NYC Jewelry Week 2018, the first of its kind, drew an estimated 10,000+ attendees.
New York—If the first New York City Jewelry Week was any indication, consumers and the industry alike are definitely interested in celebrating what the city has to offer.
After all, the inaugural event, held Nov. 12-18, totaled 123 hosted events and drew more than 10,000 attendees, according to co-founders J.B. Jones and Bella Neyman.
“What was so interesting was that we were creating this event for the general public, which is still a big part of what we’re doing, but I didn’t realize how important it would be for the jewelry community to connect,” Jones told National Jeweler.
“I met a lot of jewelers who were just so inspired in their own practice because of the community and opportunities that were being created.”
It attracted not only New Yorkers and tourists visiting the city but also people from across the country and across the world even.
At one point, during a panel discussion at The Jewelry Library, Neyman said she looked around the room and saw a gallerist from Stockholm, an Italian-born jeweler now based in Switzerland, a curator and writer from the Netherlands, and an artist from Portugal all posing for one photo together.
“To have them there, as well as believe and support us, is a huge deal.”
Now that the first event is behind them, Jones and Neyman are able to look at what didn’t work, as well as what did, and build off that for this year’s event.
The events that weren’t quite as popular tended to be those that were more “traditional” in concept, such as hosting a party in a store, while the events they thought were most successful offered attendees special moments and went beyond anything they’d normally be able to attend.
The independently-curated exhibitions, for example, placed in various locations throughout the city worked well, Neyman said.
She added that the panels also were a highlight of the week, fulfilling one of Jewelry Week’s biggest missions: educating and engaging the consumer to give them a story and something they can identify with in the jewelry world.
In their efforts to demystify the jewelry world, organizers also wanted to bring more attention to 47th Street and its role in the overall New York City economy by offering tours of the area.
These events filled within minutes of registration opening, Neyman said; she compared them to concert tickets for a hot band selling out
NYC Jewelry Week’s 2019 dates have been set, Nov. 18-24.
With their first year behind them, Jones and Neyman are carrying this knowledge and hindsight in their back pockets as they begin pulling together the lineup for 2019.
The dates have been set: Nov. 18-24.
While it is still very much in the planning stages, they said they already know they’re not interested in making it bigger as much as they want to make sure it’s another special experience for attendees.
“Our No. 1 feedback from attendees is that they were looking for something new. That was top reason they came to Jewelry Week,” Jones said.
They are once again planning partnerships with museums and galleries for special exhibitions as well as panel discussions, retail collaborations and expanding international participation.
Artists & Fleas SoHo will serve as NYCJW’s headquarters once again and will be a key venue for talks and exhibitions all week.
New for the year will be celebrity panels, film screenings and educational programming focused on supporting women designers and building diversity in the field.
Organizers also will expand the youth programming to include a Children’s Day, and to honor its second year, Jewelry Week will give a nod to second-generation family businesses that have made an impact on the jewelry industry.
Specific details on these aspects of Jewelry Week 2019 haven’t been released yet.
Also returning this year will be the One for the Future initiative, created to support emerging talent in the industry.
“Our No. 1 feedback from attendees is that they were looking for something new. That was top reason they came to Jewelry Week.” — J.B. Jones, NYC Jewelry Week co-founder
The program will continue to provide exposure designed to help accelerate the careers of 12 “emerging creatives” selected by the organizers by giving them professional mentorship beyond NYCJW.
This year, they are expanding the program to collaborate with the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s NYCxDesign event and designer Jonathan Adler.
NYCJW will host three trunk shows featuring its One for the Future designers and artists at Adler’s showroom on Lexington Avenue throughout NYCxDesign from May 10-19.
They also will have a panel at the showroom on May 16 discussing jewelry outside of the jewelry store, delving into such topics as how jewelry crosses the line of art and design, why design and other non-traditional jewelry shops are interested in selling jewelry and why it’s a relevant part of the retail world in those fields.
Neyman and Jones will moderate the discussion. Panelists will be jeweler Jean Prounis of Prounis, Cat Birch of the Cooper Hewitt Shop, designer Michele Varian, and jeweler and artist Meghan Patrice Riley.
