Seasonal Stories around the Fire with Fiona Eadie

Saturday 21 December

Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth

10.30am. A wonderful opportunity to hear enthralling tales, fabulous fables and elaborate lies - for this Christmas special Fiona has  invited friends to join her - including Kelvin Hall and Kirsty Hartsiotis. Stories are for everyone - adults without children, and children with adults are all welcome. Ruskin Mill's lovely cafe is open for hot drinks and yummy food!

Tour: Ernest Gimson's furniture

Thursday 12 December

The Wilson, Cheltenham

1pm. Come and join exhibition curator Kirsty Hartsiotis for an in depth look at Ernest Gimson as a furniture maker and designer, exploring selected objects in featured in Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination and Making.

Talks start at 1pm and will be in the exhibition with the objects. Each talk lasts about forty five minutes, with a chance to chat!

Talk: Arts and Crafts Movement First World War Memorials in Gloucestershire

Thursday 24 October

Museum in the Park, Stroud

2pm. Discover the stories behind Gloucestershire's unusual concentration of war memorials by Arts and Crafts Movement designers such as Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, F L Griggs and Henry Wilson. 

Suffolk Ghost Tales

Tuesday 8 October

Reading Room, St James Street, Dunwich, Suffolk

7.15pm. Suffolk’s dark lanes and windswept beaches are seething with spooks! These ghostly tales for the dark time of the year are performed in story and song by Kirsty Hartsiotis and Cherry Wilkinson, the authors of Suffolk Ghost Tales. Come and hear about what lurks by Suffolk’s unforgiving sea – if you dare. 

Talk: Village Life by Stanley Spencer

Thursday 12 September

at The Wilson, Cheltenham

6pm. Come and join our collections team for a series of in-depth evening talks about iconic objects in the museum. Curator Kirsty Hartsiotis will be talking about Stanley Spencer’s painting Village Life (Village Gossips), 1940, painted while the artist was staying in Leonard Stanley. You will have an opportunity to see one of the  drawings for this painting.pm and will be with the objects in the galleries. Each talk lasts about half an hour, and then there will be a chance to ask questions

Talk: John Ruskin and His Influence

Thursday 11 July

at The Wilson, Cheltenham

6pm. Come and join our collections team for a series of in-depth evening talks about iconic objects in the museum. Curator Kirsty Hartsiotis will be exploring the new display of books around the bicentenary of art critic, social reformer and artist John Ruskin’s birth, including Kelmscott and Doves Press books. You will have an opportunity to see additional books from the library.

Right Proper Barding

Sunday 2 June

at Stratford Park, Stroud

3pm. Fire Springs storytellers Anthony Nanson and Kirsty Hartsiotis will be bringing the Bard's tales to life with their bardic arts. Shakespeare drew his tales from many sources, and we’re going back to his bardic roots to bring you tragedy, comedy and a little bit of history. Featuring a salty King Lear, the real medieval Macbeth, Richard III, twins and deception, and, for one night only, Shakespeare's (extremely alleged!) arch-nemesis Robert Greene's tale of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay...

Right Proper Barding

Saturday 1 June

at Stratford Park, Stroud

5pm. Fire Springs storytellers David Metcalfe and Kirsty Hartsiotis will be bringing the Bard's tales to life with their bardic arts. Shakespeare drew his tales from many sources, and we’re going back to his bardic roots to bring you tragedy, comedy and a little bit of history. Featuring a salty King Lear, the real medieval Macbeth, Richard III, twins and deception, and, for one night only, Shakespeare's (extremely alleged!) arch-nemesis Robert Greene's tale of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay...

Talk: Ghosts in the Stones

Wednesday 22 May

at CAHS, Ashcroft Hall, Cirencester

7.30pm. As part of Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society's AGM, Kirsty will be delving into the dark, secret histories of Gloucestershire’s ghosts, who are lurking out there in the countryside and hidden in the buildings of the towns and cities of the county. This talk explores some of the county's supernatural tales, and the stories, personalities and histories behind them.

A Fair Field Full of Folk

Saturday 27 April

at St Gregory's Church, Cheltenham

7.30pm. A Fair Field Full of Folk – visions of life, love, death and redemption from England’s Middle Ages, performed by Fire Springs storytellers Anthony Nanson, Kirsty Hartsiotis and David Metcalfe. Meet saints and sinners, goodwives and knights, rogues and ravens, in a colourful tapestry of tales and music that open a medieval window on today’s world. Tickets: £10.50 (students free)

Talk: The Bride

Thursday 14 March

at The Wilson, Cheltenham

6pm. Come and join our collections team for a series of in-depth evening talks about iconic objects in the museum. Curator Kirsty Hartsiotis will be talking about the ethereal veiled ceramic sculpture The Bride made by Copeland, part of our collection of Victorian parian figurines. 

A World of Stories

Friday 1 February
at Swindon Central Library

7pm. Stories unite us. Their common themes where ever they originate in the world lay bare all the strengths and frailties of the human race. They are what we tell our children and each other at home, around fires, in the pub or sitting on a park bench. This year Swindon Central Library to celebrate National Storytelling week, invites you not only to listen to three renowned storytellers, John Row, Kirsty Hartsiotis and Baden Prince, but to tell your own stories whether they be traditional or anecdotal.

Talk: Enchanted Cotswold Country

Thursday 24 January

Museum in the Park, Stroud

2pm. Discover the story of Dymock poet John Drinkwater, who had links with the Arts and Crafts Movement from his early days as a playwright in Birmingham, through to his time living in Far Oakridge, near Stroud, during the First World War.