I’m quite fascinated with Artesol so you’ll all just have to hear a little more about them.  First of all, the organization has over 90 projects underway throughout Brazil…I’m just picking one to give you an idea of the scope of work they do.  The Veredas Project, named for the geographical region where the project is based, was started in 2003 after Artesol learned that there was a group of marginalized people losing their traditional skills and living in poverty.  About 25 or 30 years ago the people in this region of Minas Gerais were a self-sustained community, living off the land and their skills as cotton spinners and weavers.  Then, a large cotton company, seeing the opportunity to exploit local resources, moved in, bought up all the land, and started manufacturing cotton products.  After selling their property, the local people had nothing left and their way of living completely changed; they were forced to either move to the cities in search of work or remain in Veredas living in extreme poverty.  Their traditional skills as spinners and weavers were dying because there was no means by which to continue the craft.  However, even after 30 years, many of the locals kept the tools and patterns for their products.  Artesol was able to use these as a basis for organizing and revitalizing the community.  First, they visited homes and went through boxes of old textiles to understand their work and process.  Next, they organized the community into groups: one village spins the cotton, another dyes it, and another weaves the products.  Then, designers were sent in to provide aesthetic guidance and help create mature products that, most importantly, would sell.   The project took two years to complete and in the end the group won first prize in the Premio Objeto Brasileiro (a prize given to stimulate research and innovation in addition to promoting artisans, designers and entrepreneurs who propose new ways to create authentic craft products).  Living conditions for the people in Veredas have improved…the big company is still there…

Now, do any of you reading this have any information on organizations doing similar work in Canada?  If so, I’d like to work for them…if not, do you think I could start something like this?  It would be such a lot of hard work but just think of all the lost craft traditions in Canada.  Seriously, if anyone besides my friends are reading this and you have any information, whatsoever, please let me know…