2016 Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) Artist Award

The Art Jewelry Forum's Artist Award acknowledges promise, innovation, and individuality in the work of early-career artists and helps advance their careers. The award consists of an unrestricted cash award of $7,500.

The competition is open to makers of wearable art jewelry who are 35 years of age or under at the time of the application deadline and who are not currently enrolled in a professional training program. Work submitted must have been made within the past two years and without supervision; work from BFA/MFA shows may not be submitted. Applicants who applied previously must submit new work; work submitted in a prior AJF Artist Award application may not be resubmitted.

Applicants must submit a current one-page resume, an artist statement of approximately 200 words or less than 1000 characters, and a maximum of ten digital images showing six to seven pieces of work. Images (except for those of the back of the piece and the piece being worn) must be high-resolution (300 dpi or higher TIFF file). One image must show a piece being worn and one must show the back of a piece. Each image must include the artist name, title of piece, year produced, dimensions, materials, and photo credit. The submission deadline is midnight November 15, 2015 (Mountain Standard Time). Incomplete or late entries will not be accepted. Five finalists will be selected from which the winning artist will be chosen. Jurors include the 2014 Artist Award winner Seulgi Kwon (Korea), Philip Clarke, inaugural director of Objectspace in Auckland, New Zealand, and AJF board member and collector Susan Kempin (United States). An entry fee of $25.00 is required.