The Regional Secretariat for Youth, Professional Qualification and Employment, through the Regional Center fot Handicraft (CRAA), participates, between today and April 16, Friday, in the 15th edition of the European Artistic Craft Days, promoted by Institut National des Métiers d’Art.
This initiative became, in 2012, the first international event dedicated to Handicrafts. Every year, in early spring, craft workshops across Europe open their doors to the public and demonstrations are held with the participation of artisans, training schools and museums.
The aim of this activity is to promote Handicrafts and the people who work for the preservation of traditional techniques, and in order to renew the ethnographic heritage of each country.
In this edition, CRAA will associate Raízes – Pedagogical Project of Handicrafts of the Azores with the European Artistic Craft Days, promoting workshops in schools from all islands of the Archipelago, working with local artisans in order to promote and value their art and their techniques with the younger strata.
Also within the scope of the European Artistic Craft Days, some chapters of CRAA’s next publication entitled Rendas dos Açores – Álbum de Motivos Têxteis will be digitally launched, a selection, in the form of a collection, with about 300 examples of lace samples gathered over the course of 20 years by lace maker Maria de Jesus Machado Matos, who gives voice to the work of all lace makers on the island of Pico.
The Azores in a Box Store, in Ponta Delgada, will exhibit some examples of the lace from the collection of Maria de Jesus and promote and highlight lace as the artisanal product through the month of April.