The attention towards social issues by ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO continues and thanks to the support of the Otto per Mille della Chiesa Valdesewill welcome five social cooperatives to the Exhibition – gathered in the Atrium of Palazzo Corsini – where youngsters with various disabilities will be able to exhibit and sell their creations and involve the public with live workshops and demonstrations. The Cooperatives in the Exhibition will be: Trisomia 21, accessories and objects made with various techniques by youngsters with Down syndrome. Made in Sipario, a crafts workshop where disabled “special artists” work decorating paper, ceramic, wood and fabric by hand for shopping bags, tableware and household items. Laboratorio Zanzara, innovative graphic art decorations made by youngsters with mental disabilities aided by a team of professionals from the fields of visual communication, design and art. Ulisse Piedelibero, a workshop where abandoned bicycles from the Municipal Depository are given a new life: repaired and restored by inmates in the workshops of the Florentine prison and put back into circulation; but also a training laboratory for young mechanics aimed at youngsters from the Juvenile Institute. GURI I ZI an ethical brand of handcrafted fabrics for the table and the home, made on a loom as part of the women’s textile micro-enterprise project in Northern Albania launched in 2006 to improve the lives of women, of their families and of the entire community that today provides work and dignity to more than 40 people.
The initiative is part of the project “L’artigianato che unisce, l’artigianato che include” promoted by Associazione Giardino Corsini in order to foster synergies among those who have chosen craftsmanship as an opportunity for inclusion, through training courses, meetings and actions to market and promote their skills and jobs.
Part of this project is a program of “conversations” and themed meetings on the relationship between artistic form/disability andcraftsmanship as a form of social inclusion, which will be organized during the three days of the exhibition to launch a call for investment in training and promotion of craftwork for the start of a project to enter the world of work.