The Horizon project Tracks4Crafts (T4C), funded by the European Union and led by the University of Antwerp, with a partnership of 15 organizations from across Europe, will last 4 years (from March 2023 till February 2027). T4C’s mission is to examine and update the transmission of Traditional Crafts Knowledge, TCK, to re-evaluate the social and economic perception of European artistic craftsmanship as a sector with a substantial impact on the territories, and stimulate a future-oriented approach to heritage in Europe.

As Intangible Crafts Heritage, craftsmanship and traditional know-how can be seen as resources for competitiveness, innovation, sustainable development, and quality of life, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals 4, 8, and 11. However, the formats and tools necessary to facilitate the transmission of traditional know-how are often inadequate, to the detriment of the full development of its potential. Trakcs4Crafts aims to improve and transform how TCK is transmitted for a sustainable, inclusive, and economically relevant cultural heritage in Europe.

To achieve the objective, the project follows 4 main lines of action (Tracks):

• transform learning processes into physical spaces where artisans are able to collaborate with each other and with other professionals (in hi-tech environments, including fab labs and maker spaces, etc.);
• develop new capabilities through digital technologies that support, enhance, and transform TCK transmission;
• design tools and methods that allow the value of artisan know-how to be acquired and optimized in the act of transmission (business model, certifications, intellectual property, etc.);
• create networks to promote and spread TCK’s social and economic value (for example, through the CHARTER alliance).

There are 8 pilot projects that will be conducted in as many artisan ecosystems where we will try to develop and test models methods for learning, and tools for the certification of skills. In these projects, the economic and cultural barriers linked to the transmission of TCK will be investigated (for example the long nature of learning, and the fear that the profession will be lost…) and we will try to understand how the potential of the technology can support the transmission (for example thanks to open source digital tools).

Artex, as a partner of T4C, will lead a pilot on ceramic with the aim of:

1. exchange knowledge on building capacities for valuing traditional crafts in the wider area of Florence, e.g. through ‘Firenze Creativa’ but also regional education and work-based learning for crafts;
2. feed innovative processes in the ceramics crafts sector with workshops to present new techniques, design methods, novel materials and new strategies;
3. explore alternative methods for professional life-long learning from economic, social, cultural and artistic points of view.

It will consist of concrete activities such as hosting physical workshops in Officina Creativa (Florence), streamed online as well, that apply new technologies through the various stages of processing and/or marketing ceramics products; developing a series of business-focused capacity-building seminars, both physically and online, to develop the entrepreneurship, marketing, and digital skills needed by contemporary craftspeople.

To ensure that developed methods and models are able to embrace the different characterizing aspects of the craft sector, as well as economic and social needs, and that the solutions are shared and transferable, Tracks4Crafts uses a deeply interdisciplinary approach based on collaborative processes, multi-stakeholder creation (including action research).

Further info: https://tracks4crafts.eu/ 

Project partners: https://tracks4crafts.eu/members

Info: info@tracks4crafts.eu

Social: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tracks4crafts/