The AJF Artist Award is offered through AJF’s award and grant program to celebrate innovative work being created by a jewelry artist early in their career. Through the AJF Artist Award, AJF hopes to encourage and recognize new and exciting work that will direct the future development of the field.
AJF’s award and grant program is made possible through the generosity of individuals who believe funding art creation is an important way to contribute to this field. This year, a fantastic group of five jewelry collectors and enthusiasts from across the United States has come together to fund this opportunity to recognize a young artist’s work. They are Edie Nadler and Barbara Waldman, along with AJF board members Susan Kempin, Marion Fulk, and Linda Peshkin.
Be sure to follow AJF on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date on the different award and grant opportunities offered by AJF.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES
PURPOSE OF AWARD
- To acknowledge promise, innovation, and individuality in the work of a contemporary jewelry artist who:
- is early in their career
- has created an independent body of work
- shows potential for continuing to create new work
- and is rigorous in their approach to creating and producing new, exciting, and thoughtful viewpoints
- To advance the career of a promising artist
AMOUNT OF AWARD
- Unrestricted cash award of US$7,500
- The winner will be recognized as a member of AJF on AJF’s website for one year
JURORS
This year’s jury will be:
- Curator Susan Cohn (Australia)
- Collector Inger Wästberg (Sweden)
- Artist Lynn Batchelder (United States), the winner of the 2016 AJF Artist Award
ENTRY CRITERIA
- Maker of wearable art jewelry
- 35 years of age or younger at the time of application
- Not currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program (BS/BA, MS/MFA, etc.) or a vocational training program
- Work submitted must be unsupervised; work from thesis and/or graduate degree shows is supervised work
- Submitted work must have been completed within the previous two years, i.e., for 2018 award, work must be completed between 2015 and 2017
- Applicants who have applied previously must submit new work, i.e., work submitted in a prior AJF Artist Award application may not be resubmitted in the current application
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS AND INSTRUCTIONS
Applications will be accepted starting September 1, 2017.
The following information must be submitted via the CaFÉ website:
- Current resume (one page long maximum)*
- Artist statement relating to the work submitted, approximately 200 words long*
- A maximum of 10 digital images showing six to seven pieces of work
- One of the images must show a piece being worn
- One of the images must show the back side or underside of a piece
- Image requirements: Follow the image requirements listed at the CaFÉ site for submission
- Please note: All images submitted as jpegs through CaFe must also be available in high-resolution (300 dpi or higher TIFF file) if your application makes it to the finalist round. The high-resolution images will be used by AJF for print media and promotion.
- Each image must provide the following caption information*:
- Title of piece
- Year produced
- Dimensions in millimeters
- Materials
- Photo credit
*Do not include your name on the resume, artist statement, or images, as the jurying process is blind.
The following information must also be included in the digital application:
- Date of birth (you must be 35 years of age or younger on the application deadline of November 15, 2017)
- Whether you’re currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program (yes/no); if yes, you’re not eligible
- Date of completion and level of professional training ([BA, BFA, MA, MFA, or self-taught] and [month/year graduated])
- If you’re represented by gallery (yes/no); if yes, name of gallery
- How you learned about this competition (e.g., instructor, posting at school, curator, gallerist, SNAG News, magazine [specify], social media, collector, or former award winner)
Applications close at 11:59 p.m., Mountain Time Zone (Denver, Colorado, USA), on November 15, 2017. Incomplete and late entries will not be accepted.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE WINNER
- The winning artist should be prepared to deliver work to Platina Gallery to be displayed during Munich Jewelry Week
- The winner will be announced to the audience at International Handwerksmesse, and the winning artist is expected to travel to Schmuck in Munich, Germany, in March 2018 for the award presentation where s/he will deliver a 10-minute presentation about her/his work. The artist will arrange travel
- The winning artist is expected to participate in the next cycle of the AJF Artist Award jurying process
The four finalists will also be invited to participate and show work during Munich Jewelry Week and will also arrange their own travel.
All images submitted with your application must be made available to AJF for use in print media in a high-resolution format (300 dpi or higher TIFF file).
JURYING AND AWARD NOTIFICATION
- Jury review will take place in November and December 2017
- Work will be judged on originality, depth of concept, continuity of design, and quality of craftsmanship
- There will be three rounds of review; those scoring highest in the first round of individual juror review will be moved to the second round where five (5) artists will be selected as finalists
- The five finalists will be notified by telephone and email
- The names of the finalists and an image of their work will be announced with a press release on the AJF website prior to announcing the winner
- An interview will be conducted with each of the five (5) finalists, to be published on AJF in February 2018
- In the third round, the winning artist will be selected from the group of five finalists. The winning artist will be notified immediately by telephone and email
- All applicants will be informed by email after the winning artist is notified
- The winning entry will be announced in March 2018