The sixteenth edition of the National Crafts Awards has received 66 nominations that will compete for the highest award. After studying the proposals, the selection committee made up of experts from the craft sector and representatives of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and the autonomous communities has selected the 15 finalist projects, from various sectors and Spanish regions.
The Awards consist of 5 categories, three of them for artisan projects and two for promotional work by private and public entities. Three candidates have been chosen for each of them.
Andalusia, Galicia and the Valencian Community have been the regions with the most nominees, with four finalists each, followed by the Community of Madrid and Castilla y León with 2 and 1 nomination respectively. By sector, textiles and plant fibers stand out, followed by glass, ceramics, wood and marble, stone and plaster.
The National Crafts Awards are convened annually by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism through the School of Industrial Organization (EOI) and its crafts promotion area, Fundesarte. Its objective is to contribute to the development and competitiveness of SMEs in the craft sector, as well as to encourage innovation, design and their ability to adapt to the market.
Finalists
The National Craft Award It is intended to recognize the entirety of a consolidated work. This year, the award will be competed for by the master basket maker Álvaro Martínez Leiro from Galicia; J. Sorribes Glass Crafts, a company that works with glass in Valencia; and Garín 1820, a Valencian company specialized in silk weaving.
For the Product Award, which distinguishes the best product or collection of recent years, the finalists are CARMEN 17, a Madrid-based company that creates stage costumes, for its “La Moñetes” collection; textile artisan Inés Rodríguez, for her handmade baby blanket “D-Leite” made with dairy protein fiber; and Juan Manuel Molina Baena from El Arte del Olivo, for his “0-waste” board created with small pieces of olive tree left over from the workshop.
The three candidates selected for the Entrepreneurship Award, a category that recognizes the entrepreneurial person or company, highlighting the introduction of new concepts in the sector, have been the Ubetense ceramist Alfonso David Hidalgo Cruz for his Góngora ceramic workshop; the Galician basket maker Julia de la Cal Rodríguez, with her studio-workshop La Parabólica; and the textile art creator Regina DeJiménez, from Alicante.
The Award Promote for Private Entities It will be decided between the Contemporary Association of Arts and Crafts, for its project “Masters of the Future. Crafts and design in Europe”; the Hornos de la Cal de Morón Cultural Association, for its project to promote, disseminate and recover artisanal lime through its museum and training center in Morón de la Frontera, Seville; and the Federation of Artisan Organizations of Castilla y León (FOACAL), for its “Living Heritage” video library project.
And finally, the Prize Promote for Public Entities for contributing in a notable way to the promotion of crafts, it will be awarded to one of the following finalists: the Management Consortium of the Craft Center of the Valencian Community, for its project “Retorno del Sentimiento, RDS”; the Public Foundation Artesanía de Galicia with the project 'Corazón da Artesanía. Founding of Traditional and Popular Crafts of Galicia'; and the University of Granada, for the 'ADA Crafts + Design + Art' project of the Chair of Innovation in Crafts, Design and Contemporary Art.
About Fundesarte
Fundesarte is, since 1981, the reference organization in the promotion and development of Spanish craft companies. It is a priority of our programs to enhance, value and communicate the quality of the artisan product and the sustainability of its production processes, through promotional initiatives, among which the National Crafts Awards and the European Crafts Days stand out.
Currently, Fundesarte is part of the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), a public foundation attached to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
www.eoi.es/es/conocenos/fundesarte // @Fundesarte // www.facebook.com/Fundesarte
