From 24 to 28 March 2025, the Pino Pascali Foundation – Museum of Contemporary Art, as Lead Partner of the Interreg IPA South Adriatic CRAFTLAB PLUS project, will promote and coordinate an international training in Grottaglie (Taranto), focusing on artisanship practices in the fields of ceramics, mosaics, and textiles.
A group of nineteen participants from the partner countries – Italy, Albania, and Montenegro, will engage in an intensive training path of 30 hours, combining theoretical and practical activities based on a learning by doing methodology. This experience will intertwine conceptual insights with the direct transmission of traditional skills, fostering both reflection and hands-on experimentation. The activities will be organised by Ex Frantoio APS, based in Grottaglie, a local entity supporting artists and communities by providing spaces and tools to foster artistic creation and exchange.
The training experience aims to transfer and revitalize traditional craft knowledge, in line with CRAFTLAB PLUS’s mission to enhance intangible cultural heritage and its contemporary reinterpretation.
This experience also seeks to strengthen intercultural and cross-border dialogue, creating connections between traditional knowledge and contemporary creative practices, with a strong focus on local development and cultural innovation. It represents a concrete opportunity to reflect on artisanship as a dynamic and living heritage, capable of generating new relationships between culture, society, and territory while fostering innovative spaces for artistic exchange and collaborative creation.
CRAFTLAB PLUS is co-financed by the Interreg IPA South Adriatic 2021–2027 Programme, a cross-border cooperation initiative funded by the European Union. The project involves Pino Pascali Foundation (Italy, Lead Partner), University of Molise (Italy), Municipality of Budva (Montenegro), and Harabel Art Contemporary Center (Albania).