Would you like to share your craft? 

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We are looking for about 20 Artisan’s to include in our July project! 

 

Ideally, we would like to have some photos, and a very short video of you (you do not have to be in it!) discussing your craft, e.g how long you have been making them for, how you got started etc. We are more than happy to help conduct these videos,  if you are local to Reading. 

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About arITsan: 

 

arITsan: New Educational Approaches for IT and Entrepreneurial Literacy of Senior Artisans

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arITsan is an Erasmus+ project funded by the European Union, designed to improve the entrepreneurial and ICT skills of senior artisans and craft makers throughout Europe. Throughout the project, European partners will work with senior artisans who are expert handicraft masters but may lack the entrepreneurial skills to sell their craft on an online platform.  Skills that in today’s society, senior artisans may need to master for their craft to survive. 

 

This project is developed by a partnership including 7 organisations covering the whole of Europe (Romania, Italy, Malta, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and The United Kingdom) with different backgrounds, expertise, and approaches of adult education issues, particularly with senior learners. 

 

The project intends to address the 3 following vulnerabilities that are threatening the craft sector in a post-covid Europe:

 

1. Due to globalisation and mass markets (such as Amazon), small independent senior artisans are struggling to compete with larger corporations to sell & market their products.

2. Many senior artisans throughout Europe lack the necessary IT and entrepreneurial skills to market and sell their products on an online platform, such as Etsy. 

3. Many traditional crafts are critically endangered and face extinction throughout Europe. This project intends to preserve the priceless heritage fostered by senior artisans and diversity of European cultural identity. 

 

 

To address these vulnerabilities, the arITsan project will increase the entrepreneurial and ICT competencies of 280 senior artisans throughout 21 small communities in Europe. This will be achieved by developing and testing new, innovative, and flexible training materials, conducting research, hosing network events & creating a website that senior artisans can use to display their work and open an online platform/shop. 

 

Additionally, throughout this project, 154 adult educators who work with senior artisans will be trained on how to adapt their education tools to better support senior artisans who are lacking ICT and entrepreneurial skills.  
 

Real Time is conducting interviews with artisans & people who represent artisans, to gather research on the current landscape of the craft market in the UK. The research and interviews that we collect will be used to inform our networking events and will help advise our future work with senior artisans. 

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