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The making of stringed instruments will become a critically endangered craft under plans to close new courses at the only UK college teaching the skills as a full-time degree.
The Newark School of Musical Instrument Crafts, owned and overseen by Lincoln College, has said it would accept no new applicants for world-renowned courses, including those currently enrolled on its foundation courses.
The news comes shortly after the Heritage Crafts Association red list of traditional skills and art forms found that a rapidly dwindling number of practitioners had pushed more than 90 crafts into the “critically endangered” category – at risk of being lost for ever.
Newark’s announcement, which came after the association published its 2025 red list, will prompt a review into the status of the making of stringed instruments – known as luthiery – in the violin family in the UK.
“There is the distinct possibility that this skill will go from viable to critically endangered, and thus be added to the next edition of the red list,” said Daniel Carpenter, executive director of the the Heritage Crafts Association. “With just a few institutions providing this training, any loss is likely [to] threaten the future of a culturally significant craft.”
Newark college blamed low application numbers for the suspension: it has just 17 accepted applicants for the next academic year. It said it has been running the school at a substantial loss for the past three years.
The announcement has caused outrage in the music industry, with 24 winners of the BBC Young Musician of the Year award signing a letter to protest against the closure.
A petition on Change.org has reached almost 14,000 signatures, while Stuart Andrew, shadow secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, has said he would talk to the secretary of state about the suspension.
Melanie Watson, Newark’s assistant principal, said the “outpouring of response” had “galvanised our resolve in wanting to ensure a thriving future for musical instrument craft in Newark”.
“Moving on from the degree course closure this September, we want to instead work with partners and organisations as well as our own staff and pupils to create a course and programme that encourages and improves what is clearly a very important institution for many,” she added.
Watson confirmed the college was considering replacing the degree programme with a privately funded course although she acknowledged this would mean students had no access to finance. In addition, overseas students, who represent a substantial proportion of undergraduates, would be unable to get a visa to study at the college.
She added: “Our aim is to explore all options, including partnering with as many organisations, entrepreneurs and industry bodies as possible. We want to make sure we can work together as one to secure programmes that fully meet the needs of learners and of industry, that learners can afford to pay and that grow the number of enrolled students to secure musical instrument craft in Newark so it thrives well into the future.”
Campaigners say the four courses being suspended – for violin makers, guitar makers, piano technicians and woodwind specialists – are vital to preserve traditional knowledge that benefits not just every musician, but everyone who enjoys music.
“Instrument makers and maintainers are the tiny people,” said Benjamin Hibbert, former chair of the British Violin Making Association, who has lectured for free at the college for the past 15 years. “We’re not glamorous but without us, there are no instruments.”
Hibbert, who has written to the all-party parliamentary group for craft, believes the value of the course to the UK’s £4bn music industry makes it “vastly more important for Britain’s cultural landscape than a tiny conglomerate of craft courses at threat”.
He said: “We’re not just talking about mending the instruments of the great soloists. Without us, there will be no music in schools or the community – all the school music rooms, gigs and concerts will go silent.”
