Arts Lab 3.0: Fiona O'Neill - Stories of July
In July we had the pleasure of meeting Elena, a retired school teacher who transformed her family home into a museum of traditional Romanian culture. At first she was quite shy to speak with us, feeling the burden of a language barrier and doubting if people from abroad would see the value in such a place. Fast forward a few hours and we were sitting on Elena’s childhood bed, sharing lemonades and laughing about the story of her first cross-stitch. History can often feel detached and distant, but the story of Elena’s family through the decades gave us such a particular insight into the recent past and made everything feel so much more personal. After all, what is history if not the stories of regular people? Once again, Romanian hospitality continues to impress and we have yet to visit somebody that hasn’t welcomed us with open arms. This month we hosted a youth exchange to discuss the topic of single use plastics. The IPCC’s sixth report painted a bleak picture of the climate crisis,