Strawberry Hill House has partnered with London Art Week to deliver an online talk, which will explore the role of female artists, actresses, and playwrights involved with theatre at Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill.

The webinar will be introduced and moderated by Gallery Director of Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Emanuela Tarizzo, and will feature 3 other prominent guest speakers.

Gallery Director Emanuela has previously organised exhibitions with fellow art dealers and contemporary artists, authored catalogues and regularly hosted gallery talks. She is also a London Art Week board member and has a Masters degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

The first speaker is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway University, Judith Hawley, who will discuss Walpole's activity as a playwright and the custom of private theatrical events of the period.

Judith frequently appears on BBC radio and television, has published essays on private theatricals, and co-directs RAPPT, a research network which aims to increase understanding and raise the profile of non-professional performance.

The second speaker is Cynthia Roman, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Paintings at The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. She will present illustrations of Walpole's scandalous gothic play 'The Mysterious Mother' by the artist Diana Beauclerk and the closet built to house them at Strawberry Hill.

Cynthia was co-curator for the exhibition 'Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill' at the Yale Center for British Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, 2009-2010. She is also co-editor of 'Staging The Mysterious Mother', soon to be published by Yale University Press.

The final speaker is Laura Engel, a Professor of English at Duquesne University, Pennsylvania. She will discuss Walpole's literary executor Mary Berry's play 'Fashionable Friends', performed at Strawberry Hill with sets designed by her sister Agnes and starring herself and the sculptress Anne Damer in the leading roles. She will also talk about Damer's close relationship with the famous actress Eliza Farren, re-imagined in Emma Donoghue's historical novel 'Life Mask'.

Laura specializes in 18th century British literature, material culture and theatre. She has authored several books about women and celebrity culture, including: 'Women, Performance, and the Material of Memory: The Archival Tourist', 'Fashioning Celebrity: Eighteenth-Century British Actresses' and 'Austen, Actresses and Accessories'. She also recently co-curated the exhibition 'Artful Nature: Fashion and the Theater 1770-1830,' at Yale's Lewis Walpole Library.

The webinar will start at 5pm on 16th March and you can register for free HERE