Museum of Arts and Design Brings MAD About Jewelry Back for Its 26th Year

For a quarter-century and then some, the Museum of Arts and Design has made the case that a piece of jewelry belongs in the same conversation as a painting or a sculpture. MAD About Jewelry, the museum's signature benefit sale and curated marketplace, returns to the Jerome and Simona Chazen Building at 2 Columbus Circle for its 26th year, running May 5 through May 9, 2026.

The event brings together a field of international artists — MAD's own event copy lists 45 visionary creators, while other sources tracking the show cite figures closer to 50 or 51 — representing more than 20 countries. That spread alone signals the event's ambition: this is not a regional craft fair but a genuinely global snapshot of where contemporary art jewelry is moving right now, from emerging voices to internationally recognized names working across metals, stones, and conceptual territory that challenges what jewelry is even supposed to do.

What distinguishes MAD About Jewelry from a gallery opening or a trade show is the directness of the exchange. Collectors and enthusiasts have the rare opportunity to meet the makers and acquire pieces in person, no intermediary required. Proceeds go directly back to participating artists and support MAD's educational programming, which gives every purchase a second layer of meaning beyond the object itself.

The museum grounds this event in an institutional claim worth noting: MAD describes itself as the only American museum with a gallery dedicated exclusively to jewelry exhibitions and a growing collection of modern and contemporary art jewelry. That institutional commitment, built over 26 years of this event alone, gives MAD About Jewelry a seriousness of purpose that separates it from the broader luxury pop-up landscape.

Running alongside MAD's wider spring programming is an exhibition that deserves its own attention: Douriean Fletcher: Jewelry of the Afrofuture. Fletcher, a self-taught metalsmith, works in brass, gold, and semi-precious stones to create boldly sculptural pieces that carry the weight of Black identity, spiritual meaning, and Afrofuturist vision. The exhibition spans 75 works and documents her path from independent maker to the designer whose handmade adornments helped define the visual world of Marvel Studios' Black Panther. A private members' tour of the Fletcher exhibition, led by co-curator Sebastian Grant, has been organized through Blackinjewelry, offering a focused look at the show alongside a broader survey of African American jewelers from the Modernist practices of the 1940s through to contemporary political statements in wearable form.

The Fletcher exhibition extends the context around MAD About Jewelry in a meaningful way: both underscore that what the museum presents as jewelry is never merely decorative. It is argued, made, and carried.

MAD About Jewelry opens with a benefit preview on May 5; the full event runs through May 9. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For press inquiries and artist list details, contact Darci Spasojevich at darci.spasojevich@madmuseum.org or Dana Boll at dana.boll@madmuseum.org. Full event information is available at madmuseum.org/jewelry.