Context Walking Seminars Open in New York and London

Leading walking tour company recruits historians and other scholars to lead "walking seminars" in New York City and London. NYC launch timed for NY Times Travel Show.

London and New York City. – Context, the network of scholars who lead critically-acclaimed walking tours in several European cities, announce their expansion to New York City and London. The group will begin organizing walks on a weekly schedule in both cities, as well as privately for individual customers, at the end of February.

"New York is a return for us," says Context founder Paul Bennett. "I was an architecture journalist here before we moved to Rome and started Context." Under Bennett's direction, Context New York has developed a series of thematic walks that include several topical walks of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a seminar on the archaeology of Manhattan, evening walks of the Chelsea art galleries, and visits to the chocolatiers of Soho. The group will also be offering, in mid-March, a walk on immigration in New York that will focus on the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens and a stroll of Central Park with a landscape historian.

As is the case with its work in other cities, all New York walks are led either by a scholar or expert in a relevant field. The thirteen "docents" comprising Context New York hail from the fields of historic preservation, art history, architecture, cuisine, and archaeology. As with its other cities, group size will be kept small (6 people maximum) in order to maintain an intimate, conversational atmosphere that customers often liken to being in a college seminar class.

The launch of Context's New York branch is timed to coincide with the New York Times Travel Show (Feb 29 – Mar 2). A number of walks will be scheduled throughout the weekend, including walks to the Cloisters, the Greek and Roman Collection of the Met, and the MoMA Seminar.

In London, the organization will start off with walks of the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum led by curators there; excursions to Inigo Jones' Queens House on the River Thames and Kenwood House; a seminar on 19th century collector John Soane; and a thematic walk of the city of London called Portrait of the City, which includes visits to the archaeological sites of London.

"Many Context docents working in Rome, Paris, and elsewhere on the Continent actually teach at British universities," says Petulia Melideo, a longtime manager of Context's Rome operations who is taking the mantle of its new London project. "When some of our clients began inquiring about walks in London last year, we found we had a network of people already in place. Now we're systematizing this and developing a pretty unique set of walks that will evolve through the next twenty-four months." Although the official launch date of Context London is March 5, 2008, the group has already been leading walks for several months.

Context founder Paul Bennett was invited to London in December, 2007, to give an address on sustainability and detail the group's work in this area. Since London is the center of carbon trading and sustainability issues are very much at the fore here, Context plans to extend its work and that of the Context Foundation for Sustainable Travel to London in the next 12 months.

Founded by National Geographic writer Paul Bennett and Lani Bevacqua, Context is a network of English-speaking scholars and professionals–including art historians, writers, architects, and gastronomes–who organize and lead didactic walking seminars across five cities: Rome, Naples, Florence, Paris, Venice and (now) London and New York. In May 2007, Travel + Leisure named Context one of the top European tour companies for its innovative approach to travel and the depth of its programs.

To learn more about Context visit its website at: www.contexttravel.com

February 26, 2008   Posted in: England