The Fundación Pública Artesanía de Galicia has been organising the Galician Crafts Awards since 2014 with the aim of recognising the talent and trajectory of professionals in the Galician crafts sector, stimulating their creation and encouraging generational renewal, highlighting the sector as an economic and cultural driving force in Galicia. Year after year, they are an excellent showcase for the quality and creativity of the different trades.

The awards ceremony was held on 20 December in Santiago de Compostela and was attended by the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, who highlighted the importance of the sector for Galicia as a guarantee of tradition and as a generator of employment and wealth.

Galician Crafts Award 2023

In this year's edition, the Galician Crafts Prize 2023, worth 9,000 euros, went to Francisco Millán, of the Frouma Atlantic Wood workshop (Ribeira, A Coruña) for his work Noray, which represents values that define competitive craftsmanship in today's market. Specifically, it is a small piece of auxiliary furniture that can be a stool, a table or a lamp, made from wood from a batea and inspired by the norays of Galician ports that are used to tie up the ropes when mooring ships.

Also shortlisted in the same category were the piece Nasa, by the Raíces Nómadas Atelier workshop (Ribadeo, Lugo), a handbag made from vegetable-tanned leather that seeks to reinterpret through leatherwork and braiding those old pots made from wood and wickerwork in a tribute to Galicia's maritime culture; and the piece Orixe, from the Logaro workshop (Ourense), a jumper designed and made with techniques such as crochet, the gorullo of traditional Galician weaving and the nalbinding technique, linked to bookbinding, and from the thread of the native Galician sheep breed, a material that also connects the past with the present and the future.

Eloy Gesto Scholarship

With the Eloy Gesto Scholarship Award, aimed at artisans under 40 years of age and endowed with 4,000 euros to invest in a prestigious training centre, the Xunta de Galicia seeks to promote the access of new talents to craftsmanship and its professionalisation. In this case, the prize was awarded to Alberto Añón, a potter from Buño (A Coruña), for his proposal to continue training in the world of craftsmanship and design. Alberto Añón, who for branding purposes is known as Alberto Lista (after the name of his pottery workshop), will be able to specialise in porcelain with one of the world's leading experts, especially in crystallisation, and to travel to Belgium to learn new techniques.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2023

Finally, Agapito González was posthumously recognised with the Trajectory Award 2023. The Trajectory Award, of an honorary nature, recognises the consolidated professional career of a Galician craftsman, his contribution to the enhancement and promotion of our craftsmanship, the quality of his work and his commitment to the dissemination and pedagogical transmission of the main positive values in the field of our craftsmanship. The Sober craftsman Agapito González was distinguished for being a reference in the recovery and transmission of the traditional pottery craft of Gundivós.