The Week
Cortona Week combines lectures, artistic and contemplative practice, small-group dialogues and shared life. The programme has evolved since 1985, but the structure of each day remains central to how the week works.
One day
7:00
Before breakfast, the day begins with practices such as movement, meditation or singing.
9:15
Two lectures are followed by facilitated breakout groups of seven or eight people. Participants compare what they heard, raise questions and hear from people outside their own fields and backgrounds. Speakers take part in the groups too.
13:00
Lunch is unhurried. Conversations from the morning continue naturally at the tables.
15:00
On the first day, participants choose from that year’s workshops, which they will follow throughout the week. Workshops vary by edition and typically cover visual art, music, movement, theatre, contemplative practice or other forms of expression.
Evening
The evening begins with the gong and a short silence before dinner. The rest of the evening is left unscheduled, giving participants time to talk, rest or continue working together.
One roof
Participants and speakers live and eat in the same place for the full week. Sharing the same setting makes informal conversation part of the programme.
“I've experienced lots of first times in Cortona: first time discussing philosophical questions at 7 in the morning; first time listening to lectures about acting; first time interviewing a speaker and introducing him to over 100 people; first time becoming friends with artists; first time playing drums; first time dancing lindy hop; first time seeing a beautiful red moon. The list goes on and on.”
"Living together in the Monastery created a closed and safe environment encouraging the sparkle minds to fly."
The principles
Transformation has conditions
Let the question lead. Cortona Week does not begin from a predetermined conclusion. Lectures and discussions allow participants to approach the same questions from different fields, perspectives and experiences.
01
Sustained time
- Everyone attends for the entire week, including speakers. Partial attendance is not offered.
02
A place apart
- The week takes place away from ordinary routines, with participants living and working in the same setting.
- The physical setting matters. Quiet, beauty and shared space support concentration and conversation.
03
More than one way of knowing
- The programme combines lectures and discussion with artistic and contemplative practice.
- Participants move between examining the world and paying close attention to their own experience.
- Play and experimentation are treated as serious forms of learning, including for adults.
04
A community across boundaries
- Participants bring real expertise from their own fields. The aim is to place disciplines in conversation without pretending their differences do not matter.
- No one is above the conversation, authority comes from what is said, not from the standing of who says it.
- Community is built into the format. Conversation, shared meals, practice and celebration bring people together so that newcomers are included from the beginning.
The intended consequence
Cortona Week should leave you changed, even unsettled, comfort is usually the sign that nothing happened.
Who comes
Graduate students and doctoral candidates, researchers and engineers, physicians and entrepreneurs, philosophers, artists, educators, journalists, people from contemplative and spiritual traditions.
Each group is formed deliberately, bringing together different disciplines, generations, cultures and genders. That range of experience is essential to the conversations that follow.
Practicalities
About a hundred people. Lectures in English. One full week, arrival and departure as part of the Cortona week journey. Partial attendance is not possible for anyone, speakers included.
Fees are tiered, with reduced rates for students and participants under 32. A limited number of scholarships will be made available.
The next edition is in preparation. Members hear first.