Following the seminal paper and presentation at the 2019 Santa Fe Symposium® by Nanz Aalund and Charles Lewton-Brain entitled “Jewelers: The Next Generation,” I came back to my own School of Jewellery in the UK, determined to reappraise and reassess with fresh eyes all those things I have taken for granted over the many years I have worked at the school.

This paper will consider the place of the Birmingham School of Jewellery within its historical context of 130 years of teaching jewelry and silversmithing in the heart of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (BJQ). It will examine the evolution of instruction over the years to where we now teach our students both traditional artisanal craft techniques alongside advanced twenty-first century digital technologies across a number of degree, and non-degree, courses to our nearly 400 students, a student body that continues to grow. We will consider, course by course, what we teach, how we teach and why we teach. We will consider both home and international students as well as our small part-time study group and give an overview of our burgeoning Ph.D. and post-doctoral programs.

Author: Frank Cooper