NYCJW’s Bella Neyman Guests on ‘The Jewelry District’ Podcast

By Natalie Chomet | October 22, 2025

In this week’s episode, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates chat with Bella Neyman, founder of New York City Jewelry Week (NYCJW), an action-packed set of events held every year in mid-November. Bella shares how the festival got started back in 2018, her inspiration and goals for it, and—most importantly—the talks and activities in store for this year. Bella teases a few events to look out for and discusses the 2025 theme, Art Worn, which focuses on the artistry of jewelry.

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Title sponsor: Nivoda (nivoda.com)
Sponsor: De Beers (adiamondisforever.com)

Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Editor: Riley McCaskill
Plugs: @jckmagazine; nycjewelryweek.com; @nycjewelryweek ; nivoda.com; adiamondisforever.com

Show Notes
04:00 How New York City Jewelry Week was born
09:06 Inspiration and focus
10:45 Serving both trade and consumer audiences
15:00 What to look forward to this year
25:00 The stories behind the artistry

Show Recap
How New York City Jewelry Week was born
Bella is a decorative arts and design historian, who got a job running a jewelry gallery. “I was meeting with a lot of different curators and jewelry artists, and I was going to a lot of different jewelry weeks that were taking place around the country,” she says. “When I first had the idea for [a New York] Jewelry Week, it really started as calling up people who I knew…and saying, ‘Hey. what do you think—if we started a Jewelry Week in New York, do you think people would attend? Do you think this is something that’s needed, and would you participate?’”

Those initial talks were very positive. “That is what really gave us the encouragement to say, ‘Okay, like, let’s do this,’” Bella says. She and cofounder JB Jones saw NYCJW as less about volume and more about having the right speakers and the right participants.

Inspiration and focus
Rob mentions other New York City events such as Watch Week and Fashion Week, but Bella was more inspired by NYCxDesign, a decorative arts and design festival that takes place every May and is open to the public. “Our goal was really to bring consumers in, to really make a festival that was inclusive, that was for everyone,” Bella says.

The jewelry weeks in Europe were focused on art jewelry, but Bella knew the NYC event had to span all genres to be successful. “I really believe that consumers, if you educate them, if you open their eyes, they don’t discriminate between genres of jewelry,” she maintains. While the industry may have its labels, “I think the way people shop, there’s much more fluidity.”

Serving both trade and consumer audiences
The first NYCJW launched in 2018 with about 80 events; this year, there will be over 100. But Bella is most excited about the quality of hosts and the conversations.

“I think about it like a menu at a restaurant,” she says. “You are not going to order everything on the menu. You are going to of pick and choose, depending on what the experience is, depending on what you’re craving that day.”

NYCJW has expanded to reflect diverse interests. Some people want to learn by attending talks, while others prefer to meet designers and try pieces on, or go on a museum tour. Bella makes sure there’s something for everyone.

So how exactly does Bella tackle running an event that is for both the public and trade sectors? “Well, the trade buys jewelry too,” she says. “We consider our audience to be everyone.”

Rather than hold trade-specific technical workshops, NYCJW focuses more on showing people things they may not see otherwise. For example, GIA will open its doors to the public this year, and Grant Mobley of the Natural Diamond Council is hosting a day in the Diamond District. “These kind of events are interesting to both consumers and designers,” Bella says. “It’s an opportunity to hold someone’s hand and say, These are the places where you should be going if you’re looking to buy, whether it’s new jewelry or antique jewelry.”

What to look forward to this year
Among 2025’s NYCJW events, Bella is especially looking forward to certain interviews: writer Melanie Grant with artist Shinji Nakaba, who has never given a talk outside of Japan, and Lucy Rees, deputy editor of Galerie magazine, with Parisian jeweler Olivier Reza, as well as Nadia Watts, the great-great-granddaughter of Louis C. Tiffany.

The 2025 theme, Art Worn, is “about examining the artistic intent that informs the creation of jewelry,” Bella explains. This includes how jewelers integrate precious and nonprecious materials, embrace handcraft and advanced mechanized techniques, and incorporate narratives into their work.

In the past few years Bella has observed that more jewelers want their work to be seen as art and that museums are increasingly interested in collecting jewelry. The Art Worn theme explores all these trends, celebrating the artistry of jewelry.

This year’s festival also includes awards and opportunities for emerging designers, with an eye toward diversity. The Here We Are initiative, celebrating impactful talent in the jewelry industry, has selected Alicia Goodwin, founder of Lingua Nigra Jewelry, for its exhibition award, while Shoma Nath of Nath Jewelry and Naomi Johnson of Metal Petal Jewelry will be recognized with Emerging Entrepreneur Awards. The Discover program is another way for newer designers to gain visibility—click on “discover” on the NYCJW homepage to see them.

The stories behind the artistry
At the heart of NYCJW is the stories of jewelry designers and their work. “Someone once said to me that jewelry doesn’t have its celebrities in the way that fashion does,” Bella says. “We want to change that with Jewelry Week. That’s why we want to give people access to all these different designers and brands….

“We hope that through our programs and our events, the following for these household names grows, as well as for the emerging designers, because consumers can connect to them, because they feel like, I’ve just spent an hour or 45 minutes with this individual and now I want to buy their jewelry, because now I know what they stand for, I know what inspired them and why they had to make that particular piece.”

In closing, Victoria asks Bella what jewelry she’s been wearing lately—sure enough, there’s a story behind it. Bella describes a pair of earrings she hasn’t taken off since she got them. They are studs from Joy BC, a London-based goldsmith, in the shape of little ears that the designer calls “hearing aids,” and Bella says she wears them as a reminder of how important it is to be a good listener to the people around you.

You can check out NYCJW’s website or follow @nycjewelryweek for a full schedule of events and more information.

Any views expressed in this podcast do not reflect the opinion of JCK, its management, or its advertisers.

(Photo courtesy of Alain Simic)