Important days of work for ceramics in Aveiro on January 19th and 20th: during the long weekend in Portugal’s important ceramics capital, a series of important events were held simultaneously, such as the “1st Portuguese National Congress of Ceramic Cities and Towns“, the AEuCC Assembly, and numerous visits and meetings among the more than 200 participating delegates.

During the AEuCC assembly in particular, the main bodies were renewed, especially the presidency and technical directorates. After a farewell speech by the outgoing Spanish president, Manises City Councilor Xavier Morant, the assembly appointed AEuCC’s new president, by acclamation and for the three-year period 2024-2027, Dr. Felipe Capão, current president of the Portuguese Association of Ceramics Cities and Villages (AptCVC) and deputy mayor of the city of Aveiro, the important ceramics city where the proceedings were held, and who joins the prestigious list of his predecessors, Frenchman Philippe Amy of Aubagne, Italian Stefano Collina of Faenza, and, as mentioned, Spaniard Xavier Morant. The assembly renewed the technical offices by reconfirming Italian Giuseppe Olmeti and Spaniard Oriol Calvo as technical Directors, finally defining the strategic lines for an important relaunch of activities in the coming years.

Of great value was the first national congress organized by the Portuguese Association of Ceramic Cities with more than 40 speeches from Ceramic Cities, research centers, museums and various associations, which provided a very important picture of the very important Portuguese ceramic tradition, certainly the European nation that is most identified in urban décor and daily life with ceramic excellence: during the congress a ” padrinho” (or godfather) award was presented to Secretary Olmeti for his work since 2015 in informing and involving Portuguese cities and for the formation of the AptCVC.

Numerous were the institutional visits during the working days: the delegations of the seven member nations of the group also had the opportunity to visit the Aveiro Ceramic Biennial, one of the main European ceramics competitions, the historical museum of the “Vista Alegre” company, one of the largest European artistic ceramics companies which, with its 700 employees and a flourishing production and export all over the world, represents a flagship of the Portuguese economy and European ceramics and to meet in its ateliers important artists such as Sofia Beça.

Finally, over the course of the days, contacts, even informal ones, between the many delegations consolidated relationships and created new opportunities for friendship and evaluation of future projects: a particularly important result was obtained by the Mayor of the Sicilian city of Santo Stefano di Camastra, Francesco Re, who initiated concrete contacts for the definition of a twinning between the six Sicilian cities of AiCC (Burgio, Caltagirone, Collesano, Monreale, Santo Stefano di Camastra and Sciacca, already united in a “Sicilian Ceramics Road”) and the City of Aveiro, but also of the single city of Santo Stefano di Camastra with a City of Ceramics of the Azores islands.