NEWS RELEASE
December 1, 2009
Contact: Susan Kempin
917-459-0866

The Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) is pleased to announce grants have been awarded this year to Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue Washington and Miami University Art Museum in Oxford Ohio.  Renate Raymond and Lena Vigna, Curator of Exhibitions, respectively, submitted the winning proposals.

Each will receive a $2,500 cash award. The total award of $5,000 is a substantial increase and more than double the amount awarded last year. 

The Bellevue award will support the exhibition “Lisa Gralnick: The Gold Standard” which explores Ms. Gralnick’s interest in gold and the profound way it exists in our culture. The project underscores some of the highly conceptual work being done in contemporary art jewelry.  The exhibit will open March 23, 2010.

The award to Miami University Art Museum will support the exhibit “Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century”.  Work by 19 contemporary jewelers will draw attention to how we consume materials and objects historically, visually and metaphorically.  The exhibition will open January 21, 2010 and run through July 10. 

The goal of the AJF grant award is to encourage and promote activities consistent with the mission of the Art Jewelry Forum and promote art jewelry to the broader community; activities include, but are not limited to publications and critical writing, exhibitions and conferences.  Applicants for the award must be tax-exempt in the United States.  The focus of the application must be on contemporary art jewelry and exhibitions must be held within the United States. 

Members of the grant review committee for the 2008 award were:  Ulysses Grant Dietz, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum; Jill Baker Gower, Assistant Professor Metals/Jewelry Department, Rowan University and recipient of the 2008 grant award; Rita Newman, long-standing member of AJF and Susan Kempin, this year’s Award Program Chair.

PHOTOS
Lisa Gralnick
The Gold Standard Part I: #8 (Rhinoplasty), 2005,Plaster, gold, acrylic Collection: Susan Beech
Photo: Lisa Gralnick

Lisa Gralnick
The Gold Standard Part III: Halo, probably 14th Century (detail), 2008, Recycled gold and enamel, acrylic and glass
Photo: Jim Escalante

Yael Friedman
White Elephants, constructed paper

Harriete Estel Berman
Presitge,Value and Identity (2001-2005), Recycled tin containers and brass rivets