The Cork Decorative & Fine Arts Society (CorkDFAS), established last year, has announced details of its 2014/2015 programme.

It begins with a workshop for members on September 27th titled Best Practice in Preventative Conservation for Volunteers.

Society chairman Anthony Wade said the society hoped to train volunteers to assist with the hands-on conservation of public and private collections "following suitable instruction and training, and under professional supervision".

The society's series of evening lectures on aspects of artistic and cultural heritage (held monthly at the Clarion Hotel, Lapps Quay) will start on October 1st when John Gillis of Trinity College Dublin will speak about the discovery and conservation of the Faddan More Psalter. The medieval manuscript was found in a Tipperary bog in 2006.

On November 5th, a talk by Sarah Foster of the CIT Crawford College of Art and Design will deal with a "buy Irish" campaign and its links to national identity in Georgian Dublin.

The speaker on December 3rd, Dr Claudia Kinmonth, a decorative arts consultant, curator and author, will speak on "19th-century Irish marriage traditions through art".

For further details and membership inquiries, see corkdfas.ie.