Arts Lab 6.0: Soukaina Sekkan - Month 4

We started the month with the Christmas market, where we created items to sell. We made things like mystery boxes (affordable ones for kids), which included origami, candies, coins, and handmade jewelry. I made earrings from shells and necklaces, and also some clay cups we already had.

At first, we set up our table in the park. While people showed some interest in our items, no one actually bought anything. We felt disappointed because we had put in so much effort. After that, we decided to move to a spot near Penny, hoping for better results. Unfortunately, we faced the same issue, likely because of the language barrier. That day, we didn’t sell anything and ended up feeling even more discouraged.

But on December 19th, during the real Christmas market in the park, there was a festival with Christmas decorations. I did face painting for kids, and they were so happy. Initially, no one wanted face painting because they thought it would be expensive. So, I started by painting some kids for free and told others they could donate whatever they wanted. This worked well because parents donated generously—some gave over 20 lei! We also sold all the mystery gifts that day, which made me very happy.

Back on December 17th, we organized an exhibition at the library in Târgu Frumos (the only building with an elevator in town—that’s how I remember it!). I did face painting there too, and the kids were very excited, asking for different designs like spiders, footballs, and flowers.

On December 20th, we held another exhibition at Negru, our favorite coffee shop in Iași. That day was special because we also received our residence permits, which allowed us to travel. It was a great day!

December 23rd, everyone started preparing to travel for the holidays. I left that night and arrived in Italy on the morning of December 24th. I spent 15 days there, traveling to different cities. Time flew by, and it felt like just a few days.

On January 8th, I returned to Iași. I was very tired after two days without sleep, so after saying hi to everyone, I took a long nap. Later that day, we had the  Armenian night by Sona and her mom. The food and atmosphere were amazing—I had really missed everything.

In the following days, we started working on our artwork. I decided to create two paintings for the next exhibition. The first painting shows how the world sees the Romani people, and the second one shows how they see themselves—with joy, happiness, and vibrant colors. I’m still working on them and hope to finish in time to achieve the results I want.

We also started the MARR residency, and the kids seem very excited about it. They are especially looking forward to painting the wall.

That’s all for this month!

Report written by Soukaina Sekkan, she's from Morocco and she's one of the 14 volunteers participating in Arts Lab 6.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps program.