Alternative Art at a Very Special Terrace

Because not everything happens in the center, crowded with tourists, today I invite you to explore other parts of Madrid. An example is the "Centro de Arte 2 de mayo de la Comunidad de Madrid". It has its headquarters in Móstoles (Avenida de la Constitución, 23). You can always visit it for free, as well as participate in all its activities. It opens its doors from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. You can get there thanks to Metro lines 12, bus lines 1, 2, 519, 520, 521, 525, 526, 527 or Cercanías C-5. Below you can find information about an event at this center that is about to start:

"A new edition of 'Picnic Sessions' returns to the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum. Between May 30 and July 4, the terrace of the venue will become the space to celebrate an artistic ceremony in six different seasons, break with colonial logic or simplify territories, geography, spirituality or creations. All this through musical performances or dance shows.

In these artistic experiences you can enjoy voices from the Caribbean diaspora accompanied by musical themes related to fruit, musical performances with batá drums, a multi-instrumentalist trio of saxophone, keyboards and percussion, an exploration of violence through writing or postcards sound and body sounds that combine rap, dembow, zumba and contemporary dance. (...) Doors open at 8:30 p.m., while the activities will take place between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. It has free entry until capacity is reached.You can check all the schedules and sign up for additional plans through this link".

(Original text translated from: https://www.timeout.es/madrid/es/noticias/la-terraza-del-centro-de-arte-dos-de-mayo-se-llena-de-conciertos-y-espectaculos-al-aire-libre-051224)

Welcome to American University Madrid!

Welcome to AU Madrid program! Some of you are already with are, others are about to arrive. In this blog you will find some ideas to explore Madrid. The most well-known ones are in the blog fixed sections, but each week we will include some ideas for temporary activities that may interest you as well. 

This is our tip of the week: The last opportunity to attend a show from the annual "Madrid en Danza" program, which ends next Sunday. The program includes international leading figures from the world of dance and up and coming promises. You can find more information here: https://www.esmadrid.com/en/whats-on/madrid-en-danza-festival

On the other hand, we encourage you to participate in our AU Madrid Photo Contest. The winner will receive a diploma and a prize. These are the requirements:

FORMAT AND NUMBER OF PHOTOS: You can send between 1 and 3 photos in jpeg, jpg formats (other formats will not be accepted).

TOPIC: Send images that, in your opinion, show what your experience in Madrid represents for you (it can involve friends, foods, trips, cities, landscapes, experiences, professors...).

DEADLINE: Sunday June 16th at midnight (no work will be accepted after this deadline)

Last Days in Madrid: Parks and Gardens to Relax

The course is ending and you will probably be finishing your papers and preparing for your final exams. For these days it is always good to have a park close at hand to shake off the stress... and El Parque del Retiro is sometimes crowded.

In this post, we are going to suggest some secret places of Madrid where you can have a break in these busy days.

  

Before we leave the Retiro, we would like to ask you something: do you know the Retiro Rose Garden? This area is much quieter than the rest, it is in the south, near the Statue of the Fallen Angel. There you can enjoy roses, ponds, fountains, gazebos... Also worth visiting are the peaceful Cecilio Rodríguez gardens in the southeastern part of the Retiro (Metro Retiro, line 2), where you can see peacocks enjoying the spring. 

It is the turn of a small forgotten and beautiful garden, in Plaza de la Paja 6 (Metro La Latina, line 5): Prince of Anglona Gardens. It was created around 1750 and is one of the few noble gardens from the 18th century that are preserved. It has several benches where you can sit and enjoy the tranquility of the place.

Another unknown garden is the "Huerto de las monjas" ("Nuns' Orchard)". It was protected by the walls of a convent of nuns who also used it as a garden. It is accessed after crossing a passage of modern buildings at number 7 Sacramento Street (Metro La Latina, line 5, and Metro Ópera, line 2 and 5). In 1972 the religious building was demolished to build housing blocks although, luckily, the garden remained intact. It is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Our last garden today is located on the 4,200 square meter plot where the old convent of San Francisco was.  Its name is "Jardines de San Francisco". Until 2007 it had no use and it was in that year when the Madrid City Council converted the space into a dahlia themed garden. Later, in 2016, rose bushes were chosen due to their great capacity to adapt to the Madrid climate. The park is located in an area called “Las Vistillas” because it is the highest in Madrid de los Austrias and its viewpoint has become one of the busiest places to see sunsets in the city. You can find it on Gran Vía de San Francisco 29, metro La Latina, line 5).

These are just some examples, you can find multiple secret places if you explore Madrid. Enjoy spring while preparing your exams!

A Little Bit of Everything for This Week

URBAN ART: The Lavapiés neighborhood celebrates a new edition of CALLE, Festival of artistic interventions in Lavapiés. An initiative that allows the residents of the neighborhood, and visitors, to enjoy the art on facades, shop windows and other outdoor spaces of the neighborhood's businesses (Metro Lavapiés, Line 3)

https://enlavapies.com/calle-2024/ 

  

WEEKEND MARKET: Essential weekend market with many design stalls inside a jewel of industrial architecture: the Railway Museum. Paseo de las Delicias 61 (Metro Delicias, Line 3)

https://mercadodemotores.es/

 

ELECTRONIC MUSIC (translated text from https://www.esmadrid.com/agenda/electronica-abril-casa-encendida: "La Casa Encendida celebrates a new edition of its most emblematic festival, "Electrónica en Abril", which this year takes place from April 9 to 14. An event that continues to focus on the sounds that make up the sound revolution, a festival with synthetic and avant-garde roots that for 20 editions has allowed us to discover the latest trends in a genre that is constantly changing.

The cycle is curated for the third and final year by Jokkoo, a Barcelona musical collective specialized in electronics from the African continent and its diaspora that is committed to artists with diverse roots, a strong sonic identity and a singular approach when creating inspired projects. largely due to their cultures of origin".

Calle Ronda de Valencia, 2 (Metro Embajadores, Line 3 and 5 / Metro Lavapiés, Line 3)

https://www.lacasaencendida.es/festival/electronica-en-abril-2024

Shall we dance?

 Welcome to your second home! We hope you enjoyed a great break.

New tips and suggestions for your days in Madrid! This time, a very special exhibition.

As you know, in Barcelona you can visit great modernist architectural works (Gaudí is its best-known example). However, you can find some gems in other parts of the peninsula. One of them is the Palacio Longoria, located at Calle Fernando VI, 4 (Metro Alonso Martínez, lines 4, 5, and 10, and Metro Tribunal, lines 1 and 10). It is the current Sociedad General de Autores, an institution dedicated to the registration of intellectual property, as well as the support of artists in the defense of their rights and the promotion of their work.

 

On the other hand, from March 11 to April 30, the palace hosts an exhibition that covers the last 125 years of the history of dance in Spain in an exhibition made up of more than two hundred works by various authors (. The original costumes of famous dancers, posters of emblematic works, designs and drawings in general are some of the attractions of this exhibition. It is free and can be visited from Monday to Sunday from 4pm to 9pm.

  

 

In the same area you can also visit the Romantic Museum and the Municipal Museum, and you can eat something at the San Ildefonso Market, the Barceló Market, or the rooftop of the Forus Barceló.

Enjoy it!

What about Easter?

We assume that most of you are traveling through Europe over the Easter Break, but for those of you staying in Madrid or at least in Spain, we would like to share some ideas. I'm afraid they have nothing to do with the Easter Bunny... Although you will see chocolate eggs in Spain too!

Here you can find information about typical foods in Easter (included the chocolate eggs and their history) and here about the origin of the "Semana Santa" tradition and the processions. Also, in the second entry, you will find an explanation about the clothes of the traditional hooded people and a video with some shocking images: No, they don't belong to the Ku Kux Klan, of course :-) 

But again, what to do if you stay?

One thing you can do is go to small places near Madrid, where Holy Week is very important: Alcalá de Henares, El Escorial, Chinchón, Morata de Tajuña, Torrejón de Ardoz, Parla... some of them are beautiful locations with important monuments to visit, others are not very interesting in those terms, but they have in common that they are very close to Madrid and that their Holy Week festivities have been officially declared of tourist interest. On this page you can find a description, photos, schedules, etc. It is in Spanish, but I can sure you can manage with Google Translate 😉

Of course, if you want to explore Spain, Sevilla and Málaga (Andalucía as a whole), Cuenca, Zamora, Valladolid... These are some of the best settings where you can enjoy the Holy Week processions.

And if you want to stay in Madrid, remember here processions are not so obvious at all. You have to look for them to find them, while in other places the festive and religious atmosphere permeates every street and every moment of the day. The most famous one can be in "Cristo de Medinaceli", on Holly Friday. 

Apart from the processions, if you stay in Madrid you can try some of the typical sweets, like the ones we suggested before, for example, our famous "Torrijas".

And here you can find some suggestions to do in Madrid, such as visiting new museums or revisiting your favorite places. 

Have a perfect break!!!!

And the winners are...

It is an honor for AU Madrid to announce the winners of the Photo Contest Spring 2024. There was a tie, but the jury agreed without a doubt that their works were their favorites:

Anabella Torres and Olivia Jensen, with photos number 1 and 20 respectively (scroll through the padlet to see all the pics.). Congratulations to you both! And enjoy your prize!