited The Arts Society lecturers from the UK and one Australian-based lecturer. Six of these will be with us in person and two will come via live broadcast from the UK. With the online lectures, there are opportunities to view additional topics from home, tuning in to the lectures hosted by the other Societies around the country.

We hope that things will run smoothly but will be ready to adapt our programme arrangements if necessary.

Membership

Our subscription for 2026 is $160.00 per person. Subscription notices are sent out in October and are payable by 31^st October.

Returning members:  Please make payment by internet banking and ensure you include your last name and initials in the Reference field.
If you have changed any contact details please complete the CADFAS Membership Form 2026 and return to :  canterburydfas@gmail.com

New Members:  Please download the CADFAS Membership Form 2026 then complete and make your payment according to the directions on the form.

Canterbury – 2026 Lecturer Biographies and Topics

Susannah Fullerton

Canterbury Date : Monday 9 March 2026 – 7.30pm

Susannah Fullerton, OAM FRSN, is Sydney’s best-known lecturer on classic novels. She lectures regularly at the State Library of NSW, at conferences, schools and libraries. She is a registered speaker for ArtsNational (previously the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society). She gives talks on famous writers and their novels, poems and plays at a great variety of places around NSW, Australia and overseas. Susannah has been President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for almost 30 years. She is also Patron of the Kipling Society of Australia, a founding member of the NSW Dickens Society and of the Australian Brontë Association. She is a Lady Patroness of the International Heyer Society.
Susannah loves to share her passion for great works of literature. In addition to being the author of several books on literary figures and topics, she has published articles and reviews, organised literary events and conferences, is a tour leader and literary awards judge, and is often interviewed on TV and radio about literary concerns.

TEN NOVELS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Literature has always had the power to change – just think of the impact of the King James Bible, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Dr Johnson’s Dictionary, Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. And yet fiction too has the power to change – to evoke sympathy, to make us take on different opinions, and even to bring about political and legal change.
This talk examines ten novels which altered our world, when it came to race relations, charity, the shape of literature, and the plight of the poor and the different. Discover which novels have had universal impact and be encouraged to think about which books you would select as having in some way brought about enormous change.

James Butterwick

Canterbury Date : Monday 20 April 2026 – Broadcast Live from the UK – 7.30pm

James Butterwick began collecting and selling Ukrainian and Russian Art in 1985 and has established himself as one of the world’s leading dealers and experts in the field. From 1994, he lived in Moscow, becoming the only foreign member of the Russian Society of Private Collectors, forming collections, contributing to museum exhibitions and reading lectures on the history of Russian Art. In 2013, he visited Kyiv, the first of over fifty visits to Ukraine before the start of the war.
A fluent Russian speaker, James lectures on Soviet Avant Garde painters, including the Ukrainian, Oleksandr Bohomazov (1880-1930) as well as on the issues of authenticity that surround the Ukrainian and Russian Avant Garde. He has spoken at the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow, New York and Cambridge Universities, the Kyiv Centre of International Relations and, in January 2021, at the seminal ‘Original or Fake’ conference, at the Ludwig Museum, Cologne. A regular on radio and television, James had his own slot of Radio Matryoshka in London.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE BOOM: THE MASS FAKING OF THE SOVIET AVANT GARDE

The Soviet Avant Garde contained some of the greatest names of art history. Malevich, Chagall, Kandinsky, and countless others, blazed a trail through Art History for an all-too brief period. With their creativity stunted by the advent of Socialist Realism in 1932, their work disappeared only to re-appear after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, when a flood of newly-discovered works appeared on the Western and domestic markets of which the vast majority, up to 98%, were fake, having neither verifiable provenance nor exhibition history, their authenticity supported by documents from unscrupulous Russian and Western art historians and bogus certificates of chemical expertise. This scandal reached a crescendo in January 2018 with an exhibition of 24 dubious works of the period at the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium. James Butterwick examines the background behind the mass faking of the Soviet Avant Garde, the history of these paintings, universally rejected by museums and the art market, as well as the methods used to ‘create’ authenticity. James was recently an expert witness exposing Russian fakes, ‘The Zaks Affair. Anatomy of a Fake Collection’, which aired on BBC4 on March 12th 2024 and he also appeared on ‘Fake or Fortune.

Note: With his online speaking circuit, James will be delivering a second topic to the NZ Societies so there is an opportunity to view this from home. Details and links will be sent in advance.

Rosalind Whyte

Canterbury Date : Monday 25 May 2026 – 7.30pm 

Rosalind Whyte holds a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Rosalind lectures at Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises.

CARAVAGGIO

In 1571 an artist was born who would bring about one of the most radical changes in pictorial styles, particularly through his pronounced use of contrasting light and shadow, or chiaroscuro. He was the most famous painter of his time in Italy, as well as a source of inspiration for hundreds of other artists. Known as Caravaggio, his given name was Michelangelo Merisi, but though he had the name of an angel, he was anything but, being a notorious brawler and spending his last years on the run from a murder charge. This lecture will introduce you to the drama of the life and the art of Caravaggio.

Charles Harris

Canterbury Date : Monday 22 June 2026 – Broadcast Live from the UK – 7.30pm

Charles Harris has had a life-long career in advertising around the world, most of it as a Creative Director in global agencies (J Walter Thompson, Bates, FCB, Publicis, Leo Burnett). Responsible for the quality of the creative ideas and finished production of advertising campaigns, his work for many of the world’s great brands including British Airways, QANTAS, Sony, Nestle, Kraft, BP, Gillette, and more has earned him global awards in New York, Hollywood, Singapore and Sydney. His experience as a creative advertising man gives his poster presentations a unique behind-the-scenes insight as to what works, what doesn’t, and why.

HOW THE WEST WAS SPUN: THE ROLE OF 19THC ART IN BUILDING THE AMERICAN PERSONA

In 1803, America acquired all the land from the Mississippi to the Rockies, doubling the size of the country overnight. Artists, illustrators and storyteller attracted trailblazing misfits to settle the vast empty lands. Was this the foundation of the “cowboy attitude” that so often defines America even today? “It takes one to know one” as they say. Please leave your guns at the door. Your lecturer was born in Iowa, USA, in the heart of it all.

Note: With his online speaking circuit, Charles will be delivering eight unique talks to all the NZ Societies so there is an opportunity to view additional topics from home. Details and links will be sent in advance.

Mark Cottle

Canterbury Date : Monday 27 July 2026 – 7.30pm

Mark Cottle was born on the Isles of Scilly and educated at Truro School, Cornwall and Birmingham University where he graduated with an MA in late medieval society and culture.  His career has been spent in teaching, training and lecturing at home and abroad. He has been with The Arts Society since 2007 and has lectured widely in England, Wales and Scotland.  He has also lectured in the Isle of Man, Berlin (Arts Society) and in 2023 for a month in Australia for ADFAS.

A MOUND OF TREASURES FROM FAR COUNTRIES WAS FETCHED ABOARD HER: THE STORY OF THE SUTTON HOO SHIP BURIAL

In the early seventh century a great ship was dragged ashore from the River Deben in Suffolk. It became the burial place of a powerful Anglo-Saxon warlord, buried with a mound of treasures from all over the known world. Fine weaponry, gold coins and exquisitely crafted jewellery revealed levels of sophistication which were a revelation. The aim of the lecture is, with reference to later excavations at Sutton Hoo, to examine the finds in turn, partly to appreciate them in their own right and partly to explore what insights they offer and what questions they pose about their world.

Charlie Hall

Canterbury Date : Monday 31 August 2026 – 7.30pm

A passionate arts educator, lecturer, and guide, Charlie Hall is based in London and Italy. Director of the highly regarded John Hall Venice Course, (est. 1965) Tour lecturer and leader for Kirker Holidays since 2013, and of independent tours in Italy. Designer and host of a series of art talks and events for the Soho House group of private member’s clubs. Designed and led courses for Christie’s Education and The Serpentine Gallery ‘Collector’s Circle’. Arts Society lecturer specializing in all things Italy.

MARINE CITY; HOW GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, AND HISTORY CONSPIRED TO CREATE THE SINGULAR CITY OF VENICE, AND A REVOLUTION IN ART AND TECHNOLOGY

Founded in the seventh century by refugees trying to escape invaders from the North and East, the city was established on an archipelago of muddy islands in the middle of a salty, tide-swept lagoon with no fresh water and scarcely any vegetation. In seven hundred years Venice became the richest and most powerful state in Italy and produced the most extraordinary revolution in the production of art as well as creating an environment for technological production, from book printing to glass making that still resonates to this day.

Ashley Gray

Canterbury Date : Monday 12 October 2026 – 7.30pm

Ashley Gray is Director of fashion and textile gallery Gray M.C.A and a recognised textile expert specialising in Modern Artist Textiles, their design and history. As a leading authority on the subject, he has published many articles and essays and is regularly invited to lecture and sit on committees of the leading International Art Fairs. As a curator, he has worked on an extensive array of exhibitions including Material Textile: Modern British Female Designers and Material Textile: Creativity, History & Process at Messums Gallery, Common Thread at New Art Centre and From Bauhaus to our House at Cromwell Place, London. He also curates the highly acclaimed Styled by Design exhibition that celebrates the innovation of modernist textile design. Ashley explores the textile innovators of the early to mid-20th century and the fusion between the applied, decorative and fine arts. From Cryséde to Cresta, Ascher to Edinburgh Weavers, Sanderson and David Whitehead. The evolution of textile design was a critical catalyst in the democratising of Modern Art. Sutherland, Hepworth, Moore, Picasso, Leger and many Modernist masters were commissioned for visionary artist textiles that brought Modernism into the home and onto the street in a blaze of colour that revitalised the post war world.

THE POST WAR TEXTILE VISIONARIES OF MODERN ART: TEXTILE REVOLUTION: POST WAR FEMALE DESIGNERS

The history of Britain is intricately woven with the history of textiles. Following World War II there was a desire for change, colour, and inspiration in the home. This energy and innovation was led by female textile designers destined to revolutionise design internationally from the 1950s to the 1970s. This lecture celebrates their vision, their influences and their determination that successfully brought modern and contemporary art into the home through their designs and thereby democratising modern art for the first time by making it literally a part of the furniture.

Amanda Herries

Canterbury Date : Monday 23 November 2026 – 7.30pm

Amanda Herries read Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge University. From 1978-1988 she was Curator at Museum of London specialising in the decorative arts 1714 to present day, exhibitions, lectures, booklets, broadcasts. In 1988-1995 she  moved with family to Japan, lecturing and writing on Oriental / Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. In 1995 she returned to UK, fundraising for arts companies, writing, lecturing and guiding tours to Japan and of gardens and general history in Scotland. Amanda has curated an exhibition on Japanese plants and gardens in London and Edinburgh as part of Japan/British celebrations in 2001 and is currently preparing an exhibition for 2026 on the Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe. Amanda has contributed to many publications on Japanese plant and garden influences in the West.

OPIUM: SEDUCTION, GREED, ART

The source of the stuff of dreams, the poppy is a beautiful, fragile flower with immense power. Opium (from the Greek ‘opion’ – poppy juice) is a hypnotic bringer of sleep, delightful lethargy and relief from pain. It is also highly addictive. Greed led to the introduction of this hugely desirable substance first to China, and then to Europe. The beguiling seduction of its effects led to its use to quieten troubled minds and calm agitated children and babies. Its use – often by those with troubled minds – led to the creation of great works of art in music, art and literature. Social and art history meet as this lecture unfolds.