Offered:

a day-long bus excursion to the Auckland Art Gallery and a talk on Gothic Art

  • • When: Saturday 23 March 2024

  • • Bus departs 9:00am from in front of the EarthDiverse Centre at 401 Anglesea Street and returns around 6:00pm.

  • • Includes guided tour and talk on Gothic Art

Description:

Day Excursion to the Auckland Art Gallery. Saturday 23 March 2024

  • • In the great wide panoply of human experience there exists, situated at one end of the spectrum, a strange fascination with the macabre, those dark brooding elements to do with doom, fate, melancholia, death and decay, a genre of art that bubbled up to the surface ironically during the age of reason and continued on down into the modern period.

  • • Loosely termed ‘gothic’ it embraces everything from horror stories to hauntings and everything in between. Hitchcock was a master at conjuring these demons in film, but artists from the romantic period through to the present have dipped their brush into that dark inky world and danced with the devil of the ghoulish, the spooky and the downright unnerving.

  • • Lunch: on your own. There are many restaurants and eateries in the vicinity of the Art Gallery.

  • • Auckland City Art Gallery have engaged with that world in an exhibition called, GOTHIC RETURNS: FUSELI TO FOMINSON. • EarthDiverse is offering a combination talk on the Origins of the Gothic Narrative, followed by a guided tour of the exhibition, conducted by both Norman Franke, PhD and Peter Dornauf, MA.

  • • Participants can choose to explore some artwork of the AAG's permanent collection, particularly the restored Brueghel the Younger painting ('The Village Fair') and can have some free time to explore other parts of the museum, Albert Park and the near-by shops such as Smith & Caughey's or Unity Books.

Meet our Instructors:

History, Literature & Philosophy Instructor Peter Dornauf, MA Dip Tchg

Peter Dornauf has taught in secondary schools, Wintec and Waikato University collectively for over 25 years. He is a well know Waikato artist, art critic and a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. His book “Days of Our Deaths” serves as the basis for one of Peter’s other popular EarthDiverse courses, “A Cultural History of Death.” Peter also teaches our “The Spiritual in Modern Art” course and continues to develop additional EarthDiverse courses for future Terms.

German Instructor Dr Norman Franke , MA Hamburg, PhD Humboldt, Berlin

Dr Norman Franke is a New Zealand based scholar, poet and filmmaker. He has taught German as a second language for more than three decades to a wide range of learners, from refugees to academics. Norman has published widely about 18th-century literature as well as German-speaking exile literature (Albert Einstein, Else Lasker-Schüler, Karl Wolfskehl) and eco-poetics. Norman’s poetry has been broadcast on radio and published in anthologies in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Norman also teaches other courses for EarthDiverse, including our new course on Sacred Poetry, and courses in Art, Literature and Philosophy.

Location:

Bus departs from the EarthDiverse Centre, 401 Anglesea St, Hamilton

We're located just a few shops north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station on the same side of the street. Our bus will leave from the carpark in front of the EarthDiverse Centre. You can leave your car all day in any of the dedicated EarthDiverse car parks in front of the Centre, or also just in front on Anglesea Street. Alternatively, you can bus to the Hamilton Central Bus Station and walk the very short-distance to our Centre.
Location

Pricing options:

Prices include round-trip bus transportation to the Auckland Art Gallery (GST inclusive) and tour guides. Lunch not included.

Prerequisites:

A keen desire to enjoy yourself on this day outing and to appreciate Art!

  • There are no prerequisites for this excursion. This trip is family friendly.