Cooperativa QRER and Proactivetur / Projeto TASA were winners of the 2023 National Crafts Award in the “Private Entity” and “Research” categories, respectively. At the awards ceremony that took place on November 25th, it was announced that this was the edition that had the most entries, exceeding one hundred.
This distinction takes place every two years, on the initiative of the IEFP, and aims to distinguish “the excellence of work in six categories in the area of crafts”.
The Private Entities category rewarded the work that the QRER Cooperative carried out between 2021 and 2023, in valuing traditional Gaucho arts.
During this period, the promotion of “Master-Apprentice Knowledge Transmission Courses” dedicated to esparto and sugarcane stands out, as well as the organization of Creative Residencies linked to these arts and another that combined crafts with traditional Algarve gastronomy themes. , promoting co-creation between artisans, designers and other specialists. These initiatives aimed to train new artisans and train existing ones to create innovative and marketable pieces, with the aim of revitalizing the artisan profession and reinforcing regional cultural identity.
This work results from QRER’s participation in projects co-financed by European funds, namely Magallanes_ICC and Algarve Craft & Food, which also had the support of the Municipalities of Loulé and Alcoutim and Aspirante a Geoparque Algarvensis.
The Research award was awarded to authors Susana Martins and Graça Palma for the study. This research work translates into book format a research and inventory work carried out in the first half of 2021 on the degree of risk of 26 traditional arts in the Algarve, involving 174 artisans, 16 municipalities and 4 craft associations in the region.
The project was coordinated by Proactivetur/ TASA and was carried out within the scope of the MAGALLANES_ICC project, forming part of one of the activities of CCDR Algarve as a partner entity.
The Algarve, its artisans, authors and entities, are once again recognized on the national scene for the work they have been doing in training, valuing and producing knowledge related to the region’s traditional arts.
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