Artist’s egg with surprise: Perugia enters the “Ceramics Route” in Umbria
The announcement during the Articity conference. Furthermore, the association of artisan shops in the historic center points out a paradox: there is demand for quality craftsmanship but the shops are closing
Perugia officially enters the network of municipalities of the ‘Road of Ceramics in Umbria’, a project born in 2018 which also includes Deruta, Gualdo Tadino, Gubbio, Orvieto, Umbertide and Città di Castello, to support and relaunch the production districts of the sector and related districts and economies. The announcement came on Thursday 28 April during the conference ‘Art workshops of yesterday – Art workshops of tomorrow’, organized by the Articity association – Artisan workshops in the historic centre, chaired by the ceramist and master craftsman Maria Antonietta Taticchi, as part of the event ‘The Streets of Ceramics: Artist’s Eggs’, on stage until April 1st in Perugia. The latter is organized by the Perugia in Centro Consortium in synergy with the Umbria Region and the association ‘La Strada della Ceramica in Umbria’ with the relevant Municipalities, and thanks to the commitment of Articity it was included as a preview in the program of the European Crafts Days of art (Gema), which will be held from 2 to 7 April throughout Europe.
“Perugia – highlighted the president of Articity – is the capital and economic, cultural and artistic centre. We hope that through the close collaboration between these Municipalities we will be able to revive the great vocation of Umbrian ceramics” because “the future lies in contemporary craftsmanship of excellence and tradition. We need to develop new strategies and new policies aimed at guaranteeing the transmission of knowledge, research, promotion and tax exemption of craftsmanship as an artistic and cultural artefact that contributes to the characterization of Made in Italy. Artisan workshops are disappearing and it is a paradox because instead interest in quality artistic craftsmanship is growing, both on the part of those who would like to purchase the artefacts and on the part of young people who would like to learn this art but cannot find suitable paths. In Umbria, for example, there is a regional law from 2013, the Consolidated Law on craftsmanship, which collects and updates the regional regulations on the matter, and is a first step towards the right direction so as not to waste the great heritage we have”.
From the Perugia conference, Articity launches a message to the political world above all, so that it can turn the spotlight on quality art professions and craftsmanship and that the right dignity of the work of a master craftsman is recognised, also by promoting European policies in support of art craftsmanship for its high cultural, economic and social value. Significant, therefore, is the presence of MEP Francesca Peppucci alongside the regional councilor of Umbria Michele Bettarelli, promoters of a regional law soon to be approved which aims to regulate the paths of artistic ceramics. Also speaking were Antonella Tiranti, manager of the Tourism, Sport and Film Commission service of the Umbria Region, the municipal councilor of Perugia Roberta Ricci and Michele Toniaccini, mayor of Deruta as well as president of the association ‘La Strada della Ceramica in Umbria’, just returned from Portugal where the twinning with the Municipality of Caldas da Rainha was signed “a further step – he recalled – for the creation of an international network of artistic ceramic cities of which Deruta could be the leader, involving the Ceramics Route in Umbria, thus creating an international network and why not, creating Artist’s Eggs in this city too”. Among the speakers at the conference, which resumes a journey that began in 2022 with the Festival of artistic professions and continued in October 2023 with the meeting entitled ‘Crafts without a future – European cultural impoverishment’, were the ceramologist Franco Cocchi, professor Giulio Busti, curator of the Regional Ceramics Museum of Deruta, Giulia Rampini, of Rampini Ceramiche, Paolo Mariotti and Alessandro Granieri, of the Consorzio Perugia in centro, Alessandro Granieri and Elisa Guidi, coordinator of Artex – Center for Crafts artistic and traditional of Tuscany, coordinator for Italy of the Gema.
Articity will once again be the protagonist in the Artist’s Eggs event with its ceramic artisans (Maria Antonietta Taticchi, Caterina Aquinardi, Valeria Vestrelli, Elena Raugia, Lucia Castellini, Ivan Olivieri and Valentina Belia) in Piazza della Repubblica, until April 1st from 10am at 7pm, “with the hope that Perugia and the historic center will return to being a thriving place due to the presence of artistic craft workshops, not just ceramics”, concluded President Taticchi.
