The Birmingham speaker series at the Hay Festival

Hay FestivalThe twenty-sixth Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts will take place from 23 May to 2 June 2013.

The Hay Festival brings together writers from around the world to debate and share stories, celebrating great writing from poets and scientists, lyricists and comedians, novelists and environmentalists, and the power of great ideas to transform our way of thinking.

For a second year, the University of Birmingham’s College of Arts and Law will be hosting a series of talks showcasing our top academics and the breadth of arts and humanities subjects studied by our students.

This year the College will be partnered by the new Library of Birmingham, set to open in September 2013. This collaboration will showcase Birmingham’s wide range of learning and cultural offerings to an extensive audience.

Designed by Francine Houben of Netherlands based architects Mecanoo, the Library of Birmingham is one of the most significant developments and cultural projects to have been undertaken in the UK in the past decade.

The Library will house extensive resources, including one of the world’s most comprehensive Shakespeare collections and a world-class photography collection. It will provide state-of-the art exhibition gallery space, which together with on line access to the digital library will open up the collections to audiences more than ever before. Other facilities will include a new flexible studio theatre, garden terraces, an outdoor amphitheatre and other informal performance spaces, a recording studio and dedicated spaces for children and teenagers. The Library of Birmingham will also be home to a BFI Mediatheque, providing free access to thousands of the rarest films and television programmes from the British Film Institute’s national Archive.

The College of Arts and Law has over 5,000 students from the UK and across the world. It is a vibrant, international community with excellent facilities, a supportive learning environment, internationally recognised teaching and research, and exciting initiatives in new fields of study. The College is home to world-renowned research centres, including the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage.

Our full programme of talks is as follows:

For more information follow us on twitter, @artsatbham, using the hashtag #bhamathay.

[Image credit - Finn Beales]