Project Title	Guiding Lights: Stories of Home, Memory and Belonging
Location	ARCA: Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants, Street Austrului, no. 23, Sector 2, Bucharest, Romania
Date	3rd March 2025

Artist Statement

I am an Irish socially engaged, multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Romania, working across wood, papercut art, light, and sound. My practice explores migration, belonging, and the stories we carry when we leave home. As a member of the Irish diaspora, I draw on both personal and ancestral histories, as well as contemporary experiences of displacement.

Blending traditional craft techniques with participatory and community-based approaches, I often use symbolic materials such as wood and light to evoke both the physical and emotional landscapes of migration. My work reflects on what it means to construct a sense of home after leaving one’s place of origin—by choice or by force—and considers the memories, relationships, and cultural identities we carry with us.

Recent projects have centered the voices of young Ukrainian refugees in Romania, inviting them to express their experiences of ‘home’ and migration through collective art-making. These socially engaged installations have become platforms for storytelling, dialogue, and empowerment, using art as a bridge across language and cultural divides.

Through my work, I aim to create inclusive, reflective spaces that not only highlight the complexities of migration but also foster empathy, connection, and shared understanding in increasingly divided times.

Contextual Statement

This project explores how participatory art can foster a sense of belonging and shared identity among migrant communities by inviting young Ukrainian refugees to express their concept of home through collective art-making. In collaboration with ARCA: Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants, I led a series of creative workshops where participants reflected on personal definitions of ‘home’. Using a variety of media—including woodwork, collage, writing, and printmaking—the children created artworks that were later incorporated into an immersive light-based installation. The exhibition, held at ARCA’s centre on March 3rd, 2025, featured these illuminated pieces alongside recorded audio of the children describing their work, placing their voices and experiences at the centre.​​

The project’s methodology is grounded in participatory and socially engaged art practices. Inspired by Claire Bishop’s (2006) discussion of participatory art’s shift away from object-making toward processes of dialogue and collective experience, I focused on fostering an inclusive, collaborative environment where children could lead the creative process. David Ralph’s (2011) research into how relationships, memories, and material symbols help construct a sense of belonging directly informed the workshop prompts, encouraging children to consider home not just as a physical place but as an emotional or symbolic one.​​

Light—central to the aesthetic and conceptual framework—was inspired by the Irish tradition of placing a candle in the window to guide travellers home. Referencing this, I designed illuminated wooden houses to act as beacons of welcome and identity. The children’s monoprints and written reflections were embedded within, offering a sensory and accessible form of storytelling.

​Collaboration was fundamental to the project. I worked closely with ARCA staff and Liudmyla, a Ukrainian refugee and translator, to ensure the workshops were culturally and linguistically accessible. Her involvement provided critical insight into how the children conceptualise home—less as a fixed location, more as a feeling of “cosiness, safety, and wellbeing.” David Burke, a woodwork specialist, supported the technical development of the exhibition, while colleagues from my international school assisted in workshops. Photographer and designer Oscar Nicholas contributed visual documentation and promotional material.​

​This project responds to a specific geopolitical context. Romania, as Ukraine’s neighbour, has seen 192,560 Ukrainian refugees seek temporary protection (UNHCR, 2025). These individuals face language barriers, housing insecurity, and economic instability. These difficulties have only intensified following the withdrawal of U.S. military aid under the Trump administration, which has increased uncertainty for Ukrainians. Moreover, funding for refugee support organisations, including ARCA, has been cut, making it even more critical to raise awareness of their work. By inviting both ARCA’s Ukrainian refugee community and members of my international school community to the exhibition, I sought to bring together those forced to leave their homes and those who have chosen to migrate, fostering empathy, shared understanding, and solidarity.​

​Ultimately, the project positions participatory art as a tool for storytelling, resilience, and community-building—one that transcends language and national borders, offering children a creative platform to reclaim a sense of belonging through shared authorship.

Project Documentation

The Workshops

These photos document some of the beautiful work created by the children during our workshops. Together, we built miniature houses with collaged façades reflecting their definitions of ‘home’ and explored monoprinting, with the resulting prints displayed in lightboxes alongside their written reflections.

The Exhibition

Installation view featuring the miniature houses (floor), illuminated lightboxes (wall), and the large-scale house installation at the exhibition entrance.

Göppert and Burke, 2025. View of Exhibition Entrance. (Spruce wood, white cotton sheets, 2 oil lamps and LED light strings). Size: variable. House: 300 x 120 x 120cm​

These photos depict the wooden house structure at the entrance, which invited visitors to write or draw their definitions of ‘home.’ The fabric walls became a ‘community canvas’ and encouraged dialogue on the concept of home. After the exhibition, it was repurposed as a play space for ARCA’s children.

ARCA’S Ukrainian Refugee children, 2024. Viewpoints of collaged houses. (Mixed media: spruce wood, tissue paper, LED lights). Size: variable. Base: 39 x 78 x 3cm. Houses: 16.5 x 9 x 9cm

Glowing in the darkness, these illuminated wooden houses reflect each child’s definition of home—whether as a place, objects, or relationships. Set against the dark, they shine as beacons of resilience, emphasising home as both a feeling and a concept that can be reclaimed. Mirrors positioned between two walls multiplied the collaged houses, creating a cityscape that symbolised diverse perceptions of ‘home’

Göppert, 2025. Exhibition Video of ‘Guiding Lights: Stories of Home, Memory and Belonging.  [Video]