San Antonio, TX, US—We are pleased to introduce Davira S. Taragin, who joined the board in 2023, and the addition of three directors this year: Bill Baker, Noel Guyomarc’h, and Lorena Lazard. Lazard is from Mexico, Guyomarc’h from Canada, and Taragin and Baker are both Americans.
Art Jewelry Forum’s board of directors is composed of an international group of thinkers, creators, and appreciators of the field of art jewelry. They guide our organizational activities and keep our mission to advocate for contemporary art jewelry at the center of all that we do. To see the full roster of AJF’s board of directors and their roles in the organization, please visit this page on our website.
Davira S. Taragin
Davira S. Taragin was formerly a curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art, and director of exhibitions and programs at the Racine Art Museum, where she secured a major gift of 59 examples of art jewelry from the collection of Donna Schneier. As an independent curator, from 2011 to 2019, Taragin served as a consultant to Ball State University—first for its David Owsley Museum of Art on the reinstallation of its significant decorative arts and design collection, and then for its School of Art. During those years she also was a curatorial consultant to the pop-up exhibition/fundraiser Bijoux!, collaborating with Schneier, its founder, on educational programing and then gradually sharing responsibility for identifying art jewelers to include in the annual event. She now serves as a consulting curator to the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, where she continues to help build and interpret its contemporary holdings of glass and ceramics while advancing a new initiative in art jewelry.
Over her career, Taragin has organized and traveled approximately 50 exhibitions. A prolific writer, she has received commendation for several of her publications, including Women’s Tales: Four Leading Israeli Jewelers (2006), a finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year Award, and Linda MacNeil: Jewels of Glass, which the American Craft Council designated as one of the Noteworthy Craft Books in 2017.
Bill Baker
I have been a California attorney since 1973 and retired in 2013. I was a sole practitioner with a focus on real estate and contract transactions and litigation. I’ve lived in Claremont for many years and have been active in the community.
My wife, Francine, and I have been members of Art Jewelry Forum for over 10 years and have appreciated meeting other collectors and makers of art jewelry. Francine and I have been married since 1975. We enjoy active traveling, such as multiday walking trips. During our travels we explore neighborhoods and search for art jewelry galleries in out-of-the-way places. We also visit art galleries and museums, and we end the day with a delicious gelato. I look forward to participating on AJF’s board and contributing to AJF’s long-range success.
Noel Guyomarc’h
Noel Guyomarc’h has worked in the jewelry field for over 30 years. In 1996, after working as an assistant in a Montreal jewelry store, and training in jewelry at the Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts, he opened his own gallery, where he acts as a curator, distributor, promoter, and adviser. Guyomarc’h has organized more than 165 individual or collective national and international exhibitions. He represents his artists at art fairs in Canada, Europe, the United States, and Asia. Regularly invited as a juror and speaker, he is also an evaluator for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as well as many other institutions. Guyomarc’h served as the chairman of the Board of Directors of the École de joaillerie de Montréal from 2004 to 2011. He has led very successful creative workshops since 2010. He is a member of many national and international associations, and numerous articles have appeared on his various activities. In November 2023, Guyomarc’h received the Charles Biddle Prize for his contribution as an immigrant to the culture and artistic development of Quebec.
“For nearly 20 years, I’ve been nourished by AJF’s articles and interviews,” states Guyomarc’h, adding that Art Jewelry Forum has helped him discover new artists. “I’m also touched by the organization’s commitment to encouraging galleries. The educational work, which is indispensable to the milieu, is remarkable. In short, Art Jewelry Forum is indispensable.”
Lorena Lazard
Lorena Lazard is a Mexican artist. In 1995, she founded Atelier Lazard, a space to create and promote contemporary jewelry in Mexico. Since 2021 she has been the coordinator of the Contemporary Jewelry Graduate Program at CENTRO University.
In 2017 Lazard’s work was selected for Schmuck. In 2018 she obtained second place in the Latin American Biennial of Contemporary Jewelry in Argentina. In 2021 she was awarded third place in the FIO Brazil competition and was a finalist in the Enjoia’t exhibition at the Barcelona Design Museum. In 2013 she organized and co-curated the exhibition La Frontera, held at the Franz Mayer Museum, and in 2018 she co-curated La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border, at the Museum of Arts and Design, in New York. Her work has been exhibited in museums worldwide and in the art fairs Schmuck (Munich), SOFA Chicago, Sieraad (Netherlands), and Zona Maco (Mexico). Lazard’s pieces have been published in, among others, Metalsmith, Ornament, Art Jewelry Forum, and Hyperallergic magazines, and Lark’s 500 series.
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