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AJF Live with Helen Drutt
October 16, 2024, 12 p.m. EST (New York City time)
Free and open to all. Register here.
AJF has teamed up with the Metal Museum and the esteemed collector, educator, and gallerist for a virtual walk-through of Bracelets, Bangles & Cuffs: 1948–2024.
Helen Drutt will discuss the exhibition she curated and the wide-ranging approach artists have taken to innovate this singular object. This remarkable group of contemporary bracelets from her collection and others reveals the wide-ranging creativity of artists working in this timeless jewelry form between 1948 and today. The exhibition is currently on view at the Metal Museum, in Memphis, TN, US. Carissa Hussong, the Metal Museum’s director, will join us to talk about the ways the museum is considering jewelry in its programs and collections.
Helen W. Drutt English (Helen Drutt) was Executive Director and a founding member of the Philadelphia Council of Professional Craftsmen (P.C.P.C., 1967–1974) and the Founder/Director of her eponymous gallery in Philadelphia (1973–2002), which was among the first galleries in the United States to make a commitment to the modern and contemporary craft movement. In 1973, she developed the first syllabus for a college-level course in the history of the field.
Drutt holds Honorary Doctorate of Arts degrees from three universities. She has lectured internationally and developed major exhibitions in the field of craft. In 2002, 800 jewelry and related works from The Helen Williams Drutt Collection permanently entered the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Drutt has published numerous essays in the field of jewelry; conceived jewelry exhibitions, i.e. Brooching It Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madelaine K. Albright, Challenging the Chatelaine!, and A View from America: Contemporary Jewelry (1973–2003), in Melbourne, Australia; and curated American studio jewelry for the Museo del Gioiello, Vicenza, Italy (2016–2018), among others.
Dedicated to bringing American craft abroad, Drutt curated Gifts from America, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014), Beauty and the Unexpected, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2023–2025), and most recently Bracelets, Bangles & Cuffs: 1948-2024, Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, US.
She is a former trustee of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (2010–2021) and current trustee of the Bard Graduate Center, New York. She served on the American Board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Indian and Himalayan Art Committee, Philadelphia Museum of Art (1996–2019); the American Board of Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, in Athens, Greece; and has served on the Peter Dormer Lecture Committee, London, England, since its conception. In 2021, she was appointed as an Associate of the Goldsmiths’ Company, London. Her extensive library is held as a vital resource and frequently used by scholars.
Carissa Hussong has served as the Executive Director of the Metal Museum since January 2008. Under her leadership, the Metal Museum has expanded its programs, collections, and staff, outgrowing its current location along the Mississippi River. The Museum is currently in a $35 million capital campaign to transform the former Memphis College of Art building in Overton Park into a state-of-the-art museum and educational center. Prior to joining the Metal Museum, Hussong served as the Executive Director of the UrbanArt Commission (UAC), a Memphis, Tennessee non-profit that manages public art for the City of Memphis and other clients. Key public art projects included the Cooper Young Trestle, the artwork at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library and the artwork at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. Hussong also worked at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN, as Associate Curator and as a curatorial fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Hussong has a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University, a B.A. in Art History from the University of Washington and an MBA from the University of Memphis. She was recognized as one of the Memphis Business Journal’s 2022 “Women Who Lead” and 2022 “Super Women in Business” and as one of the Memphis Flyer’s “25 Who Shaped Memphis: 1989-2014.”
AJF in Conversation during NYC Jewelry Week (November 18–24, 2024)
AJF will be in attendance. Events, dates, and times to be announced.
Captions
1. Helen Drutt, photo courtesy of Helen Drutt
2. Bracelet by Peter Chang, collection of Helen Drutt, photo courtesy of Helen Drutt
3. Bracelet by Tone Vigeland, collection of Helen Drutt, photo courtesy of Helen Drutt
4. Bracelet by Othmar Zschaler, collection of Helen Drutt, photo courtesy of Helen Drutt
5. Carissa Hussong, photo courtesy of Carissa Hussong
