Käsitöövaldkonna ja kestlikkuse edendamisest / Promoting crafts and sustainability

Abstract

The 4th Viljandi Repair Festival in September 2025 hosted a roundtable focusing on the promotion of crafts and sustainability. The discussion featured makers, craft education specialists, researchers, and representatives of craft organisations, as well as local authorities from Estonia, Sweden and Scotland. The roundtable was part of the European Horizon project, CULTURALITY: Creative Application of Cultural Heritage to Promote Tourism and Sustainability in Remote Rural Areas (2024–2028; https://culturalityproject. eu/), which aims to develop new cultural tourism models based on crafts and other forms of intangible cultural heritage. Participating in the discussion were Ave Matsin (University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy), Carol Sinclair and Claire Waddle (Applied Arts Scotland), and Kajsa Stinnerbom (Region Värmland, Sweden). The discussion was led by Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, one of the CULTURALITY work package leaders, and the University of Tartu UNESCO Chair on Applied Research of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

One of the key themes to emerge from the discussion was the crucial importance of collaboration among craftspeople. While many craftspeople may prefer to work alone, networking opportunities are important and highly valued when offered. The panellists agreed that the craftspeople could collaborate more amongst themselves to procure materials, promote their creations and learn and teach about new technological solutions, as well as to identify and articulate their shared needs and concerns to the municipality and the state. Both Stinnerbom and Matsin emphasised the need for an organisation that would provide peer support and represent the interests of professional craftspeople in these interactions. Applied Arts Scotland (AAS), established around 40 years ago, is such an organisation in Scotland, and, according to Sinclair and Waddle, is run by makers for makers. AAS has both domestic and international members, and its main purpose is to make the voices of the craftspeople heard by decision-makers as well as by members of the general public. In recent years, AAS has become involved in several international research projects and has secured funding from the Scottish government to implement them. Matsin also emphasised the importance of minimum stable state funding for the sustainability of the crafts sector, as not everything can be done on a voluntary basis.

The participants agreed that translating crafts into numbers may not be an easy task, but it is not impossible. One problem is categorising crafts, as the codes used by the state to collect data are outdated, or there may be too many of them. This is partly because craftspeople are reluctant to pigeonhole their creative activities. However, better statistics would facilitate measuring the impact of crafts, which in turn would support informed decision-making. In Scotland, contextualising crafts as part of the creative industries has yielded promising results. In addition, as in Sweden, the healthcare sector in Scotland has recognised the value of crafts as a source of wellbeing and as a preventative measure that helps to reduce healthcare costs. Doctors may prescribe crafts, which offers another approach to measuring their effects.

The impact of crafts on the environment was another recurring theme, as was the impact of climate change on craft practices. In Sweden, for instance, certain types of wood have become scarce because trees are growing faster and being cut down before they develop the qualities they used to have, which also affects the sustainability of craft techniques. Initiatives such as the Closing the Loop working group of the AAS or the circular technology speciality, and the Repair Festival in Viljandi, encourage craftspeople and others to view every piece of material as a valuable resource.

Matsin concluded the discussion by observing that while Estonia has a robust craft education system, Sweden and Scotland boast a system of con sultants and organisations. The practices and experiences of these states could be combined to create an ideal model for supporting, developing and stimulating crafts.