The Exhibition in a Suitcase project was carried out in two Birmingham secondary schools, the Jewellery Quarter Academy and Bishop Challoner Catholic College, on a rolling basis between September 2025 and March 2026. In each school, we offered regular short, intensive workshops with time for reflection and development between them. At JQA, the sessions were once weekly, while at Bishop Challoner they happened fortnightly to take account of the school’s particular timetabling.

The premise of the project was to use a section of the touring exhibition Swords into Ploughshares: Knives into Jewels as a catalyst for reflection and creative action on knife crime in contemporary society. In practice, the opportunity to handle and wear these works was a catalyst for an even wider set of concerns, which the young people were able to articulate. Initial discussion led to ideas for items of personal jewellery which would reflect those thoughts. Ideas on paper soon developed into practical making using simple tools and copper. The final practical session took place at the Birmingham City University School of Jewellery, which offered access to additional sophisticated processes to complete the works and, coincidentally, provided a window into opportunities for higher level study in the visual arts. The resulting pieces of jewellery successfully demonstrated the thinking and design processes of each of the participants and were especially impressive given that none of the young people had had any prior experience of this sort. At the end of the project, the two student groups made excellent presentations on the project and demonstrated their finished work to a small group of staff and peers.