The Waiting Room

The Waiting Room / Camera de Așteptare, the first specialty coffee house on the Iza Valley, set up in the station’s former waiting room.

Here, visitors will be welcomed by Ileana Grad, a Săcel local currently training in Bucharest as a barista, who will become the custodian of the exhibition space and the first person that artists and visitors encounter. She will run the exhibition hall and the community café The Waiting Room / Camera de Așteptare, and will help transform the former station into a place of dialogue between the community and contemporary culture.

“I would never have imagined that, at 53, I would take up a new profession. When Anca told me about turning the Săcel station into an art centre, I felt that I too could be part of this story. Today I am preparing to be a custodian and barista in a place that brings life back to a building I had walked past so many times. For me this is not merely a career change, but also a mark of courage — the proof that it is never too late to learn something new and to contribute to the future of your community.” — Ileana Grad

Her role gives voice to one of the project’s central ideas. Heritage comes to life through the restoration of buildings, through the people who use them, and through the communities that give them new meaning. Gara Săcel is being rehabilitated, reactivated, and reintegrated into the life of the community through a permanent cultural function and through the creation of a job rooted in the local community.