PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART CONTEMPORARY CRAFT SHOW takes place November 3-5, 2023, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center! Celebrating its 47th year, this cozy event provides a warm respite from the onset of autumn in Philadelphia. With a variety of craft media represented, including glass, ceramics, basketry, fiber wearable and decorative, jewelry, metal, mixed media, and more, there is a smorgasbord of visual delights to choose from.

For more information, please go to the show’s website, at www.pmacraftshow.org.

THE SMITHSONIAN CRAFT SHOW celebrates the American Spirit this year from May 4 – 7, 2023, with its Preview Night Opening on May 3. Spend the first weekend of May at the classic National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., taking in the best of American craft. Open from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM each day, May 4 - 6, and closing hours of 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on May 7, you’re sure to be in for a wonderful time.

This year’s theme is Celebrating the American Spirit, with a guest group of Native American artists present among the 120 artisans. Find work in all media, from metal and wood to jewelry, wearable art, leather, ceramics, basketry, mixed media, and paper.

2023 also marks the Visionary Artist Awards given this year in Metal, to Mary Lee Hu and Chunghi Choo, and the Delphi Award to Amber Cowan. Ornament celebrates these three artists for their contribution to modern American craft.

For more information, please visit www.smithsoniancraftshow.org.

THE HEARD MUSEUM hosts its 65th Annual Indian Fair & Market from March 4 – 5, this weekend! The premier show for contemporary Native American craft and art in the country, the Heard Indian Market is full of both traditional work, and groundbreaking new renditions of traditional themes. There will be a Best of Show reception on March 3 at 5:30 PM, where the award winners of the 2023 are celebrated. Going into the reception hall to view the prize-winning works is always a delight.

With more than six hundred Native American artists from around the country, the Heard Indian Market is vast in scale while being more manageable than the Santa Fe Indian Market. You’ll find some of the best Native artists attending, and there is always a new discovery to be found.

For more information, please visit the Heard Museum’s page for the show, at this link: heard.org/indian-fair.

THE PALM BEACH FINE CRAFT SHOW presents beautiful American craft from February 17 – 19, 2023 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Many of your favorite artists are exhibiting this year, with an extensive selection of jewelry and clothing. There’s also conscientious and eye-popping work in other media, including furniture, basketry, metals, stone, and mixed media. If you’re in Florida or nearby, this is your one-stop-shop for your Spring and Summer wardrobe!

For more information, please visit the show’s website at www.palmbeachfinecraft.com.

THE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAN GOLDSMITHS hosts SNAG@Tucson, a mini-conference taking place during the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, from February 3 – 5, 2023. Free and open to the public, attendees will have the opportunity to watch live demonstrations, get hands-on experience with tools & supplies, see and shop inspiring work in both our artist market (Saturday) and exhibition. This event will expand attendees knowledge, skills and community. For more information, visit snagmetalsmith.org/snag-tucson/.

PHOENIX ART MUSEUM hosts “Beauty and Function: Japanese Folk Art from the Mayro-Strelitz Collection” through November 19, 2023 in its Art of Asia galleries. With a selection of padded firemen’s coats, shop signs, prints, and other outerwear, the exhibition presents a small but precious selection of outstanding examples of the artistic creativity of everyday Japanese.

For more information, visit the museum’s website at www.phxart.org.

SMITHSONIAN CRAFT2WEAR transforms Washington D.C.’s spectacular National Building Museum into the place to shop for the finest in American contemporary wearable craft and design from Oct 21 - 22, with the opening Preview Night on October 20. The country’s premier jewelry, leather, and wearable artisans will showcase and sell their handmade craft, with every artist having been previously juried into the Smithsonian Craft Show. A juicy, diverse selection of work is available for sale, and sure to delight collector and casual shopper alike, just in time for fall.

As a small preview into a few of the craftspeople whose work you’ll be enjoying at this year’s Craft2Wear, consider the felted clothing by Janice Kissinger, who uses recycled saris from India as the base material for her sublime dresses. There’s the imaginative and innovative jewelry by Holly Anne Mitchell, who uses newspaper to form her cuffs, brooches and necklaces. Marne Ryan takes the traditional metals of jewelry, silver and gold, and combines them with raw gemstones for bold, seductive pieces. And if you want to be a rock star, Starr Hagenbring has you covered, with her handpainted and machine stitched coats and jackets.

Explore this seductive show and enjoy a new wardrobe, or just that one particular ring that you’ve been looking for.

401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

You can find out more at smithsoniancraft2wear.org.

WESLEYAN COLLEGE hosts “Beyond the Body: Paintings and Wearable Art by Deb Karash” at their McCrary Gallery from October 6 through November 3, 2022. Featuring new multimedia work by Karash, this series pairs brooches and paintings together as a complementary presentation.

Karash’s jewelry uses prismacolor pencils to add bright coloration to her work, utilizing a technique she developed over the years. Her brooches tend towards representing the beauty of the natural world, along with more abstract pieces. The paintings represent a new direction in her work, utilizing abstraction to create suggestions of emotion and environment as a backdrop for the jewelry displayed on them.

4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, Georgia 31210

Learn more at www.wesleyancollege.edu/Galleries

LONG’S PARK ART FESTIVAL has been running since July 4, 1976, and is a well-respected outdoor show. It takes place this weekend from September 2 - 4, 2022, from 10 to 6 PM and 10 to 5 PM every day.

We’d like to mention that the work of Tamberlaine and Stephen Zeh, jewelrymaker and basketmaker, will be at the Festival, exhibiting at Booth 323.

Long’s Park
1441 Harrisburg Pike
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601

For more information, visit the Festival’s website at www.longspark.org/art-festival.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT hosts “Elements of Time: Lost and Found - The Jewelry of Ann Pedro” from August 26 through December 11, 2022. Pedro makes jewelry that is informed by antiquity and time, with a liberal influence from the fictional subculture of steampunk. She incorporates many elements that are 50 – 100+ years old and repurposes them into unique wearable art.  The theme of “time” is frequently used. Pieces quite often have multiple metal gears, dials, and vintage watch components.

UConn Library
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 1005
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1005
860.486.2518

You can learn more by visiting the University of Connecticut’s UConn Library website here: lib.uconn.edu/about/exhibits.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS hosts the touring exhibition “Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960”, through October 16, 2022. A wonderful romp through over 150 years of women’s sports fashion, this exhibit, organized by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and the American Federation of Arts, presents sixty-five ensembles comprised of more than four hundred eighty objects. If you’re not around Memphis, keep an eye out for 2023 touring locations near you.

4339 Park Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38117
Learn more at www.dixon.org.

SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAN GOLDSMITHS hosts its first in-person conference since 2020, from June 1 - 4, 2022! Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, this year’s conference celebrates the long history of jewelrymaking in the state, which once made up a full one quarter of the nation’s production. The 2022 Keynote Speaker is Michelle Millar Fisher, the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a museum which was one of the first to establish a collection of contemporary art jewelry.

Events include presentations, the social mixer Pin Swap & Shop, access to the Vendor Room, demonstrations, the Trunk Show, SNAG Student Juried Exhibition, Adorned Spaces, Community Resource Room, Portfolio Review, and Special Receptions. There will also be the Gallery Tour, taking place Thursday night, June 2.

If you’ve been hankering for a reunion with your friends in the metalsmithing community, then register for this year’s conference. You can find more information at SNAG’s website, www.snagmetalsmith.org/news-events/conference/.

THE SMITHSONIAN CRAFT SHOW makes its triumphant return, in-person, at the National Building Museum from April 20 – 24, 2022. Presenting the best of American craft, the one hundred twenty artists who exhibit at the Smithsonian Craft Show work in a wide variety of media: basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, wood, metal, mixed media, leather, paper, glass, jewelry, and fiber wearable. For three days, you can enjoy and purchase these exquisite works of art while speaking with the talented craftspeople who made them.

The Smithsonian Women’s Committee use the funds raised by the show to support the Smithsonian in a wide variety of projects, many of which give back to the community and help both children and adults access educational as well as artistic endeavors. This year, the SWC is naming four of its Champions, an inaugural recognition of those who have been close friends and supporters to the Committee. The late Ornament Coeditor, Carolyn L.E. Benesh, is one of these champions; another is Jane C. Milosch, a noted curator and expert on 20th century and contemporary art and craft, and a close friend of Carolyn’s.

Also recognized are Lloyd E. Herman, the founding Director of the Renwick Gallery, Michael W. Monroe, former Director of the Bellevue Arts Museum, Paul Fisher, founder and CEO of Juried Arts Services, LLC, and Toots Zynsky, an internationally renowned glass artist who was also a dear friend of Carolyn Benesh.

Ornament Magazine is proud to sponsor the Excellence in Jewelry Award for the Smithsonian Craft Show, which is judged by Coeditor Patrick R. Benesh-Liu.

We always have a wonderful time at the Smithsonian Craft Show, and if you needed an excuse to get out and breathe in the Washington D.C. spring, this is the perfect occasion. On Wednesday, April 20, the show’s Preview Night is held, always a festive and joyous event.

You can buy tickets for the show online at www.eventbrite.com/e/smithsonian-craft-show-tickets-277102931327; more information is available at www.smithsoniancraftshow.org.

National Building Museum
401 F Street Northwest,
Washington, D.C. 20001

AYSE TAKI GALLERY in Istanbul, Turkey, hosts a new series of art jewelry by Nafiseh Khoshandam and Bahareh Ghaderi as “Hoping Against Hope” from March 7 – 25, 2022. The pieces in this exhibition are made out of cast portions of traditional Middle Eastern jewelry. The partial and damaged elements represent the turmoil and challenges that have afflicted the rich cultural heritage of the Middle East in the modern era, but the underlying beauty of these forms proves that even within loss, worth and value can still remain.

The work of Nafiseh and Bahareh, along with the Hoping Against Hope series was covered in the most recent issue of Ornament, Volume 42 No. 3.

Sakayik Sok. 53 Tuna Palas, Daire: 1
Tesvikiye, Istanbul 34365, Turkey
Phone: 0212.343.21.54
www.instagram.com/aysetakigalerisi/?hl=en

THE FOWLER MUSEUM AT UCLA closes out an amazing show on “Aboriginal Screen Printed Textiles from Australia’s Top End,” on July 10, 2022. This exhibition takes us on a journey around northern Australia, known as the “Top End,” and invites us to explore more than 70 distinctive, screen-printed textiles made by contemporary artists at five Aboriginal-owned art centers.

Since the 1960s, these textiles have become a vibrant medium for Indigenous expression, perpetuating traditional knowledge and reinvigorating its visual manifestations. Today these fabrics both serve the needs of their communities and circulate as prized collectibles, interior furnishings, and fashion apparel. The Fowler installation, organized around the individual art centers, reveals the creativity and innovation of Aboriginal artists and their sources of inspiration.

Accompanying videos offer glimpses of the process of screen-printing textiles and the ways artists have translated ancient painting techniques into new media. The videos also introduce local environments—escarpments, flood plains, waterholes, rivers, and seas—that shelter the local flora and fauna seen on fabrics in bold colors and striking patterns. Screen-printed textiles enable Indigenous artists to share their cultures and identities, while providing them with a sustainable livelihood.

The exhibition pays tribute to the resilience and beauty of Aboriginal Australia and reminds us of the enduring connections between peoples and their lands.

For more information, visit the Fowler Museum’s website, at fowler.ucla.edu.

308 Charles E Young Drive N., Los Angeles, California 90024

THE WAYNE ART CENTER hosts “The Process of Becoming: The Jewelry Collection of Carolyn L.E. Benesh” from December 4 through January 29, 2022. In partnership with Craft in America and Ornament Magazine, the Wayne Art Center exhibition displays more than 100 pieces from the Benesh collection. This extraordinary census of the medium of jewelry includes Native American, Ethnographic, Contemporary Alternative and Precious, Inspired by Culture and Family, each illustrating the rare taste and style of the late Coeditor of Ornament. With many contemporary artists who have been featured within the pages of Ornament, this exhibit speaks to the strong relationships Carolyn established in the wearable art field. The jewelry shown in this exhibition not only represents the exquisite sense of style by Mrs. Benesh, it also is a testament to her influence and contribution, and most importantly, the friendships she formed with so many jewelry artists.

Also showing at the Center is “Craftforms 2021,” a juried exhibition of craft across all media. The juror for the 2021 show was Carol Sauvion of Craft in America, and the work on display is a wonderfully eclectic representation of the current state of craft in the United States. This exhibition also closes on January 29, 2022.

You can find more information about the exhibition at the Wayne Art Center’s website, at www.wayneart.org/exhibitions/the-process-of-becoming. For those who cannot attend this remarkable exhibit in-person, there is a virtual exhibition hosted by Ornament; you can visit it here: www.ornamentmagazine.org/the-process-of-becoming.

THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART CONTEMPORARY CRAFT SHOW is back in-person this November 5 – 7, with the Preview Party on November 4! Experience the beautiful work of 170 of the best American artisans at this illustrious show, as well as 25 additional artists whose craft will be available online. One of the premier craft shows in the nation, the PMA Craft Show features jewelry, fiber wearable, ceramics, basketry, furniture, glass, leather, metal, fiber decorative, mixed media, paper, and wood. There is also a category devoted to new and emerging artists. The PMA Craft Show is taking all necessary precautions for COVID-19, such as making all ticket sales online and requiring masks.

You see all the participating artists and learn more information by visiting their website, www.pmacraftshow.org.

THE SMITHSONIAN CRAFT SHOW hosts its Virtual Show this year from October 23 – 31, 2021. Due to COVID-19 and the danger of the Delta variant, the Smithsonian Women’s Committee made the difficult decision to change from in-person to online. Featuring 92 of America’s best and most highly skilled craftspeople, in media ranging from jewelry, clothing and ceramics to glass, furniture and wood, you can find that perfect art piece to liven up your home, or your wardrobe. Using Bidsquare, an online auction platform, it’s easy to make an account and purchase work from these outstanding artists, all from the comfort of your home. Even better, you have eight days to browse at your leisure.

You can find out more information at the Smithsonian Craft Show’s website, www.smithsoniancraftshow.org.

THE AMERICAN CRAFT EXPOSITION opens this week, from September 20 - 26, in its incarnation as a virtual show! For its 37th annual event, the Exposition features the work of 124 of the best American craft artists, representing old favorites and skilled newcomers. Covering basketry, ceramics, fiber decorative and wearable, furniture, glass, precious and semi-precious/alternative jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, and wood, with a category for emerging artists, you will find an excellent range of truly outstanding work.

This year’s virtual show offers special discounts and deals from some of the participating artists, as well as donated pieces in Craft For A Cause. The Exposition is fundraising for the SAVE MOMS project, which is an initiative to save and protect the health of pregnant and postpartum women at the NorthShore University Healthsystem.

You can find out more about the show, and visit all the participating artists, at their website, www.americancraftexpo.org.

MOBILIA GALLERY hosts “Upended Lives: Jewelry in the Age of COVID” from September 11 through October 30, 2021, in concert with the Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts (ASJRA). This exhibition explores pieces made by jewelry artists in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically reflecting the turmoil and changes that we’ve experienced adapting to this tragic event. In their work, the ability of artists to transmute, observe and communicate takes these traumas and turns them into investigations and meditations that help us see a path through.

As part of their collaboration, ASJRA’s Adornment Magazine will be publishing an issue solely dedicated to this exhibition. Yvonne Markowitz and Elyse Karlin, two noted experts and intimately involved in the jewelry field were the originators of the idea for this exhibit, which brings together 44 international jewelry artists.

“Upended Lives: Jewelry in the Age of COVID” is both in-person at Mobilia Gallery, and online as a virtual exhibition at their website, www.mobilia-gallery.com.

348 Huron Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; 617-876-2109.

THE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAN GOLDSMITHS presents its 49th Annual Conference in digital form this year! With COVID-19 still a danger, SNAG is utilizing Zoom and the digital conferencing platform Hopin.to to connect attendees and conference speakers. 2021 will mark the giving of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Eleanor Moty.

A full schedule of events can be found here: www.snagmetalsmith.org/conferences/2021-inspire-aspire/schedule.