Talk with Dr. Petra Hölscher about the exhibition AMONG FRIENDS: American and German Jewelry Artists from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection at SCHMUCKmünchen 2026

Anna Wójcik-Korbas: Could you tell us about the exhibition at the Galerie Handwerk and what visitors can expect to see?

Petra Hölscher: Before I answer your question, please, let me start by saying that Barbara Schmidt from Galerie Handwerk and I curated the exhibition together. Nearly everyone within the jewelry community is familiar with the name Helen W. Drutt, the renowned American collector. In her earlier professional life, she was a gallerist and stands as a remarkable example of a woman who, while raising two children on her own in the early 1960s, opened the very first gallery for arts and crafts in America in 1973. She was also invited to develop the first college syllabus on the history of 20th-century crafts at Philadelphia College of Art. Her life story is truly extraordinary. Helen has been a regular visitor to Munich since the 1990s.


AW: What is the history of Helen Drutt’s connection to the German jewelry scene?

PH: Hermann Jünger played a pivotal role in her story. Born into a Jewish family that emigrated to America around the turn of the 20th century, Helen initially struggled with the idea of visiting Germany due to the trauma of the Holocaust. It wasn't until 1988 that she made her first trip to see Hermann Jünger’s exhibition Hermann Jünger. Schmuck nach 1945 (Jewelry after 1945) in Nuremberg, the city of Albrecht Dürer but also of the Nürnberger Prozesse. Since then, she has become increasingly familiar with the jewelry scene in Munich – the persons behind and the institutions. Around 1993, she began attending the International Handicraft Fair in Munich, was responsible for the selection of American and Canadian artists. She has made an immense contribution to artists, cultural institutions in Munich, but above all to mutual cooperation and understanding.


AW: What was the inspiration behind this specific exhibition?

PH: Helen proposed showing a portion of her collection to demonstrate that, despite the difficult history, it is possible to cultivate positive friendships and a sense of belonging. Her vision, "Among Friends", brings American and German jewelry artists together in a single exhibition – a cross-cultural promotion she has championed for decades. In Germany, she is a great advocate for American jewelry, and vice versa in America for German jewelry. Since 2007, she has donated a piece by an American jewelry artist to Die Neue Sammlung every year. Some of these pieces are highly narrative, a style she eventually convinced our institution to view with greater seriousness. More than one reason to honor her with the title "Ambassador of Contemporary Jewelry" in 2023.


AW: How was the show organized, and how many artists are featured?

PH: The exhibition is a collaboration between Die Neue Sammlung and Galerie Handwerk, where Barbara Schmidt provided the venue. Barbara and I traveled to Philadelphia to select the pieces. The exhibition features 59 American artists and 20 German artists. It serves as a history of American jewelry, showcasing major names like Albert Paley, Stanley Lechtzin, Claire Falkenstein, Jamie Bennett, Bill Harper and Keith Lewis alongside younger talents such as Aaron Decker and Melanie Bilenker. In total, the exhibition presents over 240 pieces.


AW: Does the exhibition follow a chronological path?

PH: While the works span from the early 1960s – when Helen first connected with students and artists in Philadelphia – to the present day, we chose not to use a strictly chronological layout. I find that chronological exhibitions can be less engaging. Instead, we aimed to give each artist their own showcase, creating a flow that leads visitors naturally through the space. The exhibition occupies two floors at Galerie Handwerk: the American artists are featured on the ground floor, while the German artists are presented downstairs.


AW: Will Helen Drutt be attending the event in person, and will there be an accompanying publication?

PH: Yes, Helen will be present for the opening. Her schedule includes meetings with Bavarian State TV, a press conference, and the official opening ceremony. We are also hosting a book preview on Thursday, featuring the legendary Claus Bury, who has known Helen since the early 1970s. The book, titled Among Friends, is quite exceptional. It functions as a catalog containing nearly all 240 pieces from the exhibition, but it also documents Helen’s "circle" of companions in Munich through hundreds of photographs, mostly done by the Munich based photographer Eva Jünger which we have found in our archives. It includes essays by experts like Toni Greenbaum, two significant interviews with Helen from 1998 and 2018, and reflections from her friends in Munich resp. Germany.


AW: Could you tell us more about the design and availability of the book?

PH: The graphic design by Ina Bauer, based in Stuttgart, is magnificent. We used a very special material for the cover – a textile made from recycled plastic from the ocean. Even the typography has a symbolic meaning: it is based on a font created by a German emigrant to America in the 19th century, reinforcing the theme of German-American friendship. The book is published by Arnoldsche in Stuttgart, which ensures it will be available worldwide. It can be purchased at Galerie Handwerk, at the Pinakothek der Moderne, at the Schmuck fair, or online.



Opening: March 4, 2026, 7:00 p.m.
Book preview: March 5, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.
Venue: Galerie Handwerk, Max-Joseph-Straße 4/Eingang Ottostraße, 80333 München
Curators: Barbara Schmidt, Dr. Petra Hölscher.







 

About the Interviewee

Dr. Petra Hölscher studied Art History, Romance Languages, German Literature and Industrial Anthropology at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. In 1999 she initially worked at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (State Art Collections Dresden), before moving to Munich to join Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser Gärten und Seen (State Department for Bavaria’s castles, parks and lakes). In Dresden she was responsible for the main exhibition Jugendstil in Dresden. Aufbruch in die Moderne at the Castle in 1999 and in Munich for the exhibition Pracht und Zeremoniell. Die Möbel der Residenz München at the Munich Residence in 2002.

In November 2002 she assumed her current position as a curator, since 2007 senior curator, at Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. In this position she did and still does exhibitions about international Industrial Design and studio jewelry which is always accompanied by a publication – Anton Cepka, Thomas Gentille, Tone Vigeland, Jablonec ’68, Therese Hilbert and at least Warwick Freeman in 2025 – as well she has written and co-authored numerous articles and books. She is also responsible for museum's acquisitions in both fields. 2005–2019 she gave lectures on design history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University; 2009–2011 she was also asked by the Georg-Simon-Ohm-Hochschule in Nuremberg to teach. In 2020 she published with Schmuck – Jewelry the first publication about the jewelry collections for which Die Neue Sammlung is responsible and which are situated at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Since 2021 she is member of the SCIENTIFIC NETWORK The German Schools of Applied Arts: artistic and craft training institutions in the long 19th century.
 

About the author

Anna Wójcik-Korbas (b. 1995, Poland) is an art historian, researcher, and curator of contemporary jewelry. From 2021 to 2025, she served as the coordinator of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER. She is a member of the International Amber Association and a co-curator of the Unnecessary Jewellery exhibition.
 
This interview was supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the NetWorks programme.