As we step into the new year, we extend our heartfelt wishes for a prosperous, creative, and inspiring journey ahead. May 2025 bring new opportunities for growth, collaboration, and success to all craftspeople and craft enthusiasts.
Looking back on 2024, we are incredibly proud of the strides we made in advancing our mission to revitalize the crafts sector and safeguard cultural heritage professions. These achievements reflect the passion and dedication of our community—your commitment fuels our impact.
At Mad’in Europe, we renew our pledge to strengthen our engagement and make an even greater impact in 2025. Together, let’s continue to celebrate craftsmanship and ensure its legacy thrives.
Let’s take a moment to revisit our 2024 milestones and explore the exciting plans ahead for this year!
We enhanced our efforts to support the transmission of knowledge and skills, while also enriching the educational opportunities in heritage-related professions, traditional crafts, restoration, and creative arts.
👉 A full section of our portal is now dedicated to schools
👉 Non formal education is also proposed by our members in their workshops
👉 We organised Workshops with experienced craftspeople
As part of the Transcultura Programme, spearheaded by UNESCO’s regional office in Havana with funding from the European Union and in partnership with Mad’in Europe, nine young jewelry and ceramic designers from the Caribbean participated in an artistic exchange in Caltagirone, Sicily, collaborating with three experienced Italian craftspeople.
👉 We launched “Bricks”, a European project, coordinated by Mad’in Europe, aiming to enhance adult non-formal education and intergenerational knowledge exchange in heritage crafts, reaching both remote and urban areas.
We widened our outreach to traditional building crafts, which are crucial for the safeguard of our built heritage.
👉 We opened our portal to stakeholder of the traditional architecture sector
👉 We valorise sustainable building techniques
👉 We launched and we coordinate “Mindcrafts” innovative project that employs non-formal learning to engage young people aged 15 to 25 in traditional building crafts and built heritage. By linking traditional crafts to local culture, sustainability, and the development of an inclusive society, Mindcrafts encourages youth to view these professions as essential and valuable.
We improved the use of digital tools and online initiatives for more knowledge, exchanges and synergies.
👉 We partnered with UNESCO and the Transcultura program to host webinars on mural painting and jewelry, involving both Euroepan and Caribbean professionals.
👉 We produced the multilingual guidebook CYFE, showcasing crafts as a pathway to employment, sustainability, and well-being for future generations.
👉 Together with Future for Religious Heritage (FRH), we have conducted and released the study on “Situation of Crafts Professions involved in Safeguarding Built Heritage”. The report highlights the aging workforce, the absent education and certification, insufficient digital and marketing training on crafts professionals and the urgent need to pass skills to younger generations:
👉 With our new shopping page, we empower professionals selling online to expand their reach without incurring any commission fees. At the same time, we encourage consumers to purchase directly from craftspeople, promoting a shift away from mass production towards more responsible and sustainable consumption
👉 We continued our engagement in CRAEFT, a Horizon project that explores new approaches to understanding crafts by combining computer science, anthropology, and digital tools. In 2024, the project’s partners traveled to Limoges (France) to document local craft gestures, then moved on to Ioannina (Greece) to capture silversmithing techniques, and finally visited Yecla (Spain) to record woodcarving methods. By focusing on the unique gestures and practices inherent to each craft, these field trips aim to preserve and highlight the richness of cultural heritage.
We engage policymakers to revitalise the crafts sector
👉 Continuing our involvement in the Horizon CRAEFT project, Mad’in Europe coordinated the launch of CRAFTOUR— a collaborative initiative bringing together six projects, 76 partners, and 21 countries across five strategic pillars. The objective is to develop joint recommendations for European institutions aimed at revitalizing the crafts sector, with benefits for the economy, employment, sustainability, and cultural heritage.
Through this initiative, we give shape to our ambition of engaging policymakers to bolster Europe’s crafts sector, and we believe that uniting so many qualified stakeholders will create a powerful and lasting impact.
Empowering our engagement in 2025 !
👉 As we look back on our accomplishments in 2024, we stand on the threshold of another year brimming with opportunities. In 2025, we will continue to unite professionals, educators, policymakers, and enthusiasts under a shared commitment to champion crafts and cultural heritage.
With your passion and support, we aim to deepen our impact — through new partnerships, innovative projects, and active engagement with decision-makers —so that the richness of European craftsmanship thrives for generations to come.
