MONTEBELLO | BERGESIO

INTERNATIONAL AWARD 2025-26

CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY AND CRITICAL WRITING

AGC – The Association of Contemporary Jewelry announces an open call for two prizes to authors and students of any nationality, in the field of contemporary jewelry.

GIANCARLO MONTEBELLO PRIZE

The following prize, in the field of contemporary jewelry, is open to students who have created a jewel or a capsule collection (3 pieces of jewelry) with innovative characteristics from the following points of view: conceptual, formal, use of materials with traditional or digital techniques.

The jury will award the winner a sum of 2,500 EUR, together with AGC free membership for one year. AGC Free membership for one year is also provided for the two honorable mentions.

MARIA CRISTINA BERGESIO PRIZE

The following award is for a critical essay dealing with the most current issues in contemporary jewelry. The proposed essay must be original and must not have been previously published.

The jury will award the winner a sum of 800 EUR, free AGC membership for one year, including the possibility to publish the essay, in the Journal of Jewellery Research (JJR).

Free one-year membership to AGC is also provided for the second and third place winners.

AWARD CURATORS AND JURY BOARD

The Montebello | Bergesio Jury will be selected biannually by the Curators.

The jury will consist of three internationally recognized experts in the field of Contemporary Jewelry. For the 2025/2026 edition, the Jury is composed of:

Lia Lenti

Currently Professor at IED in Turin, writer, independent curator, she collaborates as freelancer with public and private bodies and art galleries. She was a Professor at the University of Florence and at the Polytechnic of Turin. She is author of many publications including “Dictionary of Italian Jewellery” with M.C. Bergesio.

Barbara Schmidt

Writer and maker, she has headed the Akademie für Gestaltung und Design for almost twenty years and the cultural department of Handwerkskammer für München und Oberbayern since 2023. Professor of international students, i.e. Hochschule Idar-Oberstein.

Ellen Maurer Zilioli

Art historian, nomadic gallerist, curator and author; subjects: contemporary jewellery, modern and contemporary art, photography. Mainly interested in the interfaces between applied and other arts, looking for reciprocal contaminations and common phenomenon.

The curators and scientific heads of the project are:

Roberta Bernabei, Nichka Marobin and Chiara Scarpitti.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS GIANCARLO MONTEBELLO PRIZE

All students who have completed (in the last two years) or are still attending a Programme of Study (Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree, Professional Training Course, PhD programme) related to Design, Fashion and Jewelry, who are under 30 years of age, are eligible to participate in the Call.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS MARIA CRISTINA BERGESIO PRIZE

Theorists and critics of art and jewelry design, teachers, scholars, independent and doctoral researchers are eligible to participate in the Call. There is no age limit.

SELECTION AND DISSEMINATION

Winners will be announced by the end of December 2025 on the official website of the AGC Association and other partner websites of the Project. The award and winners will be promoted through social media. The award ceremony will be held in-person in Spring 2026.

The culmination of this award will be a physical exhibition of the selected pieces of jewelry and critical texts.

For the exhibition, alongside the winners, 20 authors will be selected from the Montebello Award and 5 authors from the Bergesio Award.

The ceremony, together with the exhibition of the selected works, will be held at a prestigious venue in Milan, which will be announced in due course.

An official AGC certificate stating the awards or honorable menions, will be issued.

ENTRY SUBMISSION and DEADLINE

Each applicant may submit a maximum of 1 entry choosing from the 2 Prizes in the Call.

The entry must be submitted online, in accordance with the application forms.

Submission deadline: by midnight on the 20 July 2025

FEE

Each entry is subject to an administrative fee of 30.00 EUR.

The payment can be made via PayPal to the following address: mb.award@agc-it.org

IMPORTANT DATES

• submission deadline for the online application form by 20 July 2025 by 24.00 (CET);

• notification of finalists by December 2025;

• delivery of final works and texts by 1 March 2026;

• exhibition and award ceremony April 2026.

CONTACTS

For additional communication or information: mb.award@agc-it.org

AGC Associazione per il Gioiello Contemporaneo

https://www.agc-it.org/it/

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

JJR - Journal of Jewellery Research

https://www.journalofjewelleryresearch.org

GianCarlo Montebello’s family

MariaCristina Bergesio’s family