Crafts Days – public success for craftspeople

The 8th edition of the European Days of Crafts (JEMA) in Switzerland met its public with the mobilization of more than 16,000 visitors in the five cantons who took part in the event this year.

More than 200 places made it possible to discover a wide range of crafts practiced in Switzerland. The Days took place from April 5 to 7 in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel and in Ticino – for the first time – in the canton of Bern.

Sami Kanaan, Mayor of Geneva and President of Métiers d’art Suisse, is delighted with the success of this 2019 edition. He sees it, after the prizes awarded last February to artisans from several Swiss cantons, and with the arrival of the canton of Bern, which joined the movement this year, the mark of the increased visibility and recognition of crafts in Switzerland.

The organizers of the event are delighted with the welcome given to these Days and warmly thank all the craftsmen and craftsmen for their generosity, the visitors for their curiosity and their enthusiasm as well as the national and cantonal partners without whose support nothing would be possible.

Various shapes

Visits to private workshops, demonstrations, conferences, participatory workshops, exhibitions, journeys between different places or groups of craftsmen on the same site, were all ways to discover or rediscover trades that were sometimes little known but fascinating.

Territorial signatures

Entitled “Territorial Signatures”, this edition reminds us of the atavistic link that still exists for these crafts between the availability of raw materials and the place where the craftsman transforms these materials into everyday objects. The craftsmen who are invited to participate have been able to reinvent themselves by perpetuating themselves, professions that carry within them a new economy of intelligence and value. The Swiss public has shown its interest in the richness of these professional activities, between traditional know-how and new technologies.

The objectives of the JEMAs

• promote professionals exercising a profession of art at a high level;
• promote crafts and the transmission of know-how;
• promote the emergence of the next generation by encouraging young vocations;
• encourage a sustainable economic dynamic as well as a local social bond.