February at the Academe
A Quick Look at the Academe classes coming up next month.
This course examines how the Regency era was depicted through the visual arts, exploring the intersection of class, politics, fashion, and daily life. From grand portraiture to satirical caricatures, we’ll analyse how artists captured the social tensions, aesthetic ideals, and evolving identity of the period.
Key Themes & Topics
- Regency Portraiture: Power, Prestige & the Cult of Personality
- The Rise of Caricature: Satirizing the Age
- Fashion & Beauty in Regency Art
- The Picturesque & the Sublime: Landscapes & Architecture
- Illustrating Literature: Visualizing Austen, Byron & Beyond
- Regency Revival: How Art Shaped Modern Perceptions
Course Structure
- Portraiture & the Cult of Personality
- Satire & Caricature – The Regency Under Scrutiny
- Fashion, Beauty & the Art of Elegance
- The Picturesque & Sublime in Landscape & Architecture
- Illustrating the Regency – Art & Literature
- The Regency in Popular Culture – Then & Now
This course will use visual analysis, historical context, and cultural critique to explore how the Regency era was both recorded and romanticized through art.
Registration closes February 11, 2026
In Regency England, spa towns served as multi-purpose centers for health, social events, leisure, and economic activity, evolving beyond their initial medicinal function to become hubs for the fashionable elite. As the popularity of spa towns grew, they transformed into major social hubs where people from high society came to see and be seen. For the wealthy, a trip to a spa town was a chance to escape from the exhaustion of tonlife and enjoy a variety of diversions.
In this class we will discuss the development of the various spa towns, what each was most famous for, the infrastructure required to support a successful spa town, the medicinal purposes and the medicinal quackery associated with some spa towns, the social life that developed, the political life that often occurred, persons of note, and scandals of note.
Spa towns were a microcosm of British society, but each had its own flavor and flair. It is hoped this class will present a picture of these towns and all they have to offer as settings for Regency fiction outside of the confines of London or the expanse of the countryside.
Registration closes February 25, 2026
