In the center of Tuscany, in an area with a centuries-old tradition in ceramic craftsmanship, 2016 saw the birth of the Experimental Ceramic Center of Know-How and for Technical Innovation (CCS), a collaboration between the City of Montelupo Fiorentino and Colorobbia S.p.a.
The main purpose of the project is to create a cultural space for people to learn about, understand, catalog and Transmit the technical knowledge peculiar to handmade ceramics.
Starting from the speculiarities of the ceramic industry and targeting various high-craft manufacturing sectors, the CCS aims to become a specialized center for complementary and integrative training of other educational paths: A true metropolitan-sized educational campus.
The ceramic tradition is the core around which the entire CCS research and development process revolves.
ARCHIVE OF
ORAL HISTORY.
The CCS Oral History Archive is the custodian of centuries-old knowledge of expert master craftsmen, which is still disseminated through the courses of the School of Ceramics.
The archive collects materials, memories and life stories of those who were direct protagonists in the evolution of techniques and organization of manufacturing activities and social history in the 20th century. Photographs, audios and videos preserved here collect the testimonies of ceramists, potters, master craftsmen and ceramic coloring technicians, and glassmakers, made over more than 40 years by various work teams.
The archive plans a continuous and progressive increase of materials and their dissemination.
Preserve, conserve, collect.
The working group composed of Francesco Alberti, Gian Bruno Ravenni, and Giovanni Contini, produced a series of video and audio interviews that enabled the production of a video-documentary, commissioned from F. Alberti's Castoro company, entitled Names, gestures, stories: seven centuries of ceramic production in Montelupo.
This is the first factual document collecting direct accounts of potters and their activities from the postwar period to the 1970s.
Subsequently, the working group that continued the activity from 1988 until 2005, which consisted of Gabriele Migliori, Alessio Ferrari, Fausto Berti for the Montelupo Ceramics Museum, and Elisabetta Daini and Paolo Pinelli for the Vittoriano Bitossi Foundation, worked on the collection of sources for the recovery of knowledge about the manufacturing activities of the area, with particular attention to the ceramic, terracotta and glass sector.
The working group made up of Vittoriano Bitossi Foundation staff-Marina Vignozzi Paszkowski and Elisabetta Daini (2005-2020)-and the Ceramic Center's in-house staff-Paolo Pinelli, Gabriele Migliori, Francesca Martelli, Ambra Garosi and Sara Chiarito (2016-2020)-has enabled the continuation of this fundamental work of recovery.
Currently, the CCS and its staff (Gabriele Migliori, Ambra Garosi, Emma Dell'Elba) continue in the activity of collecting the testimonies begun back in 1982, adding the transcription, processing and codification of the contents, which thanks to their inclusion in the teaching processes of the School of Ceramics are disseminated in a practical and organized way.
CONTACTS
Contact us to receive more information about the School and training courses.
English