In 1972, two years after the construction of the circular plant of the ceramics factory in Sargadelos, the Seminario de Sargadelos was created with the idea of centralising all the studies, research and promotion of knowledge, together with the spirit of design and coordination work of the companies of Castro and Sargadelos, while acting as Secretary of the of the Historical and Artistic Site of Sargadelos.
It was created with the idea of centralising all the studies, research and promotion of knowledge, together with the spirit of design and coordination work of the companies of Castro and Sargadelos.
Two departments were created within the Seminario itself:
- a Communications department, led by Isaac Díaz Pardo and responsible for everything related to design, publications, exhibitions, historical research and the organisation of seminars and Technological Experiences and the Free School of ceramics;
- and another focused on technology, directed by Andrés Varela, which worked on research into materials and procedures, with the close collaboration of a number of people such as the chemist and physicist Carlos Rodríguez Baltar, and the professor of Edaphology at the University of Santiago, Francisco Guitán Ojea. Rodríguez Baltar acted as advisor on research projects into the improvement and use of raw materials from Galicia as applicable to the ceramics industry; while Guitán Ojea collaborated through an agreement reached in 1973 between the Seminario de Sargadelos and the Edaphology Department of the University of Santiago, which gave rise to some important work on the characterisation of ceramic materials and their new applications in industry and medicine.
Two departments were created within the Seminario itself: a Communications department, led by Isaac Díaz Pardo; and another focused on technology, directed by Andrés Varela.
Also worth noting is the work of the Seminario de Sargadelos as the organiser of the annual Technology and Free School Experiences with Ceramics and numerous talks and seminars in which notable Galician, Spanish and foreign intellectuals were involved. They dealt with subjects related to design, art, the economy, business, etc., such as that dedicated in 1980 to the society of waste (Necesidade e satisfacción) or which considered the global perspective and local identity, organised in 1998 in collaboration with Domus Academy of Milan.
Many of the activities of the Seminario were gathered together in 96 titles of the collection Cadernos do Seminario de Sargadelos, which were published between 1972 and 1995, dealing with the different subjects related to ceramics (raw materials, technology, ceramics in various places and countries, ceramicists, etc.), art, architecture, ethnography, anthropology and the historical memory of Sargadelos.