Art break March 2026

We have been running Art Appreciation weekends for nearly two decades now with Jeremy Carlisle who has decided now to retire from delivering these wonderful weekends. We are delighted however to have found an equally well qualified Art curator and archaeologist in Amanda Herries. Here’s a little introduction to Amanda

Hallo to all art lovers,

I’m Amanda Herries, and I am delighted that Chris and Joanna at the Selkirk Arms have invited me to continue with the wonderful art appreciation weekend in Kirkcudbright that Jeremy Carlisle has overseen with such expertise for the last few years. I’m very aware that Jeremy sets a very high bar for me to reach. I am very grateful that I take over this event with his blessing, and we have discussed that I shall probably approach the general topic of art from a slightly different perspective.

For those of you used to a November ‘slot’ for this weekend I apologise for the change in 2026 to March, but unfortunately I am already committed to a lecture tour in Australia and New Zealand for October and November, and I know that in the past there have been March weekends – so it is March for 2026 but may return to the end of the year thereafter.

What are my credentials? I am an archaeologist by training (Cambridge University) – a career I had dreamt of from my early teens. But fate intervened, I wanted to work at the Museum of London, took the first job I could, rather assuming I could move internally into their Department of Urban Archaeology and found myself stuck in their ‘Modern Department’. For ten years I absorbed social and art history from 1714 to the day before the yesterday of then, all focussed on London. I then moved to Japan for eight years with my family (husband’s job) where I added Japanese and Asian knowledge to my European base. It was a hugely rewarding and enriching time.

Since my return to UK I have been involved in many artistic activities from being a Trustee of the National Trust for Scotland for nine years to cataloguing the fine art in public collections in Southern Scotland for the ArtUK project to curating exhibitions and writing books. All the while lecturing, mostly as an accredited Arts Society lecturer, which has taken me throughout the UK and Europe and to Australia and New Zealand, as well as lecturing and leading tours in Japan. I consider myself to be a social and decorative arts specialist, but you can’t, in my opinion, disassociate those arts from fine art appreciation and the ever-present joy and enrichment of looking at art.

I look forward to the challenge of following in Jeremy’s footsteps and I invite you to come with me on this very informal weekend as we explore some of the never-ending marvels

created by artists worldwide and over thousands of years.

Amanda ( November 2025)

Our first weekend with Amanda is set for the 6th - 8th March 2026

You can view the weekend content costs and timings here https://www.selkirkarmshotel.co.uk/artbreaks