Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent fiveweek online course on Rome from University of Reading and FutureLearn using a 3D virtual reconstruction of the Roman city to tell its story.   I loved the format of this course with interesting videos, articles and walk throughs of the 3D model to look at the history of the city, political and religious architecture, everyday life and death and the role of entertainment. The videos were particularly good as they made for a welcome tour of the city in these times of lockdown. I didn’t get on very well with the self-guided tours of the model as I wasn’t very good at controlling it smoothly and got a bit seasick but the filmed ones were excellent.   The course was led by Matthew Nicholls who has also built the virtual city. He had an easy approachable style yet the content felt rich as it incorporated use of coins and literature as forms of evidence. I thought I knew the city quite well but I am now desperate to go back to see more such as the tomb of the baker...

Enjoyable course offered by Historic Royal Palaces and University of Glasgow via the FutureLearn platform looking at the history of royal and court fashion over 6 decades. The course ran over five weeks but you could do it at your own pace. Each week a new chapter was released covering Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and Windsors. I must admit I thought I might find it a but simplistic but I learned a lot and, as importantly, enjoyed it. I particularly liked the short videos either focusing on an object from the dress collection with one of the curators or conservators or showing how the clothes were put on with some of the palace’s historic interceptors. I wasn’t so keen on the practical exercises as you went through such as designing a crown and posting it online but I just read then skipped those. So well as being packed with information I also liked the light this shed on the work of Historic Royal Palaces and I feel I know a lot more about the behind the sce...