The Jewel In Whakatu’s Crown: Nelson Jewellery Week 2023

Taking place from the 13 - 23rd April, NELSON JEWELLERY WEEK is a contemporary jewellery festival which celebrates emerging and established jewellery artists from Aotearoa and beyond. Attracting wearers, makers and viewers from up and down the country, there will be a range of events to celebrate jewellery as a contemporary art form - from avant garde to wearable and everything in between.

'In Hiding' - brooch, Jane Dodd. Image by Haru Sameshima.

Nelson Jewellery Week 2023 will host over 30 exhibitions with makers from across Aotearoa, Australia, and the UK, including: Handshake, Dialogue Collective, TempContemp, Deep Material Energy curated by Heather Galbraith; exciting workshops and masterclasses led by NZ icons such as Jane Dodd, Judy Darragh and Peter Deckers; panel discussions and community connections including the much anticipated Pin Swap, Buildings Need Jewellery, and Pecha Kucha.

After its successful inaugural event in 2021, Nelson Jewellery Week follows up with an extensive array of exhibitions and events. A range of workshops, community events, and talks ensures contemporary jewellery will be seen and heard while housed in a range of locations - from record shops to windows, galleries, and projections on buildings - there is something spectacular to see in every hidden corner of Whakatu Nelson.

NJW Project Managers Katie Pascoe and Kay van Dyk ‘have great hopes that Nelson Jewellery Week will continue to grow and expand to invigorate the arts and design community, and bring together a breadth of contemporary makers and thinkers from around Aotearoa, and the globe, to celebrate jewellery as an art form.’

There are many highlights across the week, especially with the extensive array of exhibitions on offer: this year NJW welcome a partnership with Objectspace, to host a talk by renowned Munich Jewellery Week founder and Current Obsession Creative Director Marina Elenskya, as well as a panel debate on ‘The body is a draft’ led by Johanna Zellmer.

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