PAID PARTNER CONTENT
Jewelry That Makes You Think.
WHO WILL WIN AJF'S $7,500 AWARD???
Wednesday, March 2, 12 p.m. EST

Since we can't be on the Internationale Handwerksmesse Main Stage to reveal the winner and finalists of the Young Artist Award (YAA), the next best thing is to make the announcement on AJF Live. The jurors—collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg, curator Chequita Nahar, and 2020 YAA winner MJ Tyson—will announce their names. The four finalists and the winner will then present their work. Please join us in celebrating their achievements—let's raise our glasses to them!

The biennial YAA competition offers a prize of US$7,500 for the winner and US$1,000 for each of the four finalists, as well as an exhibition at Schmuck—art jewelry's biggest and most prestigious annual event—in July 2022.

This event is free, and open to members and non-members alike. For more information and to register, follow this link.

What time?
9 a.m. PST: San Francisco
10 a.m. MST: Denver
11 a.m. CST: San Antonio, Mexico City
12 p.m. EST: Toronto, NYC
2 p.m.: Buenos Aires, Santiago
5 p.m.: London
6 p.m.: Brussels, Paris, Oslo
7 p.m.: Bucharest, Athens, Tallinn, Capetown, Tel Aviv
12 a.m. on March 3: Bangkok
2 a.m. on March 3: Seoul, Tokyo
4 a.m. on March 3: Sydney
6 a.m. on March 3: Auckland
ARTICLES
By Sebastian Grant

This week we introduced a series that will document the lives of African American artists of the past who made important contributions to the field of art jewelry. Some were full-time jewelry designers, others multidisciplinary artists, and still others came from the art and fashion worlds. They contributed bold new styles, experimentations with materials, and new points of view coming from the African American experience.

The introduction discussed some of the challenges of recovering a past that has been nearly forgotten. How does one accomplish this task for a group of people who have historically been left out of the main narrative when it comes to discussing metalsmiths of the 20th century?

That article was followed by Sebastian Grant's first profile, which focused on Curtis Tann. After studying the Limoges technique under Thomas Usher, Tann worked as a designer and supervisor for costume jewelry company Matisse Ltd from 1952–1963. His designs captured his whimsical style and use of bright colors. The work depicted both abstract geometrical shapes and figurative images, including fish, paint palettes, or musical notes. He then worked for Sascha Brastoff, a large mid-century ceramics design studio, for a year. In his oral history, Tann often mentioned his struggles working as a black man in a predominantly white field.

Caption: Coreen Simpson wearing pieces from her Black Cameo Collection, photo courtesy of Coreen Simpson
AJF has the largest international audience of art jewelry buyers, collectors, makers, gallerists, and institutions in the world. We reach more art jewelry buyers worldwide than any other organization.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS