This Birmingham City Council funded project seeks to establish a Cultural Action Area (CAA) within the historic Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. The area will consist of a group of partners, who will develop and deliver a programme of activities to support place-based economic recovery and regeneration.
Birmingham City University is working alongside Birmingham City Council, Jewellery Quarter Development Trust (JQDT), JQ Business Improvement District (BID), Quartermasters, Masterpiece Academy, Stryx Gallery, The Hive Café & Bakery and St. Pauls Church.
The project proposal involves celebrating both the spaces and communities of the Jewellery Quarter, uniting in the ‘Jewellery Quarter Common Room’.
The ‘Common Room’ is the overarching theme for a programme where everyone is welcome to share spaces to meet, network and collaborate. It will foster a vibrant culture of creativity and entrepreneurship in the Jewellery Quarter, sustaining a welcoming network of spaces enriching the journey of makers, allied trades, artisans and craftspeople now and into the future.
The programme will also strengthen the Jewellery Quarter’s living manufacturing heritage and showcase its relevance to the city today. Researchers at BCU are adopting a proactive research approach, in which they develop and test a wide range of approaches to reanimate the Jewellery Quarter.
What are the intended outcomes?
The project seeks to develop the whole ecosystem of the Jewellery Quarter. There are several key themes including:
- Bringing together businesses, arts and heritage organisations, educational institutions and researchers to develop a vision for the Jewellery Quarter’s future.
- Develop pride of place and improve the perception of the amenities, services and attractions of the Jewellery Quarter
- Support and strengthen the diversity of businesses in the area, increasing footfall and customer expenditure.
- Focusing on employability and careers, to raise awareness of creative career paths available to young people
- Contribute to business sustainability and the resilience of communities
- Increase awareness of what the Jewellery Quarter has to offer in terms of events, knowledge and heritage.
How will the project benefit communities?
The Jewellery Quarter is built up of five distinct but interrelated communities, including the jewellery industry, creative businesses and organisations, residents, educators and students and visitors.
Industry ranges from large scale manufacturing to family run retailers, employing over 4,000 people and generating over 700 million pounds in revenue. Other creative organisations make up many of the estimated 6,000 further workers in the Jewellery Quarter, including craft, artistry, graphic design, music and architecture.
This project seeks to boost and complement the existing activities happening across multiple spaces in the Jewellery Quarter and support the organisations which give it its name. It will do this by bringing together organisations, providing opportunities for residents and visitors to connect and form new skills.
The aim is to ensure that local citizens and workers, whether from some of the most deprived or most affluent areas of Birmingham, know that the Jewellery Quarter is a space which creates careers, has opportunities for growth and is an inspiring place to visit.
This will further cement the Jewellery Quarter in the identity of Birmingham and raise awareness of its uniqueness.