On February 8th, CUMEDIAE joined Mad’in Europe for the final event of its project CYFE (Crafts, Youth, Future, Engagement) in Saint-Gilles’ hôtel de ville.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, the project targets teenagers, aiming to reconnect them to professional craftsmanship with the help of young workers as ambassadors to build a more sustainable, inclusive, and responsible society. The main goal of the project is to shift European citizens’ perspective on artisanal professions and careers by developing tools to spread awareness of the sector and its opportunities for youngsters. To do so Mad’in Europe enlisted the help of six partner companies and organisations: Aproximar, LAJA, Esquare, Petrklíč help, Associazione San Giuseppe and CUMEDIAE’s long-time collaborator Khora – an award-winning Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) production studio based in Copenhagen.
The project team has released a guidebook addressing students, young workers, educators and parents and gathering testimonials from seven European countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Denmark and France) to inspire new careers. The guidebook is available online in six languages and is enriched with a list of schools and workshops where it is possible to learn crafts.
CUMEDIAE proudly supports CYFE and shares its enthusiasm for empowering the youth through craftmanship, inspiring European teenagers to explore the underestimated opportunities within the artisanal sector and fostering an attitude of renewed interest towards it. The whole team celebrates artisanal work as a gateway to creativity, tradition, and cultural heritage and endorses the development of innovative tools and initiatives to ignite young people’s curiosity towards the crafts world.