Why La Loingtaine?
La Loingtaine owes its activities to the confluence of international cultural crossbreeding, in particular between Asia and Europe – and to the lasting imprint of Masako Saulière’s lifelong work with UNESCO. From the initial concert programme the field of activities has evolved, giving rise to a growing complexity and richness of ideas and cultural appreciation. The venue now offers a nurturing environment for a variety activities, not only for youth, but for cultural patrons of all ages, on the model of the famed Parisian intellectual salons of previous generations, which promote culture and natural heritage values as a means of human development.
Borrowing its name from the place that provides the genial surroundings for a well-established classical music programme and now also scholarly publishing activities, La Loingtaine was originally the name of an 18th century farmhouse close to the forest of Fontainebleau, 70 km south-east of Paris. Today the property holds a charming main house and a large garden bordering directly onto the river Loing. Swans and ducks reside here and other birds visit seasonally. Ancient trees and abundant flowers add to the place’s inviting and elegant character.
Complementing the music programmes and publications activities, La Loingtaine occasionally hosts informal dinners and exclusive seminars with focus on the themes of our publications and provide opportunities for quiet work and contemplation in several small apartments within the property.
The Saulière family came to La Loingtaine in 2005, wanting to create a place where young musicians would be free to practice together and rehearse high quality performance in front of an audience with less of the pressures that are commonplace for young musicians. Today, La Loingtaine is the venue for an extensive, acclaimed programme of concerts attended by a loyal and ever-expanding community of supporters, friends, and associates.
The culmination of these efforts is the creation of a publishing house that allow a more long-lasting and even wider audience for continued collaboration on developing ideas and expanding knowledge within and beyond our community.
On the right – Insert explanation below the logo:
Our logo is a Japanese sign meaning:
the house where a river runs by –
just as La Loingtaine Publishing takes its name after the property that extends right down to the river Loing.
BOX: INSPIRATIONS (move circle drawing here)
Both the publishing activities and the music programme are deeply inspired by the seminal idea of ‘Learning to Be’ (Edgar Faure et al., UNESCO Paris 1972) and the ideas of international collaboration that drove the creation of the United Nations.
The relationship between aesthetic, cultural and scientific knowledge is recognized in all cultures through all times. Nevertheless, the primarily western scientific paradigm that has guided the technological development over the last hundred years, has increasingly overshadowed the values and insights of aesthetic and cultural experience to development processes. It has also resulted in am increasingly uniform global discourse on sustainability in which insights that are based on other knowledge paradigms rarely are heard.
Our books consciously feature significant contributions to knowledge and discourse, especially in non-Western contexts, in the recognition that diverse kinds of knowledge and discourse are crucial to the development of a knowledge-based understanding of the world and to the very sustainability of the natural world as well.
Our books are aimed at promoting these ideas and to illuminate how the interdependence between art, cultural knowledge and science, may combine to a deeper understanding of the values we need to meet the challenges of today.
