Connection Room

Not every object is chosen.

Some arrive because they are handed down, gifted, or shared. A grandmother’s quilt. A friend’s necklace. A recipe card written in a familiar hand. These objects carry more than their material selves. They carry people.

Anthropologists speak of material kinship, the way relationships are held in things. Gifts are never free. They bind giver and receiver in memory, gratitude, and care. In times of loss, a watch, a scarf, or even an empty chair can keep a bond alive long after a person is gone.

Connection becomes tangible through what is shared. What we touch, pass on, and hold together.

Inherited and handed down
Traces of those who came before, living on through touch.

Objects as gifts
Gestures of care that bind giver and receiver across time.

Shared objects
Vessels of connection carrying the fingerprints of many.

Curator’s Lens for Organisations

Connection is carried, not declared.

In organisations, belonging and trust live in:

  • shared rituals and symbols

  • stories people tell about one another

  • practices that signal who belongs

  • continuity across time and change

These forms of connection rarely appear in formal plans, yet they shape how people collaborate and stay.

Curatology helps organisations notice what is holding people together so connection can be designed with care rather than left to chance.

👉 What is creating belonging in your organisation right now?