The Fair
“MIDA, the Florence International Crafts Fair, welcomes every year in the spaces of the Fortezza da Basso artisans and artisanal enterprises of all domains and dimensions, to present to visitors the variety, wealth and quality of a sector that is as hereditary as it is innovative and with an interest that is constantly rising.
The fair aims at drawing out the current frame around craftsmanship and its prospects for the future. MIDA presents the diversity behind the multiverse of crafts, which evolves through a continous conversation between traditional practices and high tech technologies, proper to 4.0 Enterprises, territories and the world. Coexisting opposites, which are always capable of producing elements of competition and strength. “
Started off as the first arts and crafts trade-show in Italy in 1931, MIDA has been deeply woven into the history of the region, with Florence and Tuscany still being today the ideal place for the craft sector’s promotion, research and innovation. Where craftsmanship and creativity have always played, by tradition, an important role in economic terms and in the socio-cultural fabric.
At MIDA, traditional hand-skills are combined with selfproductions, design and emerging forms of digital craftsmanship. Comprising companies whose value is rooted in skills handed down through generations, a continuous attention to detail and an ongoing search for new techniques and materials.
“Born in Florence during the Medieval Era, the artisan workshop has been adopted as a means of production and as an opportunity to develop the quality and sustainability of life. Not a prevailing sector of activities, but a multiverse reality that gives character to a city hosting creative crafts, both traditional and contemporary; accompanied by a frequent interchange between all sectors, also thanks to a systems of schools, museums and institutions operating close to the artisanal world.
Thanks to its long history, the Florence International Crafts Fair is an important landmark for this sector, and represents internationally a reference point for the evolution of the creative system of craftsmanship.”
ExtraMIDA. Performances in Workshops
Curated by Firenze Fiera, the project ‘ExtraMIDA
Performances in Workshops’ features a series of musical events created to welcome the MIDA audience inside the most charming craft workshops in Florence and Tuscany and offer them previously unseen concerts and performances.
The Fortress as You Have Never Seen It Before
Curated by Firenze Fiera and Muse Association
A unique guided tour to the Medicean Fortezza da Basso, featuring a fascinating account of the monument history, home of the Crafts Fair since 1978, and of its most hidden places.
