AJF Award 2014

Since 2000, AJF has been offering the Emerging Artist Award, which recognizes promise, innovation and individuality in the work of an emerging jeweler. AJF aims to advocate for contemporary art jewelry through education, appreciation and support for the field. The EAA is one of the primary ways in which AJF directly supports and promotes contemporary art jewelry (and those who make it) and the award acknowledges that the transition from study/training to professional practice is a sometimes difficult one.

Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) is accepting applications for its 2014 Artist Award. This is the fifteenth year that AJF will be providing a cash award to a contemporary jewelry artist. The amount of the 2014 award will remain at $7500 this year thanks to the generous support of Susan Kempin and Susan Beech, both long-time collectors and supporters of AJF.

In addition to the cash award of $7500 for the winner of the AJF Artist’s Award (AJF AA) we have just arranged for the 5 Finalists (including the winner) to be shown at the fabulous annual Schmuck event. Work will be displayed at either Galerie Marzee, Galerie Ra, or Platina gallery in the Frame part of the exhibition hall. This event will expose the work to a vast audience of interested people.

Jurors for this year's competition are Sooyeon Kim, jewelry artist and winner of the 2013 award, Carin Reinders, Director of the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and Karen Rotenberg, Founder and Director of Alianza Contemporary Craft and a collector of contemporary jewelry.

The purpose of the award is to acknowledge promise, innovation, and individuality in the work of an emerging jewelry artist and to help to advance the artist's career. The competition is open to makers of wearable art jewelry who are not currently enrolled in a professional training program. Work submitted in the application must have been unsupervised, and not previously submitted for a BFA or MFA show. What has changed this year is:

- Applicants must be 35 years of age or younger at the time of the application deadline (September 30, 2014)
- Work must have been made between 2012 and 2014
- 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
- Applicants may have had, or be scheduled to have, a solo exhibition

Award Schedule
• July 1, 2014 Applications may be submitted at www.callforentry.org.
• September 30, 2014 Deadline for application entry.
• October 2014 The winner of this year’s competition and $7500 cash award is announced.

Amount of award:
An unrestricted cash award of $7500 will be given each year.
The winning recipient will be given a one-year membership to AJF.
The winning artist is expected to travel to an art fair, to be determined, for the award presentation where s/he will deliver a 10-minute presentation about their work.

Applicants must meet the following criteria:
_Applicants must be 35 years of age or younger at the time of the application deadline (September 30, 2014)
_Work must have been made between 2012 and 2014
_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
_Applicants may have had, or be scheduled to have, a solo exhibition

Jurors:
Jurors for this year’s competition are Sooyeon Kim, jewelry artist and winner of the 2013 award, Carin Reinders, Director of the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and Karen Rotenberg, founder and director of Alianza Contemporary Crafts and a collector of contemporary jewelry.

Judging:
Jury review will take place in October 2014. 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 for group jury review.

In the second round, five (5) artists will be shortlisted. The shortlisted artists will be notified by telephone and email. The names of the shortlisted artists and an image of their work will be posted on the AJF website two weeks prior to announcing the winner.

In the third round, the winning artist will be selected from the group of five shortlisted artists. 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 the AJF newsletter and on the AJF website in November 2014.

Post-award Promotion
The winning artist will deliver a brief presentation (i.e., 10 minutes) describing his/her concept and submitted work at an art fair to be selected by AJF together with the winning artist. At that time, a jury member, the Chair of AJF, or the Award Committee will introduce the artist, noting why the artist was chosen to receive the award. A written copy of the artist’s art fair presentation will be included in AJF’s website under Grants>AJF Artist Award.

The work will be shown at an AJF-member gallery exhibiting at an art fair. The artist’s work must be featured prominently in the exhibitor’s booth and clearly designated as the 2014 Art Jewelry Forum Artist Award. AJF will not be involved in the selection of the gallery; winners not currently represented by an AJF member gallery will be directed to the list of member galleries on AJF’s website and will be responsible for selecting and negotiating their gallery representation.

The winning artist will be profiled on the AJF website under Grants > AJF Artist Award. He or she also will be promoted to the AJF membership and the media via press release.

A profile feature will be placed in a journal or magazine, if/as able to be arranged with a journal/magazine editor.

The winning artist may represent AJF at jewelry events in conjunction with his/her presentation at an art fair or at other opportunities where the winner may already be present to deliver remarks about their work and the importance of AJF and the Artist’s Award.

A written piece for AJF’s website will be prepared one year post award to follow-up on the winner’s application statement about how the award would impact their career.

The winning recipient will be given a one-year membership to AJF.

The winning artist will also participate as jury member in the next award season.

Gail Hufjay
914-282-9844 
info@artjewelryforum.org