Good practice:

Officina Creativa

The Municipality of Florence, in partnership with Artex – Center for the Artistic and Traditional Handicraft in Tuscany, CNA Firenze and Confartigianato Firenze present Officina Creativa, a multifunctional and multi-sectoral space that acts as a driving force for local - Florentine and Tuscan - Italian and international artistic craftsmanship, seen in constant relationship with other traditional and innovative “creative industries.”
Officina Creativa is the place where artisans, designers, students and all those interested in the world of crafts meet, work and learn together, creating a unique community of its kind. The craftsmanship here becomes a moment to confront identities, share ideas and face the challenges of globalization between traditional know-how and innovation skills.
Some numbers: 3500 mq is the total area at their disposal, 830mq the space for laboratory, equipped room for conferences, 1 pottery workshop, 1 coffee-shop dedicated to arts and craft, and a total of 26 laboratories where craftspeople are running their own businesses. Officina Creativa responds to the question of how to give to the city of Florence a center for artistic Craftsmanship, a place where craftspeople can work, and where the events and activities referred to crafts sector could be held.

Human resources: project manager, communication manager, social media manager, web designers, administration, people for the security of the build.
Economic resources: around 5.000 for the website, around 40.000 for managing the building each year.

Since 2016 we organized many local events to promote artisans, more than 80 professional training courses organized for craftspeople, several national and international meeting and seminars organized in situ or online, we built a network with international B2B partners from China, USA, Europe.

The main difficulties are the coordination of all the activities, the managing of craftspeople in the laboratories, and the restoration of some parts of the building.

Officina Creativa has created a unique pole of activities by giving to the city of Florence a center for artistic craftsmanship, a place where craftspeople can work, and where events referred to crafts could be held. This place could be developed everywhere in order to generate a specialized center where all the manifestations of craftsmanship find the right reason to be. Also, it generates a network of people and ideas that is not just a co-working space, but also a place for promoting and selling craft products, also with an international approach thanks to the B2B operators, consultants, the online presentations and the website. That is possible to be transferred elsewhere to enhance and promote the craft sector and its artisans.