Why Do We Need to Protect Our Living Treasures?
"When an artisan stops working, their technique dies with them. A lost craft is a silenced voice of our culture."
Portugal is a country shaped by hands
Portugal is a country shaped by hands that worked clay, porcelain, fabrics, threads, leather, and metals. Hands that transformed humble raw materials into art, that told stories, preserved identity, and created unique forms. Portuguese craftsmanship is, above all, a living narrative - the very source of cultural identity.
Why is Portuguese craftsmanship at risk?
Today, many of these traditions face a critical moment. Modernity, globalization, and social and economic devaluation are pushing artisans out of an economy that fails to value them. Workshops are closing, younger generations are not inheriting the trades, and techniques are on the verge of disappearing.
According to Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE), the cultural and creative sector represents 3.9% of the national economy. Yet hidden within this figure is a fragility: craftsmanship has no clear statistics nor uniform protection policies.
The Red List of Algarve Crafts, for instance, identified 26 crafts at risk of extinction, from palm weaving and wickerwork to traditional pottery. Such initiatives should be carried out across the entire country, serving as the foundation for valuing Portugal’s artisanal heritage.
The problem of absent fiscal and financial support
One of the factors explaining this vulnerability is the lack of consistent financial and fiscal incentives. In Portugal, as in much of Southern Europe, artisans survive mostly on tourism or small commissions, without a stable support framework.
Does Portuguese craftsmanship receive financial support?
Currently, support is sporadic: regional contests, tourist routes, or limited subsidies. What is missing is a national program that ensures stable support, training, and generational transmission.
Are there fiscal benefits for artisans in Portugal?
Not in a structured way. In Portugal, artisans face the same tax burden as small businesses, with no special regimes that recognize the cultural value of their work. In countries like France or Italy, some regions offer tax reductions and partial VAT exemptions to protect traditional crafts. The absence of such measures in Portugal means many artisans work in precarious conditions, hindering professionalization and the passing down of knowledge to new generations.
How France values its artisans
In France, craftsmanship is treated with the same seriousness as other expressions of cultural heritage. Since 1994, the title of Maître d’Art (Master of Art) has been awarded by the Ministry of Culture to artisans who master rare or endangered techniques.
This title is not merely symbolic: it provides official prestige, financial support for training apprentices, and differentiated fiscal treatment, including partial VAT exemptions and simplified tax regimes that reduce bureaucracy and encourage professionalization. The result is clear: being an artisan in France does not just mean survival - it means institutional recognition and the conditions to turn a craft into a sustainable, respected career.
The outstanding example of Japan- Living National Treasures
While Portuguese artisans often live with scarce support and poorly paid work, Japan chose an opposite path.
In the 1950s, it created the status of Living National Treasure, awarded to master artisans and artists whose techniques are considered intangible heritage. These masters receive lifelong subsidies and public recognition, which guarantees two things:
1. Dignified livelihood for those who dedicate their lives to preserving a craft.
2. Social prestige, making craftsmanship a respected career and inspiring younger generations.
Thanks to this model, crafts such as Mashiko pottery, Japanese lacquerware, and Nishijin weaving have not only survived but achieved international relevance.
Could we create “Portuguese Living Treasures”?
Why not dream of something similar in Portugal?
A Madeira embroiderer, a bobbin lace maker from Vila do Conde, a potter from Barcelos, or a leather master from S. João da Madeira are no less worthy of recognition than a celebrated artist. What they lack is not talent, but a country willing to protect and promote them.
Creating a program of Portuguese Living Treasures would mean:
· Regular subsidies for master artisans.
· Incentives for generational transmission.
· National and international visibility.
More than preserving objects, we would be preserving people, gestures, and memories. We would be creating a future.
Craftsmanship as the future in the age of Artificial Intelligence
We live in an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to design the future, automating tasks, generating images, and even replacing creative work. But precisely because of this, there is a growing awareness of an opposite path: that of skilled manual work.
Why does manual work remain relevant in the age of AI?
Because what defines craftsmanship cannot be replicated by algorithms:
· The beautiful imperfection of the human gesture.
· The time inscribed in each stitch or cut.
· The soul of the person who creates with their hands.
It is this resistance to the disposable that turns craftsmanship into authentic luxury - and, paradoxically, into the true future in a world increasingly saturated by technology.
An urgency called time
There is something moving in the sound of an old loom, in the rhythm of bobbins clattering, in the smell of freshly worked cork, or in the coolness of silver wire shaped by hand. Portugal was also built like this.
But time is pressing: workshops are closing, artisans are aging, and techniques risk disappearing. If we do nothing, silence will take over traditions that define us.
The path exists, and it is before us. We can choose indifference, or we can choose to create policies, statutes, and support systems that restore dignity to those who shape the country with their hands.
If there is one thing we can learn from craftsmanship, it is that haste has never been a friend of quality. In a world of fast fashion and disposability, valuing time, gesture, and history may be the most revolutionary act of all.
Preserving Portuguese craftsmanship is not nostalgia, nor utopia; it is the future. It is choosing a path where luxury is not having more, but having something that lasts, that carries memory, and that deserves to be passed from hand to hand.
At Ownever, we believe exactly in this: Portuguese resistance and legacy.
