Count ’em: 150 years!
Welcome to the first issue of our 150th-anniversary year! Introduced in 1869, JCK is one of the oldest continuously published magazines in America. (This milestone puts us in the company of such venerable publications as Harper’s Magazine and Scientific American!)
This year’s magazine, website, newsletter, and social channels will celebrate the anniversary in a variety of ways, and our traditional September/October issue will be replaced with an anniversary celebration issue that promises to be a keeper for years to come.
This mark in time is a great moment to reflect on our changes over the years—in the year I joined, 2004, we certainly were not discussing Instagram!—and on the consistency of our brand, “The Industry Authority.” I’ve truly enjoyed exploring and acting on the ways in which JCK can maintain and honor that tagline, while taking advantage of an ever-morphing media landscape.
The year 2019 will also be exciting for the return of the JCK Las Vegas show to the Sands Expo and Convention Center. The facility itself has been vastly improved over the years we’ve been gone, and the hotels and restaurants in that area have always been much better than those at the south end of The Strip. It will be great to return to where it all began, and we expect a terrific turnout in terms of attendees.
Finally, I’m excited to share my observations from the first New York City Jewelry Week (NYCJW18). Founders Bella Neyman and JB Jones—both of whom hail from the worlds of art, gallery curating, journalism, and design—pulled together an amazing celebration featuring well over 100 exhibitions, exclusive tours, talks, panel discussions, events, and more. The week exposed the phenomenal depth of artisanal jewelry talent in NYC and showed that our jewelry world extends far beyond the typical trade circuit we attend. JCK was delighted to be the trade-publication sponsor of this year’s event, and we are already looking forward to NYCJW19!
Next up for me are the 24 Karat Club of the City of New York banquet/Gem Awards gala weekend and the VicenzaOro show in January. See you there!
Top: Designer Deirdre Featherstone (r.) at the Bergdorf Goodman x NYC Jewelry Week party
(Smelzer photograph by Nicholas A. Prakas; grooming: Claudia Andreatta/Halley Resources; NYCJW: Simon Leung)