UWTSD Harmony Institute hosts the Temenos Academy

A major event in the University’s annual calendar took place on 20th March when the Harmony Institute welcomed the Temenos Academy to Lampeter for its annual Study Day. 

The Temenos Academy is a charity which offers education in philosophy and the arts in the light of the sacred traditions of East and West.

This year’s event was titled ‘Opening the Doors of Perception’ and featured three distinguished speakers:

• Dr. Peter Wakelin, former secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, who talked about the exhibition he curated last summer at Y Gaer, Brecon on the famous Anglo-Welsh poet and painter, David Jones, and how his stay at Capel-y-ffin on the Welsh borders shaped his development.  
• Dr. Susanne Sklar, the author of Blake’s Jerusalem as Visionary Theatre, who explained the role the imagination plays in William Blake’s thinking, poetry and art; and 
• Dr. Martin Shaw, whose most recent novel, Bardskull, which was a Book of the Day in The Guardian, used the dream interpretations and visions of Joseph in the Old Testament to help explain his own spiritual journey. 

The Study Day was chaired by Hilary Davies, Fellow of the Temenos Academy, Royal Literary Fund Fellow and award-winning poet. She said:

“It has been wonderful to organise another successful Temenos Academy UWSTD conference day here in Lampeter.  It affords us the chance to reach out to a public that is different from that in London, to open up discussion and share ideas about the role of the imagination, culture and the arts in society and their importance to our common human thriving”. 

The day was introduced by Dr Nicholas Campion, Director of the Harmony Institute, and Professor Bettina Schmidt, Professor for the Study of Religions and Anthropology of Religion. Welcoming the event Dr Campion said:

“Since 2016 I have been charged through the Harmony Institute with organising collaboration between UWTSD and other bodies which shared the then Prince of Wales as a patron. Our support for the Temenos Academy is an ongoing part of this mission. The Academy brings its creative and visionary dimension to the Institute’s work and to the whole University”.

The event drew an appreciative capacity crowd of a hundred people to Lampeter’s Old Hall.

Further Information

Rebecca Davies

Executive Press and Media Relations Officer    
Corporate Communications and PR    
Email: rebecca.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk    
Phone: 07384 467071