THE THIRD GATHERING
Our First (2019) and Second (2022) Gatherings took place at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Our Third Gathering will take place from Tuesday 3rd to Thursday 5th September, 2024. It is time to leave Scotland and visit another location that embraced 18th Century salon culture in times as turbulent as our own. Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, was one such location. It was also the birthplace and the workplace of Søren Kierkegaard, the father of Existentialism, who reminded us:
“It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.”
Our venue will be the grand salon of the Skodsborg Kurhotel: Kurhotel Skodsborg Hotel, Spa and Fitness - The Luxury of Simplicity. The hotel, a short train ride from Copenhagen’s central railway station and its international airport, faces East across the Øresund Strait, the stretch of sea between Denmark and Sweden. Behind is an ancient hunting forest. It also boasts the healthiest of restaurant menus, an excellent gym and 16 Nordic-inspired warming and cooling baths and saunas.
The faculty team will be Dr Dirk Ehrhard, Dr Gilly Shapiro, Heather Berthoud, Michael Ciszewski and Kate Cowie. Dr Kate Maguire will be our Academic Adviser, and Dr Mary Ann Rainey will support the community as it does its work at the Gathering.
During the pandemic, many Wicked Ones wrote to say that our virtual salons, convened by Dr Cathy Royal, sustained them during the long periods of lockdown AND that they would like to spend more time exploring the different subjects we discussed. Dr Frances Baldwin opened our 2021 series of these sessions with the injunction, Go on Being, No Matter What! This will be the rallying call for our Third Gathering, and ‘Unfinished Themes’ will be our content.