Barbara Paris Gifford

Barbara Paris Gifford is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City. She oversees MAD’s renowned jewelry collection and has organized over twenty-five exhibitions including Jewelry Stories: Highlights from the Collection 1947-Now (2020- ongoing), for which she edited a comprehensive catalogue. Most recently she presented Out of the Jewelry Box (2024-6), an exhibition and catalogue exploring the intersection of Queerness and contemporary jewelry, and Douriean Fletcher: Jewelry of the Afrofuture (2025-6), examining jewelry’s role in character development in film. An expert in jewelry and fashion, she has written and presented on these subjects for numerous publications and venues. Gifford holds an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center, NY.

Barbara will serve as a juror for Here, There, and Everywhere, an exhibition of jewelry and objects by members of the Brooklyn Metal Works alumni network to mark the 15th anniversary of BKMW.