The 2026 fellows start work next month

On Monday 1 June, three people will sit down to what they have planned for most of a year. Marisol Quenby will start in the records office of an old salt works in Chile, Kiran Odhiambo with a box of rain gauges in Kenya, and Sunniva Aldous at her anvil in Norway.

Each of them has been matched with a mentor, someone who has done the kind of work they are about to attempt. The first call between them has been put in the calendar, and after that they will speak every second week until the end of August. The trust has also started the first of three payments, so that nobody begins the summer waiting on money.

A twelve-week fellowship is short. The three are not expected to finish something that could not be finished in three months, and we have told them so. What we ask is that they turn up each week and keep a record of the work, whether it goes well or not.

We will post a short note from each fellow halfway through the summer, and in September each of them will publish a page for their project. Until then, if you are curious how it is going, the news page is the place to look. We expect there will be some mess. We are quite looking forward to it.