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Pratt hosted several events and exhibitions on both its Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses as part of the first-ever New York City Jewelry Week in November 2018. Featuring close to 90 events across the city, New York City Jewelry Week celebrated and promoted the multifaceted world of jewelry through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, tours, and collaborations. Pratt jewelry students, faculty, and alumni participated in events and exhibitions throughout the week.
“Pratt was an eager partner with NYC Jewelry Week, which provided an unprecedented opportunity to showcase our program and student work alongside professionals in this diverse field,” said Fine Arts Professor Patricia Madeja, who is the coordinator of Pratt’s jewelry program. Pratt Institute is the only institution in New York City that features a Jewelry BFA program, and the program has fostered strong ties among prominent jewelry businesses, organizations, and designers in New York and around the world. “The educational value of NYC Jewelry Week was enormous and I am so delighted with our faculty, alumni, and student accomplishments,” she added.
On the Brooklyn campus, the Library Adorned Cuff Show featured work by Pratt jewelry students who drew inspiration from the historic Pratt Library to design cuff bracelets. Curated by Beryl Perron Feller ’17, the Cross-Pollination Exhibition, also at the Pratt Library, displayed work made over the past decade at Peters Valley School of Craft, including jewelry by Anna Koplik ’15. The showcase demonstrated how a sense of place, and exploration of materials, can diversify an individual’s practice. The Pratt Library also hosted an exhibition from the archives of Oscar Heyman, a New York jewelry manufacturing firm with 108 years of rich history.
Other events at Pratt included a symposium curated by the Dutch jewelry magazine, Current Obsession, focusing on how jewelry design could fit into a “used future,” George Lucas’s idea of a collaged image, created by CGI artists, depicting a future world that looks dirty, dingy, or lived-in.
Pratt also hosted The Additive Hand: Contemporary Jewelry Made Through 3D Printing, presented by Formlabs and Lizz Hill Wiker, exploring how 3D printing can be used to make wearable art and jewelry, rather than the traditional “lost-wax,” or investment model casting methods. This event featured work from Xin Xu ’19 and Kyungrim Reina Kim ’18.
Pratt’s School for Continuing and Professional Studies presented Antiquemania, a showcase of contemporary designers drawing on ancient and historic jewelry, curated by Ana Estrades and Sasha Nixon, with an accompanying panel moderated by Fine Arts Visiting Associate Professor and School of Continuing Education Lecturer Karen Bachmann that featured industry experts and other jewelry artists from across the country.
Pratt alumna Olivia Suffern ’14 was the coordinator of the One For the Future program, which honored emerging talent in the industry, including students and recent graduates. Pratt jewelry students and alumnae honored included Maya Rose Weiss ’18, Taisha Carrington ’18, Ada Chen ’18, and Andrea Rosales Balcarcel ’16.
Carrington and Chen also participated in a panel, “Emerging, Established, Historical: American Jewelers Speak,” along with Fine Arts Visiting Professor Toni Greenbaum, at the Museum of Arts and Design.
At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Pratt jewelry alumnae Casey Sobel ’15 and Carrie Bilbo ’09 were featured in a panel discussion, “Methods, Materials, and Creative Outcomes,” about experimentation with materials and technique, hand-crafting, and manufacturing methods in jewelry design. The two also hosted a studio visit and tour.
Pratt jewelry faculty were also featured at many different exhibitions and events. Visiting Associate Professor Katrin Zimmerman participated in a panel discussion with female entrepreneurs about how they achieved success and what success means to them. Zimmerman’s work was featured in an exhibition dedicated to female designers and artists at LE BOARD, a fashion house and retail space for women-run businesses.
Work by Visiting Associate Professor Russell Jones was featured in the jewelry pop-up at the Katonah Museum of Art as part of the exhibition Outrageous Ornament: Extreme Jewelry in the 21st Century, which also featured work by Zimmerman.
Visiting Assistant Professor Adrianne Ho’o Hee was featured in the Instagram exhibition, #fail #success, highlighting the creative process.
More information about specific events can be found on the New York Jewelry Week website.
Images: (main image) Miranda Leigh, Phi series: Galaxy M74 Pendant/brooch, 2010. Electrum and pure gold Keum-boo, with star-set rose diamonds and one diamond briolette, 70 x 70 mm. Displayed in Antiquemania (photo: courtesy of Joyaux Marisol); (inset images) Ada Chen, Speak English, We’re in America Grillz and earring-necklace, 2017. Fine silver, 1”x3/8“ and 6 1/2“x1/16”; Taisha Carrington, Earring 5 (detail), 2018 (photo: Kronus Studio)