The visit was hosted by ‘TAITO’, the Finnish Crafts Organization, which promotes Finnish crafts as a medium of culture, skill and a livelihood. 

A busy five-day itinerary, developed by TAITO, included visits to leading craft and cultural venues such as the Fiskars Willage, the Hvitträsk Museum, the Design Museum, the University of Helsinki, the Arabia Factory and the Crafts Association Pirkanmaa, Tampere.

The partners also met with leading craft and education professionals, attended seminars and participated in-depth discussion sessions on craft practice in education in Finland and Northern Ireland [pictured below]. 

Joe Kelly from Craft NI explains, “Sharing knowledge and information with industry partners is a very important part of the internationalisation of the craft sector in Northern Ireland”,

“Through interactions with another culture, participants discovered new approaches to developing support for the craft industry in Northern Ireland”, Joe explained.

“They gained an insight into European perspectives on business and enterprise issues for craft makers, which will be particularly useful in terms of developing employment opportunities.”

Shiona Croft, Head of School Performing & Creative Arts at South Eastern Regional College explains how the trip gave will offer lasting value:
“The visit provided unique opportunities to share knowledge and information in a very meaningful way."

“Often it’s a case of seeing how tried and tested methods from other countries can help us, as educators, to enhance learning and skills development in Northern Ireland, both in our schools and at third level”, explains Shiona.

The study visit was part of the EU-funded Leonardo da Vinci knowledge exchange programme through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

As part of their drive to assist arts and cultural organisations to benefit from European funded programmes, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland worked with Craft NI and six other partners to facilitate programe which was launched earlier this month when Joe Kelly from Craft NI and Shiona Croft from the South Eastern Regional College met with CAL Committee Chair Barry McElduff MLA at Stormont [pictured here].
 

More about TAITO
Founded in 1913, the Finnish Crafts Organization takes care of Taito Group’s general matters and forms an expert organisation for the crafts and design industry. Together with the 21 regional Crafts Associations, the Finnish Crafts Organization forms the national Taito Group.

The aim of Taito Group’s activities is to raise the general respect for crafts, to maintain craft skills, to develop new, high quality and unique craft work, and to support crafts businesses.

The Finnish Crafts Organization works on a broad front to promote crafts and to improve the quality of arts and crafts. Among its main tasks are the management of Taito Group’s strategy, communications, and expert tasks. They publish a magazine, website and educational materials.
Source: TAITO
For professionals in crafts and design, Taito offers expert services for business development.

- more than 140 Crafts Centres all over Finland

- 280 permanent employees

- 8,500 members

- over 100,000 customers in workshops every year

- 30,000 customers on courses every year

- nearly 450 craft school groups and over 4000 students

Source: Robin Wood, Heritage Crafts Association