Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) partners with Goldsmiths’ Foundation to forge next generation of jewellery artist-tutors in the Birmingham Bench cohort

Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) is proud to announce its new ‘Birmingham Bench’ project: an artist-tutor development programme enabling three trainees to progress from their individual jewellery practice into teaching, facilitation and paid creative work. Generously supported by Goldsmiths’ Foundation and based within MAC’s Jewellery Open Studio, the project will allow MAC to strengthen and diversify its future pool of jewellery tutors, while securing the future of one of Birmingham’s most renowned heritage crafts. 

Aimed at qualified jewellers, recent skilled graduates and/or experienced self-taught makers, the Birmingham Bench will provide three trainees with the support they need to become artist-tutors who can teach, mentor and sustain the next generation of learners.

As a pioneering arts centre with creative participation at its heart, MAC’s extensive programme of courses is vital to its mission of opening up high-quality cultural experiences to as many people as possible. Of the 600+ creative courses offered annually at MAC, jewellery is one of the most established and popular craft areas, with a purpose-built studio supporting learners at all stages in their artistic journeys. Yet despite the strong creative potential and technical skill of jewellers in the city, existing routes into paid teaching and cultural work are limited.   

To focus on this crucial gap in the artist-tutor pathway, MAC has received a generous Open Grant from Goldsmiths’ Foundation to create the Birmingham Bench. This exciting new partnership directly responds to the Foundation’s ambition to strengthen technical and vocational craft skills, to support makers to contribute to more equitable communities and to grow the systems that allow craft practice to thrive. MAC is proud to join a network of 16 organisations across the UK receiving funding in this round, with £628,000 awarded collectively to support more than 25 endangered craft skills.

The Birmingham Bench is designed to fortify Birmingham’s internationally significant place in jewellery heritage. Alongside its existing World Craft City Status for Jewellery, internationally famous Jewellery Quarter, School of Jewellery and Assay Office, May 2027 will also see the launch of the Birmingham Jewellery Biennial – a new month-long festival celebrating jewellery, craftsmanship and contemporary design. The Birmingham Bench will take its place within this dynamic landscape of innovation and development for contemporary jewellery making in the city. 

Could you be the next person at the bench? Visit here for more details on how to apply.  

Lynsey Rutter, Head of Learning & Participation at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC):

“Our Jewellery Studio is a core part of MAC’s Creative Courses programme, with over 40 hours of jewellery tuition taking place each week. This project offers an exciting opportunity to support emerging jewellers, or experienced jewellery makers looking for a new career path, to develop their practice as an artist tutor. We are eager to discover new talent, diverse voices and creative practitioners eager to share their skills with our learners.”  

Michelle O’Brien, Director of Goldsmiths’ Foundation, said:

“As the use of artificial intelligence and automation begins to reshape the working world – particularly for those entering industries for the first time – the development and support for skills and crafts that cannot be replicated by machines but live in the hands remain critically important.  

The projects we have funded in this round span the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and will create real opportunities for people working in endangered crafts, and those who have special educational needs, are turning their lives around in the criminal justice system or are from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds. In every case, building or convening communities to share the very human experience of learning, working and growing together.”

Alex Nicholson-Evans, Festival Director for the Birmingham Jewellery Biennial, said:  

“We are very much invested in championing the creativity, talent and skills that make the jewellery trade so extraordinary across the country. We’re equally passionate about nurturing that talent right here in the city, which is why the Birmingham Bench is such an important initiative, and one we are thrilled to support. We’re delighted that the tutors’ professional development journeys will connect with the inaugural Birmingham Jewellery Biennial in May 2027”.