Ealing

ONLINE CONTENT

ARTS

The BBC has some Culture in Quarantine episodes actually filmed in lock-down, including Swan Lake Bath Ballet. These are also accessible through iPlayer and are available for 10-11 months. There are over 30 items which are mostly quite short.

Atelier des Lumières, Paris, have a video on YouTube of a very interesting exhibition held last year entitled Van Gogh Immersive Art Exhibition. The special effects bring it to life; click on the link to view it.

ART GALLERIES

Art UK is a website that has plenty of paintings from all genres and ages. They have a very good newsletter which links to various themes, with articles and videos. Easy to subscribe, it’s at the bottom of the home page - https://artuk.org/

The National Gallery website allows you to view some of the collection and lots of behind the scene videos.

National Gallery: has taken up the theme of Valentine’s Day to celebrate the love story of two Rubens paintings. They also have a video on arrows in art and exhibits on the topic of love. There is a variety of online events running through to April. These include exhibition talks, talks on artists and studios for children to take part.

Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art – one of Korea’s popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Margaret Dovaston
With Covid-19 restrictions, Mill Hill Park Residents Association had to cancel a planned unveiling of a plaque to the distinguished War Artist and Genre Painter, Margaret Dovaston on Saturday 23rd May.
Instead the MHPRA has put a document about Dovaston, (a former resident of 51 Avenue Gardens, Mill Hill Park, Acton) her life and her achievements on their website which includes examples of the wide range of her work; click on the link above to view this.

EDUCATION and LEARNING

The Arts Society, the UK’s leading arts education charity, has announced a series of free online Lectures at Home which also include film screenings and live Q&As by authors. The programme is aimed at the over 60s and the lectures already online, include:
. Marc Allum, The Anatomy of Collecting
. Rebecca Hossack, Aboriginal Art - recording the Dreamtime
. Sandy Burnett, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fit of Rage: when his Third Symphony became the Eroica

There are a lot of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) available with a huge variety of topics - now is your chance to learn more. Click on the link to access the U3A National website with information on many of these - most are free

Gresham Lectures – these are free to watch and cover a variety of topics from art, literature, music to science, medical science, business and politics. There is an extensive archive and you can subscribe to their newsletter of forthcoming talks which are live-streamed.

Workers' Educational Association run a great number of interesting courses (by zoom and on-line) in a variety of subjects at a small fee. Several of our members are already taking them. For details see https://www.wea.org.uk/

Futurelearn run by the Open University offers free online courses run by other higher education institutions around the world. (You can leave the course at any time if you don't like it). Why not try out the courses on Climate Change put on by the Climate Change Department at the University of Exeter. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses

Members interested in the Hilary Mantel Reith Lectures from 2017, mentioned by speaker Alastair Hagger during his talk on Turpin, will be able to listen to them here, as well as all other Lecture episodes.

Explore museum masterpieces from your sofa, in short films produced by museums and galleries across the UK and internationally, at openartsarchive.org.

FILMS AND VIDEOS

Tutankhamun - Did you plan on visiting the ‘TUTANKHAMUN: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh’ exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery but missed going to see it before we had to stay at home? If so try these two documentaries –
1. BBC, Tutankhamun The Truth Uncovered
2 Channel 5, Tutankhamun with Dan Snow

Talking Pictures TV offers free broadcasting of classic movies 24 hours a day mainly older British films, both classics and ‘B’ features but also some American films, straight-to-video items, cinema shorts, and period home movies in British locations. Available on TV channels: Freeview 81, Freesat 306, Sky 328, Virgin Media 445, Youview 81.

Great Movies Classic (previously True Movies) has round the clock broadcasting of movies from the 1940s onwards. Available on TV Channels Freeview 51, Freesat 303, Sky 319, Virgin Media 424.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS

Historic Houses is a cooperative association of independent historic houses and gardens whose members have come together to speak with one voice, offer mutual aid and pool experiences and expertise, and encourage best practice.
Although you need to be a member to get the full benefits, there is a lot of information available on their website including searching for a historic house near you. You can also sign up for their Newsletter using this link.

Historic Buildings in Ealing If you have access to Facebook there is a page of listed buildings in Ealing. The person visited each building in turn on her daily lock-down walks and took photos which she has posted on her Facebook page. They are very interesting to see.

If you want to see which buildings are listed in your area click here: Historic England has a post-code facility in its search engine.

Historic Houses: While we are unable to go on holiday or visit stately and historic houses, the online offerings can take us there in spirit. A series of podcasts, Duchess, explores historic homes and the inspiring women who lead them. Stowe House has its own YouTube channel with short videos revealing some of the secrets of the house and its restoration. And you can have a whistle stop tour of Belvoir Castle and its surrounds.

How about a virtual tour inside the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Windsor Castle, or London Silver Vaults courtesy of the BBC?

Wigmore Hall: has a number of live streamed events, including family workshops and programmes for young children.

Youtube video recordings of the recent series of Thames Luminaries talks:
. Behind the Walls of Hogarths House .
. C17th - C21st Is Ham House Garden  still a garden of Contemporary Ideas?
. J.M.W. Turner and the grounds of  Sandycombe Lodge
. Boston Manor House Landscapes.
. Marble Hill: Howard and her Garden of Grottos and Groves
. Horace Walpole's "Enchanted little landscape" at Strawberry Hill 

MUSEUMS

Google Arts and Culture – If you haven’t found it yet, there are masses of arts and culture links on this Google site.

The Sotheby’s website has a series called Treasures from Chatsworth highlighting many items from the Devonshire Collection at historic Chatsworth House. Episode 10 is on treasures from the local area, the Mortlake Tapestries.

Although all their properties are closed at present, the National Trust website has lots of information about these properties including pictures and videos from many of them and the chance to explore their collection of treasures at many of the houses.
Some properties have their own websites with lots of interesting articles and videos; one such is Waddesdon House. There is one particular highlight here which is the Elephant Automaton.

British Museum , London – a tour of the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour.

Guggenheim Museum, New York – Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.

The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg - a 5-Hour Single-Shot Walkthrough of Russia’s Hermitage Museum. This is beautiful – you can dip in and out any time you want. Stunning.

Leighton House was the home of Frederic Lord Leighton, President of the Royal Academy. One of his most famous paintings is Flaming June. The House is in Kensington and their website is - https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums

MASP, São Paulo – Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a non-profit and Brazil’s first modern museum. Artworks placed on clear perspex frames make it seem like the artwork is hovering in midair. Take a virtual tour to experience the wondrous display for yourself.

Musée d’Orsay , Paris – you can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.

Mexico City, National Museum of Anthropology – built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artefacts, including some from the Mayan civilization.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. – this famous American art museum features two online exhibits viewable through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.

The J. Paul Getty Museum , Los Angeles – European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin – as one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer, even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.

Royal Museums Greenwich (included are the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum), their combined website has masses to interest all covering art, history and science.

Uffizi Gallery , Florence – this less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de'Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de'Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world.

Van Gogh Museum , Amsterdam – anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum which houses the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.

The Army Flying Museum at Middle Wallop in Hampshire has produced a series of free "Lockdown Lectures" currently running online. Lectures are broadcast live on Monday evenings at 7pm, with a Q&A following, but past lectures are archived and are also available to view. The museum has extended an invitation to members of London U3As who may be interested. There is no charge for these lectures but donations are encouraged.

The Art Fund is keeping track of the latest dates and announcements of museums and galleries starting to reopen across the UK so you can see what’s on where.

Claimed as the World's Largest Museum, Education and Research Complex the Washington DC based Smithsonian Institution has a virtual tour with something for everyone. A massive range of interests is catered for ranging through Art and Design, History and Culture, Science and Nature etc. etc. Not to be missed!

The Cartoon Museum, 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London W1A 3AE has a wide range of cartoons and comics. There is an online exhibition Cartoons from the Secret Artists of Changi Prison Camp 1942-1945 and an online shop.

Museum of the Home (formerly Geffrye Museum), Geffrye Almshouses, 136 Kingsland Road, Hoxton, London E2 8EA, is hoping to reopen early in 2021. It has a good variety of information on its website about rooms and gardens through time and changes in general living conditions. They have been documenting the changes we have all been living through during this pandemic.

The Jewish Museum, Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB is also currently closed. However they are running talks via Zoom. There is interesting material on the website ranging from photos of toys and other items belonging to Jewish immigrant children to a history of Jewish Britain among their permanent exhibitions. Some of these have video explanations.

The Brontë Lounge. This was mentioned in a recent talk by Dr. Simon Avery. Avid readers of the Brontës may be interested in the Brontë Parsonage Museum website.

MUSIC

The Royal Opera House: has its own YouTube channel with lots of free ballet and opera performances as well as interviews. They also have free and paid-for events on their website.

Andrea Bocelli - Music for Hope On Easter Sunday 2020, by invitation of the City and of the Duomo cathedral of Milan, the Italian global music icon gave a solo performance as a message of love, healing and hope to Italy and the world.

The Royal Albert Home series - the Royal Albert Hall are showing a series of exclusive sessions by various artists, recorded at their homes. These have included artists like Richard Thompson, Katherine Jenkins, Alfie Boe, pianist Gabriela Montero, and David Walliams.

Previous archived sessions from this series are also available including Cliff Richard, Richard Thompsonand Katherine Jenkins (a special session for the 75th anniversary of VE Day).

St Marys Perivale are streaming teatime concerts most afternoons at 4 pm from 1st September 2020; full details of the their 44 autumn concerts are on their website. If you do watch/listen to any of these concerts St Mary’s are asking if you would make a donation to help support their musicians

A number of Opera houses have online content available; among these are:

You may also enjoy some of these short clips from the Musicals suggested by Juliet Edwards and Sylvia Stirling:

And lastly, very appropriate for the moment:

A virtual map of World Music Festivals, with access to the music. Perhaps not everyone's cuppa, but having recently discovered this, it’s giving me a lot of listening pleasure - Jurek N.

NATURE and the ENVIRONMENT

RSPB: There have been mentions of birds and wildlife in this and other newsletters. The RSPB has a useful guide to birds and birdsong and there are snippets of birdsong to help you identify your garden visitors.
You can sign up for their regular “Notes on Nature Bitesize” email which covers conservation and the environment as well as wildlife-friendly plants.

Birds Our list of Ealing U3A garden birds has grown: Blackbird, Blue tit, Collared Dove, Crow, Goldfinch, Great tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Long Tailed tit, Magpie, Pigeon (feral and wood), Redwing (winter visitor), Ring-Necked Parakeet, Robin, Sparrow, Starling, Thrush, Wren, and water birds on our park lakes and ponds. It would be great to receive any new sightings of Red Wings, which should be back soon. Has anyone seen a Chaffinch or a Green Finch recently? We would also like to hear about sightings of rarer creatures, such as the Stag Beetle seen recently. https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/give-nature-a-home-in-your-garden/

Nature Webcams
It was suggested at the Virtual Coffee Morning that a really pleasant thing to do is spend time watching nature webcams and you might be interested to look at these webcams, but be warned you can waste a lot of time watching them!
https://explore.org/livecams/raptor-resource-project/mississippi-river-flyway-cam
https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls

Ealing Local History: To commemorate the 300th anniversary of Gilbert White in 2020, Peter Hounsell gives a 40 minute talk on their YouTube channel on the Natural History of Selborne and Perivale Wood. The Ealing Libraries channel has many short video clips by Dr. Jonathan Oates including a series “Ealing’s Famous Faces” ranging from Princess Amelia and Lady Byron to Cleo Laine and David Suchet. They also have another series "Ealing's Green Spaces” on many of theparks in the Borough. It is worth taking a look.

PHOTOGRAPHY

If you’re interested in photography, click on Wellcome Photographic Prize to view last year’s winners.

PLACES

Layers of London have a historical map of London – click on an area to see its history.

Take a virtual tour of Kew Gardens by clicking on the link.

The Londonist specialises in London trivia and should be of interest to everyone, especially London Revisited regulars; this is a link to their YouTube channel.

Ealing on YouTube: A search for Ealing Local History Channel shows some very interesting and varied videos including several on Ealing Studios (interviews with Michael Balcon and directors of the period) and historical events in the borough.

PUZZLES / QUIZZES

Do you like Puzzles/Quizzes?
If you have a tablet or smartphone, the free Metro app is good. It has an additional evening issue Monday to Friday and a puzzle-only edition on Saturdays.

Otherwise, there is the Virtual Pub Quiz on YouTube – they have various quizzes running at different times.

SCIENCE and HEALTH

If you’re interested in astronomy, try the British Astronomical Association website where they have video streams of many “stargazy” lectures, or else see the Royal Museums Greenwich - Blog page for a monthly podcast on what to see in the night sky each month.

Chartered Society of Physiotherapists is publishing tips on how people can remain healthy at home - https://www.csp.org.uk/easyexercises

The Royal Institution, famous for its Christmas lectures on TV, has lots of resources on- line see including all of the Christmas lectures back to 1968! (see https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures)

For science in general in the UK see the Royal Society’s newsletter – the Royal Society is the academy of top scientists in the UK.

Scientific American Videos – Scientific American, the respected popular science journal, has many videos available online for free (only some of them about COVID-19!).

The Wellcome Foundation has masses of free information on their various websites. For their objectives and current science activities see https://wellcome.ac.uk/. For more on the Wellcome Collection and virtual tours see https://wellcomecollection.org/ which also takes you to their digital collections and latest stories.

Keep Fit: The Green Goddess (Diana Moran, now aged 80) is still running keep fit sessions and has various videos on YouTube, including this one on behalf of the White Lodge Centre -Keeping Fit

If you really want to LEARN about a subject, you could try the hundreds of courses offered (mostly free) as Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOC). There is a U3A MOOCs website which is https://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/ which has loads of useful info about MOOCs in general, as well as Links to various organisations running courses.
There are also online courses run by Brilliant. Their tagline is ‘Learn to Think’ and their courses aim to build quantitative skills in math, science, and computer science with fun and challenging interactive explorations. You have to pay for these courses, but they do offer a free trial.
FutureLearn is another digital education platform, founded in December 2012 and jointly owned by The Open University and SEEK Ltd. It is a MOOC learning platform, and as of June 2020 included 175 UK and international partners, including non-university providers.

THEATRE

Suggestions from Rosemary Hart, Theatre Group Convenor - Given we're unable to enjoy live theatre during this difficult time, here are a few online services that you may enjoy and help pass the time for you too
GLOBE PLAYER - the best of Shakespeare's Globe; a mixture of free and paid for content.
MARQUEE TV - features work from the RSC, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House and a selection of other companies; free trial for 14 days then £8.99 per month.
DIGITALTHEATRE.COM - plays, musicals, dance and opera; subscription £9.99 a month or rent shows individually.

Questors: We were delighted to hear that The Questors has reached its Crowdfunding target of £50,000, which should help it to keep going during this pandemic. For further information on Questors' live performances and YouTube performances see http://www.questors.org.uk/ as well as their Youtube channel.

National Theatre: In addition to the free shows on YouTube, the National Theatre are re-opening on 21st October with a live performance of “Death of England: Delroy”.

U3A DESKTOP TRAVELS

Introducing our new Travel Agency: No visas, no travel insurance, no shots, no anti- malarials, no packing, no long flights and no money required. and guaranteed Covid-19 safe.

Expedia, an online travel company, have set up some virtual travel experiences you can take without leaving home. Examples include a hike through Yellowstone or Yosemite, a flight over Scotland, a road trip through the Alps, a train journey to the Arctic Circle, or an immersive scuba dive in the tropics.

Australia
Swim with the fish on the Great Barrier Reef at https://youtu.be/wbNein3vVKM
China
Take the train from Xining to Lhasa, Tibet. This journey across the Tibetan plateau normally takes 24 hours, but we can do it in 2 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFQOUYchCfg
India
Take the Rhotang Pass (the highest road pass) to Manali, the deadliest road drive in the world. This white-knuckle drive normally takes 1.35 hours, but we can do it in safety in 32 minutes.
See the Driver's view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUdOQ8gLxac
Kenya
See the Flamingoes dance on Lake Nakuru at https://youtu.be/NBpe£s-Qj1Q
Mars
For a travel experience that is truly out of this world,
see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56158928
New Zealand
Take a scenic train journey in New Zealand, with the Driver's View New Coastal Pacific Train - Part 1 (44.5 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfF19Rt0Zyw
Norway
Take the Train Driver's View from Flåm to Myrdal with sun and rain
This journey normally takes over an hour, but we can do it in 42 minutes,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHuGHrzwlqE
or for the journey from Myrdal to Flåm in snow, take the Winter Wonderland Train Driver's View https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iucecbjNPXA
Pakistan
Drive a bit of the 1300 kilometres Karakoram Highway, between Gilgit and Baltistan in 3.56 minutes. The scenery is absolutely spectacular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2PAGos80
Peru
Take the Perurail train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the stop for Machu Pichu, on the narrow gauge train. This clip shows the 4 zigzags the train takes to gain the height needed to get over the mountains. This journey normally takes 3.15 hours, but we do it in 4 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMh3A_F4CXo
South Georgia
The Whale's Tale, a talk in the series Southern Ocean Stories put on by the British Antarctic Survey
https://www.ukaht.org/latest-news/2021/the-whale-s-tale/

Fancy a walk with a difference? Try planning a walk with trees in mind at TreeTalk - just put in your postcode and it will design a walk for you.