Joan M. Tenenbaum (born 1945) is an American linguist, anthropologist and artist specializing in metalsmithing and jewelry. She is equally well known for her documentation of the Dena’ina language as for her jewelry pieces which tell the stories of Alaska native peoples and landscape.
Life and early influences
Tenenbaum discovered jewelry making at the age of 13 while in the ninth grade. She studied Romance languages and Anthropology and received her B.A. from the University of Michigan. She attended graduate school in Anthropology and Linguistics and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research for her dissertation took her to Nondalton, a small village in rural Alaska where she lived for two years in order to document the Dena’ina language. In the succeeding two years she wrote a grammar of the Dena’ina verb for her dissertation, Morphology and Semantics of the Tanaina Verb, and compiled a preliminary dictionary of the endangered language. She also translated and compiled 24 stories which she had recorded and transcribed in Nondalton, for her book Dena’ina Sukdu’a: Traditional Stories of the Tanaina Athabaskans, first published in 1976. Both the dissertation and the collection of Dena’ina stories are still regarded by linguists today as among the finest in the field.
After completing her Ph.D. Tenenbaum lived with Yup’ik and Iñupiat peoples in several other Alaskan villages, teaching and coordinating rural delivery programs for the University of Alaska, among them the X-CED Program. During all these years, she continued to make jewelry and never gave up her dream to one day be a full-time artist.
In 1982 Tenenbaum changed directions and began to devote herself to her jewelry making career, studying with a personal mentor, and pursuing classes, challenging herself to master the most difficult techniques. In time, the life-changing experiences of being welcomed and loved by Alaskan village communities began to surface in her jewelry work. Additionally, she has continued to go back to Alaska and visit the peoples she lived with. What has resulted is a synthesis of an Anthropologist’s perspective with a lifelong dedication to the art of jewelry making.
Over the years, as her understanding of these cultures and the landscape they inhabit deepened and her technical goldsmithing vocabulary expanded, Tenenbaum’s jewelry work has become more complex, more subtle and the bearer of increasingly deeper meaning regarding our connection to the earth. Her work is entirely hand fabricated using precious metals, gemstones, cloisonné enameling, and a wide range of metalsmithing and goldsmithing techniques. Her pieces tell stories and paint pictures of the peoples with whom she lived, of how we interact with our environment, and of places of transcendent beauty. These pieces are wearable miniature landscapes having both cultural themes and ecological messages.
1959-63: Jewelry, Mumford High School, Detroit, MI, Instructor: Clarice Percox
1963: Jewelry, Detroit School of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, MI, Instructor: Michael Vizzini
1964: Silversmithing, National University of Mexico, Mexico, D.F.
1967: B.A., The University of Michigan, Anthropology
1967-70: Silversmithing, Craft Students League, New York, NY, Instructor: Bill Seitz
1975-1977: Metalsmithing, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, Instructor: Glen Simpson
1978: Ph.D., Columbia University; Anthropology and Linguistics
1982-2014: Private tutorials with Stewart Jones and workshops with Merry-Lee Rae, John Cogswell, Tim McCreight, Douglas Harling, Andy Cooperman, Marcia MacDonald, Deborah Krupenia, Mary Ann Scherr.
1960: Finalist in Enameling, Scholastic Art Awards
1963: Gold Medal in Jewelry, Scholastic Art Awards
1997: Finalist, NICHE Awards, Jewelry, Silver with Stones
1998: Juror’s Award, Unexpected Settings, Goldman’s Jewelers, Seattle, WA
2012: Best in Jewelry, RAGS Wearable Art Show, Fife, WA
2012: First Place in 3-D, and Ebb Tide Gallery Sponsor’s Award, Peninsula Art League Tenth Annual Open Juried Exhibition, Gig Harbor, WA
2013: Best in Show, RAGS Wearable Art Show, Fife, WA
Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
1990: Stonington Gallery, Anchorage, Alaska, Still En Pointe, October 1990.
1992: Legacy Jewels, Port Townsend, Washington, Introducing Joan Tenenbaum, July 1992.
1997: Images of the North, San Francisco, California, The Spirituality of a Hunting Community, Jewelry and Small Sculpture by Joan Tenenbaum, November 1997.
1998: Arctic Artistry, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, Yup'ik Eskimos: The Sea and the Spirits, Jewelry and Small Masks by Joan Tenenbaum, November 1998.
1999: Images of the North, San Francisco, California, Women of the Tundra: Braided Grass, Braided Lives, Jewelry by Joan Tenenbaum, October 1999.
2000: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Vast Intimacy: The Jewelry of Joan Tenenbaum, November 2000.
2003: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, The Details of Distance: New Jewelry by Joan Tenenbaum, November 2003.
2004: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: The Yup'ik Family—Spirit and Connection, September 2004.
2007: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: The Artist Linguist—Translating field Research into Wearable Art, September–October 2007.
2008: Anchorage Museum Shop at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, Alaska, Joan Tenenbaum: Metalsmith + Anthropologist + Author, September 2008.
2008: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: Connecting Culture with Landscape, September–October 2008.
2009: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: Fifty Years of Jewelry Making, The Depth and Breadth of a Fifty Year Passion, November 2009.
2010: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: The Evolving Ring, October 2010.
2011: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: A Sense of Place—The Ways We Connect to Our Earth, November 2011.
2012: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: Moons, Mountains and Mystery, November 2012.
2013: Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington, Joan Tenenbaum: The Idea of Color, November 2013.
1989: University of Alaska Anchorage: Instructor, Beginning Metalsmithing, (Art 209), 3 credits.
1992-2014: Private instruction, thirty-four students.
1994: Port Townsend Rock Club: Introduction to Goldsmithing, Port Townsend, Washington, April 2004.
2002: Seattle Metals Guild: Graver Tricks Workshop, Seattle, Washington, March 2002.
2002: Spokane Jewelers Guild: Graver Tricks Workshop, Spokane, Washington, October 2002.
2004: Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG): Graver Tricks Workshop, St. Petersburg, Florida, March 2004.
2010: Alaska Metal Arts Guild: Graver Tricks Workshop, Anchorage, Alaska and Surface Treatments Workshop, Fairbanks, Alaska, March 2010.
“Seeking Lost Alaskan Language”, The Cleveland Jewish News, July 20, 1973.
Tenenbaum, Joan M., 2006, Dena’ina Sukdu’a: Traditional Stories of the Tanaina Athabaskans, Alaska Native Language Center,1976, republished in 1984 and 2006.
Tenenbaum, Joan Marsha, 1978, Morphology and Semantics of the Tanaina Verb, Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1978.
“Linguist Preserves Alaska Native Tales”, The Anchorage Times, March 10, 1985.
Tenenbaum, Joan M., 2013, “Dach’ hdi łu t’qidyuq……and that’s the way it happened: The Tradition of Dena’ina Storytelling”, in Dena'inaq' Huch'ulyeshi: The Dena'ina Way of Life, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center Exhibition Catalog, 2013.
Selected books
The Art and Craft of Making Jewelry: A Complete Guide to Essential Techniques, by Joanna Gollberg, a Lark Jewelry Book, 2006.
Art Jewelry Today 2, by Jeffrey B. Snyder, Schiffer Publishing, 2008.
Art Jewelry Today 3, by Jeffrey B. Snyder, Schiffer Publishing, 2011.
Selected newspapers and magazines
“For the Love of Anthropology: A Conversation With Anthropological Jeweler Joan Tenenbaum (‘78)”, AnthroWatch, Vol. VI, No.1, Summer 1998.
“Jewelry Arts”, Ornament, Vol. 22, No.2, Winter 1998.
“Speaking in Silver: Jewelry artist Joan Tenenbaum fuses anthropology, linguistics, and luxury in jewelry designs that celebrate traditional Inuit culture”, Lapidary Journal, Vol. 53, No. 3, June 1999.
“Jewelry That Tells a Tale: Joan Tenenbaum’s Creations Celebrate Native Cultures”, Seattle Homes and Lifestyles, Vol. 7, No. 3, May 2002.
“Commissions”, Metalsmith, Vol. 22, No. 3, Summer 2002.
“Lecture Combines Unlikely Subjects; entertains with artistic talent”, Kenai Peninsula Clarion, April 5, 2004.
“Reviews”, Metalsmith, Vol. 24, No. 3, Summer 2004.
“Artist Profile: A Conversation with Joan Tenenbaum”, Art Jewelry, Vol. 6, No. 1, November 2009.
“Reviews”, Seattle Metals Guild Newsletter, January/February 2010.
“Doer’s Profile”, Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist, Vol. 64, No. 7, October 2010.
“Speaking in Tongues”, and “Stories in Stone and Silver: Anthropologist captures an era with her creations”, two part article, The Peninsula Gateway, April 18 and 25, 2012.
“An Interview with Joan Tenenbaum”, Creating Linus Jewellery, http://www.creatinglinus.com, Volume 2, September 2012.
“Museum purchases pieces from anthropological jeweler”, The Peninsula Gateway, October 30, 2013.
“Gig Harbor artist masters new technique, readies Seattle show”, Gig Harbor Life, November 1, 2013.
