The 9th Meeting of Historic Ensembles (Urueña, Valladolid), held from October 22–24, 2025, and organized by theNetwork of Historic Ensembles of Castilla y León and the Urueña City Council at the e-Lea Miguel Delibes Center, was an excellent opportunity to present the MASKS project to various local authorities.
This ninth meeting was held under the theme “From Intangible to Tangible Heritage: Management and Vision,” which lies at the very heart of MASKS. Our principal investigator, Professor Pilar Panero from the University of Valladolid, presented several lines of research in which masks are transformed into heritage assets, through her talk “Masquerades. MASKS. From Masked Rites and Performances to the Recognition of Mask-Making as Art”.
Panero emphasized that in recent years, new values and renewed appreciation have (re)emerged around crafts and masks. In this sense, the long-standing approaches of Northern European movements such as the 19th-century Arts and Crafts, so closely linked to art in the strict sense, have gradually influenced our society and our perspective on the popular, the rural, and the traditional.
In our case, the focus is marked by the involvement of the communities and the people who are its protagonists. Before various managers and authorities, we explained our purpose: to contribute to the better understanding, appreciation, and continuity of mask culture through craftsmanship.
