The purpose of Art Jewelry Forum's (AJF) Young Artist Award is to acknowledge promise, innovation, and individuality in the work of an artist who is early in his/her/their career, and to help advance the career of a promising artist. The award consists of an unrestricted cash award of $7,500 to the winner and $1,000 to each of four finalists. 

The competition is open to makers of wearable art jewelry who are 35 years of age or younger at the end of 2023  (Dec. 31, 2023) and who are not currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program or a vocational training program (If you are enrolled in a PhD program, we will review your eligibility on a case by case basis).  Work submitted must have been made within the past two years (between 2022 – 2023) and without supervision; work from BFA/MFA/PhD thesis and/or graduation shows may NOT be submitted. Applicants who applied previously for the award must submit new work in the current application; that is, work submitted in a prior AJF Artist Award application may not be resubmitted in the current application.  

Deadline for submission is 11:59 pm, (Mountain Time Zone - same as Denver, Colorado, USA) on November 6, 2023.  Incomplete or late entries will not be accepted.  
Four finalists and a winner will be selected, and their work will be presented by Platina gallery during Munich Jewelry Week in February/March 2024. Jurors for the competition will be: the winner of the 2022 Young Artist Award, Mallory Weston (US) ; collector and gallerist Atty Tantivit (TH); and artist and educator Ted Noten (The Netherlands).

Art Jewelry Forum is a nonprofit organization spreading awareness and increasing appreciation of art jewelry worldwide since 1997.  AJF advocates for art jewelry through an ambitious agenda of education, conversation, and financial support.  It commissions critical writing that sets the standard for excellence in the field and publishes Art Jewelry Forum, an online resource for original content on art jewelry. 

Art Jewelry Forum does not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, marital status, military status, national origin, race or color, religion or creed, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
 

Application Requirements

All applications must be submitted in English and include:

• Current resume (one page maximum) – do not include your name on the resume
• Artist statement relating to the work submitted ( less than 1000 characters) – do not include your name on the artist statement
• A minimum of six and maximum of ten digital images showing up to eight pieces of work*
  • One image must show a piece being worn on the body
  • One image must show the back side or underneath side of a piece
  • Each image must include: title of piece; year produced; dimensions in millimeters; materials; photo credit  – do not include your name in the image captions
  • All images submitted must be available at 300 dpi, landscape preferred, TIFF or JPEG, and file size 3000KB. If your application makes it to the finalist round, we will request high-resolution images from you, to be used by AJF for print media and promotion

AJF members should remember to apply the discount code 2024YAA before checking out.  

* Instructions on how to format images to CaFE™ specifications can be found at Image Prep. CaFE Technical support available during regular business hours M-F 8:30 - 5:00 PM MST. Email cafe@westaf.org

Eligibility Criteria

• A maker of  wearable art jewelry
• 35 years of age or younger at the end of 2023 (Dec. 31, 2023)
• Not currently enrolled in a formal academic degree program or a vocational training program (If you are enrolled in a PhD program we will review your eligibility on a case by case basis)
• Work submitted must have been made within the past two years (2022 – 2023)
• Work submitted must be made without supervision, and cannot be part of a BFA/MFA/PhD thesis and/or graduation show.
• Applicants who applied previously for the award must submit new work in the current application; that is, work submitted in a prior AJF Artist Award application may not be resubmitted in the current application.