first report from Brazil

Three days into our“frisky” itinerary (so described by Giancarlo the director of the Museu Da CasaBrasileira… where we gave our presentations on Saturday. The group werefabulous PR for the UK – the range of work and professionalism across the 12organsiations was outstanding. Martina Margetts rounded up the presentations with an insightful profileof the current themes being explored through contemporary craft practice in theUK. The whole session was filmed and will be on www.paralelagift.com.br in the coming few days – we can upload it ontoForming Ideas as soon as we can get a copy of the video.

Our partners Paralela andA CASA have been wonderful – they have worked so hard to make networkingeffortless for us and their hospitality has been generous. I hope we can repaythis when they come to the UK.

We are just getting intothe work now and appreciating the Brazilian aesthetic. We’ve seen a range oftraditional handicraft, innovative craft design and the results of some prettyamazing social engagement projects, as well as contemporary art. At the momentthere are a number of fairs – product design, furniture design and two craftdesign fairs, Craft Design and Paralela. Paralela is more sophisticated withinnovative products and a public talks programme, where as the Craft Design ismore popular.

It’s great being with sucha enthusiastic group of curators who I know will deliver an ambitious series ofevents and exhibitions….they were already talking UK wide Brazilian festival onday one! The one disappointing factor is the weather….for the second day it israining heavily and steadily.

Our frisky itinerary isbecoming frenetic – more and more demands to see more and more stuff – wearen’t going to very frisky in a few more days at this rate. Today’s highlightis a visit to the studio of the Campana Brothers.