Councillor Perra becomes a goldsmith for a day
Stage of “A day as an artisan” at the Bottega Penko. Perra: “Collaboration between trade associations and the administration is fundamental to protect and enhance a heritage of knowledge of inestimable value”.
A special day exploring the secrets of the goldsmith’s art, surrounded by the beauty of precious stones and metals. The protagonist was the Councillor for the Budget of the Municipality of Florence, Lorenzo Perra, who had the good fortune to work closely with master goldsmith Paolo Penko, in the workshop of the same name in Via delle Oche 20r. A new stage for “Un giorno da artigiano” (A day as an artisan), the Confartigianato Firenze initiative created to give new emphasis to ancient crafts, directly involving councillors and the mayor.
The new Bottega Orafa Penko, inaugurated a few weeks ago, is located in a magical place, the ancient medieval Tower of Visdomini, enhanced even more by a careful architectural renovation, followed by the “Multiconfart” Consortium, which emphasises its historical and artistic value. Here Paolo Penko works with passion together with his wife Beatrice, an expert in gemology, and their sons Alessandro, who is in charge of the brand’s internationalisation project and the continuity of the historic headquarters in Via Zannetti, and Riccardo, who develops new jewellery lines in the wake of the family tradition.
The project aims to enhance and make known in a direct and in-depth way the sensitivities of the world of craftsmanship,” explains Alessandro Vittorio Sorani, president of Confartigianato Firenze. “We are halfway through our journey and the attention that our project is receiving, both from craftsmen and from politicians, is great. Administrators thus have the opportunity to have a more correct and complete vision of the difficulties of being a craftsman today, a fundamental step to encourage policies to relaunch and promote the sector. Today, the spotlight is on the goldsmith world, a very important sector that, like others, must succeed in combining know-how with the need to innovate in order to meet the challenges of the global market”.
Being artisans today, particularly goldsmiths, necessarily means drawing on the traditions and history that this craft brings with it, while always seeking to be projected towards internationalisation processes that enhance the beauty and uniqueness of what we produce,” explains master artisan Paolo Penko. “Having a representative of the municipal administration here today gives us the opportunity to show the inside track on how much work and passion goes into each of our creations. The future of our work lies in young people, which is why our company, which already has two different generations working, has chosen to invest in the artisans of tomorrow, creating scholarships and setting up spaces for their training: we already have workbenches equipped to host internships, apprenticeships and alternating school-work or workshop-school courses”.
It was a unique and wonderful experience, very useful to understand how much work there is behind a product and how unique its production process is, from creation to finishing,” comments the Councillor for the Budget, Lorenzo Perra. “The collaboration between trade associations, such as Confartigianato Firenze, and the municipal administration is fundamental to protect and enhance a heritage of knowledge of inestimable value.
Fonte: Confartigianato Firenze
