Educational Development NAVIGATOR
THE Educational Development NAVIGATOR was founded in 1995 in Heraklion and soon developed activities throughout Crete, in the philosophy of Local. Having established itself at the regional level, it proceeded to undertake and implement actions both in the rest of the country and abroad.
Having started in the field of Training where it plays an important role to this day as a certified KDBM, it managed to evolve and become a recognized body, whose members come from the Local Self-Government (among the partners is the Regional Union of Municipalities of Crete), the development area (Development Companies), as well as from productive bodies (merchants-craftsman federations, hotelier associations, agricultural cooperatives, etc.).
Through the actions of the company but also due to the composition of the corporate structure where productive entities participate, it has developed significant activity in the fields of handicrafts, homemaking, agri-food and the implementation of policies for the landscape.
"Handicrafts in Crete" Project Group
The team for Crafts in Crete has undertaken the project "Highlighting, Saving, Developing, Promoting the craft micro-business activity in Crete" with the funding of the Region of Crete. The project aims to empower people who are professionally or amateurly engaged in manual folk arts of the place. From all the arts, priority is given to five professions that are characterized for the needs of the Project as "Pilots" and they are the following: musical instrument making, clay: ceramics-pottery, threads and yarns: weaving-embroidery-knitting, rosary art, basket weaving - knitting In these Pilots, mapping activities are carried out through which the artisans (active and potential) of the local population are captured, the production processes of their products (from raw materials to the consumption of the final recipient) as well as the adverse conditions managed by today's artisans when starting or operating their business. The dynamics that develop in the triptych: environment-community-handicraft as well as the cultural capital (material and immaterial) of Cretan handicrafts are studied in parallel, in horizontal and vertical axis, space and time.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative data collected, the mapping is done planning and development of actions to upgrade the industry. More specifically, interventions and actions are proposed to manage the deficiencies and difficulties observed in the individual professions of Pilots. Through training, counseling and networking, the business confidence of the beneficiaries is strengthened, while at the same time actions are taken to connect handicrafts with tourism and education - formal and informal.
Ultimate goal of the Project is to create fertile ground for a transformation of the local society that will now perceive the craft activity as a key driver of economy, tourism and sustainable development. Inextricably linked to these dimensions of craftsmanship is the cultural heritage - tangible and intangible - that frames the stages of each of the production chains of the Pilots and characterizes the individual and collective stamp of the handicraft products of the place.
Beneficiaries of the project are 50% women and 50% men, regardless of age or education level.
THE implementation of the Project is based on three axes that work in parallel: mapping,
development of actions and the communication program.
THE mapping of craft activity in Crete is done with a combination of tools
such as online questionnaire in handicrafts, scientific studies, field research, by life
meetings during which interviews, recordings and mapping of needs are carried out.
Meetings with aggregations (associations, cooperatives, municipalities, etc.) for extended discussion and
understanding the environment-community-craft relationship. Mapping aims to capture
of craft activity on the island, identifying deficiencies and needs of those concerned
professions, in their qualitative and quantitative characteristics, in the cultural capital of the people
arts. The study of artisans as creators, of their branches as productive chains
processes and handicraft products as objects with business growth prospects,
offers usable data on the basis of which actions to strengthen it are planned
Crafts in Crete. For the proper management of the Project, an epigrammatic impression is made of it
of all the handicraft branches and prioritizing five of them that are characterized for the
needs of the Project as "pilots".
THE action development includes planning, implementation and evaluation of the actions for the
empowerment of craft activity. These actions include training and
consulting for artisans (active and potential professionals), drawing up a business-marketing plan
as well as actions linked to the needs and difficulties of each sector with the aim of
improvement of professional conditions. In addition, business networking events are planned
on a corporate scale (B2B – Business to Business), connecting the craft workshops with the
tourism, the use of handicrafts in education and the inclusiveness of the vulnerable
social groups and finally, creation of Pilot Rescue and Learning Centers for traditional
arts.
The third axis of the Project is the Communication Program which aims to increase it
recognition to the general public by informing the local community and raising awareness
selected audience groups. Basic guideline in outreach and outreach activities
it is the networking and rallying of communities within and beyond the digital environment.
We map, we study, we empower the craft activity in its stages:
Each craft activity is captured in three main stages:
- The raw materials.
- The processing and creation of a handicraft product.
- Its promotion and distribution in local, domestic and international distribution networks.
Our team studies each stage in each of the five pilots separately (musical instruments,
clay, threads and threads, rosary art, basket-weaving) to map the
shortcomings and possibilities encountered by the craftsman at every stage of his activity.
Mapping the raw materials:
Field research and meetings with artisans help the Project team to understand the
availability of raw materials in Crete and the accessibility of the beneficiaries to them.
While we observe for some art to have easy access to the raw materials, for example one
type of soil for clay and Thrapsonian jars, in other arts we record difficulties such as when
they import wool to replace the Cretan loom or wood to make the Cretan mandolin.
Observing the creation:
For the processing and creation of the handicraft products we focus on the artisans who
they rely mostly on using their hands as basic tools with a small percentage of use
power tools if needed at some point in the process. At this stage
we identify an informal separation of the craft unit from the handicraft, where crafts
is defined as a small unit of production of material products for which art, use is required
electrical equipment in most of the creation, facilities and employment of small
number of employees.
By strengthening promotion and distribution networks:
Commercial transactions are the third basic stage of craft activity and the one that
it concerns us significantly as it gives the incentives - financial and moral - to the craftsman to dedicate himself
in his profession as a main source of income. During our research, we notice that one
pilot, for example, may be strong at this stage, but lag behind in raw materials or
reverse. Our goal is to help registry artisans as well as amateurs to
acquire the appropriate supplies to enter the local, domestic and international markets.
There is a final stage of equal interest to the Project team:
The uses of the craft product by its consumer/purchasing public. How these products are ultimately used for the practical needs of the buyer, alongside the aesthetic, social and cultural ones in general. As the needs of modern society are transformed and with them the craft activity in Crete, by extension the demand-supply dipole of the market is also affected. Our team investigates the uses that each handicraft product has in the target group in order to comprehensively study handicrafts in Crete as a driver of sustainable entrepreneurship and healthy development.
As a mosaic that composes centuries of History the Crete has a cultural identity grafted on by the local populations, but also by the different conquerors who passed through the strategic Mediterranean island. From the Minoan years that developed Europe's first flourishing civilization to the modern Greek era, some practical and craft activities are observed to have an uninterrupted presence on the island. The geomorphological conditions of the place that influence the social organization and fuel human activity in the area contribute to this. The mutual interaction of nature - man is a dynamic relationship that transforms with the passage of time. From direct contact with the land and raw materials to the use of material objects in daily life, craft activity constitutes a cultural chain of knowledge and techniques.
In the stages of this productive process, the common man invests the moments with symbolic meanings, ritual elements, memories and traditions. Crafting is a complex cultural phenomenon which accompanies the manifestations of daily life: in the agricultural cycle of the year, in the cycle of life, in etiquette and social relations. Roles and individual, family, collective identities are inscribed in handicraft products. The intangible is inscribed in material culture as the creations have a double value: one that flows from the practical use of the object in everyday life and one from the aesthetics of folk art. The woven garment will be embroidered with geometrical or nature-inspired motifs and the ceramic glass with elegant finishing colors and designs.
The transformation observed today either in the materials used, or in the techniques and methods, the way of transmitting the art (internet), the tools and the end uses of the product by the final consumer does not foreshadow the complete disappearance of these popular arts. On the contrary, it indicates a continuous need for the production and consumption of handmade products. Mission of educational development Navigator is the strengthening of this craft activity in directions that are consistent with the vision of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. This Development Plan seeks to maintain the key tiles with an emphasis on sustainable development: products created by hand, environmentally friendly, with raw materials from the place itself. The proposed Development Plan is based on specific pilots that are considered to be strategic models for the development of the Craft in general.
Specifically the pilots are as follows: musical instrument making, ceramics, threads and threads (weaving - knitting - embroidery), basket-weaving and the art of rosary, with scope for adding a few more branches. Each of these objects carries its own symbolic identity and business perspective to enter modern markets.
THE NAVIGATOR with the Project team for the "Highlight, Rescue, Development, Promotion of craft micro-business activity in Crete" aims to utilize the cultural capital of the island and to combine it with strategic marketing so that active and potential craftspeople can find the position which they deserve in the modern business world by having an identity, an intergenerational value system, self-confidence. Finally, it strives to continuously empower artisanal products to gain the market share they deserve and re-enter consumers' homes to record their second life cycle as contemporary objects.
