Open Call for 2020 AJF Young Artist Award

AJF’s award and grant program are made possible by individuals who believe funding art creation is an important way to show their appreciation for the arts. This year we are excited to announce that the next three cycles of the Young Artist Award competition will be generously supported by prominent collectors Karen and Michael Rotenberg, whose collection focuses on the innovative use of alternative materials by emerging talent and mid-career artists.


Purpose of Award

• 1. To acknowledge innovation, and individuality in the work of a contemporary jewelry artist who:- is early in their career

- has created an independent body of work
- shows potential for continuing to create new work
- and is rigorous in their approach to creating and producing new, exciting, and thoughtful viewpoints

• 2. To advance the career of a promising artist.

Award

• Unrestricted cash award of US$7,500.
• The winner will be recognized as a member of AJF on AJF’s website for one year.
• An interview will be conducted with the winner and each of the four (4) finalists, to be published on AJF’s website during the spring of 2020.

Jurors
This year's jury will consist of:

• Artist Bifei Cao (China), the winner of the 2018 AJF Artist Award.
• Collector Jorunn Veiteberg (Norway).
• Curator Barbara Paris Gifford (United States).

Entry Criteria

• The maker of wearable art jewelry.
• 35 years of age or younger at the time of the application deadline.
• Not currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program (BS/BA, MS/MS/MFA, etc.) or a vocational training program.
• Work submitted must have been unsupervised; work from the thesis and/or graduate degree shows is considered supervised work.
• Submitted work must have been completed within the previous two years, i.e., for the 2020 award, work must be completed between 2017 and 2019.
• 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.

Application Requirements and Instructions
1. The following information must be submitted via the CaFÉ website:

• Current resume (one page long maximum)*.
• Artist statement relating to the work submitted, maximum 200 words long*.

2. A qualification statement containing the following:

• Date of birth (you must be 35 years of age or younger on the application deadline of January 12, 2020).
• Whether you’re currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program (yes/no); if yes, you are not eligible.
• If you’re represented by a gallery (yes/no); if yes, name of gallery(ies).
• If you’ve applied for the Artist Award previously (yes/no); if yes, when.
• How you learned about this competition (e.g., instructor; posting at school; curator; gallerist; SNAG News; magazine [specify]; social media; collector; or former award winner).
• Level of professional training (BA, BFA, MA, MFA or self-taught) and date of completion (month/year graduated
• A maximum of 10 digital images showing up to eight pieces of work*

                - One of the images must show a piece being worn on the body.
                - One of the images must show the backside or underneath side of a piece.
                - Image Requirements: Follow the image requirements on the CaFÉ website
                - Please note: All images submitted must also be available as a 300 dpi TIFF file if your application                    makes it to the finalist round. The high-resolution images will be used by AJF for print media and                    promotion.
                - Each image file must be labelled with the following*:
                   1. Title of piece
                   2. Year produced
                   3. Dimensions in millimetres
                   4. Materials
                   5. Photo credit

*Do not include your name on the resume, artist statement, or images, as the jurying process is blind.

Entry Fee for 2020 Art Jewelry Forum Young Artist Award is $35.00 (€32 approx.)
Applications close at 11:59 p.m., Mountain Time Zone (Denver, CO, USA), on January 12, 2020. Incomplete and late entries will not be accepted.