On Monday, October 6, 2014, the Museum of Arts and Design will host the LOOT 2014 Opening Benefit from 4:30 to 8:00pm. The evening’s events include first access for patrons to meet the 2014 LOOT artists and acquire their designs, a cocktail hour and reception, as well as a dinner honoring the 2014 LOOT Award for Contemporary Art Jewelry recipients.

Each year, the LOOT Award for Contemporary Art Jewelry is presented to luminaries in the field of jewelry, including artists, collectors, and designers. This annual prize is in keeping with the long-standing commitment of the Museum of Arts and Design to presenting jewelry as an art form. This year's honorees are Dr. Friedrich Wille and his wife, Simone Grunberger-Wille, the couple behind Austrian jewelry company FREYWILLE, and American artist and jeweler Joyce J. Scott. 

Acting as CEO and Creative Director, respectively, Dr. Friedrich Wille and Simone Grunberger-Willehas have played an instrumental role in developing and leading the sixty three-year-old company into its enduring global success. Best-known for its artful gold and enamel bangles, all of which are made by hand at its headquarters in Vienna, FREYWILLE has long demonstrated its appreciation for craftsmanship and fine art through several limited-edition collections based on selected artists' signature works including Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Later this year, in conjunction with the opening of its second New York location at 122 Prince Street in Soho, FREYWILLE will release a new homage collection inspired by Claude Monet. 

In  Joyce J. Scott’s hands, human adornment becomes a vehicle for social commentary and a means for confronting contentious issues affecting contemporary society. Born in Baltimore in 1948, Scott has lived, studied, and worked in Maryland all her life. Over the last four decades she has succeeded in incorporating all these elements into a varied corpus of installation, printmaking, apparel, sculpture, and jewelry, the last of which has garnered her the widest audience and recognition. On view in the fall of 2015 at the Museum of Arts and Design, Maryland to Murano: Neckpieces and Sculptures of Joyce J. Scott will examine the relationship between Scott’s beaded and constructed jewelry and her more recent figural work, which combines beads with glass.

To purchase tickets to the LOOT 2014 Opening Benefit, click here.

For questions regarding LOOT 2014, please call Rebekka Grossman at 212.299.7712 or email rebekka.grossman@madmuseum.org.