2024 Conference Schedule & Speakers

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A woman with dark brown hair, wearing a black top and yellow flower-shaped earrings, is smiling softly and looking at the camera against a beige background.

Nora McCarthy

Nora McCarthy is the Owner and Director of Gallery 2052, an Art Jewelry Gallery based in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. Gallery 2052 maintains collections by over thirty artists in the showroom, with an additional rotating exhibition space and adjacent design studio to accommodate custom and repair work.

Nora earned a Bachelors in Fine Art concentrating in Metalsmithing from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and has worked in various aspects of jewelry and metalsmithing ranging from benchwork to curatorial roles over the last decade.

Owner and Director | Gallery 2052

RADICAL JEWELRY MAKEOVER

Text reading 'GALLERY 2052' in black on a plain white background.
A person’s tattooed arm holding a bunch of jewelry and necklaces against a city skyline with tall buildings and a partly cloudy sky.

Gallery 2052 is wrapping up the Chicago Professional Artist iteration of Radical Jewelry Makeover, which has convened projects in communities globally since 2007. By drawing attention to the creativity and skills of local jewelry designers and revealing the stories behind our personal collections, RJM seeks to encourage reconsideration of consumption habits, raise awareness of and transform the sourcing of materials used in jewelry production.

In the Fall of 2023, metalsmiths Nora McCarthy and Sarah Holden requested donations from the community of their unwanted jewelry of any quality, and then invited 28 local artists to subsequently 'mine' and transform these donated materials into fresh pieces of contemporary jewelry. The culminating
exhibition of stellar works by these 28 Chicago-based professionals at Gallery 2052 closes August 10, 2024.

Interior of a jewelry store with a yellow wall displaying jewelry tools and accessories, and a pink wall with a mirror, mannequin, and display case, featuring colorful signage that reads 'RADICAL JEWELRY MAKEOVER'.
A decorative brooch designed as two intertwined leaves with a leopard print pattern, placed on a yellowish-green oval background.
A brooch with a colorful, abstract design resembling a face, featuring a yellow banana-shaped element at the top, a circular yellow gemstone below, surrounded by metal shapes, and dangling chains with beads at the bottom.
Circular necklace with chains, made of various beads, sequins, and small metallic elements, featuring black, silver, and iridescent colors.