RESILIENCE? WHY NOW?
‘Resilience is critical for the waters that the precious metals and gemstone and jewelry industries are navigating: economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, accelerating technological change, evolving consumer expectations, increasing demands for transparency, and the realities of climate change. ‘
Lisa Koenigsberg is President and Founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) and an internationally recognized thought leader in visual culture.
For more than three decades, her work has explored the intersections of art, craftsmanship, material culture, sustainability, and responsible practice. Through IAC, she has developed interdisciplinary conferences and initiatives that bring together leaders from academia, industry, government, museums, and the cultural sector to examine the ideas that shape our understanding of the material world.
The Gold + Diamond Conference, now in its sixteenth year, reflects that enduring commitment to inquiry across disciplines.
JULY 7, 2026
Every year, as we begin shaping Initiatives in Art and Culture’s (IAC) Gold + Diamond Conference, we begin not with a theme or a marketing slogan, but with a question that addresses a milestone or a critical urgency of an era. And although this July marks the semi sesquicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence the United States, arguable a propitious moment, this year that question deals with resilience.
Resilience is critical for the waters that the precious metals and gemstone and jewelry industries are navigating: economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, accelerating technological change, evolving consumer expectations, increasing demands for transparency, and the realities of climate change. These are not isolated challenges. They intersect and reshape how we think about sourcing, craftsmanship, design, manufacturing, and ultimately, value itself.
Resilience, however, to my mind, is about something deeper than the external adaptation to changing circumstances. Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ”the action or an act of rebounding or springing back, or as “elasticity; the power of resuming and original shape.” and “the quality or fact of being able to recover quickly”, it must also characterize our internal approach to the world.
We must retain our willingness to remain intellectually curious. It is about asking better questions. Welcoming different perspectives. Recognizing that our understanding is always evolving, as is all around us. Change – and resilience – are defined by evolving process and the response to it, rather than about a single action taken.
The author speaking during a panel discussion at the CIBJO Congress in Shanghai, China, in 2024.
That conviction has shaped my work for more than three decades.
Long before founding Initiatives in Art and Culture, I was working in the President’s Office at New York University. One of the deans asked what could be done to strengthen the university’s public presence. I suggested creating a program open to all that would cross disciplinary boundaries, “town-gown” divides and invite broader audiences into conversations about culture. I proposed beginning with a conference centered on the painter Joseph Stella. To my surprise, his response was immediate: “Go for it.”
What followed was the creation of Programs in the Arts at NYU, central to which was an expanding series of interdisciplinary conferences exploring subjects ranging from American art and architecture to fashion, collecting, and material culture. Years later, my third dean suggested that these initiatives had become too important to remain dependent upon the priorities of a single institution and encouraged me to establish an independent organization that could continue to develop them. That organization became Initiatives in Art and Culture.
From the beginning, IAC has been guided by a simple premise: the most meaningful questions rarely belong to a single discipline. They emerge where history, science, art, commerce, anthropology, design, ethics and public policy intersect. Our role has never been to provide definitive answers or to constrain discourse. Rather, it has been to create forums where thinking can develop, assumptions can be challenged, and conversations can continue long after a conference has ended.
The Gold + Diamond Conference emerged from precisely that philosophy.
For many years, I wanted to develop a conference devoted to precious materials but struggled to articulate precisely why. The answer began to emerge as conversations surrounding responsible sourcing and sustainability entered our collective consciousness. Rather than organizing a single conference around those issues and moving on, we developed Green: style, significance and sustainability. I have never been particularly interested in one-off conversations. The questions were too important. Meaningful progress requires continuity. It requires returning to the same questions with new knowledge, new participants, and a willingness to reconsider our assumptions.
Not long afterward, I remember waking up one morning with an almost embarrassingly obvious realization: “My God, we haven’t done gold.”
As I met with leaders throughout the industry, one gentleman urged me not simply to organize a conference but to establish an ongoing series. I remember responding rather cautiously, suggesting we first see how one year unfolded.
That was sixteen years ago.
World Diamond Council leaders, Ronnie VanderLinden (far left), WDC’s current President, and Feriel Zerouki (fourth from left), WDC Honorary President, join the author, Lisa Koenigsberg (third from left), at IAC’s Gold + Diamond Conference in New York in 2020. Also photographed, from left, are Toby Pomeroy, Mouktar Abdillahi, Christina Miller and Tiffany Stevens.
The conference would later evolve to include diamonds, reflecting our conviction that comparative approaches deepen understanding. Gold and diamonds possess distinct histories and identities, yet they also illuminate one another. Looking across materials broadens our understanding not only of extraction and production, but also of craftsmanship, cultural meaning, responsible practice, and the ways societies define value.
Looking back, what continues to astonish me is not what I knew at the beginning, but how much I did not know.
Some of the most important lessons have come not from formal presentations, but from generous and ongoing conversations with miners, scientists, jewelers, craftspeople, museum professionals, environmental advocates, and scholars, as well as gifted authoritative figures from the corporate and organizational sectors. I vividly remember sitting in the American Museum of Natural History while the senior curator of geology and minerals patiently explained different mining practices to me. I recall hoping my lack of knowledge was less apparent than my gratitude. That moment has stayed with me because it reinforced something I continue to believe today: curiosity is the beginning of understanding and serendipity frames the most profound opportunities to learn
Over 16 years, the conference has continued to evolve. Human rights, artisanal and small-scale mining, responsible sourcing, climate, cultural heritage, cultural restitution, artisanry, and the preservation of traditional knowledge of skills and craft have become central to our discussions.
In my mind, what allowed me to start this inquiry into precious materials, was the thought that precious materials are as part of our shared human patrimony. Over past decade and a half, my understanding of the histories, identities, technical knowledge, and cultural meaning and memory has only deepened. Thoughtful stewardship is key preserving objects that reflect, love, glory, faith and status but also undergirds commercial success since it can be maintained the heritage coupled with innovation are the DNA of the future. As our understanding deepens, so too does our appreciation for the extraordinary complexity of the questions before us.
Ironically, my favorite moments happen over coffee, at lunch, and in the hallways between sessions, rather than as part of formal proceedings.
Several years ago, we were finally able to incorporate conference lunches into the program. What remains with me is not the meal itself, but the remarkable energy in the room. Conversations unfolded between people who otherwise might never have met. New collaborations emerged. Perspectives shifted. There was an intangible warmth and electricity that underscores why these gatherings matter. If I could bottle that atmosphere, I often joke, I would change professions and make perfume instead. And perhaps that is the essence of the resilience we seek.
Not the ability to accept change as a procedural action, but the willingness to engage with others about it thoughtfully as an ongoing process. To preserve the essential and align it with new ideas and approaches to which one is open. To recognize that progress rarely comes from certainty; a question is almost certainly more important than an answer about which one is overly certain and that has been derived without sustained inquiry, intellectual receptivity, and the conviction that meaningful conversations have the capacity to shape both an industry and community.
Those principles continue to guide the Gold + Diamond Conference. This year’s program explores responsible sourcing, human rights, climate and environmental stewardship, cultural heritage, artisanry, innovation, and the evolving definition of value within the jewelry and precious materials sectors. As always, our goal is not to arrive at simple answers, but to create a forum where thinking develops, diverse perspectives challenge assumptions, and new approaches emerge.
From July 13-15 in New York City, the 16th annual Gold + Diamond Conference will once again bring together voices from across the international jewelry community, including leaders from mining, manufacturing, design, retail, academia, museums, government, NGOs, and the luxury sector. I hope you will join us. The conversations that matter most while perhaps not easy can be inviting and move our thinking and perspectives forward. They are also the conversations that shape the future of our industry
To learn more about IAC and information on the Conference: https://www.artinitiatives.com
We hope to see you there!