Remembering: Sharon Church
With sadness we acknowledge the death of jewelry artist and educator Sharon Church. She died on December 25, 2022, at the age of 74.
Sharon was known for her intricately carved jewelry pieces that incorporated materials such as wood and antler with gold, silver, and diamonds. Her pieces were inspired by the natural world and “embody the cycle of birth, life, death and renewal,” according to her artist statement. She was highly regarded as a generous and lively teacher and a masterful technician by her colleagues in the field of jewelry and metalworking.
Sharon Church was born in Richland, Washington, in 1948. She received her BS from Skidmore College in 1970 and attended the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology where she received her MFA in 1973. She worked for a time as a limited-production studio jeweler before launching her teaching career. She taught at the Philadelphia University of the Arts (formerly the Philadelphia College of Art) from 1979 until retiring in 2014. She also led numerous workshops and classes in craft programs such as Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Aside from teaching, Sharon was deeply involved in her professional community. She was a member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, serving on their board of directors, and was a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for Metalsmith magazine. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Helen Drutt in Philadelphia, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Houston. She also participated in several exhibitions at the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design), including the major survey exhibition Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the National Gallery of Australia, and the State Hermitage Museum in Russia.
Sharon Church in her studio, 2012. Photo by Jared Castaldi.
LEFT: It Was the Most Beautiful Day of the Summer, 1995, brooch from the Garden Triptych, carved ebony, 22 karat gold foil, 14 karat yellow gold findings, 4 x 2 x 1 in. Photo courtesy of the ACC Library & Archives. RIGHT: Immanence, 2011, scepter, carved boxwood and castello boxwood, wood dye, marquise diamonds, old European cut diamond, epoxy, 13 x 2.75 x 1.12 in. Photo by Ken Yanoviak.
LEFT: Engorged Boutonniere, 2007, carved antler, carved African blackwood, 6 x 2.25 x 1.9 in. Photo courtesy of the ACC Library & Archives. RIGHT: Commemorative Medal for a Bleeding Heart, 2000, Cuban mahogany, dye, diamonds, oxidized sterling silver, 2.75 x 2.75 x 0.75 in. Photo by Jack Ramsdale.
LEFT: Alone/Allure, 2003, carved antler, oxidized sterling slever, old European cut diamond, 1.4 x 1.75 x 0.9 in. Photo courtesy of the ACC Library & Archives. MIDDLE: Empress, 2010-2011, hand-held orb, carved boxwood and castello boxwood, wood dye, small diamond, oxidized sterling silver, epoxy, 4 x 4.75 x 4.25 in. Photo by Ken Yanoviak. RIGHT: Persephone's Bouquet, 2011, carved and dyed boxwood and castello boxwood, dyed baroque pearls, old European cut diamonds, oxidized sterling silver, pendant 6.5 x 3 x 2 in. Photo by Ken Yanoviak.
Sharon received numerous awards during her career including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1978), the James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Teaching Award (1999), and the Philadelphia Art Alliance Medal of Distinction (2010). She was named to the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 2012.
Learn More About Sharon Church
Watch our 2012 video interview with Sharon Church. Or, head over to the ACC Library Digital Collection to see more examples of Church’s work.
