Mark your calendar! Save these dates! Start packing! This year we are making plans to take advantage of two blockbuster exhibitions. 2007 will see two of the world’s most renown collections go on display for the first time and we are planning trips to both - first to Boston in May and then to Houston in September. Read on and plan on enjoying both trips. These are member-only trips so don’t forget to renew your membership.
Thanks to AJF members who have sent newsletter compliments and suggestions. As is common in small self-published efforts, you might find the occasional typo or grammatical oddity. Please excuse them and us for not catching them. Remember both the AJF website and the AJFconnection newsletter are designed to strengthen the Art Jewelry Forum member community. If you have news you would like to share, or, better yet, if you would like to write for the newsletter please drop us an email.
in this issue
- “Coming Into View” Emerging Artist Exhibition At Univ of Oregon
- May: Join Us in Boston for the Daphne Farago Collection Opening
- September: We’re Off to Houston for the Grand Opening of the Helen Drutt Collection
- From the Board: More >From Our Fall Planning Session
- Let’s Hear From You
May: Join Us in Boston for the Daphne Farago Collection Opening
Join us in Boston on May 20 and 21 for the opening of the Daphne Farago collection at the Museum of Fine Arts. With a selection of about 150 objects, this collection exhibition will provide a chronological and thematic survey of studio jewelry in the twentieth century. While demonstrating the breadth of the collection and the variety of artists’ approaches to jewelry-making, the show also offers in-depth exploration of works by many key artists.
It is shaping up to be a wonderful trip. Plan on returning home Tuesday, May 22 as our Monday schedule will take us into the evening. We’re currently talking to a hotel there about rooms and lining up some wonderful activities for Sunday, May 20. Watch for more information to come in the next month or two. In the meantime mark your calendar and for more information on the exhibition, visit the museum website using the quick link to the right.
Photo: Lovers Brooch, Sam and Carol Kramer, American, Sterling silver with turquoise and garnet, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
September: We’re Off to Houston for the Grand Opening of the Helen Drutt Collection
Later this fall, September 26-30, we will be in Houston for the grand opening of the Helen Drutt Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts. We are working on the agenda for this trip in order to take maximum advantage of the various other activities being planned in conjunction with this opening. We will also find time to visit some of Houston’s other outstanding venues, including the DeMenil collection.
Photo: Envy, Neckpiece 1997, Sharon Church, American, born 1948 Sterling silver, antler, diamonds, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Hellen Drutt Collection; gift of Helen Williams Drutt English in honor of the artist, photo copyright the artist.
From the Board: More From Our Fall Planning Session
At our November planning session, we revisited the mission and goals of the organization to see how they have stood the test of time since our founding. Good news! Everything still seems appropriate although we did make some changes along the way.
Our Mission: The Art Jewelry Forum is a non-profit organization designed to advocate the field of contemporary art jewelry, by promoting education, appreciate, and support for contemporary art jewelry.
The inclusion of the word “advocate” is a small yet significant change, signaling our understanding that we need to step up and play a stronger role in the field in order to bring about our mission and goals.
We combined two former goals into one and added a fifth in recognition of the need to reach out and create relationships with other organizations which have an affinity with ours. Therefore, our goals now read:
- Present opportunities for members and the public to build their personal knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of art jewelry.
- Advocate and support efforts to bring jewelry artists and other experts in front of groups to talk about their work and the field.
- Garner the support of dedicated collectors and the attention of curators and writers.
- Provide acknowledgement and financial support to those artists entering the field and for exhibitions/publications/acquisitions that will expose art jewelry to a broad audience.
- Form alliances and partnerships with other organizations that have interests in alignment with AJF membership.
Goals are only as good as the actions we take to realize them. In coming issues of AJFconnection we will report on refinements we are making to our programs and new efforts we will be making to strengthen our membership and our advocacy.
Let’s Hear From You
We are in the process of creating a resource section for the AJF website which will link to sites, periodicals and collector resources. Have you discovered a wonderful website related to art jewelry? If so, we’d really love to hear from you. All you need to do is to click the link below and drop us an email.
Send us your suggestions
“Coming Into View” Emerging Artist Exhibition At Univ of Oregon
On Wednesday, January 24th at 6 p.m., Susan Cummins will lecture on Coming Into View, a traveling exhibition of work featuring emerging jewelers that originated in the home of Yaan Wooley dueing the Society of North American Goldsmiths 2006 Chicago conference. The lecture will take place in Eugene at the University of Oregon, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, where the exhibition is currently on view. A reception with the academic, local, and regional community will follow the lecture.
The exhibition is curated by Mary Hallman Pearse, assistant professor of Jewelry/Metals at the University of Georgia Athens, and artist curator Sakurako Shimizu with the purpose of defining “some of the most visible conceptual strategies employed by emerging studio jewelers. The 12 artists represented deal both with ideas present in studio jewelry since the sixties as well as brand new ones which are specific to scientific and social development of the 21st century.”
To learn more about the U of O exhibition visit the Jordan Schnitzer Museum website by clicking the link below. If Eugene is too far off your path and you would like to see the exhibition and learn about these artists please visit the Coming Into View website using the Coming Into View quick link.
Photo: Amelia Toelke, Banner Brooch, Enamel on copper, sterling silver, 2006, photo courtesy CIV.