At a conference devoted to the development of Bolesławiec ceramics, held on Friday, November 28, at Piwnica Paryska, participants included entrepreneurs as well as representatives of the Marshal's Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and AGH University of Science and Technology. They discussed how to turn Bolesławiec ceramics into regional art.
“This meeting made us realize the need for links between companies,” says Paweł Zwierz, co-owner of the “Manufaktura” Stoneware Tableware Factory. “In the age of globalization, this is the only chance to maintain the trend of selling regional products.” According to Zwierz, this may involve a decline in sales. “Mass production leads to products becoming less unique,” explains the co-owner of “Manufaktura.” Bolesławiec companies want to focus on quality.
One way of counteracting the effects of the global economic crisis is to establish a ceramics-and-tourism cluster (four companies have so far joined the ceramics section). “We need to implement new product-promotion strategies,” Paweł Zwierz notes. “Let us hope that the major players in Bolesławiec ceramics will also join this cooperation. Difficult times lie ahead, but I think that together we can overcome them,” he adds.
Irena LechIrena Lech from Fortitudo in Lądek-Zdrój shares this view. “Companies can help one another, just as craftsmen associated in guilds do,” she stresses. – “We can organize various exhibitions together and jointly promote our products.” In her view, such cooperation could quickly produce results.
“We should develop a joint marketing strategy for this initiative. We should ensure that Bolesławiec ceramics becomes regional art,” says Bogdan Kępka, co-organizer of the conference. According to Kępka, this can be achieved by improving promotional activities and creating a schedule of exhibitions in domestic and foreign markets. “Ceramics should promote tourism, and vice versa,” adds the co-organizer of the meeting.
“I think the ceramics industry has a chance,” notes Małgorzata Chalabala of the Lower Silesian Agency for Economic Cooperation, which co-organized the conference at Piwnica Paryska. – “If ceramic producers manage to carry out projects together, something may come of it.”
(GA report)