Created in 1998 and instituted as a Civil Society Organization of Public Interest (OSCIP) in 2002, Artesanato Solidário/ArteSol is present in localities where there are few job and income generation opportunities, revitalizing traditional handicraft and improving the quality of life of artisans and their family members. More than 100 projects have been carried out or are currently underway in 17 states throughout Brazil, involving roughly 20 thousand people indirectly.
In executing its activities, Artesanato Solidário/ArteSol developed its own social technology, being recognized for the serious and competent way it works. By engaging in fair and solidary trade, the entity received certification from the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) in 2006.
In 2008, Artesanato Solidário/ArteSol became a Pontão de Cultura, integrating the Ministry of Culture’s Cultural Programs and Projects Department. The main objective of a Pontão is to promote an exchange and disseminate Brazilian culture in all its languages and forms, both regionally and nationally.
The types of handicrafts are diverse – ceramics, lacework and embroideries, weaving, macramé, sculpture, wood cutting, among so many others.
What ensures the diversity of the Artesanato Solidário/ArteSol’s actions, given its scope, is the network of partners who contribute resources of different natures (financial, human, technical, political), on different levels (from coordination to local actions), with carrying degrees (those of a more structural, permanent nature, and those of a more provisional, sporadic nature), but all fundamental and indispensable.
“Between the timelessness of museums and the fleeting time of technique, handicraft is the palpitation of human time.” - Octavio Paz
About
Artesanato solidário/ Artesol recognizes a rich cultural patrimony in traditional arts&crafts, capable of promoting sustainable development and social inclusion for many brazilians that live in the poverty line but hold knowledge and techniques that constitutes a genuine brazilian identity, therefore contemplating better income and quality of life.
Initially idealized as a poverty fighting project in areas devastated by drought. Artesanato Solidário/ Artesol was conceived in 1998 as a social program and after 2002 became an OSCIP (Public Interest Civil Society Organization) with a mission of improving the quality of life of artisans living in areas with low IDH (low human development index) and promoting cultural and citizenship values that strengthen civil society.
Values and Attitudes
Increase appreciation of the culture and autonomy of artisans groups
Actions that offer the possibility that artisans become main players in their development
Respect traditional knowledge and techniques
Actions that enable master artisans to transmit their arts&crafts knowledge to the young promoting a multi-generational dialogue.
Social-environmental Responsibility
Actions that promote sustainability concepts and promote the conscious use of natural resources, using both traditional and scientific techniques forming partnerships with environment research institutes.
Fair trade practices
Actions that allow the availability of handcraft products to a bigger consumer audience.
Sustainable Development
Actions that break away from merely charity practices and effectively pursue change in the public policy for income generation.
Key Areas
1. Generation of employment and income – Sustainable Development
- Training and capacity building of artisans;
- Sustainable management of natural resources;
- Local and economic development;
- Practice of Fair Trade;
- Improve quality of life.
2. Strengthening Identity
- Creating groups of social coexistence;
- Exercise of citizenship;
- Educational initiatives;
- Emancipatory politics;
- Strengthening the self esteem of the artisans.
3. Cultural Revitalization
- Development of Brazilian cultural diversity through
preservation and promotion of handicraft tradition;
- Democratization of knowledge through the dissemination of
culture and centuries-old techniques of making the
crafts.
Results
- 95 projects since 1998
- 5 thousand directly involved artisans
- 25 thousand indirectly helped people.
- 17 contemplated states
- Rescue of 8 different techniques of arts&crafts: basket weaving, pottery, musical instruments, toys, wood sculptures, embroidery and cloth making.
- 5 nationally recognized social technology awards.
- 1 International Fair Trade Certification (IFAT- International fair trade association member since 2006)
- Reference in traditional arts&crafts
