IE University, a window on the world of humanities and ideas at the Hay Festival Segovia 2020

• New names have been added to the program: Juan López de Uralde, Spanish Congressman, former director of Greenpeace Spain and President of the Congressional Ecological Transition Committee; Jocelyn Bleriot, Executive Officer of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a key global institution in the circular economy; Isabela del Alcázar, Director of Sustainability at IE University, and internationally renowned US landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson.
• The IE Foundation continues its support for the Hay Festival Segovia for the eleventh consecutive year. From September 17 to 20, the Aula Magna at IE University will host 18 events of this international festival, which this year received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
• Leading figures from the arts and humanities will be on stage in the Aula Magna: the ambassadors of Colombia, Morocco and Ireland, architect Stéphanie Chaltiel, princes Hussain Aga Khan and Lorenzo de’ Medici, authors Edurne Portela, Janne Teller, Karolina Ramqvist, Fernando Savater, Eric Vuillard, Miquel Molina, or Jean Paul Dubois, as well as fashion designer Sybilla among others.
• Also participating in the events at IE University will be politicians Luis Garicano, Esteban González Pons, Meritxell Batet, Dita Charanzová, Joaquín Almunia and economist Rebecca Grynspan, as well as nature and garden experts Joaquín Araújo, Fernando Caruncho, Cristina Castel and Sofia Barroso.
• Due to the pandemic, the Aula Magna will apply strict health and safety measures, limiting capacity to one third. Due to these restrictions, the IE Foundation will produce and broadcast all the events in the Aula Magna via streaming.

IE University will once again be the main collaborator and academic partner of this year’s Hay Festival Segovia, Spain’s leading international cultural event, which this year received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, Hay Festival Segovia will bring together 145 outstanding authors from the worlds of literature, art, architecture and ideas in 50 events scheduled from September 17 to 20.

IE University’s Aula Magna will be one of the main venues for this year’s festival and will host 18 events featuring leading international voices who will contribute to today’s major debates, from journalism and the future of Europe to the importance of nature, sustainability and growing ecological awareness.

ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability will be one of the main themes of the program, co-organized by the IE Foundation and Hay Festival Segovia on the Santa Cruz la Real campus. In this sense, both organizations, in collaboration with the British Council, announced today that a conversation will take place between Jocelyn Bleriot, Executive Officer of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a key institution in the circular economy, Isabela del Alcázar, Director of Sustainability at IE University, and Juan López de Uralde, the former director of Greenpeace and member of the Spanish Congress for Unidas Podemos, and is the president of the Congressional Environmental Transition Commission.

A further development announced today will be a conversation between Martha Thorne, Dean of IE School of Architecture & Design, and landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, who will analyze the close relationship between architecture and sustainability and its power to transform spaces. Another session will feature a conversation with the renowned French architect Stéphanie Chaltiel.

These events and many others have been organized by the IE Foundation and Hay Festival Segovia, and will also include a conversation between the 2017 Goncourt Prize winner Éric Vuillard and Diego del Alcázar Silvela, the founder of IE University, who will reflect on the French writer’s portrayal of history and society. The Aula Magna will also host a series of debates organized by the Financial Times on the present and future of Europe, which will be moderated by Daniel Dombey, its correspondent in Spain, and feature experts such as Meritxell Batet, the President of the Spanish Congress, Dita Charanzová, the Vice President of the European Parliament, Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, along with Spanish politicians Luis Garicano, Joaquín Almunia and Esteban González Pons.

“With the announcement of new events involving the prestigious Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation, Congressman Juan López de Uralde and US architect Kathryn Gustafson, we are putting the finishing touches to an intense program that will advocate for a more sustainable world for future generations.”
Sheila Cremaschi, Director of the Hay Festival Segovia

Also taking part in this year’s festival will be the ambassadors of Colombia, Morocco and Ireland, princes Hussain Aga Khan and Lorenzo de’ Medici, authors Edurne Portela, Janne Teller, Karolina Ramqvist, Fernando Savater, Adam Michnick, Miquel Molina and Jean Paul Dubois, designers Stephan Janson and Sybilla, the garden and nature experts Joaquín Araújo, Fernando Caruncho, Cristina Castel and Sofia Barroso, as well as journalists Enric Juliana, Manuel Carvalho, Francesco Olivo and René Moerland among others.

THE AULA MAGNA AS A WINDOW ON THE WORLD

In order to comply with capacity limitations and health protocols, the Hay Festival and the IE Foundation have agreed that all events taking place in the Aula Magna will be produced and broadcast via streaming through the IE Foundation and IE University. This will open the content of the festival to culture lovers who cannot attend events in person. Online links to the events will be published in the coming weeks in the Hay Festival Segovia program.

“Once again, IE University is firmly committed to the Hay Festival, which in its fifteenth year will once again bring to Segovia an excellent program under the current, special circumstances. As an institution, we are proud to make technology available to the organization and to make it possible for the events held in the Aula Magna to be broadcast live via streaming.”
Geoffroy Gérard, Director General of the IE Foundation

In addition, in order to make it easier for as many readers as possible to access the many conversations at one of Spain’s leading literary events, the podcast and audiobook platform Podimo has reached an agreement with the Hay Festival Segovia to record a selection of this year’s most important events in podcast format.

Next Monday, September 7, the festival’s visual arts exhibitions will be inaugurated with a retrospective of photojournalist César Lucas, an installation by multimedia artist Ana de Alvear, an exhibition by conservationist Prince Hussain Aga Khan on the fragility of the oceans, and some reflections on natural conservation by Colombian artist Alberto Baraya with his greenhouse of flowers and plants. In addition, there will be a series of debates and meetings with free admission.

Check out the program here