Lydia emphasized radical pedagogy and socially engaged practices, highlighting the Graces Kneading Project, which revived a lost tradition of public feasts in Greece. Lydia also shared insights on reworlding, desired-centered theory of change, and the importance of intergenerational and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Commissioned by curator Dimitris Michalaros for the 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture’s Apotheri Project, Graces Kneading contributed to resurrecting the lost tradition of panayeri (a celebratory civic festival) in the Peloponnesian town of Megara, Greece. The work emerged from a collaboration between visual artist Adonis Volanakis, chef Manolis Papoutsakis, and arts curator Lydia Matthews, and focused on amplifying the voices of multigenerational local women who generously shared their experiences regarding evolving cultural traditions, locality and foreignness by kneading dough together and baking prophetic messages onto loaves of bread about their hopes and desires for the future.

The Bread Project revives a lost tradition of public feasts in Greece.