'Jewellery academy continues my parents' legacy'

Norma Banton says her academy is a safe space for young people

A jewellery designer who created an academy for young people says she is working to keep her parents’ legacy alive.

Norma Banton has been making jewellery for 22 years and was the first black woman to have a jewellery shop in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

Her parents, Nancy Burrell and Dillon Banton, came to the city as part of the Windrush generation, and both worked in the Jewellery Quarter - her mother in the Birmingham Mint and her father at the Lucas car factory.

“I feel like I’m continuing their legacy... they are very much part of what I'm doing," she said.

"My family home was always open. My mum fed all our friends," Ms Banton said.

"Twenty two years later, I might not be letting people into my home, but I am creating a home from home, creating a safe space for young people to learn skills.”

Nancy Burrell and Dillon Banton

Ms Banton said she experienced racism while training and recalled being excluded from exhibitions for no real reason.

She said one tutor described her as "hot black stuff" because one of her favourite techniques - chasing - involved using black tar.

She started a support group for jewellers during the coronavirus pandemic, and founded MasterPeace Academy in 2021 after hearing other jewellery designers’ experiences of racism.

The academy trains local young people, particularly those who feel there are barriers to entering the jewellery trade.

Ms Banton said she initially thought she needed to "grow a thick skin".

“But when I interviewed 60 black jewellers I was getting the same stories," she said.

She created an academy "as a safe space so nobody has to experience racism whilst they’re training in this trade again".

Since setting up the academy, about 30 students have completed her diploma.

"I feel a sense of responsibility that it’s up to me to make a difference to the next generation of black jewellers because, if not me, then who?

"We want to work with organisations to make the future brighter. Not just for the black students but for everyone in the jewellery trade.

"We want to leave the trade safer, and fairer, and more just than we found it."