This will be held on Monday 13th April 2026 when Colin Smith will speak on ‘Merric Boyd and Murrumbeena’, a suburb where Boyd spent most of his life and created most of his remarkable pottery and sculpture. Colin will provide a history of Murrumbeena and Boyd’s life there, including recollections of the family by their friends and associates through the years.

This will be held on Monday 11th May 2026, and Genine Wallinga will present on ‘Sometsuke: the birth, aesthetics and social meaning of Japanese blue and white porcelain’, looking at the first porcelain produced in Japan, from the early 17th century, to the peak of quality in about 1690, through the time of the great trade with Europe. Genine will examine the history, iconography and social and ritual meaning of these pieces.

Australian pottery enthusiast extraordinaire, Sandra Van Zyl, will speak to us on 'Amusing and enthralling – my post-war Australian figurines'. Sandra’s talk will cover why she collected these figurines, which range from the 1940s to 2015, and include discussion about the potters, such as Hatton Beck and Sylvia Halpern.

The Circle’s Winter Seminar at The Johnston Collection will be about “Sleuthing, Rarity, Philanthropy: the Great Collector”. The presenters will be Felicity Marno,  Danny McOwan, Rob Robertson and Genine Wallinga. This year the seminar will be held on Saturday 27th June. This is a members only event, however you are most welcome to join the circle. Please use the 'membership' tab on the main menu. 

Elspeth Rowell, the winner of the Circle’s annual scholarship in honour of Patricia Begg OAM and Chris Begg, will present on THINGS. This award winning ceramics exhibition draws on the historical concept of the Cabinet of Curiosities to challenge the confines of Western classification systems through an installation of objects that defy taxonomic boundaries.  Elspeth’s work seeks to show how objects can embody and reveal histories of entanglement within physical space, and how the act of collecting itself might be re-imagined as a creative and philosophical practice of material thinking.