Training continues for entrepreneurs involved in the Homo Faber Economy project, an initiative aimed at enhancing high craftsmanship in Venice, funded by the Veneto Region's I.C.O.N.A call and promoted by Ca' Foscari University in collaboration with the Venice Foundation and Upskill 4.0.
On Friday, September 13, we were in Florence to visit the exhibition Crafts and Palace which has been preserving and promoting high craftsmanship, the value of handmade and attention to detail for 30 years.
This event allowed us to touch upon the importance of networking among artisans, institutions and universities to preserve and innovate craft excellence, enabling artisans to successfully face challenges such as internationalization and the adoption of new technologies.
Artigianato e Palazzo, born in Florence in 1995 from an idea of Neri Torrigiani and promoted by Giorgiana Corsini, brings together and presents a new selection of artisans each year. In addition to the exhibition each year there is a rich program of meetings and events that help tell the story of artisan culture beyond tradition.
This year the focus was on Restoration, understood as a practice in balance between craftsmanship and technological innovation. In these thirty years, Artigianato e Palazzo has been able to be the narrative of the continuous evolution of a sector, initially considered marginal by many, but to which instead everyone today recognizes the fundamental identity value.
Among this year's protagonists was Artex, Center for Artistic and Traditional Craftsmanship of Tuscany, a partner in the Homo Faber Economy project, which presented its "Thirty to the Cube" Craft Gallery. The exhibition, curated by Jean Blanchaert and set up by Studio Lavanguardia, displayed a selection of unique works organized in three strands: history of craftsmanship, research and innovation, and wearable art.
After the visit to Crafts and Palace, we went to Officina Creativa Lab, the Old Conventino, accompanied by Chiara Mercatanti, Artex Consultant, Center for Artistic Crafts of Tuscany, which has its headquarters in this building. This magnificent space is developed around an internal cloister of about 1,680 square meters and has a total covered area of more than 2,000 square meters, of which about 1,100 are for artisan workshops. There are 30 workshops and they are complemented by a workshop equipped for working with ceramics, event rooms and other spaces. Restorers, ceramists, jewelry makers, crystal grinders-these are just some of the specializations of the resident artisans who help make Officina Creativa Lab a unique place in Tuscany. It is a multifunctional and multi-sectoral space that acts as a driving center of local - Florentine and Tuscan - Italian and international artistic craftsmanship, seen in constant relationship with other "creative industries," traditional and innovative. Here brought together in one space, artisans have the opportunity to participate in joint promotional initiatives, for example, they made a podcast, or participate in international initiatives such as Crafting Europe Partnership, always followed and guided by Artex.
At the Conventino we also had the opportunity to meet and get to know some of the artisans such as Manufatto fiorentino by Barbara Dall'Acqua, a designer of handbags and accessories, Florence Arts & Crafts by Silvia Logi a new form of mosaic, which is based on a constantly reinvented and developed technique, and discover the work of Tommaso de Carlo master craftsman in ancient painting and decorative techniques of polychromy and gilding.
Project "Homo Faber Economy" - Code 2120-0001-727-2023 - CUP H77G23000350002 - PR Veneto ESF+ 2021-2027 - DGR. 727/2023 VENICE I.C.O.N.A.