Open Call for the 21th Silver Triennial, International Competition Award

Call for entries for the 21th Silver Triennial 2025
Invited to participate in the main competition and the Youth Prize (for those born in 1990 and younger), are silversmiths, metal artists, and designers, both domestic and foreign, as well as students and apprentices.

Theme / Material
New design ideas for hollow- and flatware are requested. Jewelry will not be accepted. Work should be submitted either for the main contest or for the youth promotion contest (participants born in 1990 and younger) and should be executed in silver. Other materials are permitted as supplements. Students and apprentices may submit silver-plated pieces. Both one-of-a-kind pieces and prototypes for serial production are acceptable.

The Silver Triennial has been organized since 1965 by the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst (Association for Goldsmiths’ Art) and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau (German Goldsmiths’ House) to promote contemporary silversmith art. The Silver Triennial has gained worldwide recognition through national and international exhibition programs.


The Jury
- Beate Leonards, Silversmith.
- Lübeck; Wim Nys, Curator, Jewellery (before 1830) and Silver, DIVA Museum for Diamonds, Jewelry and Silver.
- Antwerp; Prof. Karen Pontoppidan, Professor for Goldsmiths‘ Art and President of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.

Protocol: Malte Guttek, Association for Goldsmiths´Art, Hanau.

The jury will be select the prizewinners and the exhibition participants. The decision of the jury is final with no legal recourse.


Contest Procedure
The selection of the works (prizewinning and exhibition pieces) will take place during two separate meetings of the jury, a photo-jury, and an object jury.

1. Photo-jury:
The following must be received in Hanau no later than November 17, 2024:
Completed application form
Short biography (digital)
Printable, digital photo data of the work/s on a CD-ROM (tif or psd, minimum size 2500 x 2500 pixels, with photo copyright identification)
After the photo jury, the selected participants will be notified and requested to ship their work/s.

2. Object-jury:
The work/s the jury selects must be received in Hanau no later than January 08, 2025.

Entries from Germany / EU countries
Entries must arrive at the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau, Altstädter Markt 6, D-63450 Hanau, Germany, postpaid and be accompanied by a copy of the completed registration form.

Entries from non-EU countries
Due to new customs regulations, you will receive detailed instructions upon admission to the object jury.

Main contest:
1st Prize: 5.000 €   Ebbe Weiss-Weingart Prize.
2nd Prize: 4.000 €   Robbe & Berking Prize.
3rd Prize: 3.000 €   Ebbe Weiss-Weingart Silver Prize.

Youth promotion contest:
1st Prize: 3.500 €.
2nd Prize: 2.500 €.
3rd Prize: 1.000 €.
4th Prize: 1kg Silver.
5th Prize: 500 €.


The selected participants will be required to make their work available for the entire exhibition period. The price in euros, as stated by the participant, will be considered as the value for the insurance coverage from the time of its receipt by the organizers until its return to the designated receiver. The insurance value may not exceed 20,000€ per shipment. If works are to be offered for sale, prices should be stated in euros. In case of damage, compensation will cover only the material costs and working time. Entries should be constructed so that they can withstand repeated packing and unpacking. Large objects must be packed in wooden or metal crates.
The participation fee is 60,00 € (main contest), 30,00 € (youth promotion contest).

Pay to: Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e.V.
Sparkasse Hanau
IBAN: DE17 5065 0023 0000 0208 00
Swift-BIC: HELADEF1HAN
PayPal: paypal@gfg-hanau.de
Please enter your name and “Silbertriennale” in the subject line.
The entries will be submitted to the jury only when the participation fee has been paid.

Awards ceremony / Exhibitions / Catalog
The awards ceremony will take place on March 30, 2025 at the German Goldsmiths´ House in Hanau. 
A bilingual catalogue (German/English) with illustrations of the prizewinning pieces and those selected for the exhibition will be published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, to accompany the exhibition.

Other venues:
The exhibition will run through June 2025 and subsequently at the DIVA, Antwerp and other museums.