After more than six decades, the Middle Peninsula Fine Arts Association continues to bring programs of interest to the community through it Art Speaks lecture series.

All programs are free and begin at 8 p.m. at Arts on Main, 6580 Main Street, Gloucester.

Coming up next in the lecture series, on Thursday, Feb. 17, art historian Elizabeth Cruickshanks will present, “The Grand Tour: ‘Spring Break’ for the 18th Century Man.” A press release notes that “For most young men, the Grand Tour, a hallmark coming-of-age trip through France and Italy, was a folly, but for others it was a completely different experience. With the ever-popular Neoclassical movement continuing to take hold in Europe, artists like Benjamin West saw the Grand Tour as an opportunity for inspiration.”

Cruickshanks will take lecture-goers on a virtual grand tour through the art and culture of this era and see how the classical past came alive again in the 18th-century Britain and France, the release said.

Cru...