The Azores Craft Lab – Innovation, Arts and Crafts, a new public service implemented and promoted by the Azores Crafts and Design Center (CADA) to promote training, experimentation and innovation activities in the area of ​​crafts, has been formally created, Maria João Carreiro announced this Thursday.

The Azores Craft Lab is operating at the Azores Qualification Center (CQA), in Ponta Delgada, although still in a temporary space until the completion of the ongoing project to requalify that public infrastructure, within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which is scheduled for the end of this year.

“We want to make Azores Craft Lab a space open to artisans, creatives, and the community. A service aimed at practicing artisanal know-how techniques, through training, experimentation and innovation, enhancing synergies in terms of equipment and audiences with the CQA, which is why we decided to associate this new service with the capacity and mission of the CQA, which is to train and qualify young people and adults”, she explained.

The Regional Secretary for Youth, Housing and Employment spoke at the ceremony to award diplomas for the completion of the Textile Fiber Preparation – Wool Spinning course and to welcome graduates of the Weaving Project(s) course, promoted within the scope of the Qualifica.In measure, of the PRR.

“The opening of these two courses is the first example, to be repeated, of the meeting of wills, capacities and availability of CADA and CQA to respond to a desire expressed by many artisans and even by those who, not being artisans, are interested in learning, experimenting and working with arts, crafts and artisanal techniques”, she praised.

As Maria João Carreiro observed, “there was no better way to start bringing the Azores Craft Lab to life than by opening, for the first time in the Azores, two accredited and certified training courses in the area of ​​crafts”.

The Regional Secretary responsible for crafts also expressed her “confidence” in this new area for the “qualitative leap” that is intended in democratizing access to crafts, raising awareness among young people and other audiences about this heritage, as well as in the knowledge, production, innovation and commercialization of artisanal know-how.