The Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) has released its comprehensive bi-monthly digest for September 2026, capturing a dynamic season of grants, international symposia, museum retrospectives, and professional opportunities across the contemporary art jewelry community. As the autumn season unfolds, makers, institutions, and galleries worldwide are engaging with pressing material explorations, historical retrospectives, and critical discussions surrounding the future of craft.
Major Grants and Open Calls
A central focus of this season’s announcements is the launch of the Art Jewelry Forum’s 2027 Solo Exhibition Award. Open to jewelry artists of any age and nationality, the prestigious $20,000 grant aims to support the realization of a dedicated solo exhibition designed to advance an artist working within the field of art jewelry. Proposed projects must center on jewelry, though the medium is understood in a loosely defined sense. Applications for this major funding opportunity remain open through November 15, 2026.
In addition to the AJF Solo Exhibition Award, international creators have several other high-profile deadlines approaching. The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2027 has entered its final weeks of open submissions. Celebrating excellence and innovation in craft across all forms—including contemporary jewelry—the annual international award grants €50,000 to the overall winner, alongside €5,000 for two special mentions. All shortlisted works will feature in a major European exhibition in the spring of 2027, with submissions closing on October 15, 2026.
Residency and professional development opportunities are also bolstering the field this autumn. Brooklyn Metal Works (BKMW) has opened applications for its 2027 Resonance Residency. The three-month program invites jewelry artists at varying career stages to develop their studio practice while leveraging the vibrant contemporary jewelry network of New York City. Selected residents receive a comprehensive support package, including semi-private studio space, an unrestricted stipend of $300 per month, tool and course credits, a lecture stipend, and a professional review of the work produced during the residency. The deadline to apply is October 9, 2026.
Conversations, Lectures, and Online Programming
AJF’s ongoing virtual programming series, AJF Live, returns on October 23, 2026, with a targeted discussion titled Collecting with purpose—supporting artists at the RISD Museum. The session explores the philosophy and practical decision-making behind acquiring contemporary jewelry for public collections. Enamelist and jeweler Aaron Decker will join Emily Banas, associate curator of decorative arts and design at the RISD Museum, to discuss how museum acquisitions shape institutional collections while simultaneously sustaining artists’ careers. Drawing on specific purchases made by Banas, the conversation will examine how institutions build collections, support both emerging and established makers, and introduce fresh perspectives to museum visitors, while Decker will offer an artist’s viewpoint on the vital resources such investments provide.
Further expanding the intellectual discourse around craft, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will host the annual Marjan Unger Lecture on November 2, 2026. Goldsmith Eva van Kempen and archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers will lead a lecture exploring the evolving definition of craftsmanship in an era increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence. By examining the intricate goldsmithing technique of filigree, the speakers will trace the meaning of human skill from the individual maker to the broader sweep of human history.
Meanwhile, in Souillac, France, goldsmith, visual artist, and researcher Monika Brugger will deliver a public lecture on October 17, 2026, titled Jewelry, a Political Object. Brugger, who teaches at Ensad Limoges, will unpack the socio-political dimensions of adornment in conjunction with her participation in the Chose Publique exhibition at the Beffroi Saint-Martin.
Museum Exhibitions and International Festivals
Museums and galleries across the globe are presenting major exhibitions that highlight both historical milestones and contemporary explorations of jewelry.
In Lisbon, the MUDE – Museum of Design is hosting Contemporary Jewellery Collection Exhibition – Tereza Seabra from September 25, 2026, through January 31, 2027. Rather than serving as an anthology of Seabra’s personal creative output, the exhibition reflects her vision as a collector, author, teacher, and gallery owner. Assembled since the late 1960s, the "closed collection" comprises more than 300 works donated to the museum, offering a visual map of Seabra’s professional collaborations and embodying a museological strategy that recognizes jewelry as a distinct expression of design.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is currently presenting For Your Eyes Only: The Secret Language of Jewelry in its Millennium Corridor through November 1, 2026. The exhibition pairs historical and contemporary jewelry pieces united by their capacity to carry private, intimate meanings. Additionally, MFAH will host a trunk show featuring the work of Chicago-based jeweler Erika Novak on September 25 and 26, 2026. Novak’s practice is recognized for bridging traditional metalsmithing with advanced design technology.
In the Netherlands, the Zilver Museum Schoonhoven has opened David Huycke: A Cloud That Weighs More Than the Moon, running from October 3, 2026, through April 25, 2027. Marking the Belgian artist’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, the show investigates how silver can render intangible phenomena visible. Huycke’s meticulous silver works—which teach at AJF member school PXL-MAD—bridge science and imagination, appearing sleek from a distance while revealing intricate formations of hundreds of tiny silver spheres upon closer inspection. Also in the Netherlands, Galerie Door presents Earthly Paradise—Daniel Kruger and the Art of Seduction from October 3 to November 14, 2026, showcasing Kruger’s exuberant and surprising jewelry pieces that combine shells, gemstones, plastics, and fetishes into single compositions.
Parcours Bijoux continues to animate the European jewelry calendar with several notable exhibitions. At the Galerie Rosemarie Jäger, Cose Della Vita (running September 27 to November 29, 2026) brings together works by Giampaolo Babetto of the Paduan School, photographs paired with small paintings and text fragments by former Kolumba Museum curator Stefan Kraus, and oil pastels by Katja Krumbeck. The works are linked by a shared appreciation for lived experience and a subtle humor in addressing the everyday material of life.
Simultaneously, the Musée du Bijou Contemporain in Cagnes-sur-Mer will launch Citational Art on October 24, 2026, running through January 31, 2027. Curated by Elsa Vanier, the exhibition explores the process of citation, wherein contemporary jewelry artists reinterpret world-famous works by figures such as Van Gogh, Magritte, Soulages, Roy Lichtenstein, and Cartier jewelers using their own artistic vocabularies. Vanier is also curating Angel or Demon at Jérôme Guillochon – Pagliani in Paris from October 8 to 24, 2026, featuring 10 designers—including AJF members Niki Stylianou and Karin Roy Andersson—reflecting on dualities of harmony, apocalypse, and human vulnerability.
In Japan, the National Museum of Art in Kyoto is presenting Reflections in Jewellery: Memory and Identity from October 24, 2026, to January 17, 2027. The exhibition features a major public presentation of the Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry collection alongside masterworks brought to Japan from Germany after a 50-year absence, encompassing approximately 350 post-war jewelry pieces. Concurrently, the city will host Kyotooooooo Jewelry 2026 from October 24 to November 1, 2026, a community-based art project taking jewelry into the streets and businesses of Kyoto to foster public exchange and connection.
Member News, Archives, and Professional Updates
Among member updates, South Australian artist Jane Bowden has been named the 2027 SALA (South Australian Living Artist) Feature Artist. Bowden, who owns the studio Zu design (which is celebrating its 30th anniversary), will have her work featured on the official SALA poster and festival program alongside a dedicated monograph.
In educational and archival resources, the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) has made all back issues of Metalsmith magazine fully archived and freely accessible online through the Internet Archive. The fully text-searchable archive includes editorial content, advertisements, and historical ephemera. Metalsmith has also issued an open call for submissions for its July 2027 special issue, inviting contributions across four distinct pathways—"Newly Minted," "Vision Board," "Throughlines: The Present Is Past," and "Call and Response: Rethinking Reviews"—with a submission deadline of January 19, 2027.
Additional professional workshops and gallery exhibitions this autumn include Jessica Armstrong and Heather Guidero’s hybrid workshop Crafting Careers: Creating a Life in Contemporary Art Jewelry at Arrowmont (October 11–16, 2026), Veronika Fabian’s exhibition at Ornamentum (October 1 to November 3, 2026), and the ongoing sixth edition of the Radiant Pavilion festival across Melbourne, Australia, which features more than 300 artists participating in 59 events dedicated to contemporary object and jewelry practice.
