An Igualada delegation visits Ubrique with Leather Cluster Barcelona

A delegation from the city of Igualada, headed by the town council’s councillor for Education and Sport, Patrícia Illa, and by Raquel Camacho and Ester Comenge, director and deputy director of the La Gaspar Municipal School of Art and Design, visited the Cádiz town of Ubrique, accompanied by the vice-president of Leather Cluster Barcelona, Xavier Badia.

The town of Ubrique has a long tradition in the leather goods sector and over the years it has brought together a significant number of companies specialising in the production of leather bags and other leather goods, forming a genuine leather cluster.

The aim of the Igualada delegation’s visit, which took place on 5 April, was to forge training alliances and explore synergies between the La Gaspar Municipal School of Art and Design, which continues to move forward towards becoming a benchmark in design and prototyping in neo-craftsmanship, and the Ubrique cluster as a centre of avant-garde craftsmanship.

The La Gaspar Municipal School of Art and Design, a member of Leather Cluster Barcelona, is the only school in Catalonia to deliver the vocational training cycle in leather accessories craftsmanship, linked to fashion and leather, with an official qualification from the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The visit was accompanied by Leather Cluster Barcelona in the person of its vice-president Xavier Badia, who has an extensive knowledge of the Ubrique cluster as a result of the professional and personal relationships he has built over the past 25 years.

During its stay in Ubrique, the delegation visited the Movex leather innovation centre, the Ubrique leather museum, the school of leather craftsmen, and the town hall of the Cádiz municipality, where they were received by the mayor of Ubrique, Isabel Gómez, and the deputy mayor, Manuel Ángel Chacón.

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. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.