History Get Together Group

Free art talk about Belgium surrealist painter Rene Magritte.

Please book your free tickets here before attending the event: https://www.stockportartguild.com/sagevents

This is not a pipe. No, it’s a painting called “This is Not a Pipe”. Rene Magritte (1898-1967) was the straight-laced, traditionally middle-class surrealist painter, the exact opposite of the flamboyant, extravagant Salvador Dali. His paintings of intense clarity pit everyday objects and situations in ridiculous settings: a train emerging from a fireplace; a young man looking into a mirror seeing not his reflection, but himself looking into a mirror. The everyday mixed up and set in the wrong place. Arts Society lecturer and Manchester tour guide Ed Glinert reveals and explains Magritte’s distorted world.

About Ed:

Author: "Manchester: The Biography", the first ever major history of the city, published by Great Northern Books.

Award-winning Manchester, London, Liverpool tour guide & historian.

Winner: "Best Manchester Walking City Tour Operator 2023" in the European Travel Awards.

Qualified to guide by the Institute of Tourist Guiding.

Websites:
newmanchesterwalks.com, newlondonwalks.com

Cruise ships speaker
Arts Society lecturer

Journalism: 40 years’ experience. Co-founder City Life, production Radio Times, launch production editor Mojo, 12 years with Private Eye.

Free entry, booking essential.

Event organised by Stockport Art Guild.

Refreshments will be available for a small charge.

You can reserve up to 2 tickets.

Date: Sunday 3rd May 2026.
Time: Arrive 1.45pm for a 2.00pm start.
Event finishes approximately at 3.00pm with Q&A.

Location: Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Wellington Road South, Stockport, SK3 8AB.

Wheelchair access available.

Lift.

stockportartguild.com
contact@stockportartguild.com

Featured Images: AI generated using photo image of
'The treachery of images (This is not a pipe)' by Rene Magritte (1928-1929) Source: Wilkipedia

Please book your free tickets here before attending the event: https://www.stockportartguild.com/sagevents

This talk given by Arts and Culture Historian Michael Ohajuru explores how Black people have been shown in Western European art, from Titian to Chris Ofili, from being cast as servants, symbols or curiosities to becoming central, creative figures in their own right.

It looks at how artists have represented Black lives across the centuries, and how today’s audiences are rethinking what these images mean. Along the way, it asks important questions about whose stories get told in art, and how those stories shape the way we see each other overlooked in traditional narratives, and invites fresh perspectives on Black presence in Britain’s history.

Talk given by Michael Ohajuru.

A signed copy of Michael's recent book ‘Who Is John Blanke?’ (RRP £35) is also available (free of charge) as a prize for a free raffle at the talk.

Free entry, booking essential.

Event organised by Stockport Art Guild.

Refreshments will be available.

You can reserve up to 2 tickets per purchase.

Ticket link: https://www.stockportartguild.com/sagevents

Date: Sunday 10th May 2026.

Time: Arrive 12.45pm for a 1.00pm start.

Event finishes approximately at 3.00pm with Q&A.

Location: Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Wellington Road South, Stockport, SK3 8AB.

Wheelchair access available.

Lift.

stockportartguild.com
contact@stockportartguild.com

Featured Image: Lockdown 2020 by Ebun Culwin

Norton Priory Museum & Gardens, situated on the edge of Runcorn, is one of Cheshire's hidden gems. Once home to a medieval church, this is the most excavated monastic site in Europe. Visitors can explore the 12th century undercroft with beautiful vaulted ceiling and the priory ruins showing the layout of the medieval buildings.

The museum displays thousands of objects discovered at the site, which tell the 900-year history from priory to mansion house and the stories of the people who lived here. It is also surrounded by woodland walks, bringing opportunities to discover secret summer houses, sculptures and a stream glade.

The Plant Hunter's Fair is also on. There will be a tremendous range of plants available for sale from a host of favourite specialist plant growers. Buy away or just have a wander and a browse!

We shall meet at the museum's Café around 11am, and shortly afterwards look around the beautiful undercroft and museum. After eating at the cafe we shall explore the walled garden, grounds and flower fair.

Norton Priory has a free car park. Access to the museum and grounds is £9 if purchased in advance and (most likely) £13.50 on the day. To buy tickets in advance, go here: https://nortonpriory.greatbritishevents.org/events/85d95efa-4b31-474d-95e3-77a4c4ba7686 . Be sure to get the "Adult - Plant Hunters' Fair Early Bird Entry (WHOLE SITE)"

For anyone who hasn't paid for annual membership of this meetup group, please give me a couple of quid on the day to cover this event so I can afford to keep running them. Cheers!

Find out how three sisters, daughters of a country clergyman, grew up to produce some of the most powerful and dramatic novels in the English language.

Haworth Parsonage – the former home of Yorkshire’s famous literary family - is now a museum and showcase for the world's most extensive collection of Brontë items. Located in the beautiful village of Haworth, it was home to the Brontë family from 1820 to 1861, and is the place where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë wrote some of the country's greatest novels: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

We shall meet at the nearby Old Haworth Post Office (which is actually a cafe) at 11am, and shortly afterwards go to the museum. Then after looking around we'll get lunch at a cafe and either return to the museum or explore the beautiful streets of Haworth. A good place to visit is visit is St Michael and All Angels church opposite the Museum, where all the Brontës except Anne are buried.

The museum is £15 for a standard ticket, with concessions available (see the booking page, https://www.bronte.org.uk/general-admission ). For anyone who hasn't paid for annual membership of this meetup group, please give me a couple of quid on the day to cover this event so I can afford to keep running them. Cheers!