Please join us at The Jewelry Library for tea and conversation to celebrate the recent releases of Helen Drutt’s book Bracelets, Bangles, and Cuffs and Bill Harper’s Bizarre Beauty: The Art of William Harper, with Drutt, Harper and Bizarre Beauty editor Martha Fleishman. Also featured will be curator Lamar Gayles and jewelry historian Toni Greenbaum who will sign rare copies of their out-of-print jewelry books, including Lamar Gayles’s Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry and Toni Greenbaum’s Messengers of Modernism.
Helen Drutt is an art historian, curatorial consultant, educator and author. Since the founding of the Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia in 1973, she has been a leader in the promotion of American Craft. Known as the ‘Godmother of Craft,’ Drutt has received numerous awards, including the Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Craft at the National Museum of Women in Washington D.C.
William Harper is a NYC based artist working in Studio Jewelry. His work is based in enamel using the cloisonné technique, creating intricate pieces that explore art history and human nature. Harper’s work is featured in many collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and many more.
Toni Greenbaum is an art historian specializing in 20th and 21st Century jewelry and metalwork. As a widely respected authority on contemporary jewelry, Greenbaum has been an essential figure in the research of the Studio Jewelry Movement in Greenwich Village. She has given lectures internationally, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Lamar Gayles is an art and design historian, archaeologist, and curator, specializing in 20th Century Black Jewelry. Gayles has recently graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago’s Museum and Exhibitions Studies Masters Program, and is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Delaware in Preservation Studies and Art Conservation. Gayles has curated important exhibitions in black jewelry in many museums including the Metal Museum and the National Museum of Ornamental Metals.
His exhibition “Intricate Blackness” will be on view at The Jewelry Library during NYCJW.
Each November, NYC Jewelry Week proudly presents ‘The Week,’ a 7-day celebration dedicated to the art of jewelry. This annual event invites a global audience to explore the world of jewelry through a dynamic mix of in-person and virtual experiences, spanning New York City and beyond.
