Shows and Tales - On Jewelry Exhibition Making

The challenge of showing contemporary jewelry has given rise to a bubbling exhibition landscape, with amateurs and professionals playing musical chairs to a very D.I.Y. score. Artists mount exhibitions in their bedrooms. Museums invite amateurs to curate shows from their collections, and visitors to handle work. Collectors issue exhibition lists and detailed press releases. Students wearing jewelry parade the streets in white overalls.
Given how extremely busy jewelry curators have been over the last 60 years, it is surprising that the variety of their approaches is so rarely acknowledged, or taken seriously, as is the extent to which curation transforms our perception: there has never been, thus far, a publication on exhibition-making with jewelry as its focal point. 

Shows and Tales aims to remedy this absence. It addresses the question of "exhibiting jewelry" in several ways. It features:

• a series of commissioned articles on landmark exhibitions
• commissioned essays by, and discussions with, curators on the challenges of curating jewelry
• some of the best exhibition reviews from Art Jewelry Forum’s archives that track some recent experimentation with display strategies
• a detailed checklist of more than 30 exhibitions (list of collaborators, associated publications, number of visitors, budget, etc…)

Toni Greenbaum, a world-renowned art historian and curator specializing in 20th- and 21st-century jewelry and metalwork says:  
Finally, a book that puts contemporary jewelry in its place! Shows dedicated to modern and contemporary jewelry have a history that spans 70 years. Some of the most authoritative voices in the field today contribute essays that investigate all aspects of this international pursuit. Art Jewelry Forum is on the forefront of cogent publications within the discipline. Shows and Tales is an essential undertaking; it has the potential to further legitimize jewelry as an art form meriting theoretical discourse.