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| Dear ,
We have a lot to offer in the May edition of the AJF Newsletter. Damian Skinner writes a comprehensive report from the Gray Area Symposium that just concluded in Mexico City. The five exciting days of this ambitious conference confirm the international scope and vitality of our field. Dutch art historian Liesbeth den Besten investigates the "Power of Jewelry". Deganit Stern Schocken answers questions about No Problem(?), the exhibition of Israeli jewelry at Gallery Loupe. And we also have some greatest hits from the AJF Blog. Take a look.
What are you wearing today?
Mike Holmes |
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A LETTER FROM THE AJF BOARD CHAIR As a member of Art Jewelry Forum you should feel proud this month to see the large number of articles and blog entries we have listed in this newsletter. Also, Art Jewelry Forum made a decision this year to go 'international' and I think you can begin to see the influence of that thinking.
I also wanted to explain another change in policy that you may many not have noticed in our membership categories. We have changed the Curators category to Arts Professional, which includes curators, writers and makers (especially those who teach). This is a very big shift but we will still be focusing on promoting education, appreciation and support for the field. We want to expand the conversation about looking at and talking about contemporary jewelry. Please join now if you are part of this new membership category. We welcome you and your input.
The excitement about developing ourselves as an international organization was evident at the Gray Area Symposium in Mexico City where our blog had up-to-the-minute reports of each day's events as they were unfolding. AJF members were very present and our example of a membership based organization that was about looking at jewelry rather than making it was discussed in one of the presentations.
We continue to look for applications from makers for the Emerging Artist Award. Click here for EAA information. On April 22nd we announced the application process for the Grant to museums and non-profits for exhibitions. Click here for grant program guidelines. Both are for $5000. Stay tuned.
I also want to again express my gratitude to those board members who are constantly working on all the things we do. Sally, Susan, Mike, Ron and Sienna, you are all unbelievable. And thank you, Damian, our editor, for doing the wonderful job you do.
Wishing you happy days,
Susan Cummins
AJF Chair |
LINKS TO OUR MANY NEW BLOG POSTS
 ARGENTINEAN AMBITIONS
Joyeros Argentinos is an organization 'which unites creators of contemporary jewellery in Argentina, recovering and projecting the exceptional value of each creation and each creator, the collective values of the group and its identity, and of the interaction with those towards whom the jewels are directed: those who look at them, those who wear them'. Click to read this more.
 BEST IN SHOW
Every year the Schmuck exhibition is an opportunity to see what is happening in contemporary jewelry around the world. As the official publicity suggests:This forum for contemporary jewellery enjoys an international reputation as an exhibition. This special show has been held since 1959. Click to read more. SNAG SNAPSHOT
by Karen Lorene
Houston is a nice surprise. One arrives looking for big hair, big jewels, hips hugged by pearl-handled six-shooters and instead, one finds The Society of North American Goldsmiths, "Going to Extremes". Click to read more.  SHOCK OF THE OLD
One of the big news stories from across the Atlantic has been the significant donation of almost 500 pieces of jewelry from the Marjan and Gerald Unger collection to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Click to read more. FAKING IT
There's nothing we here at AJF love more than a good jewelry conference. The chance to travel, to hear intelligent talk about jewelry, and the opportunity to wear jewels all the time and not seem out of place is a trifecta we find it hard to resist. Click to read more.
 PHOTOGRAPHIC SNAGs
by Jennifer Cross Gans
While all eyes were on the speakers at the 2010 SNAG conference in Houston, here at AJF we managed to spend a little bit of time scanning the crowds for notable jewelry sitings. These portraits were taken by our very own answer to Annie Lebovitz, AJF member Jennifer Cross Gans. Click to see the portraits.  AUDIENCE ISSUES
Here at AJF we think a lot about the issue of audience in relation to contemporary jewelry. This covers a lot of territory: from the question of how contemporary jewelry positions itself in relation to fine art and design,to the way jewelry objects are exhibited (the problem of the body), and even where (craft versus fine art galleries, for example).Click to read more. DIAMOND DOGS
AJF board member and Californian citizen Susan Cummins recently sent us a page from Wallpaper* magazine, which celebrated a new collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry. Each to their own, you might say, and here at AJF we would normally have no problem with such a thing, except that California Reverie, as the collection is called, won Best Jewelry category in the magazine's annual design awards. Click to read more.
 JEWELRY CAUSES
Taking time out from thinking profound thoughts about contemporary jewelry, we here at AJF recently found ourselves watching Disney-Pixar's movie Up! (the one with the old man, the kid, the house and all those balloons). It is, along with many other things, a moving meditation on the powerful nature of jewelry, in this case badges. Click to read more. |
| JUST PUBLISHED ON OUR WEBSITE
 "THE POWER OF JEWELRY"
by Liesbeth den Besten Contemporary author jewelry is still a rather young phenomenon. Although we can trace its origins back to the days of Jugendstil, its real story starts only some 40 years ago. Click to read more. |
 WHAT IS NO PROBLEM?
Q&A by Deganit Stern Schocken It is an exhibition of Israeli contemporary jewelry. The exhibition's name - No Problem (?) - contrasts the difficulty implied in the word 'problem' with the easy nonchalance of the expression 'no problem'. Click to read more. |
 GRAY AREA SYMPOSIUM
by Damian Skinner At last, after a lot of planning, the Gray Area symposium opened at the Biblioteca de Mexico in Mexico City. For those of you who don't know, the Gray Area is an ambitious project organized by the Amsterdam-based Otro Diseno Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and Development. As the program notes make clear, Gray Area started as an urgent need: to diversify the international landscape of contemporary jewellery. Click to read more. |
 THE TRAIN TO LILLIPUT
by Ron Porter Uncharacteristically, I boarded a train at four in the morning on Friday 22 January 2010 for an eight-hour trip to Richmond, Virginia. I had not ridden a northbound train from the South since I was a junior in high school. What could possibly be my motivation, you wonder? Why, a jewelry exhibition of course!
Click to read about Ron's exhibition excursion. |
 NOTES ON EXCESS
by Lena Vigna Considering the work featured in Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century within the context of decadence seems particularly appropriate. In organizing the exhibition, I deliberately incorporated those dealing with consumption, luxury and excess on multiple levels-as it relates to jewelry and also as it relates to capitalist consumerism. Click to read more. |
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