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Ohio university's museum to host AJDC exhibition
After seven months at the Forbes Galleries in New York earlier this year, the American Jewelry Design Council’s “Variations on a Theme” exhibit will travel to the Kent State University Museum in Ohio before it heads west to the GIA.
In 1996, the AJDC began the tradition of asking each of its artists to create a design project based on a single concept or theme, such as water, spiral or black and white. The “Variations on a Theme” exhibition provides a sampling of pieces from the projects spanning 18 years, from its start in 1996 to 2013.
The exhibition is scheduled to be at Kent State University from Oct. 24 to May 3, 2015, displaying 40 installations of one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces created by AJDC artists.
It then will move to the Gemological Institute of America’s gallery in Carlsbad, Calif. over the summer.
Variations on a Theme will kick off with an invitation-only event on the evening of Oct. 24, and will be open to the public every day after that.
“Part of the AJDC mission is to educate the public, which is what prompted us to find a wider audience for our yearly projects,” said President Barbara Heinrich, who is also a contributing artist. “This is an exhibition of art for art’s sake, and it is a beautiful showcase of American jewelry design as art.”
An 82-page, full-color catalog about the pieces can be ordered on the AJDC’s website.
The AJDC also will offer an educational session on jewelry design and fabrication for students at Kent State University during the exhibition.
The Kent State University Museum currently holds one of the most comprehensive teaching collections of fashionable design from the 18th century to the present. Last year, online magazine Fashionista.com named Kent State’s School of Fashion Design and Merchandising to its list of the top 50 fashion schools in the world.
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