The Al-Andalus Chair doubles in the first half of 2019 the number of visitors registered in the same period of last year

Jul 1, 2019 | Other

The Al-Andalus Chair of the Three Cultures Foundation has doubled during the first half of 2019 the number of attendees recorded in the same period of the previous year, having exceeded a hundred spectators in four of the six events held; in fact, in two of them the figure was more than 250 people. Specifically, from January to June 2018, the registered audience was 438 people, a figure that has risen to 915 in the same period of 2019.

This increase is largely due to the new conceptualisation of this chair, which every month (usually on the last Thursdays, but also on some Tuesdays or Wednesdays) offers conferences, talks and meetings in which the subject of Al-Andalus is addressed from different perspectives. This is a Tres Culturas proposal which, for ten years (it was created in 2009) has had the academic coordination of Emilio González-Ferrín, achieving its own niche in the Foundation's programming and stabilising a loyal and devoted audience. However, at the beginning of this year, it was decided to look for renewed and very attractive content, opening up the chair to new audiences and obtaining, according to the results, a notable success.

So far this year, the conference has dealt with subjects as diverse as the restoration of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (January), the Alhambra as intercultural heritage (February), the latest archaeological research on the first palace of the Alcázar of Seville (March), the saints of the Maghreb (April), the life and work of the Sufi Abu Madyan (May), and the music of the Moors of the kingdom of Granada (27 June); and the music of the Moors of the kingdom of Granada (27 June), a conference which also featured the musicians Emilio Villalba and Sara Marina, and which served as a farewell before the holiday break.

Even so, the Tres Culturas team is already working on the next editions of this Chair, with very interesting contents, such as the one that Line Amselem, writer and professor at the Université Polytechnique Hauts de France, a specialist in Haketya, will deal with in September. She will speak about this Judeo-Spanish language of northern Morocco and the region of Oran, considered an essential part of the Jewish identity of the Moroccan country.