• The cluster delivers training to the team of tour guides at the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada
• A delegation from the Museum visits Vic with Leather Cluster Barcelona

This March, the cluster organised a training day at Adoberia Bella aimed exclusively at the team of tour guides of the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada.

The aim of this training day was to share key messages, narrative and content in order to highlight leather as a benchmark of the circular economy and sustainable fashion and to be able to tackle the great communication challenge of reaching the population in general and consumers in particular.

Faced with the pressing obligation of the leather industry to explain itself and make itself known, Leather Cluster Barcelona is working on communication proactively, forging collaborations and generating synergies with different players in order to contact and reach all audiences.

A ripple-effect strategy, working from local to global action and developing content with the aim of breaking down the mistaken stereotypes that part of society holds about leather and its industry.

In this respect, the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada, as the cluster’s benchmark member in culture and history, is an important ambassador and a key player in providing information and generating a positive current of opinion about the leather sector among the public. It should be noted that the various activities organised by the Museu de la Pell and Cal Granotes attract close to 40,000 visitors a year, a significant proportion of whom are children visiting the museums with their schools.

The training session for the tour guides of the Museu de la Pell was highly participatory and took the form of a learning journey through consumer sociology and the nature and origin of leather, focusing on the leather sector as a key player in the circular economy and sustainable fashion. This was followed by an explanation of the evolution, strategic challenges and projects of Leather Cluster Barcelona.

Also this March, a delegation from the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada, headed by its director Glòria Escala, visited Vic with Leather Cluster Barcelona. In the capital of Osona they were welcomed by Núria Camps and Elisenda Foradada, in charge of the Vic Leather Interpretation Centre project, and by Xavi Mingu, director of Culture at Vic Town Council.

At the meeting they compared the history of two Catalan cities with a long tradition in the leather sector: Vic and Igualada. The Vic representatives explained the project for the Interpretation Centre of the Vic Tanneries and accompanied the representatives of the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada and the cluster on visits to the Episcopal Museum of Vic (MEV) and Vicpuntzero.

At the MEV they were able to see the immersive room, designed by the Igualada-based Burzon*Comenge, a creative studio with a track record in the field which has been responsible for the mapping of Sant Climent de Taüll and for the Ullastret 3D project. This immersive space aims to be an outreach tool, telling a story that connects different works from the museum’s permanent collection, with the aim of bringing medieval art and the Romanesque cathedral closer to the present.

At Vicpuntzero, meanwhile, they were able to enjoy an audiovisual projected onto the walls and ceiling of the Capella Fonda which, through new technologies, allows visitors to experience travelling through time with art as their guide. An immersive experience and a guided visit through 2,000 years of history.

This visit to Vic served the delegation from the Museu de la Pell d’Igualada and the cluster as a way of learning about projects that could serve as inspiration and of gaining a broader view ahead of the imminent museographic renovation and digitalisation of Cal Granotes, which will help improve the connection between the world of leather and the new generations.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is a competitive cooperation environment for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.