DISCOVER WITHIN: ART LECTURES
Aesthetic Adventurer: Year of Art Lectures
Join us for monthly art lectures as part of Aesthetic Adventurer's year-round programming! Based on enthusiastic feedback, we're now offering an annual bundle with exclusive benefits and savings.
Annual Bundle Includes:
- 12 expert-led monthly lectures with Dr. Jennie Hirsh
- All lectures recorded and available for 1 month (perfect if you can't make the live Zoom session)
- Up to 3 bonus art lectures throughout the year
- Exclusive Aesthetic Adventurer tote bag or zine
- 10% discount on all Art & Wellness retreats (subject to availability)
- The perfect gift to start the new year with inspiring art content and a welcoming community of fellow art enthusiasts!
John Singer Sargent | Sargent in Paris
This lecture explores Sargent in Paris, the landmark 2025 exhibition tracing the evolution of John Singer Sargent’s artistic vision through his dynamic relationship with the French capital. Long before he became synonymous with society portraiture, Sargent honed his craft in the studios and salons of Paris, absorbing while subtly challenging the conventions of the day. And so, even if you missed the exquisite show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you can still experience its splendor with this exclusive Aesthetic Adventurer talk!
Focusing on the formative years of the artist’s career, this talk examines how Sargent synthesized academic training with impressionist experimentation, producing works that dazzled with technical brilliance while pushing the boundaries of genre and subject. From atmospheric interiors to boldly lit portraits and sensuous studies of modern life, this seminar highlights how Paris, as well as other cities, including Venice, shaped Sargent's painterly language and positioned him at the intersection of tradition and innovation.
Occasioned by the fall 2025 Paris presentation of the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, the discussion will delve into key works featured in the show, offering fresh insights into Sargent’s cross-cultural influences, his cosmopolitan identity, and his lifelong dialogue with European art. Through close analysis and historical context, we’ll uncover how Sargent’s time in Paris forged a new mode of portraiture—one that was as much about surface and style as it was about personality and performance.
Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 5pm EST
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Dreamworld | Women and Surrealism
Motivated by the traveling exhibition Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and initiated by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, this lecture offers a survey of the tenets of Surrealism as an international movement. In addition to reviewing the history of how this movement took off as well as key texts, such as André Breton's First and Second Manifestoes of Surrealism, we will examine the critical role played by women artists in the group. To that end, we will look at paintings, sculptures, and other objects by Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Méret Oppenheim, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo, amongst others. Finally, we will consider women and surrealism today, touching on contemporary artist Susanna Wald and the ways in which this movement describes not only artistic but also curatorial practice as well.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 5pm EST
Calder Gardens | Art & Architecture
Inspired by the current flurry of activity around Philadelphia-born artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976), this timely lecture offers a brief survey of the artist's career, including his trademark sculptural mobiles, large-scale public works, paintings, prints, and intricate jewelry. First, drawing on the revelatory exhibition High Wire: Calder's Circus at 100 presented this fall and winter at the Whitney Museum of American Art, we will examine the history behind the creation as well as presentations of Calder's Circus, a quirky but significant work made of everyday materials, including wood, wire, string, fabric, cork, and other found materials. Second, we will consider the newly inaugurated Calder Gardens, the latest addition to the incredible arts institutions that line Benjamin Franklin Parkway, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, and the Barnes Foundation. Here we will examine not only this uniquely conceived space created by architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron but also the ways in which this magical venue creates a dynamic conversation between art, architecture, nature, and the city that surrounds it.
Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 5pm EST