If you extravagant the fine arts in the Hamptons or Palm Beach front, Donna Schneier needs no introduction. The longtime artwork expert and jewelry collector have been renowned and respected in the industry for the superior portion of six decades. A indigenous Floridian and New York transplant, Schneier has a keen eye for the timeless and inimitable. 

While to some, jewellery may be an accessory to their “Sunday best,” to  Schneier, a bracelet, necklace or earring is a wearable do the job of art. Each individual post is individual in its very own ideal, and parts of art jewelry possess intrinsic properties that screen their artist’s expressions.

Considerably like an admired portrait, a piece of artwork jewellery equally purveys its artist’s intents, inner thoughts as well as exterior consequences of the period. By this evaluate, artwork tells the tale of background, exhibited by timeless operates of jewelry. 

“In the 1960s, art jewellery exploded on the scene in Europe,” Schneier suggests. “It was explosive, in fact, and progressive. Frequently unwearable, these same attributes ongoing as a result of the 1970s and 1980s. As the local weather improved across the globe, this kind of as in the 1990s when points acquired quieter, so did the art of jewellery.

“Like any wonderful novel or painting, for artwork jewelry to be excellent it has to be the art of its time,” she proceeds. “The political circumstance, the economic situations, are usually mirrored in artwork — art jewellery also does this.”

With a selection that mainly encompasses this period, courting to the latter fifty percent of the 20th century, Schneier has broadened people’s horizons and their appreciation for art jewellery. Schneier states that art jewelry is one of a kind, simply because no matter of your prior ordeals with it, whether or not considered a newbie or a connoisseur, it can be appreciated. 

“The jewellery in my selection is so revolutionary and inspiring, even the most uninformed human being can appreciate the do the job,” she says. “No make any difference who you are, you can recognize the pleasure of discovering a new piece of art-to-use jewellery.”

Schneier is the founder and host of Bijoux — this means “jewelry” in French. The exhibition, which is quite often named her brainchild by individuals who go to, features a viewing and purchasing show. Regarded as just one of the nation’s most significant and most important jewellery displays, Schneier normally takes an active role in identifying and preserving noteworthy, groundbreaking and historically substantial art jewelry. 

“Bijoux is like Macy’s at Xmas,”  Schneier says. “It’s truly wild.

“The artwork jewellery motion truly developed in the 2nd 50 % of the 20th century, and I commenced accumulating it,” she provides. “At the time, I bought 20th century ceramics and glass and realized swiftly that I could not acquire what I bought. So, I appeared at this fairly new motion, determined of course, this is what I required to acquire, and which is what I did. 

“After some time, I approached the Museum of Art and Structure in New York and I prompt we keep an celebration — at first named LOOT — in 1994,” she carries on. “It started and it is still working to this working day, while now it is named Mad for Jewellery. When I came down to Palm Beach, I considered of beginning Florida’s version of that, which is where Bijoux obtained its start.” 

The exhibition, which options national and worldwide leaders in the industry, is hosted at the prestigious Boca Raton Museum. Likely on its 14th calendar year, the distinctive exhibition delivers the epicenter of the art jewellery globe to wonderful Palm Beach front County.

Citizens await Bijoux each year in Palm Beach, but in New York, Schneier stays noteworthy for her have personalized assortment of art jewelry. The broad compilation of culture represented in her collection led her to donate 200 functions to New York’s iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

At the time the gift was recognized, the Met’s management determined it ideal to show practically 80 is effective, for which they made a catalog. While every of the works was distinctly special and from various artists, Schneier says that with each other they informed a attractive story about the record of art jewellery — commencing in the early 1960s and continuing as a result of the early 21st century. 

“When persons 1st appeared at my selection, they mentioned the diversity,” she suggests. “They questioned, ‘Why didn’t you gather just a single sort of artwork jewellery?’ I replied that I only gathered what moved the area ahead. In other phrases, I did not acquire just what I liked, I collected what I believed moved the envelope ahead. 

“It is my view that in get for a do the job to be regarded wonderful, it desires to be progressive,” she proceeds. “The artist desires to structure and execute it themselves. It doesn’t satisfy the necessity if the artist just types jewelry,”  

Schneier notes that the famed Picasso did so, but his operates never ever certified for her collection. 

“They need to do it them selves — no casting, no throwing it in a mold,” she suggests. “Sometimes an artist can make something wonderful, but it’s just an incident by the artist. To me, that does not suggest a lot. It desires to be intentionally built and conceived by the artist. It is element of the perform for the artist to be established and major, earning a motivation to the area.” 

When asked what retains her influenced to do extra, Schneier describes the practical experience of uncovering an inimitable piece of jewelry for the first time. 

“They give you an intellectual shock,”  Schneier states. “When you arrive across a perform that moves the envelope of art jewellery forward, you get a visceral response. It is like a massive touchdown in a recreation of football. Uncovering these works is a lot more than psychological, it is bodily, it hits you in the tummy, and it excites your complete system.” 

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and affiliate publisher of Dan’s Papers.