The first Apprendi Festival, a festival on lifelong learning in the province of Verona, was held on June 10, 2023. The event, conceived by Virginia Nocca, a 23-year-old masterstudent in Education from Padua University, together with her father Gino, was held in the village of Fumane (in the Verona province), surrounded by the Valpolicella hills famous for the production of Amarone wine.

ASPBAE and the adult education movement has lost another one of its own. On 22 June 2023, Dr. Chris Duke, former ASPBAE Secretary General (1972-1985) passed on.

Chris Duke was a towering figure in the adult education movement. A significant part of what ASPBAE has accomplished and reached today is built on Chris' vision and exemplary work. ASPBAE owes him a huge debt of gratitude.

The Sigismondi Institute in Nocera City Umbria, Italy recently hosted the first festival of Learning in the City. The festival was part of a dissemination event for an Erasmus+ project involving partners from Italy, Romania, Greece, Israel, and Spain. The PASCAL Learning Cities Networks (LCN) project, represented by Rob Mark, acted as academic adviser t to the project.

The name Jane Jacobs is familiar to many of our readers.  Jacobs, who died in 2007, celebrated almost everything about cities.  Although she was born and raised amid the economic and social decline of Depression-era Scranton, Pennsylvania, Jacobs became a devoted believer in the positive potential of cities to overcome economic crises and create widespread prosperity and rich cultural experiences for all residents.