Homo Faber Fellowship, 2025

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@homofaber

I am honored to have been accepted as one of the 23 Duos, alongside Master Artisan Adrienne Diamond, who will take part in the Homo Faber Fellowship.

Homo Faber Fellowship is a seven-month sponsored professional integration programme designed for duos of master artisans and emerging talents, proposed by Homo Faber NextGen. The third edition begins for the fellows in September 2025 with a one-month creative and entrepreneurial certified masterclass taught by ESSEC Business School and Passa Ao Futuro. The fellows will then spend six months in the workshops of their paired master artisans across Europe. During these months spent in the workshop together, the 23 duos will be challenged to design and handcraft a co-creation inspired by a theme chosen by the programme's supporting partner Jaeger-LeCoultre. The Fellowship is developed in partnership with local members of the Foundation's network.

The 23 master-fellow duos taking part in Homo Faber Fellowship 2025/26 encompass 18 nationalities across four continents, with many collaborations between artisans of diverse creative and cultural backgrounds. Between them, they practise 19 crafts, many of which are new to the Fellowship, including lutherie, boat building and millinery.

Developed by the Michelangelo Foundation and its institutional partners, and supported by long-term partner Jaeger-LeCoultre, Homo Faber Fellowship pairs selected master artisans across Europe with emerging craft talents – the 'fellows' – for a seven-month sponsored professional integration programme. After attending a one-month creative and entrepreneurial certified masterclass, developed by ESSEC Business School and Passa Ao Futuro, each fellow then spends six months in their paired master artisan's workshop, during which time master and fellow work together on a co-creation. At the end of the programme, these co-created objects are exhibited in a special showcase called Today's Masters Meet Tomorrow's Talents – the second edition took place during Milan Design Week in April 2025 and attracted 23,522 visitors.

The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is a non-profit institution based in Geneva, which champions contemporary craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. The Foundation seeks to highlight the connections between craft and the wider arts and the design world. Its mission is to both celebrate and preserve craftsmanship and its diversity of makers, materials and techniques, by increasing craft's everyday recognition and its viability as a professional path for the next generations. The Foundation presents Homo Faber, a cultural movement centred on creative artisans worldwide. Its signature projects are education programmes for the next generations, an international biennial celebration and an online guide. michelangelofoundation.org

Supporting partner of Homo Faber Fellowship:

Jaeger-LeCoultre: The Watchmaker of Watchmakers™

Since 1833, driven by an unquenchable thirst for innovation and creativity, and inspired by the peaceful natural surroundings of its home in the Vallée de Joux, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been distinguished by its mastery of complications and the precision of its mechanisms. Known as the Watchmaker of Watchmakers™, the manufacture has expressed its relentlessly inventive spirit through the creation of more than 1,400 different calibres and the award of more than 430 patents. Harnessing 190 years of accumulated expertise, La Grande Maison's watchmakers design, produce, finish and ornament the most advanced and precise mechanisms, blending passion with centuries-old savoir-faire, linking the past to the future, timeless but always up with the times. With 180 skills brought together under one roof, the manufacture creates fine timepieces that combine technical ingenuity with aesthetic beauty and a distinctively understated sophistication. jaeger-lecoultre.com

In Ireland the programme is also supported by

Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) is the national agency for craft and design in Ireland. It supports designers and makers to develop their businesses in a sustainable way, and advocates for the societal benefits of craft and design. DCCI's activities are funded by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment via Enterprise Ireland. DCCI currently has 64 member organisations and over 3,500 registered clients. dcci.ie