Baltimore Jewelry Center Workforce Development and After-School Programs
The Baltimore Jewelry Center’s Kids and Teen programs includes 5 components: summer camps, after school programs, workshops for Baltimore City public school students (both in the BJC studio and in schools), a summer workforce development program, and an academic year workforce development program.
One of our long-term goals at the Baltimore Jewelry Center is to offer our metalsmithing and jewelry certificate program to students from Baltimore City who have an interest in art, design, and craft. Funding for art education in Baltimore City Public Schools has been drastically reduced over the past several years. Yet countless studies show that art education can be highly impactful and transformative for children and teens, especially those who struggle academically and are limited by socio-economic factors. At the Baltimore Jewelry Center, we have the unique capacity to introduce Baltimore City students to metalsmithing and jewelry making, a craft practice that includes the skills of handwork, design, fabrication, as well as marketing and social entrepreneurship, skills that can be highly beneficial later in life.
Summer Workforce Development Program
Our workforce development program is carried out in partnership with YouthWorks, a youth employment program hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Employee Development. Our program employs three- five teens for 25 hours a week for five weeks. These teens learn basic and intermediate metalsmithing skills, build a production line, and learn about branding and marketing. The teens participate in two markets to sell the jewelry they produced.
Our teen summer employees learn basic metalsmithing and jewelry skills as well as design skills and will then build a small jewelry production line including creating products, branding materials, marketing strategies, line sheets, and more. Employees are expected to work in the studio on jewelry design and production for upwards of 4 hours a day/20 hours a week (with the remainder of the time spent on planning, designing, etc.). They work with tools, soldering torches, and other jewelry materials. Employees participate in creative brain-storming and problem solving and work with other employees on collaborative projects. They each create a small jewelry production line as well as a demo website, social media platform, and retail collateral (line sheets, packaging, display and packaging). The program culminates with a sale of work. Employees take part in weekly off-site field trips (to jewelry stores, galleries, museums, studios, etc.) and on-site visits with professionals (both jewelry professionals and others who will teach soft job skills).
Academic year Workforce Development
Starting in 2020, the BJC partnered with Cristo Rey High School, a Jesuit High School that serves inner city Baltimore students, to deliver an academic year workforce development program.. Cristo Rey provides their students with an internship program through which students work one day a week at entry-level jobs at businesses and nonprofits throughout the Baltimore area. As an internship partner with Cristo Rey, we employed two students for one day a week for the 2020- 2021 academic year. Through this program, these two teens followed a similar format to our summer program: they learned jewelry-making skills, created a line of jewelry to sell, and conducted photoshoots and social media packages to promote their work. In 2021, this program will take place in person in the BJC studio!
After-School Program and School Workshops
The BJC after-school program provides targeted instruction to pre-teens and teens that allows them to learn metalsmithing skills in our studio and build hand skills and fabrication skills in addition to developing a portfolio of artwork. Our in-school partnerships provide on-site workshops in collaboration with arts faculty in local middle and high schools and expose larger groups of students to metalsmithing and art jewelry. Through our after-school program and our in-school workshops we target students who show an investment and interest in continuing to learn about metalsmithing and art jewelry and provide them with scholarships to enroll in our longer-format classes and workshops.
Our teaching staff creates an intimate environment where students are supported, valued, and challenged. Our program would offer kids and teens a chance to learn new skills in a small-group setting, and our community of practicing artists would provide mentorship to support and encourage their work.
