Three students from the Iceland University of the Arts arrived in Freetown roughly two weeks ago with Eva María Árnadóttir, dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Fine Art. She is the facilitator of the programme the students are taking part in, which is supported by Erasmus+.
Guðrún and Kamilla, who are product design students, and Láki, who is studying architecture, have participated in multiple activities during their first two weeks. They, for example, facilitated a workshop at the Lettie Stuart Pottery Centre last week, where they worked throughout the week with the potters on creative projects. They visited Brama town, where they met with the Sweet Salone basket weavers and got first-hand experience weaving their own baskets. They also met various artisans and explored the markets in Freetown.
They also visited the fashion brand Izelia where they met with the founder, Isatu Harrison. But they will be facilitating a workshop with the Izelia tailors in the upcoming weeks. The students will also be contributing and facilitating various workshops and courses that are part of Aurora Impact and, we will share more updates on that soon!
Last Friday, we said goodbye to Eva, the dean and facilitator of the programme, as she left Sierra Leone. We want to extend our warm greetings to her. We at Aurora are very grateful and glad for her participation in this programme and that she was able to come and join us, meet with her former students here in Freetown as well as new people, contribute and learn while enjoying Sierra Leone. But Eva visited Freetown two years ago with Tinna Gunnarsdóttir, a professor in product design at the same university (and you can read on that here) where they conducted two workshops and laid the foundation of the current project with the students. The students, Kamilla, Gudrun and Laki are, on the contrary, just starting their journey, and we will be updating you in the coming weeks on the exciting exchanges that are on the horizon.
