HANDSHAKE Alumni

WELCOME TO HANDSHAKE 3

morphed into a condensed one-year programme (HS% and HS&). The third iteration of the HANDSHAKE project was a two-year specialised programme (2016-2018) involving 12 jewellery artists selected from the previous HANDSHAKE 1 and 2 projects. This extended version of the earlier HS recruitment programmes seamlessly integrated the artists’ experiences into high-profile national and international exhibitions. 

HS3 successfully pioneered unique collaborations. Firstly, the artists collaborated with Texts for their Dowse Art Museum show, then with their former Mentors for the Objectspace exhibition, and finally with other international Artists during Munich Jewellery Week and the Crypt in London.

The two HS3 exhibitions at the Frame galleries at the Handwerksmesse in Munich and Platina in Stockholm showcased new artworks to an international expert audience. Several HS3 artists travelled to Munich, Stockholm, and Estonia to set up and be at their exhibitions, as well as to meet new colleagues and extend their network. A new publication published by Arnoldsche accompanied all these exhibitions.

The HS3 programme also provided valuable professional development experience for the artists, with masterclass tutors Hilde de Decker, a Belgian artist and educator, and Sofia Björkman, a Swedish artist and gallerist.

The HS3 project set the tone for how the rest of the HS project programmes could be structured. It concluded that the two-year recruitment programme for new artists should be followed by a professional one-year specialist programme for the HS alumni. This structure guarantees that new artists are introduced, accompanied, and practised in the development and presentation of their artworks, followed by the option that provides high-profile professional exhibition exposure. The two-year HS3 alumni one-year HS alumni projects reoccur after each two-year recruitment programme, giving the HS alumni incentives to keep developing their unique artworks and grow their art practise