LECTURES & TALKS
The Hillside Club regularly host fascinating talks and lectures from local authors, professors, civic leaders and more. Keep an eye on the calendar for our upcoming events.
Upcoming Lectures and Talks
Wed, Sep 02Presentation on the intersection of contemplative practice, neuroscience, and music.
Mon, Sep 07Club member Marcus von Engel chairs a panel of local fire experts and representatives for a discussion on new regulations governing fire safety in the Berkeley Hills.
Sun, Sep 27In this presentation, Ismoyo and Nia will talk about their lifelong enchantment with the medium of batik.
Mon, Oct 05Hillside Club Historian David Mostardi presents a talk about the life and work of local publisher and bookseller Paul Elder.
Mon, Nov 02Historian and curator Gregory Dreicer explores the development of the grand narratives and building processes that enabled the construction of the modern nation during the 19th century.
Mon, Jan 04Environmental consultant Dr. Juliet Lamont discusses efforts to restore biodiversity to an urban creek.
Mon, Feb 01Mayor Adena Ishii visits to share her perspectives on issues of concern to Berkeley residents.
Mon, Mar 01Courtney Linn, the author of “Inverness by Design: How Berkeley Made a Summer Place,” discusses the strong intellectual and architectural connections between Berkeley and the coastal village of Inverness, on Tomales Bay.
Artistic License presents
"Conserving a Legacy: Exterior timber repairs at the Thorsen House"
An Illustrated lecture by Christopher Yerke
March 24, 2026 7PM at the Hillside Club, Berkeley
The William R Thorsen house is in a race against time and nature. As the Greene Brothers' ultimate expression of building with visible nature made manifest in its materials, and with its exposed structural elements that are as sculptural as they are functional, this house has been in a war of attrition with the elements from the very beginning. Last year it became apparent that four posts, supporting two stories above the covered terrace, had significant rot and insect damage at their bases. It was necessary to act with urgency to address the issue ahead of any future seismic events.
Join Dr. Christopher Buckley for a captivating discussion on life in Papua’s remote Baliem Valley.
During the 1980s Bud Hampton, a geologist, became interested in the inhabitants of the Baliem Valley on the island of New Guinea, in the remote Pacific. At that time, they had only recently been contacted by the outside world, and were still using stone tools that they quarried and knapped themselves. Bud assembled a remarkable collection of Baliem valley artifacts, including sacred stones and artifacts made from stone, bone and fiber. The collection lay undisturbed for nearly four decades, until it was gifted to the Tracing Patterns Foundation of Berkeley in 2020. This talk is the story of how the collection was assembled, how TPF catalogued, photographed and conserved it, and of the remarkable discoveries that we made along the way. It is also the story of our efforts to repatriate the collection to a new museum in New Guinea.