Idea

Craftwork 4.0 All Platform will be one of international and intercultural co-creation, established among 12 organizations from 12 different countries (Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Ireland, France, Croatia and Slovakia), and aiming at supporting the new and emerging craft artists and craft practitioners, cooperate, co-create, upskill, reskill, and promote their work nationally and internationally. The Platform is envisioned to comprehensively encompass all facets of contemporary craft, with a central objective of uniting organizations facing common challenges throughout Europe. The overarching goal is to facilitate collaborative efforts in co-creation and co-participatory methods, thereby rejuvenating craft practice, culture and history, but also craft future through the use of new technologies. Additionally, the Platform seeks to create awareness and foster collaboration with socially excluded communities, target groups and relevant institutions, in order to facilitate a broader understanding and appreciation of emerging craft makers’ and practitioners’ needs, while bridging gaps in representation.

WHY?

The diversity of craft practice, attitude and motivation of practitioner ensures that craft remains alive and relevant in contemporary society. It affords scope for self-expression, a statement of creativity in a society dominated by mass production. craft objects find a resonance with us in their reflection of our human scale and capabilities; our ability to manipulate and transform materials in ways that we comprehend if not fully master ourselves.

Contemporary Craft has a greater diversity of motivations from the utilitarian through to self-expression, but the thread of problem solving and unique approaches and outcomes remains. Craft practitioners today are facing economic pressures and identity questions from a number of sources which challenge the economic sustainability of the profession. Recent years have seen a decline in national funding for arts at all levels and activities. Reduced funding results in a reduction in opportunities for training and education for adult learners, as there has been a steady reduction in Arts and Craft provision in schools, with many losing specialist staff and equipment. Already before Covid, the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) were characterized by their atypical working patterns and often complicated employment status as well as their delicate economic situation. This fragility is revealed by numerous data and analyses related to the ecosystem structure, employment and working conditions, access to finance and remuneration models (The Status and Working Conditions of Artists and Cultural and Creative Professionals, 2023).
In our opinion, it is vital that we address this decline by simultaneously integrating novel skills and new technologies in craft, so as to step along with the society’s developments, upskills craft practitioners and their quality of work, and create a new interest for new audiences. The example of Fab Labs has guided this notion, i.e. digital fabrication laboratories, that consist of a place to play, to create, to learn, to mentor, to invent: a place for learning and innovation, providing access to the environment, the skills, the materials and the advanced technology to allow anyone anywhere to make (almost) anything.

In addition, it is vital that we address this decline by making craft a social inclusion movement, open to everyone, addressed to everyone, and with no discriminations. The fact that some of the most skilled hand craftsperson many times come from the Roma community or are women – groups that are traditionally mis-represented in professional and/or academic crafts – speaks volumes.

How?

The consortium’s approach to the platform is translated into a learning journey and collective 

experience, building around the cooperation, co-creation, exchange of experiences and good practices among emerging craft artists from the platform’s members countries. This journey is organized in four key phases that with the engagement of participants increases, and learnings are deepened and consolidated. To be an adventure full of excitement, the journey includes appealing features and as foundations on participatory methods, incentivising commitment, sense of ownership and rewarding. The consortium identifies advocators in all PMs to secure a consistent participation, but a wide engagement is expected from third countries as well. Interested organizations and craft emerging artists will be invited and supported to complete their registration in our open-source web-platform, proposed to host and facilitate the participatory processes of the learning journey.

In this regard, the project approaches can be synthesised as follows:

• Participatory, as in the platform intends to involve emerging craft artists, makers, practitioners, stakeholders and experts, in all its phases.
• Evidence-based, as it will be based on data, narratives, and the creation of specific craft pieces in the field of social and gender equality.
• Community-based, as the platform will focus on specifically important social topics and environmental issues with relation to the wider society and will try to spread important messages.
• Multi-level, as the platform will cover several levels and forms of experts’ participation, from the local to the national and international.