Photo courtesy Tadema Gallery, London

Elyse Zorn Karlin is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Adornment,The Magazine of Jewelry and Related Arts.

Ms. Karlin is the author of Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts & Crafts Tradition, the definitive book on the jewelry of the Arts & Crafts Movement circa 1900, and the catalog International Art Jewelry, 1895- 1925. She is also the co-author of Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry and editor of Maker & Muse: Women and 20th Century Art Jewelry.

Her curating credits include: Jewelers of the Hudson Valley and International Art Jewelry, 1895-1925, The Forbes Galleries, New York City; Finer Things: Jewelry and Accessories from the 1880s-1930s, Stan Hywet House & Gardens, Akron, OH.

She curated Out of this World! Jewelry in the Space Age shown at the Forbes Galleries, New York City, which traveled to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, and to the Tellus Science Museum, Cartersville, GA.. She also curated Maker & Muse: Women and 20th Century Art Jewelry which originated at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago and traveled to a number of other venues through 2020. She is a well-known lecturer on jewelry history subjects.

Yvonne J. Markowitz was a research fellow in the Egyptian section, Art of the Ancient World, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for many years. In 2006 she was appointed the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry. The first curatorship of its kind in America, Ms. Markowitz oversaw the museum's exceptional and vast collection of jewelry. She retired as curator emerita in 2015. She is also an Adornment editor.

She has published extensively in the areas of ancient and contemporary jewelry. Ms. Markowitz is the author of Artful Adornments: Jewelry from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and co-author of Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry; Oscar Heyman: The Jeweler’s Jeweler; Jewels of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Treasures from the Worcester Art Museum; Looking at Jewelry: A Guide to Terms, Styles and Techniques; The Jewels of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin; Jewels of Ancient Nubia; Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen; Nubian Gold: Ancient Jewelry from Sudan and Egypt; and American Luxury: Jewelry from the House of Tiffany.

She curated exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston including Gold and Gods: Jewelry of Ancient Nubia, Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry, Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silent Screen, Jewels, Gems, and Treasures: Ancient to Modern, and numerous other traveling exhibitions and several for other institutions. She most recently co-curated Jewels of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Treasures from the Worcester Art Museum.

Ms. Karlin and Ms. Markowitz are co-directors of The Annual Conference on Jewelry & Related Arts.
Together Ms. Karlin and Ms. Markowitz have authored a number of articles on jewelry history and are currently collaborating on a book about American jewelry firms.

ASJRA’s Advisory Board

Ulysses Grant Dietz is the Chief Curator and Curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum (NJ) where he has been on staff for 36 years. He is a noted author and a popular lecturer. In addition to publishing scholarly works he has also authored several works of fiction. Ulysses is a graduate of Yale University and received his master's degree in material culture from the University of Delaware's Winterthur Program. He has curated over 100 exhibitions covering all aspects of the decorative arts.

Emily Banis Stoehrer, Ph.D.is the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She received her Ph.D. at Salve Regina University and has a master's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Stoehrer has written several books on fashion and jewelry and lectured at numerous institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Rouen, and Colonial Williamsburg. Her work has appeared in Art Jewelry Forum, Exhale Lifestyle Magazine, and Adornment: The Magazine of Jewelry and Related Arts. Her first exhibition as curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens in 2017.

Janet Zapata is a noted jewelry historian and freelance curator. She was Tiffany & Co.'s first archivist and has worked as a consultant to Christie's auction house, the Newark Museum, and the Louis C. Tiffany Museum in Nagoya, Japan. She has also lectured in the graduate program at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City and contributed a large number of articles for various publications on the subjects of American jewelry and silver. Zapata is the author of many books on 19th and 20th century jewelry design.

Robert Liu, Ph.D. is editor of Ornament Magazine, Robert Kung Shan Liu was born in Rome and immigrated to the US from China after World War II with his family. Trained as an ethologist and ichthyologist, Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. from UCLA where he worked on experimental gerontology and immunology in the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine until 1975. He was the founder of the magazine The Bead Journal and with his wife, Carolyn L.E. Benesh, have published and co-edited its successor, Ornament, since 1978. Self-trained as a jeweler and photographer, he has written extensively on ancient, ethnic and contemporary personal adornment.

Jan Yager is an artist and mixed-media jeweler. She received a BFA from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work is known for its close observation of nature, reference to colonial history, and use of contemporary objects. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a solo show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery (SI), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Jeannine Falino is a curator, writer, administrator, and educator, with strengths in an array of American art and museum-based activities. Her specialties are in decorative arts, contemporary craft and design including jewelry. She is a frequent contributor and editor of museum publications. She is also a noted lecturer.

Barbara Berk After receiving a Master's Degree in Russian History and spending 15 years in magazine publishing Barbara's interest in antique jewelry led to studies in gemology and bench techniques. She founded Barbara Berk Designs in 1992 to create her signature handwoven metal artwork. She has received an American Gem Trade Association Spectrum Award, an Award for Excellence in Design from the Women's Jewelry Association, and a Saul Bell Design Award for jewelry design. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Gemological Institute of America (Carlsbad, CA).

Susan B. Kaplan is a philanthropist and collector. As part of the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation's board, she was the force behind the first jewelry curatorship in the United States at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the creation of a permanent jewelry gallery at the MFA.

Mary Lee Hu is an American artist, goldsmith, and educator known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry. She joined University of Washington School of Art in 1980 and retired from the as professor emeritus in 2006.She was inducted into the American Craft Council College of Fellows and has received three National Endowment of the Arts Craftsman Fellowships. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the Museum of Arts & Design Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ioanna Lalaouinis is the director of the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens, Greece and the daughter of famed jeweler Ilias Lalaounis.

The Museum acts as an international center for decorative and traditional arts and crafts, with an emphasis on goldsmithing and contemporary studio jewelry. In its twenty years of operation, the ILJM has organized over 80 temporary exhibitions with decorative arts from Museum and private collections. Ionna has authored numerous exhibition publications and sponsored special cultural projects at the museum.

Jody Sataloff is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Sataloff. The late Dr. Sataloff and Ruth Sataloff built a major collection of jewelry with a specialization in Art Nouveau jewelry. Jody has continued their interest in the collection and collecting. They also established the first educational program in jewelry studies in the United States--the influential summer course held annually in Orno, Maine. An attorney and the former owner of the Racket and Fitness Center, she is currently the founding president of the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland, ME.

Raquel Alonso-Perez, Ph.D. is on the curator of Harvard University's Mineralogical & Geological Museum, which consists of more than 100,000 mineral samples representing approximately 2,250 species from a broad range of localities. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich for her thesis entitled: The Role of Garnet in the Evolution of Hydrous, Calc-alkaline Magmas, an Experimental Study at 0.8 - 1.5 GPa. Her main research interests are continental crust formation processes and trace elements distribution in ore deposits.

Beth Carver Wees is the Curator Emerita, American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, where she oversaw the collections of American silver and jewelry. Prior to joining The Met’s staff in 2000 she was Curator of Decorative Arts at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. She lectures internationally and is the author of numerous articles and books, including English, Irish & Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (published in 1997) and Early American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013). Beth holds degrees in art history from Smith College and the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. She was one of six organizing curators for The Met’s 2018-19 exhibition, Jewelry: The Body Transformed, as well as a contributor to its catalogue. Her special exhibition, Jewelry for America, will remain on view at The Met through the Summer of 2021.

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