The event was promoted by Artisania and the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia to generate new opportunities for collaboration

Artisania and the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia are celebrating the warm reception given to the first face-to-face meeting between artisans and companies of the county, which represents an important step in strengthening the role of craftsmanship as part of the local economic ecosystem. The meeting took place this Tuesday 10 June at the headquarters of Leather Cluster Barcelona, in the Adoberia Bella building in Igualada.

Artisania is an initiative of Anoia en Transició of the Anoia County Council, and the fruit of the cooperation between four municipalities — el Bruc, Copons, La Llacuna and Sant Martí de Tous — to build an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable rural community that generates knowledge, wealth and opportunities for people through contemporary craftsmanship.

The event brought together some twenty artisans and creators of the county with a dozen companies, both public and private, in a space for meeting and exchange designed to highlight the creative talent of the Anoia and to generate real links with the local business fabric. During the session, participatory activities were held which encouraged the emergence of synergies and collaborative proposals that open the door to future alliances.

The meeting forms part of the Anoia en Transició project and represents an important step in strengthening the role of craftsmanship as a driver of local transformation and innovation.

During the event the digital catalogue with the profiles of the 20 participating artisans was also presented: who they are, what they do and how to collaborate with them. This resource, which will be sent to companies, institutions and stakeholders of the territory, aims to make the craft sector more accessible and to facilitate new professional opportunities. It can be consulted and downloaded from the website www.artisania.cat

The Anoia County Council’s councillor for Territorial Promotion, Jordi Barón, stressed that “this meeting is a good example of how we can connect local talent with the companies of the territory in order to generate a more rooted, creative and sustainable economy”.

For her part, Montse Soteras, head of advisory services and of the legal department of the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia, highlighted “the willingness of the business world to discover new avenues of collaboration with craftsmanship and to open up to creative solutions that can bring great value to current projects”.

Artisania and the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia have assessed the participation and interest shown by both parties very positively and are already working to give continuity to this initiative.

For its part, Leather Cluster Barcelona collaborates with both the UEA and Artisania on a range of activities.

In terms of craftsmanship, in October 2024 the cluster took part in the sustainability debate of the Artisania Experience and is also working on specific projects to give visibility to Catalan artisans and leather fashion designers, such as its own space at REC.0, La Pell del Rec, and its collaboration in Crafts2B (Innovation Brands Crafts).

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.