BJC Focus
The BJC Focus symposium is a free annual event that features workshops, demonstrations and presentations all centered around a particular theme. Our featured speakers are artists and intellectuals who are well-studied and acquainted with the chosen topic for the year. The symposium, while developed with jewelry and metalsmithing students and enthusiasts in mind, is free and open to the public, with something to offer everyone.
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This year, join us for BJC Focus: Steady Hands. Together, we’ll explore what occurs when we slow down and look more closely at our work and working practices.
Presented to coincide with Handwork 2026, a year-long initiative from Craft in America, this year’s symposium invites speakers who consider thoughtful making, traditional techniques, contemplation, and practices that resist the pressure for speed and efficiency. Day two of the symposium will be an open studio, with free studio rental available to our community and an opportunity to spend the day making something with your hands.
Saturday, October 10 | 12–3pm ET
Online artist talks featuring Emily Banas, Naama Levit, Jolynn Santiago, and Isabel Zeng. This lecture series is free and open to all via Zoom.
Sunday, October 11 | 12–6pm
Join us at BJC for an open studio day with FREE studio rental, demonstrations, and a chance to spend the day making alongside our community.
Both days are free to attend.
Registration required.
Our 2026 Speakers
Emily Banas
Emily Banas is Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the RISD Museum. She holds graduate degrees from the Bard Graduate Center and Georgetown University, with interests spanning historic decorative arts and contemporary craft and design. For Steady Hands, Emily will discuss the slow, methodical work of researching the RISD Museum’s jewelry collection and how that research is shaping an upcoming exhibition focused on materiality and contemporary jewelry.
Naama Levit
Naama Levit is a jeweler, educator, and chef whose practice explores material, attention, and observation. She holds a BFA in Jewelry Design from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her talk, Stretch and Fold, considers how experimentation, repetition, work, and rest can cultivate greater attentiveness to materials, processes, and our everyday surroundings.
Jolynn Santiago
Jolynn Santiago is an artist and educator based in Charlotte, Vermont. She holds a BFA from Kent State University and an MFA from SUNY New Paltz and teaches nationally. Her labor-intensive jewelry practice uses hand-cut and filed silver and gold particles fused together in carved graphite. Jolynn will join us to discuss how patience, observation, experimentation, and failure shape both her studio practice and teaching.
Isabel Zeng
Isabel Zeng is an artist and educator working across contemporary craft, performance, photography, and video. She holds an MFA in 3D Studio Art from Bowling Green State University, where she is also an Associate Professor of Economics. For our symposium, Isabel will discuss her slow, iterative approach to wearable forms and how material research, bodily experience, and movement inform her process..
