Juju M. Empuerto
CEBU
City, September 2 (PIA) --
Four designer-makers from Cebu’s crafts and furniture scene are now
in Chiang Mai, Thailand to represent the Creative Cebu Council in the
“Craft Connect! Project” First Workshop on Design and Marketing for the Crafts
and Furniture Industries in Southeast Asia from August 31 to September 4,
2015.
This after the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI)-Cebu successfully held the Southeast Asian Creative Cities
(SEACCN) Forum in Cebu City last June 25 to 26, 2015, according
to Provincial Director Nelia Navarro in a press statement.
Navarro bared that the designer-craft makers
from Cebu are Karla Maria Ana (Kae) Batiquin, Manager at the Holistic
Coalition of the Willing (HoliCOW) and Design Ventures Cebu; Anya Lim,
Co-Founder and Managing Director of ANTHILL Fabric Gallery; Koh Martinez
Onozawa, President/CEO and Co-founder of Loudbasstard, Inc.; and Neil
Felipp San Pedro, Creative Director of Neil Felipp.
The “Craft Connect” is a project supported by
the German Government via the German International Cooperation (GIZ) to promote
collaboration, design development and innovation among ASEAN crafts, furnitures
and decorative items makers/designers, said Navarro.
Over the four month-period, the invited
designers, furniture makers, and craft makers from Chiang
Mai, Cebu, and other cities in Southeast Asia will be working
together and exchange ideas to help promote innovation and technology in ASEAN
countries.
In Chiang Mai, the project is managed by the
Chiang Mai University Science and Technology Park (also the secretariat of
Creative Chiang Mai).
Other project partners and supporters include
the handmade-chiangmai partners (NOHMEX, CAMT, and the British Council), the
TCDC (Chiang Mai Branch) and the DITP (Chiang Mai), as well as the partners of
the Southeast Asian Creative Cities Network (www.seaccn.com), particularly the
Creative Cebu Council and DTU in Cebu.
Navarro added that on November 2015, Cebu will
take the turn in hosting the Second Workshop of the Craft Connect Project,
which will invite more local designers and craft makers from Cebu along with
other designers, craft makers and furniture makers in Chiang Mai and other
Southeast Asian Creative cities (Cebu, Bandung, Penang, Chiang Mai). (rmn,
jsme/PIA7-Cebu/with DTI7 report)