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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260430T100000
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SUMMARY:ECA Annual Conference 2026: Crafting Wellbeing
DESCRIPTION:Overview\nThe European Crafts Alliance (ECA) holds its Annual Conference 2026 on Thursday April 30 at Teatrino Lorenese\, Firenze Fiera\, Florence\, Italy\, with simultaneous online streaming. The half-day conference runs from 9:30 am on-site and 10:00 CET online until 13:30 CET. It is co-organised by Artex (Centre for Artistic and Traditional Tuscan Crafts) and presented in collaboration with Firenze Fiera during the 90th anniversary of MIDA\, the International Handicraft Exhibition in Florence. \nThe conference is part of the CraftsNet project\, co-funded by the European Union. Participation is free and open to the public\, both in person and online. In-person attendees receive complimentary access to the MIDA fair for the duration of the conference. The event is interactive in format\, using Mentimeter to gather live questions from both in-person and online audiences for a shared Q&A session with all speakers. \nFocus\n“Crafting Wellbeing” examines craft practices not from the perspective of cultural heritage or economic activity\, but through their documented contribution to physical and mental health\, rehabilitation\, social inclusion\, and community life. The conference marks a deliberate expansion of ECA’s previous analytical frameworks\, which had addressed the craft sector’s ecosystem structure and economic contribution\, into the domain of public health and social prescribing. \nThe central event of the conference is the presentation of a new European research report\, “Crafting Health and Wellbeing\,” conducted by the University of Eastern Finland for the ECA. This report provides the first substantial evidence base at European level for craft’s health-promoting effects\, drawing on neuroscience\, psychology\, and sociological research to establish what making actually does to the people who practice it. The conference moves from this research foundation into practice\, with case studies addressing clinical rehabilitation\, career transition\, disability inclusion\, and therapeutic ceramics. It closes by asking how these individual and local examples can be integrated into public health systems at scale across Europe. \nCraft practices are increasingly finding their way into rehabilitation programmes\, community health initiatives\, and social prescribing networks — and the conference will examine how making actually works in clinical rehabilitation\, mental health\, and social inclusion.\nECA Annual Conference 2026 Description \nProgramme\n\n09:30\nOn-site registration\n\n\n10:00 – 10:20\nWelcome\nElisa Guidi (Artex / MIDA 90)\, Lorenzo Becattini (Firenze Fiera)\, Ana Cristina Mendes (ECA President / CEARTE)\, hosted by Siobhán Joyce O’Callaghan (ECA Programmes Coordinator)\n\n\n10:20 – 10:50\nWhy Making Matters: Unveiling the European Report on Crafting Health and Wellbeing\nSirpa Kokko and Niina Väänänen\, University of Eastern Finland. Presentation of the first European evidence-based report on how making shapes wellbeing.\n\n\n10:50 – 11:40\nCraft in Action: Stories of Impact — Three Case Studies\nCase Study 1: Craft as a Life Path (Giovanni Battista Figini\, Oliver Twist School\, Como). Case Study 2: Career Change — Craft as Creative Recovery (Célia Macedo\, Portugal). Case Study 3: Therapeutic Intervention and Professional Craft Training for Social Inclusion (Annalisa Apicella and Anna Rita Fasano\, APS Pandora ceramist artists\, Salerno).\n\n\n12:00 – 12:30\nDual Practice: Dialogue on Craft’s Contribution to Health\nDr. Anne Kirketerp (Craft-Psychology\, Denmark) and Elena Baistrocchi (Lisio Silk Art Foundation\, Florence). Bridging the language of clinical care and craft practice.\n\n\n12:30 – 13:15\nCraft Futures in Wellbeing — Panel Discussion\nElisa Bonini (La Nuova Tinaia APS)\, Elisa Guidi (Artex / MIDA)\, Marion Poortvliet (Crafts Council Nederland). Moderated by Laura Miguel\, ECA Secretary General. How does craft move from local projects to a lasting place in Europe’s health and care ecosystem?\n\n\n13:15 – 13:30\nClosing Remarks\nElton Micallef\, ECA Vice-President and CEO Malta Crafts Foundation.\n\nSpeakers\n\nSirpa KokkoProfessor of Craft Science\, University of Eastern Finland\nNiina VäänänenUniversity Lecturer\, University of Eastern Finland\nGiovanni Battista FiginiSchool Director\, Cometa Formazione – Oliver Twist School\, Como\nCélia MacedoFounder and Maker\, Célia Macedo Ceramics\, Portugal\nAnnalisa ApicellaArtist\, Designer\, APS Pandora ceramist artists\, Salerno\nAnna Rita FasanoPresident and Founder\, APS Pandora ceramist artists\, Salerno\nDr. Anne KirketerpCEO/Founder\, Craft-Psychology\, Denmark\nElena BaistrocchiGeneral Manager\, Lisio Silk Art Foundation\, Florence\nElisa BoniniFundraising Consultant\, La Nuova Tinaia APS\nMarion PoortvlietFounder and Director\, Crafts Council Nederland / ECA Board\nLaura MiguelSecretary General\, European Crafts Alliance\nElton MicallefVice-President ECA / CEO Malta Crafts Foundation\n\nContext: MIDA at 90\nThe conference is hosted within Firenze Fiera during the 90th anniversary edition of MIDA\, the International Handicraft Exhibition\, one of Europe’s longest-running trade and cultural events for craft. MIDA’s longevity and its Florentine context\, embedded in a city whose identity is inseparable from material craft traditions\, makes it a resonant setting for a conference that argues for craft’s relevance to contemporary public health rather than its preservation as heritage. In-person conference attendees receive complimentary access to the MIDA fair\, creating a direct link between the conference’s arguments and the active commercial and cultural craft environment on the exhibition floor. \nAudience\nThe conference targets craft sector professionals\, educators\, researchers\, public health practitioners\, social workers\, and policy advocates working at the intersection of making\, design education\, and community wellbeing. Its hybrid format\, free registration\, and online accessibility make it open to a European-wide audience beyond the Florence venue. For those working in spatial and architectural practice with interests in therapeutic environments\, social infrastructure\, and the material dimensions of care\, the research and case studies presented will be directly relevant. \nEvent Details\n\n\n\nDate\nThursday\, April 30\, 2026\n\n\nHours\n09:30 on-site / 10:00 CET online – 13:30 CET\n\n\nVenue\nTeatrino Lorenese\, Firenze Fiera\, Florence\, Italy (+ online)\n\n\nAdmission / Fees\nFree and open to the public — in-person registration required by April 28\, 12:00 CET via Google Form on ECA website. In-person attendees receive complimentary MIDA fair access.\n\n\nOnline Access\nLive stream available — join via ECA website at 10:00 CET\n\n\nOrganizer\nEuropean Crafts Alliance (ECA)\n\n\nCo-organizer\nArtex — Centre for Artistic and Traditional Tuscan Crafts\n\n\nHost venue\nFirenze Fiera\n\n\nResearch Partner\nUniversity of Eastern Finland (UEF)\n\n\nEU Co-funding\nCraftsNet project\, co-funded by the European Union\n\n\nContact\neuropeancraftsalliance.org\n\n\n\n\n✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight\nThe shift the ECA is making with this conference is strategically significant: repositioning craft from cultural heritage and economic sector to health and care infrastructure. This is not a new argument in therapeutic or occupational contexts\, where craft-based interventions have been documented for decades\, but presenting it at the level of European sectoral policy and backing it with a commissioned university research report is a different kind of institutional move. The evidence base matters here more than in most conference claims: if the University of Eastern Finland report is methodologically credible\, it provides advocacy leverage that cultural or economic arguments have not reliably produced. The speaker list balances the academic layer (Kokko\, Väänänen\, Kirketerp) with practitioner cases\, which is the right structure for a claim that needs to demonstrate both theoretical grounding and real-world transferability. The Célia Macedo case\, an architect who left the profession to become a ceramicist\, is the sharpest individual example: her trajectory makes the connection between spatial design practice and making-centred wellbeing concrete and personal rather than abstract. \n\n\nClosing Note\nFor those in architecture\, interior design\, and spatial practice who engage with therapeutic environments\, social prescribing\, or the design of health and care infrastructure\, the ECA’s 2026 conference offers a half-morning of evidence and case studies that address the material dimensions of wellbeing from the practitioner side. Its free and hybrid format removes the usual barriers to participation\, and the research report it launches will likely become a reference document for future European advocacy at the intersection of craft\, health\, and public space.
URL:https://archup.net/event/eca-annual-conference-2026-crafting-wellbeing/
LOCATION:Padiglione Teatrino Lorenese\, V.le Filippo Strozzi\, 1\, 50129 Firenze FI\, Firenze\, Firenze\, -\, Italy
CATEGORIES:Conferences
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