A new electronic repository has been launched to “safeguard, recognise and boost Portuguese handmade products”. As part of a broader cultural programme, the Saber Fazer (Know How) platform is made as an ongoing project, which, over the years, will compile and share information about all standard Portuguese arts and crafts and the country’s artisans.
The digital repository is part of the Saber Fazer programme, declared in July 2019 by the then Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, in partnership with the governmental places of Economy, Tourism and Labour, to affirm traditional craft output as “a dynamic, ground breaking and sustainable sector”.
Between the programme’s to start with steps, the Saber Fazer repository was established to obtain and disseminate information about classic craft manufacturing by a electronic system.
Offered at www.programasaberfazer.gov.pt, the repository organises, describes and gives access to data about the artisans, natural products and systems that change them, as perfectly as sites where by any individual can achieve additional information about these procedures, these kinds of as museums, establishments, workshops and interpretive centres.
The task will involve mapping and characterising every single common art in Portugal. It is “a Herculean do the job of gathering dispersed information, from metropolis councils, craft centres, museums, universities” carried out by the Directorate-Basic for Arts (DGArtes), describes the Basic Director of Arts, Américo Rodrigues. It is a get the job done in development. “From currently onwards, it will not quit. For years and years to come, we will be feeding the system, not least since there is an invitation on the web site for people to participate”, claims Rodrigues.
Created as a user-pleasant internet site, the platform is easy to navigate, enabling end users to uncover details rapidly. The contents are presented in obtainable language with distinctive ranges of curiosity and depth on each and every matter, collectively with attractive images depicting each and every craft, interesting to people of all ages.
The plan is to advertise the crafts as up to date pursuits and for the platform to come to be a reference for Portuguese arts and crafts, earning craft goods and products and services far more accessible.
More than the hundreds of years, crafts have survived and thrived thanks to information sharing, as masters passed down and taught their expertise to their apprentices. With numerous of these crafts at danger of disappearing, the system comes to give these trades a increase, presenting anyone the possibility to master about crafts and procedures online or to obtain are living workshops and classes.
The Saber Fazer repository operates “like a large atlas” that maps the existence of artisans and artists of conventional arts and crafts throughout the region, with interactive maps, image galleries and texts about every single exercise.
The repository also involves the Saber Fazer Routes, a choice of thematic routes committed to a distinct artwork or craft. These involve black clay pottery, wicker basketry, cordgrass weaving, tinwork, wooden home furnishings earning and wool weaving. Each route is explained in depth in downloadable PDFs that includes details about the artwork or craft, exactly where it is practised these days and wherever it can be learnt.
With no beginning or ending points, the routes enable everyone to build their journey via Portuguese arts and crafts. Each and every issue on the route corresponds to a spot of expertise and practice, forming a living community of web sites to find, find out or master about these skills.
The project is vital for the sector, as it values the social, cultural and financial dimensions of arts and crafts. It is a instrument that will reflect the operate carried out by the Ministry of Lifestyle and its partners, who have gathered, organised, manufactured and shared expertise on these tactics, area brokers and their uncooked materials, underlining their relevance as tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
The mission, notes Américo Rodrigues, is to “disseminate knowledge about these techniques, about common arts and crafts” and aid people today learn artisans and workshops throughout the nation.
