Our last CHARTER Alliance regional workshop in Sibiu explored in depth the current situation of crafts. This reflection was highly benefited by the opportunity of meeting with crafts people in the Astra Museum, where the first day of the workshop took place. Astra Museum is the most prominent ethnographic institution in Romania with more than a century in its making.
The museum is located in the natural reserve of Dumbrava Sibiului with a lake and 10 kms of alleys where visitors can walk and experience the traditional Romanian lifestyle of rural populations manifested in 400 houses, household annexes and technical installations. Astra Museum aims to highlight the most “representative evidence about the distinctive features of the Romanian people, about what differentiated us from other people, things and phenomena that could explain to all who we are”.
Astra Museum provides a very fruitful space for crafts and crafts people to develop their activities, get certified, gain visibility and keep the tradition alive and integrated in the Sibiu community.
On the second day of our workshop we reflected at many levels about the situation of crafts, its current needs and its future. In the frame of the session “Training, knowledge transfer and certification in relation to traditional crafts”, Ana Schoebel opened the slot with a presentation which clearly portrays many of the key aspects to be aware of.
How do we define crafts from a historical point of view? What is the criteria to decide which types of knowledge and skills are worth preserving? What is the function of crafts today? We invite you to delve into these questions with the presentation “Crafts: past, present and future”:
Want to learn more on crafts?
Ana Schoebel has kindly arranged a list of useful bibliography to expand our knowledge on this topic:
CEDEFOP AND APPRENTICESHIP
- Since May 2014, Cedefop has carried out Thematic Country Reviews on Apprenticeships in five volunteer countries: Lithuaniaand Malta as part of a first wave (2014-2015); Greece, Italy and Slovenia as part of a second wave (2015-2017). Cedefop has carried out a third wave of reviews in two more countries, Cyprus and Croatia, and piloted a lighter version of the TCR (flash TCRs) in Belgium (French-speaking Community) and Sweden.
- Croatia: Apprenticeship review: Croatia. Improving apprenticeships through stronger support and care (europa.eu)
- Cyprus: training programmes for the young on traditional handicraft techniques Cyprus: training programmes for the young on traditional handicraft techniques | CEDEFOP (europa.eu)
- Cedefop publication on apprenticeships valuable guide to policy-making Cedefop publication on apprenticeships valuable guide to policy-making | CEDEFOP (europa.eu)
- Apprenticeship-type schemes and structured work-based learning programmes Latvia pdf (europa.eu)
CITY AND GUILDS:
- Qualification handbook: city & guilds level 3 – diploma in craft skills for creative industries 2022 Level 1/2/3 Award / Certificate / Diploma in/for [subject / job role] (0000-[00]) (cityandguilds.com)
- Vocational Training | Qualifications | City & Guilds (cityandguilds.com)
ARTICLES AND BOOKS:
- Anna Mignosa,
- Coline Touaux: Crafts for the future, what is the future role of crafts in design and how using craftmethods of production can be beneficial for designers today? (99+) Crafts for the future | Coline Touaux – Academia.edu
- Contextualising Craft: Pedagogical Models for Craft Education Sinikka Pöllänen 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2009.01619.x
- On the Degradation of Skills William Form, Annual Review of Sociology 1987 13:1, 29-47
- Handmade in India: Traditional Craft Skills in a Changing World, Maureen Liebl and Tirthankar Roy World Bank Document
- Transfer of Craft Knowledge to New Product Development through Collaboration between Craftsmen and Designers Handan Temeltas Cigdem Kaya
- (99+) “Advanced Craft” Integrated With the Saper Fare; the Role of Intangible Value, and the Centrality of the Artisan in High-Quality 21st Century Artisanship | Aaron A Fry and Gabriele Goretti – Academia.edu
EUROPEAN PROJECTS:
- Traditional crafts for the future: a new approach, TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01-04 Funding & tenders (europa.eu)
- MINGEI representation and presentation of heritage crafts Mingei (mingei-project.eu)
OTHER:
- EUROPEANA: CRAFTED: Enrich and promote traditional and contemporary crafts. This project aims to support the transfer of European crafts to future generations by aggregating, enriching and promoting tangible crafts heritage and preserving intangible skills and knowledge from craftsmen and artisans. CRAFTED: Enrich and promote traditional and contemporary crafts | Europeana Pro
- COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 15 March 2018 on a European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships (2018/C 153/01) 01000101.xml (europa.eu)
- UNESCO TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP Traditional craftsmanship – intangible heritage – Culture Sector – UNESCO
- Our Future is in the Making, Crafts Council. Education Manifesto for Craft. PDF (craftscouncil.org.uk)
About Ana Schoebel Orbea
Former technological expert for the working group of the Spanish National Qualifications Institute (INCUAL), member of CEDEFOP, former Spanish national coordinator for the European Landscape Convention. Manager Council of Europe of the European Heritage Strategy for the 21st Century in 2017 and 2018.