Academic seminar

Jury members of the Fourth All-Russian Contest of Jewellery and Stone-Carving Art, Russian experts in the sphere of decorative and applied arts, as well as partners of the Amber Museum from Italy, Lithuania, Poland spoke at the academic seminar at the International Economic Forum of Amber Industry. Deputy director for research of the Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum, art expert Irina Toropova moderated the event.

First spoke Irina Perfilieva, leading research associate of the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts, candidate of art history, member of the Union of Russian Artists. She told about role of gemstones in the works of Moscow, Leningrad, and Sverdlovsk jewellery artists in the 1960—1970s. There were works of the brightest masters of that period shown at the presentation.

The theme of Leningrad – Saint Petersburg jewellery art was continued by Galina Gabriel, chair of the art history department in the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Culture, candidate of art history,  member of the Union of Russian Artists, AIC member. She mentioned that the 1980s were a time of rapid increase of interest in jewellery art, a new generation of national masters emerged. Their strong creative potential was demonstrated at the famous Leningrad experimental exhibitions "Jewellery Plastics". Th presentation was continued with the history of the national jewellery art development in the 1990s. This time is considered a special period in the Saint Petersburg jewellery style establishment. A free market was forming, which gave birth to the new trends in the designer jewellery art. The speech was accompanied with a series of photographs of jewellery pieces made by Russian masters, who have become laureates of the prestigious international contest "Image and Form".

Speech of the long-time partner of the Amber Museum, honoured art worker of Russian Federation, director advisor in collection acquisition of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, art expert, expert of Russian Ministry of Culture, member of British Royal Society of Jewellery Historians Andrei Gilodo was dedicated to role of an artist in the contemporary jewellery art. The Speaker defined beginning of the 21st century as the "time of changes", when the artist has the opportunity to use new technologies, such as 3D printer to create a designer work.

The theme of Russian regional art was proceeded with the report by Olga Tyulpakova, chief editor of the magazine "Jewel & Travel", dedicated to Kungurian arts and crafts.

Participants of the academic seminar were also international partners, jury members and curators of the Amber Museum's international projects. Bianca Cappello, Italian jewellery and costume jewellery historian, critic, teacher of the history of costume jewellery in the European Institute of Design and in the Galdus State Goldsmith School (Milan),  member of British Royal Society of Jewellery Historians told about contemporary jewellery masters in Italy. As illustrations, the author selected photographs of jewellery pieces and costume jewellery by famous jewellery houses of Europe.

Reports on amber jewellery art were held as a separate module. Regina Makauskienie, curator of international projects of the Palanga Amber Museum (Lithuania), told about traditions of amber design in Lithuania and presented its founders – Feliksas Daukantas, Kazimieras Simanonis, Pietras Balčus.

Great audience's interest was aroused by the speech of Andrzej Szadkowsli, artist, professor of Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, member of the Jewellers Association of the city Hanau (Germany), honorable member of association of artist of jewellery forms (Warsaw, Poland), member of the international association of amber artists in Gdansk (Poland). The expert told about his original approach to the work with amber, when gem's natural shape is taken into account. The speech was illustrated with photographs of works made by Andrzej Szadkowski himself and by his students.

In the concluding speech, director of the Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum Tatiana Suvorova expressed gratitude to all participants and announced that the museum is ready to publish proceedings as material of the academic seminar will be very interesting for the professional community.