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8 days ago

Posted On: October 28th 2026, 05:11 pm

‼️Venue Change‼️

Due to exceptionally high demand the public launch of Peter Hall’s new book ‘Governing Growth: The Postwar Transformations of Capitalism and Democracy’ has been moved to the Sheikh Zayed Lecture Theatre in CKK Building on 2 November 2026 at 6:30pm.

If you already have your ticket, make sure you note the new venue in your calendars. Stewards will be there from 6pm on the day to help guide you to your seats.

If you haven’t got a ticket yet, head over to our bio before they sell out again!

My interest in Josefa de Óbidos, a Spanish-Portuguese 17th century painter, was the jumping-off point for my collaboration with @chelseafussflowers in her recent floral retreat in Lisbon (the retreat was called “Art, Flowers, & Gardens of Lisbon”, a title I find very evocative!).

Chelsea always wants her guests to be immersed in Portuguese culture and heritage and she and I worked together to translate Josefa’s legacy into different floral experiences for her guests.

On my first morning of teaching we headed out to Évora to see a few of Josefa’s paintings at the @museunfreimanueldocenaculo. We chose Évora because Lisbon’s old masters museum, the @mnaa_lisboa, is undergoing renovations and has been closed for a year, and Évora is both a short drive from Lisbon and an amazing city in its own right.

I started by giving them a little talk about Josefa’s background and career and then I went on explaining each of the paintings on display. We talked about the omnipresence of religion in Baroque society, the growing importance of sugar, the seasonality of sweets and the symbolism of flowers. As in 17th century poetry, paintings were filled with metaphors and fauna and flora were often associated with Christian meaning. We identified each flower and talked about what it could have meant to 17th century viewers.

In order to make this session a bit more interactive and three-dimensional, I brought along some of my paper flowers, specifically the ones I made following Josefa’s very rigorous and accurate depictions. Most of them are native to Portugal, which makes it even more interesting in terms of general knowledge and conservation.

After the visit to the museum we went to @ximenamaier’s home, where we were treated to an excellent lunch, animated conversation, a talk on the history of tiles and a tile painting workshop.

I’ve written more about the whole experience on my substack, the link is in my bio.

Carrying shopping bags is way too much effort 💀 Had to find a better solution.

#unnecessaryengineering #invent #overengineering #3danimation #overengineered

LSE Government

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