ABOUT US

Report on Cario Forum

I felt privileged to have been invited to participate in the Cairo Forum, a joint initiative between the French Cultural Council of the Union for the Mediterranean and the Industrial Modernisation Centre of Egypt.   The Forum was convened in Cairo, Egypt from 2nd to 4th June, 2010 and the theme was: “Cultural Heritage and Economic Development – Handicrafts: A Tool for Sustainability”.  Under the auspices of H.E. Rachid M. Rachid, Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry and H.E. Christine Lagarde, French Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment, the Forum addressed the issue of how we can utilize cultural heritage, arts and crafts in job creation and economic sustainability.

As a person involved in the crafts field for nearly four decades and now being the President of the World Crafts Council, it was interesting for me to note that the Cultural Council was created by the French President in 2008 and its primary mission is to promote public and private initiatives that foster the cultural dimension of the Mediterranean region, and that the Cairo Forum is dedicated to traditional forms of art and craftwork, as a perfect example of the Council’s commitment to setting up strong partnerships in order to preserve and promote the material and intangible heritage of this great region.

I was particularly impressed with the key objectives of the Forum, as given below:

• To promote and to bring about greater awareness of the importance of arts and crafts to a country’s cultural roots and economic development;
• To provide marketing opportunities for artists, craftspeople and producers;
• To develop an international network for dialogue and information exchange on issues relevant to arts and crafts production, marketing, preservation and best practices;
• To nurture a spirit of cooperation and sharing between artists, crafts people and producers; and their counterparts in other parts of the world.

The Forum opened with remarks from the chief dignitaries – The Executive Director of Industrial Modernisation Center-Egypt, the Chairman of the Cultural Council of the Union for the Mediterranean-France; Director of UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States; EU Ambassador to Egypt and most importantly, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Arab Republic of Egypt.

In the “Creation and Design” workshop that followed in the afternoon, presentations were made by eminent designers from countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and India on the theme of how design aspects serve to preserve the originality of the crafts while at the same time helping in finding high-end international marketability for the craft products.  Ms Azza Fahmy, the famous jeweler from Egypt, wrapped up the session with her interesting remarks.

The workshops on Intellectual and Artistic Property Right and Tools and Leverage for Financing Heritage Handicrafts were very interesting, with active participation from experts from Egypt, Greece and Austria.

I was most impressed with the workshop on “Art/KIP initiative”, dealing with bringing arts into the fold of education.  Eminent resourcepeople representing various educational, cultural and heritage institutions made very interesting presentations in this workshop.  I was happy to note that one of my own objectives, that of bringing crafts into the education system, was actually being practiced in different regions of the world.  I was happy to learn that systems were functioning for providing professional training in crafts to students; provision of funds for skill upliftment and even a bi-monthly magazine “artisans at home” was coming out to instill interest in crafts among schoolchildren.

In the Round Table meetings the next day, the role of handicrafts in preserving the cultural heritage of a country and its ability to function as a leverage for economic and sustainable development was discussed.  Interesting points were made about how handicrafts encouraged innovation and creativity; how handicrafts represent the cultural identity and traditional practices of people of various region and how handicrafts unite the people of different regions through common designs and methods; how providing fresh inputs to craftsmen in design, finance and other aspects will help them to widen their knowledge and achieve better market reach and economic vialbility.

At the end of the two days of interaction, I was overwhelmed by the amount of interest shown and activities undertaken, both by the governments and private institutions, in the field of crafts in the Mediterranean region.  It was, indeed, a privilege to have been invited to attend the Forum and asked to be one of the signatories to the Cairo Document, and I was so very happy to affix my signature to the Document.

I am sure that this significant initiative has started in the right direction and will soon find support and replication in other parts of the world, thus paving the way for beneficial exchange of ideas and markets resulting in substantial improvement in the standard of life for all the craftspeople of the world.