On Friday 24 March 2023, the Horizon Europe project 'Tracks4Crafts' was launched at the Belgian Open-Air Museum Bokrijk. T4C is a four-year international project that aims to safeguard crafts by enhancing their economic and societal added value.
The project starts from the observation that traditional craft knowledge is undervalued in our current society and that we too easily assume that crafts are at odds with innovation. The partners in the project collaborate to find new ways of valuing crafts and develop the tools needed to do so, from new learning formats and business models to new models of intellectual property rights, new ways of certification and new professional classification systems. It will make use of new technologies such as Artificial intelligence and Augmented Reality but will equally experiment with new forms of learning and collaboration in the workplace.
Coordinated from the University of Antwerp, the project involves no fewer than 15 partners from 10 different European countries. Renowned research institutes such as Politecnico di Milano, Université Paris-Sorbonne and the Latvian Academy of Culture are working intensively with about a dozen organisations and companies, each of which is working on a particular craft or technique in its own way. After the kick-off in Bokrijk, numerous experiments and demonstrations will follow over the next four years. Keep an eye on our website for these:
The four-year programme is financed by Horizon Europe, an initiative launched by the European Commission. By promoting traditional crafts, it wants to help shape European identity while preserving our continent's cultural heritage.