Inspirational English, Issue 39, July/Aug 2017 Inspirational English, Issue 39 July Aug 2017 | Page 7

Hi Isabel, thank you for being my next guest trade, travel and exchange of ideas there would
on “We inspire”. Would you tell us what be no museum, and indeed very little Western
inspired you to start the project “Waving Art. Picasso and Matisse couldn't have made
hello”? the work they did without the influence of other
cultures. It seemed to me therefore that diversity
There were three main contributory factors and multiculturalism are to be celebrated and
which inspired me to conceive 'Waving Hello'. championed.
1. Nearly three years ago my Mum died
peacefully in hospital here in Oxford. She was
beautifully cared for in her last days and I
WAVING HELLO
couldn't help noticing that all the people caring
for her were foreign nationals.
2. At about the same time and leading up to the
Referendum last year I felt there was an ugly
undercurrent of racism and nationalism
emerging which seemed to be tacitly legitimised.
And of course everyone was seeing on TV the
tragic deaths of people attempting to cross the
mediterranean escaping either war or famine.
3. One day I was in the Ashmolean Museum in
Since January, the Oxford Concert
Party has been running Waving Hello,
a project challenging preconceived
notions about refugees and asylum
seekers, exploring our common
humanity in a creative and
interdisciplinary way. The project has
involved music, storytelling, poetry
and visual arts. Additionally, it has
brought together refugees and asylum
seekers, school groups, and detainees at
Campsfield.
Oxfor d and I suddenly realised that without
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