Greetings! 

It is April, and spring has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and fall is arriving in the Southern Hemisphere. As the seasons change so does AJF - we are like a force of nature! Here are some of the ways that our organization continues to change:

• Linda Peshkin, membership chair, is setting up tables at ACC and SOFA fairs as well as Craft Boston to let the audiences of those events know about AJF. Thanks, Linda, for reaching out, and for those of you attending any of these events, go and say hello.

• The board has decided to use our annual 2011 Exhibition Grant money for our own exhibition Geography, which will be on show at the SNAG conference in Seattle. We will resume the Exhibition Grant in 2012 and hope for many good quality applications at that time.  Click here to see the press release.

• We have changed the timing of the Emerging Artists Award from the spring to the fall for a variety of reasons, but we hope it will help the applicants get the most from the award. 

  Click here to see the press release.

• We have signed a contract with Sterling Publishing (Lark Books) to publish a book called Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.

• A number of AJF members are at the Munich jewelry event known as Schmuck and we will be bringing you extensive coverage of the activities and exhibitions that took place - as well as the jewelry, of course!

• In our efforts to make AJF ever more international we have writers reporting from every major jewelry event in the world! (At least, where we can find a writer in attendance.)

 

A few things to remember:

• Please renew your membership if you have received a notice recently to do that - click here.

• Sign up for the Seattle trip - click here - you have until 8 April 2011.

• Please answer the recent survey sent out to all of you. For us to grow and serve you, we need feedback. Thanks.

• Finally, be daring - wear your Arthur Hash pin and tell your friends about AJF!

Let me know if you are going to be at SOFA, especially if you want to do the walk through with Damian Skinner and Toni Greenbaum on Thursday April 14th at 10 am. Send an email confirmation to [email protected] and sign up on SOFA's VIP site http://www.sofaexpo.com/salon/ (go to the SOFA Tours & Discussions tab). 

 

 

See you soon,

Susan Cummins
AJF Chair

LOADED

by Jillian Moore
I've been trying to understand a trend, not just in art jewelry, but pop culture in general. The sharp, angular shapes of handguns and semi-automatic rifles as graphic black silhouettes or cheeky, bubblegum pink outlines are everywhere. Click to read more.

by Ron Porter
In the early 1990s word traveled quickly through collectors of contemporary jewelry, museum curators, and the craft world at large that a major collection of modernist jewelry had 'escaped' the United States. Collective gnashing of teeth decried 'the one that got away'.  Click to read more.

by Ahna Adair
Kambui Olujimi is not a jeweler. But his recent work entitled The Black Out Collection places him knee deep in the language of adornment. The collection is part of his most recent solo show, Love to Lose, at the Catharine Clark gallery in San Francisco.  Click to read more.

A series of reviews related to 'The Commonwealth: A series of lectures and panel discussions exploring issues relating to the modern craft movement.' According to Doug Bucci, the organizer:
In January of 2010, the Philadelphia Art Alliance (PAA) took a major step to re-brand itself as a pre-eminent presenter of Contemporary Craft and Design.  Click to read more.

by Erin Colleen Williams
The Commonwealth Series of Lectures at the Philadelphia Art Alliance provides a thoughtful perspective on the current and future states of art, craft, and design. Who more appropriate to speak on these topics than David McFadden, the head curator of the Museum of Art and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum, controversially renamed in 2002).  Click to read more.

by Jennifer A. Zwilling
The topic for the second lecture in the Commonwealth Series, held on 11 November 2010 was 'Globalization in the Craft Movement'. Svenja John, a German jewelry maker was invited to present her ideas on the subject.  Click to read more.

by Susan Myers
Although the December weather outside was a bit frightful, the lecture inside, 'Departures from Craft', the third installment in The Commonwealth lecture series at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, included the bright, colorful, and fantastical work of local artist Candy Depew.  Click to read more.

EMERGING IDENTITIES AT CAA
by Heather Gibson

Conferences stimulate the development of critical discourse in the craft world. In the United States, the ACC, NCECA, SNAG and other craft-specific gatherings fuel ideas and provide face-to-face networking. Craft is a small fish in a big pond at the gargantuan College Art Association Conference, with over 200 sessions covering antiquity to new media.  Click to read more.

 

Will return.

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