From the fusion of traditional Spanish craftsmanship with cutting-edge design born ESPAÑA ARTESANA

Contemporary Spanish artisans shine a spotlight on their skills with ESPAÑA ARTESANA. The platform, launched by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport and Spanish Association of Contemporary Arts and Crafts – and backed by the Michelangelo Foundation, world leaders in the promotion of contemporary crafts – reflects the reality of a sector striving feverishly to reinvent itself in order to protect its future. 

ESPAÑA ARTESANA is a ground-breaking new initiative that fuses innovative, avant-garde contemporary design with the opportunities for both national and international commercialisation offered by digital platforms, and an awareness that artisan products tend to drive a more responsible, conscientious, and long-term consumerism. The perfect example of the interplay between land, culture and diversity.

ESPAÑA ARTESANA is Spain’s first directory of master craftsmen and aims to collate, promote and highlight the value of their work. With its list of more than 250 artisan workshops and artists, counts the ceramist, Paula Ojea, winner of the 2019 Spanish National Artisans’ Award, as one of their number, ESPAÑA ARTESANA has recently unveiled a virtual catalogue showcasing a selection of top-quality work, sourced from all over Spain.

The master craftsmen were selected by a group of renowned experts according to a range of criteria: design, territoriality, creativity, innovation, sustainability, and tradition. Living proof of the invaluable alliance between design and craftsmanship.

ESPAÑA ARTESANA is also a platform designed to shine a spotlight on a cultural movement that embraces both heritage and tradition, the avant-garde and innovation. A space bringing together artisans, users, collectors and specialists from both Spain and further afield.

ESPAÑA ARTESANA is the brainchild of the Spanish Association of Contemporary Arts and Crafts. Founded in 2018, it is an independent, non-profit cultural association whose purpose is to preserve, update and promote traditional artisan trades, facilitating the passing-on of traditional know-how to new generations, as well as the training, promotion and internationalization of Spanish artisans. They are the sole organisation in Spain to collaborate with the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftmanship, world leaders in the promotion of contemporary craftsmanship and organisers of HOMO FABER, the biennial event that brings together hundreds of master craftsmen and designers from all over the world in Venice.

All the master craftsmen backed by the platform excel at what they do and were selected following the same criteria, based on the territoriality, creativity, innovation, and sustainability of their work, as well as its traditional aspects.