From the moment they bonded over bad accommodation at Oxford, William Morris and Ned Jones became firm friends. They came from very different backgrounds – Morris had never wanted for anything; Jones’ family was poor – but their shared love of medieval literature and art bound them together. Over the more than 40 years of their friendship they weathered personal storms, tragedies and political disagreements to create beautiful art and craft, collaborating on book design, stained glass and many other decorative projects. This talk charts the peaks and troughs of Topsy and Ned’s long and fruitful friendship.
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Ms Kirsty Hartsiotis
Kirsty Hartsiotis has been the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham since 2008, and prior to that was the curator and manager of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. At Cheltenham she looks after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection, which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library. She’s curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts and Private Press Movements, most recently Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination & Making.
Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, she’s also a freelance researcher, currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West. She’s also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories. She’s the newsletter editor for Society of Decorative Art Collections, a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, and writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.