February 19 and 20, 2020 - The CLAY (Cross Sector support for Innovative and Competitive Artistic Ceramic SMEs) partnership meeting was held in February 2020 in Portugal, between the cities of Caldas da Rainha, Coimbra and Aveiro.
The partners (from Italy, Finland, France, Portugal, Romania and Spain) studied the situation of the ceramic field in Portugal, thanks to the precious support of the Portuguese partner CTCV and of the Portuguese Association of Cities and Villages of Ceramics (AptCVC).
The first morning of the transnational meeting was held in the important ceramic art school and polytechnic of ESAD. CR (https://www.ipleiria.pt/esadcr/en/). Partners and stakeholders shared presentations about Portuguese ceramics, innovative methodologies and results in the field of training, research and development, new start ups and workshops.
The session closed with a round table with a focus on new ways to attract young students in the ceramic field, thanks to a close link between tradition and innovation.
The meeting included study visits to understand the ceramic sector in the Centro region of Portugal, with a focus on:
- Braz Gil Studio - Porcelain Manifacture - BrazGil Studio is a familiar manufacture showing self identity on that artistic approach to history themes and Portuguese culture - https://brazgil.pt/
- Perpétua, Pereira & Almeida, Lda - The cornerstone of “S. Bernardo”, has always been and continues to be, creativity, innovation and design combined with research and product development - https://ppa-sbernardo.com/
During the second day of the transnational meeting, the project partners and stakeholders focused on understanding how good practices can be a useful tool to modify and implement a political objective to respond to the needs highlighted: the partners need to undertake regional work on policy analysis by discussing potential good practices, from other partners, to be imported into their regions.
The second part of the day was dedicated to a study visit in the premises of the hosting partner, CTCV, and to Vista Alegre Atlantis - VAA (https://vistaalegre.com/eu/).
The further steps of the project will see the partners concluding the organization of mid-term communication events and choosing the good practice to use in order to implement an action plan which will lead to the implementation of a policy in favour of the art and craft ceramic sector.
The next project meeting will be held in Horezu (Romania), in June 2020, and the partners will present the good practice selected.
Meanwhile, at the end of March, there will be a virtual meeting which aims at illustrating all the good practices presented by the various partners in order to allow everyone to identify the best one for the event in Romania.
