This exhibition is a collaboration between the BCU ADM Archive, School of Jewellery staff and students, the Library team, and the Exhibition team. It was presented in July across 4 BCU campuses including the BCU Parkside building, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the BCU School of Jewellery (St. Paul campus), and the BCU School of Art.
Michael at the exhibition in Parkside building
During my work placement in the ADM Archive, I was invited to co-create this exhibition by representing the ADM Archive team, and I am glad to be in charge of the ‘Parkside building’ part of the exhibition. This part of the exhibition was focused on Birmingham-related medals within the School of Jewellery medals collection and was divided into 5 sub-themes: Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham School of Art, Thomas Attwood, Abolition of Slavery, and Birmingham Pioneers and Creators. It is interesting to find that each of the sub-themes has a number of related medals, and by investigating the medals themselves and the backgrounds of these artefacts, I learnt a lot more about the different aspects of Birmingham, as well as further understood how Jewellery and Objects contain and convey (historical) stories or narratives.
Additionally, this exhibition combined modern and traditional presentation and making methods, including printed boards with QR codes that brings the audience to further reading materials, as well as the medals alongside their replicas (3D scanned and 3D printed). By doing so, we reconsidered how traditional techniques and methods have evolved and how we combine them with modern technology to create the most suitable and interesting presentation.
Many thanks to all of the staff and students who were involved in this project, and I look forward to our next collaboration.
Here are some close-up photos of the boards featured in my part of the exhibition (Parkside building):
A glimpse of other sites:
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, presented by Lulin Cao (Louis XIV related medals) and Yisen Zhang (Sir Edward Thomason related medals):
The BCU School of Art, presented by Huangguang Lyu (The Elgin Marble medal collection) and Wanxin Yang (The Ronald Pennell Collection):
The BCU School of Jewellery (St. Paul campus), presented by Tai Teng (Medal Production and Design) and Yuheng Zhang (The Damage of the Medal):
