CADA is a platform whose main aim is to foster and facilitate for local artisans and suppliers becoming part of the local and global economy. It aims to achieve, in a viral way, sustainable models from the environmental, social, and economic point of view based on a dialogue with the different communities’ artisan approach. CADA develops design strategies throughout the process, in the production and afterwards in the distribution chain. The main goal is to achieve a local and global outreach without the loss of identity, helping to reinforce the communities while still achieving design’s main goal: providing a service.
CADA started off as a research practice by Design Researcher and Practitioner Carmen Malvar in the fall of 2013. Shortly afterwards the main team of facilitators joined the venture. They collectively believed in the necessity of CADA as a hybrid shared space not only for documenting and exchanging knowledge but also for creating commercial paths for traditional culture.
CADA proposes new ways of approximation with artisan communities, which are rich in ancient craft and tradition and yet are in danger of being vacuumed up by the nature of top down globalization. It aims to design customized commercial paths to launch their artifacts locally and globally while documenting and learning from their expertise and experience in traditional culture. Oaxaca, Chiapas and Galicia are the focal points for the development of these projects.
CADA team is a group of people, who have strong interest and concerns about the future of heritage, identity and local value, and who came together to document the processes and stories behind the artifacts we together develop. we use social design, as a way to approach our work and we try to not only understand the processes as a cultural heritage, but also create optimized commercial paths to introduce our production to the global economy.
CADA has been developing a series of objects (toys) in collaboration with two communities, San Pablo Tijaltepec and Santo Domingo Tonaltepec, in the Oaxacan Mixteca region. These objects are the ambassadors of the work and process developed alongside artisans from these communities. The artisans interest in exploring new avenues in textile and clay art led them to respond to the invitation from CADA to create CADA´s own model of sustainable trade by empowering design and handicrafts.
Sebastiana, Natividad, Rosalia and Rosario are women from the community of San Pablo Tijaltepec. Together, they form the group Ñaa Ñanga, which in Mixtec means "Women of Toys". Like the other women in San Pablo Tijaltepec, they wear their traditional clothing everyday of the year. Since they were girls they inherited the knowledge of artisanal textiles thanks to their mothers and grandmothers who taught them to weave, embroider and make their blouses, skirts and shawls which they produced themselves.
Textile and clay objects are born from oral workshops as a means of community outreach. The blouse of San Pablo Tijaltepec is the icon of the clothing of women of this community and it is from this textile piece that the textile toys collection is born. It is from their collective imagination as being transmitters of cultural values between generations that the toys collection has developed.
Here are some samples of the clay and textile objects.
RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL CAUSES
CADA is a local Project with a global and viral effect. It is a Fair Trade proposal using design and crafts from a local perspective to achieve a global process.
This perspective makes the use of technology and the "social media" essential, as an integral part of a project developed within the context of the 21st century. For this purpose, CADA proposes a communal ethical process and the creation of a platform that will also be a Hybrid Shared Space for exchanging knowledge.
Providing new formats of using traditional textile techniques to compete in the 21st Century market In southwestern Mexico
The community of Santo Domingo Tonaltepec is still producing its pottery in the same way as in the pre-Hispanic
Improving the wool production chain among Chamula indigenous weavers in the Chiapas Highlands
CADA is a local Project aiming at a global and viral effect. It is a Fair Trade proposal using design and
Documenting and developing awareness of northwest Galician embroidery techniques
Executive Director
director@cadafoundation.com
OAXACA - Constitución No. 501-B Colonia Centro CP 68000
RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL CAUSES CADA is a local Project aiming at a global and viral effect. It is a Fair Trade proposal using design and crafts from a local perspective to achieve a global process.
Social Exchange