Liesbeth den Besten: Confrontations 2011/9

Liesbeth den Besten studied Art History and Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1985 she has been working free lance as a writer for Dutch newspapers, Dutch and international art and design magazines and exhibition catalogues. Besides this she is active as an advisor and jury member for Dutch and international governmental institutions, exhibitions and competitions, and she lectures about contemporary jewellery and crafts, at international conferences and art academies in Europe, US, Australia, New Zealand and Latin-America. 
She curated different exhibitions, among them Tall Stories – contemporary Dutch narrative jewellery (2006, Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch NL and Erasmus Huis Jakarta Indonesia), the jewellery room for the exhibition Blown with the Wind in the Zuiderzee Museum Enkhuizen (March - November 2009), and Jewellery Unleashed! (Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, November 2011 - February 2012) . 
She is the chairwoman of the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation for contemporary jewellery. She is a member of the advisory board of the Chi ha paura…? Foundation, for serial jewellery. She is one of the founding members of Think Tank, a European Initiative for the Applied Arts. Recently her book On Jewellery, a compendium of international contemporary art jewellery was published (Arnoldsche, November 2011).