On April 26, Fundesarte was delighted to virtually host the third stakeholder meeting of the CRAFTS CODE project. People in charge of crafts from the different autonomous communities of Spain came together to share good practices that are being developed in their territories. In this meeting, Fundesarte shared the progress of the CRAFTS CODE project, as well as the results of the work that has been developed so far, which is included in two good practice guides. One refers to “how to access to new markets and targets in the crafts sector” and the other one deals with “new business models and processes in the crafts sector”.
During the meeting, several good practices were presented regarding the third topic of the project, which is 'how to renovate the crafts sector by contamination with innovative approaches and tools'. There were people from nine different Spanish regions: Aragón, Principality of Asturias, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Valencia, Basque Country and Balearic Islands. The Crafts Centre of Menorca presented De Seny, an initiative that unites craft makers and designers, Valencia shared a self-assessment tool called D-Tool to evaluate the design level of a company and also a promotion Plan for the Digital Transformation of Commerce and Crafts. The University of Granada together with the Albayzin Center shared the ADA project, an innovative laboratory where crafts, design and contemporary art comes together. On the other hand, the #Talent_jove program was presented by Artesania Catalunya, which is fostering the use of new technologies among the young generations. Finally, Aragon shared the Gastroartesania catalogue, where craft makers, designers and chefs collaborate together to design a functional product for the table.
The topic of collaboration was constantly mentioned in the meeting. All the attendees highlighted the importance of sharing information and projects, exchanging training sessions and courses about certain trades, sharing experiences in the field of crafts, gastronomy and design, as well as in the digitisation of the crafts sector. For that reason, it was proposed to reestablish the Crafts Observatory, a structure that provides a collaborative framework to share experiences and develop common strategies for the crafts sector at a national and European level.
Finally, attendees committed to send the good practices to EOI-Fundesarte for their evaluation and the next presentation to the interregional thematic seminar that will be held virtually from Ireland on the 10th and 11th May 2021.
