Perspectives on Contemporary Jewelry: An International Symposium
Date & Time
Sat. Sep. 26, 2026
11 AM-4:30 PM
Location Main Campus | Kinder Building
Parking at Kinder Garage
Drop off at Kinder Building
Drop off at Kinder Building
Symposium Registration
Use this form to register for the livestream:
Email Your Questions [email protected]
Perspectives on Contemporary Jewelry: An International Symposium
Date & Time
Sat. Sep. 26, 2026
11 AM-4:30 PM
Location Main Campus | Kinder Building
Parking at Kinder Garage
Drop off at Kinder Building
Drop off at Kinder Building
Symposium Registration
Use this form to register for the livestream:
► Registration for in-person attendance has reached capacity. You may still register here for the livestream.
An international group of scholars, curators, and artists presents a day-long symposium accompanying Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger and The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl. Held in conjunction with the first U.S. solo exhibitions of the two pathbreaking jewelry artists, this day of dynamic talks and curator-led tours brings new perspectives to each artist’s practice as well as greater insights into the dialogue between contemporary jewelry, political and cultural history, and contemporary art.
Program and Sessions
- Welcome and Introduction by Elizabeth Essner
- Morning Session
- Renate Luckner-Bien | “A Clear Vision of Form: The Life and Work of Dorothea Prühl”
- Iris Eichenberg | “On Sharing a Mother Tongue—A Conversation with Dorothea Prühl's Work”
- Lunch and exhibition tours with curators Cindi Strauss, Elizabeth Essner, and Meagan Howard
- Afternoon Session
- Claudia Schmuckli | “Bernhard Schobinger—The Fault Lines of History”
- Cindi Strauss | “A Visionary Practice: Bernhard Schobinger in Context”
- Reception
Admission | In-Person Attendance Is SOLD OUT
- This event is free. Register here for the livestream.
- A boxed lunch can be ordered for an additional fee.
Plan Your Visit
- Capacity is limited. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
- This event takes place in the Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building. The exhibitions are located on Level 2 of the Kinder Building.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
About the Speakers
Iris Eichenberg is a German-born artist, jeweler, and educator whose work challenges the boundaries of craft and jewelry across objects, wearables, and installation. She is the artist-in-residence and head of the metals department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, presents lectures and workshops worldwide, and has received awards from institutions including the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, the Herbert Hofmann Prize, and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
Elizabeth Essner is the Windgate Foundation Associate Curator of Craft at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she oversees the museum’s modern and contemporary craft collection. She co-curated The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl and Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger, the first major US museum presentations for both artists. She is currently at work on a retrospective of the Japanese American fiber artist Kay Sekimachi.
Renate Luckner-Bien is a German art historian and writer based in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Her research focuses on applied arts and design and their relationship to the fine arts.
Claudia Schmuckli is the Holly Johnson and Parker Harris Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where she has implemented a dynamic program of exhibitions, commissions, and acquisitions that foreground social justice, ecology, and technology. Among her recent major exhibitions are Isaac Julien: I Dream A World (2025), Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care (2024), Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence (2023), and Judy Chicago: A Retrospective (2021). In 2020, Schmuckli curated Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI, the first major U.S. museum exhibition to relate the design, operations, and mechanisms of artificial intelligence to philosophical, social, and art histories of automaticity.
Cindi Strauss is the Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she is responsible for the acquisition, research, publication, and exhibition of post-1900 decorative arts, design, and craft. She has curated numerous major jewelry exhibitions including Ornament as Art: Contemporary Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection (2007) and Liquid Lines: Exploring the Language of Contemporary Metal (2010). She is also co-author of In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture. Strauss co-curated The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl and Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger.
Iris Eichenberg is a German-born artist, jeweler, and educator whose work challenges the boundaries of craft and jewelry across objects, wearables, and installation. She is the artist-in-residence and head of the metals department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, presents lectures and workshops worldwide, and has received awards from institutions including the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, the Herbert Hofmann Prize, and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
Elizabeth Essner is the Windgate Foundation Associate Curator of Craft at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she oversees the museum’s modern and contemporary craft collection. She co-curated The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl and Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger, the first major US museum presentations for both artists. She is currently at work on a retrospective of the Japanese American fiber artist Kay Sekimachi.
Renate Luckner-Bien is a German art historian and writer based in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Her research focuses on applied arts and design and their relationship to the fine arts.
Claudia Schmuckli is the Holly Johnson and Parker Harris Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where she has implemented a dynamic program of exhibitions, commissions, and acquisitions that foreground social justice, ecology, and technology. Among her recent major exhibitions are Isaac Julien: I Dream A World (2025), Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care (2024), Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence (2023), and Judy Chicago: A Retrospective (2021). In 2020, Schmuckli curated Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI, the first major U.S. museum exhibition to relate the design, operations, and mechanisms of artificial intelligence to philosophical, social, and art histories of automaticity.
Cindi Strauss is the Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she is responsible for the acquisition, research, publication, and exhibition of post-1900 decorative arts, design, and craft. She has curated numerous major jewelry exhibitions including Ornament as Art: Contemporary Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection (2007) and Liquid Lines: Exploring the Language of Contemporary Metal (2010). She is also co-author of In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture. Strauss co-curated The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl and Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger.
Email Your Questions [email protected]
“The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
"Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger" is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Major support is provided by:
Sara and Bill Morgan
Supported by:
Additional generous support is provided by:
Michael W. Dale Exhibitions Endowment for Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design
Dr. Sara Sant’Ambrogio
Deedie Potter Rose
The 50th Annual Ruth K. Shartle Symposium receives generous support from The Brown Foundation, Inc.
Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; the Claire & Theodore Morse Foundation; the Junior League of Houston, Inc.; and additional generous donors.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.