OMA - Osservatorio dei
Mestieri d'Arte

OMA - Osservatorio dei Mestieri d’Arte is a non-profit association of banking foundations with its headquarters and staff at the Foundazione CR Firenze. The association promotes the historic and artistic heritage of artisan crafts.

OMA bestows artisans and their workshops its label as a recognition of the value and quality of their products. Through its research and planning, OMA offers a fundamental contribution to the rebirth of the quality of traditional trades, qualified employment for youths and the image of our country, which owes a large part of its historical and cultural patrimony to the skill and competence of the artisans of yesteryear.

For over ten years, the association’s initiatives have been aimed at communication, networking between artisans and Italian and international institutions, planning and research activities and competitions that encourage professional growth among young artisans.

OMA publishes the series "Mestieri d’Arte. Quaderni d’artigianato" and edits a quarterly magazine dedicated to the history and contemporaneity of artisan crafts. Training youths and modernizing artistic and artisan disciplines through the history and study of traditional techniques are some of OMA’s main objectives.

The association, long dedicated to carrying out educational activities in schools with Italian and foreign students, today manages the Spazio NOTA (Nuova Officina Toscana per l’Artigianato) in Florence, which provides orientation, educational and training activities improving skills in the worlds of design and fashion.