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Lin Cheung & Laura Potter and Ted Noten are making The Modern Jewel at Museum and Galleries, Middlesbrough

From 25 March 2011

Working together, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), the Dorman Museum and the Captain Cook Birthplace Trust are commissioning UK jewellers Lin Cheung & Laura Potter and Dutch jeweller Ted Noten to collaborate with residents of Middlesbrough to create pieces of jewellery that will reflect the individuals’ interests, ideas and ambitions. The resulting pieces will each be made in editions of two: one piece will enter the Museums’ collections while the other will be fitted to the commissioner to be worn in the real world.

The three commissioning museums are part of Middlesbrough Council’s Regeneration Department. The Council recognises the role of arts and culture in transforming people’s lives and has initiated a substantial investment programme – making considerable capital and human resource available. Nationally Middlesbrough tops the local government league in terms of per capita investment in the league of investment in the arts.

Lin Cheung and Laura Potter will present their project, Pas de deux, in a number of stages. Initially, they will deliver a series of participatory workshops at mima. These will be followed by a period of participant-driven collaboration, where selected local residents will commission a piece of jewellery for themselves. The commissioned works will be developed through meetings with each participant in various locations, including the Dorman and Cook museums, in order to stimulate discussions around the relationship between ‘personal value’ and ‘institutional value’. Eventually, the commissioned objects will be made twice: one piece will be given to the commissioner and one will be housed within the Museums’ collections. In this context, Cheung and Potter will also be exploring the boundaries of replication and duplication by investigating fakes, equivalents and counterparts.

 Meanwhile, in a imaginative move to encourage non-museum visitors to benefit from the borough’s investment in its museums, Noten plans to spend time travelling the streets of Middlesbrough by taxi, talking to taxi drivers and getting their take on how best to get people to enjoy the collections. Noten plans to create a special multiple – a pin which will be available to all city taxi drivers. The idea is that the pin will be a talking point – and help the drivers to engage passengers in conversation and debate.

Work in progress was showcased 26 November 2010 - 13 March 2011; whilst a major exhibition presenting the project opened on 25 March 2011.

Take part: a series of workshops and events led by nationally recognised jewellers has been planned for the summer and autumn 2010 to enable the residents of Middlesbrough to understand the scope and range of contemporary jewellery. Alongside this, all three jewellers, Cheung & Potter and Noten, will be working closely with selected residents to develop specially commissioned pieces. Lin Cheung and Laura Potter have now selected their residents and are working closely with them to design and create a unique piece of jewellery. Lucinda is a solicitor and more recently, a part-time lecturer in Law. An early interest in the law, social injustice and an independent life has seen Lucinda working as a successful lawyer in London and South East Asia. Her personal interests are many and varied and include Fencing and Viking re-enactments! She enjoys nothing more than, after a hard week's work, relaxing with her husband in a Viking Hut complete from head-to-toe in home-made Viking clothing and accoutrements. Charlotte is a soon-to-be 18 year old who has enjoyed her 6th form year of English Language, art and textiles and is looking forward to starting her National Diploma in Fashion design in the Autumn. Charlotte cites her grandmother who was a seamstress, Damien Hirst, Cheryl Cole and Balmain as some of her many inspirational figures.

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