Stories
What We’re Reading This Autumn. Five Longer Evenings
Autumn hands the evenings back to us. The light goes early, the lamp comes on, and the attention that summer scatters begins to gather again. This is the season for the book that asks something of you, the kind you read slowly because it rewards being read slowly. So we asked five members of SWS…
Read MoreA Curious Woman in Many Worlds. Angelika Svoboda on Looking, Listening and the Art of the Global South
Angelika Svoboda has spent her working life close to the moment before a work becomes public: the studio visit, the acquisition, the artist nobody has placed yet. A social and cultural anthropologist by training, she reads a painting for its story before its materials, and she has built two NGOs alongside a career in art…
Read MoreReading Is How We Become Better People. Silvia Pazos Rodríguez, the Woman Behind Book 2.0
How would you introduce yourself beyond the titles and accomplishments? Who is Silvia at her core? I am a human leader and an advocate for change who loves to build rooms where the right conversations happen, connecting people with a higher mission who actually mean what they say. I’m driven by a kind of restless…
Read MoreThe Measure of a Hand. MACHEIA
MACHEIA was founded in 2020 by Lucrezia Papillo, an Italian-German product designer trained at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, and Iany Gayo, a Mozambican-Portuguese architect who studied at Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico. Two women, two disciplines, one practice built on the conviction that the oldest techniques still have the most to say.
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading This Summer
Summer loosens its hold on the calendar. The days stretch, the reading slows, and a book becomes the best kind of company: the one you choose entirely for yourself.
Read MoreOn Opening New Doors. A Note from the Founder
Growth does not have to mean scale. It can be softer than that — broadening one’s horizons, opening a door that was not there before.
Read MoreCultivating Beauty in the Simplest Things. Irene Bernie of Valdirose
I’ve learned to accept and embrace even the less creative moments, understanding that I also need periods of rest. It’s like seeds underground: with time, a beautiful plant will emerge. Taking care of oneself and engaging in activities for personal fulfillment, rather than for show, is crucial.
Read MoreReinventing the Game. Valeriya Gogunskaya, Founder of Chess Her
Tanya Bennett’s journey from fashion illustration to leading the Sovereign Art Foundation in Portugal reflects a life shaped by creativity, community, and cultural sensitivity.
Read MoreA Letter to the Ernest Leoty Woman
In this letter, Eleonore Bonneau Diemoz reflects on the Ernest Leoty woman—how she seeks alignment in life, balancing ambition, care, and freedom, and how her elegance and style flow naturally from intention, coherence, and movement.
Read MoreA January Art Escape: BRAFA & Brussels
Looking for an inspiring art-led city escape at the beginning of the year? January offers the perfect excuse to travel — and BRAFA, Brussels’ iconic art and antiques fair
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