Ruskin’s Language: How a Victorian Prophet Uses Words

The Ruskin Art Club, founded in 1888, and LA’s oldest cultural and arts association, hosts its 16th-annual Ruskin Lecture this year at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. Clive Wilmer, the Master of the St. George Guild in the UK, a charity founded by art and social critic John Ruskin in 1871, and a distinguished poet, literary critic, translator, and Ruskin scholar, will speak on the topic: “Ruskin’s Language: How a Victorian Prophet Uses Words” on Thursday, September 3, in the Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall (DML 240). A reception at 7:00 p.m,, which will include an exhibition of rare historic Ruskin Art Club books and documents from the USC Libraries' Special Collections along with a selection of fine California food and wine, will be followed by the lecture at 8:00 p.m. Admission is free.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the Ruskin Art Club will partner with the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics at USC in hosting a timely lecture on Ruskin and environmentalism. Wilmer will speak on the topic: “Human Nature and Natural Abundance: John Ruskin and the Environment” in the Academy for Polymathic Study space (DML 241) from noon until 1:30 p.m. Lunch is included. The public is welcome. Admission is free.

For more information, call (310) 640-0710.

Since 2009, CLIVE WILMER has been Master of St. George Guild, the charity founded by John Ruskin in 1871. He is also Emeritus Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, an Honorary Fellow of Anglia Ruskin University, and an Honorary Patron of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. In the first half of 2015, he was a Visiting Professor at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. In 1985 he edited “Unto This Last and Other Writings by John Ruskin” for Penguin Classics, and is the author of several books of poetry, including “New and Collected Poems” (Carcanet, 2012).