NYC Jewelry Week Isn’t Letting 2020 Slow It Down

New York—NYC Jewelry Week turns three this year, and despite the pandemic pushing everything virtual, organizers are keeping up their momentum in 2020.

The weeklong event will run from Nov. 16-22 and be presented, for the first time, in a completely virtual format, featuring more than 120 panels, conversations, workshops, and virtual exhibitions via Zoom, YouTube, Instagram Live, or the NYC Jewelry Week website.

This year, the program is broken into seven themes to celebrate the various facets of jewelry to be explored.

Jewelry for All “represents the democracy of NYCJW as a platform,” organizers said in a press release, celebrating the stories and voices of all jewelry makers and lovers around the world.

Sessions within the theme will share stories of self-expression and identity through jewelry.

For example, “Chasing Horizons: A Preview” (Nov. 17) will see jeweler Steven KP introduce a three-part project highlighting queer voices in the jewelry field and their expression of self through their work, and “Sonwai: A Discussion of Modern Hopi Jewelry” (Nov. 18) will feature a conversation with Verma Nequatewa, a leading female contemporary master goldsmith and lapidary.

Full Circle carries over from last year’s event, focusing on responsible jewelry-making and the organizations and businesses supporting that mission.

In tune with the environment of 2020, this year’s programming in Full Circle: A Responsible Jewelry Cycle will focus on the impact of responsible sourcing on community, racial equity and social justice.

As part of this, one event to be held will be a discussion between industry writer Tanya Dukes and Muzo about the miner’s latest collaboration with jewelry designers to build awareness of the sourcing behind its Colombian emeralds (Nov. 16).

The sessions in Mindful Adornment, meanwhile, will take participants “on an exploration of mind, body, and soul,” diving into the spiritual role jewelry has long played in humans’ lives, as a source of strength, healing, and comfort.

NY Jewelry Week 2020 will offer several “mindful” moments, from meditation to Shamanic breathwork to yoga breaks, all led by jewelers who incorporate these practices into their jewelry businesses.

Then, through The Now NOW, Jewelry Week will look at aspects important to culture: education, activism, politics, equity, climate change, friendship, and health.

The theme will examine jewelry that “responds to, reflects upon, or calls to action what is on the minds and in the hearts of those in its extended communities with the belief that jewelry should represent the world around it.”

Events to be held within this include “Civil Rights and Body Politics: In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture,” (Nov. 19) in which jewelers Joyce J. Scott and Harriete Estel Berman will talk about their experiences as makers in the turbulent 1970s and early 1980s, and “Cultural Innovators: April Walker and Johnny Nelson,” in which fashion pioneer April Walker and emerging jewelry designer Johnny Nelson will share their inspirations, like hip hop culture, music, beauty and health (Nov. 21).