Co-Founder
CurrentMany of the communities, crafts and traditional forms of artisticexpression that make up Portugal’s cultural DNA find themselves on thebrink of extinction. MÔÇES was born from the desire to protect andredefine these resources and techniques, by investing in the ritual handingdown of knowledge from generation to generation.With this goal in mind, MÔÇES works in partnership with localorganisations to promote activities that are both artistic and therapeutic.Our target audience, identified through schools and other local institutions,consists of young people at risk of social exclusion or who are financiallyvulnerable.Our projects, which can be short- or long-term, are conducted in areas oflower economic productivity, with the objective of establishing lines ofcontact between the past, present and future of craft production inPortugal.Our principal mission is to create programmes of personal empowermentand collective learning. These programmes focus on the teaching of various craft techniques (both regional and national) that are adapted to the 21 st century, and we work with artists who specialise in these traditions.Participants have the opportunity to learn new practical skills in a groupsetting, thus encouraging their inclusion in the social and economic life ofthe local area. At the same time, their work contributes to a widercollective effort to preserve the culture of their home region.These hands-on sessions culminate in the production of original pieces thatthen appear on our online shop, a platform that has been designedspecifically to publicise and commercialise the work.A proportion of the revenue generated by these sales is returned to theparticipants and/or partnership associations.
