Manhattan Chapter: Breaking the Museum Code with Donna Distefano

Presenter: Donna Distefano

Donna Distefano will be discussing her different roles with museums over her career and how she turned a passion for Italian art and literature into a lifelong career.

Artist and master goldsmith Donna Distefano is dedicated to jewelry history and is part of the evolution of goldsmithing from antiquity to the present day.

Before establishing her private atelier in 1994, Ms. Distefano was the senior goldsmith at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, responsible for creating the museum's jewelry reproductions.

In 2016, she began to produce jewelry collections for the Met Store in conjunction with the Michelangelo exhibition. In 2017, she co-branded a series of collections with the Met in celebration of heavenly bodies. Her personal 2019 Rock Ready collection includes inspiration from Met works by artists such as Henry Weston Keen and celebrity friends including Joe Perry, whose BladeRunner guitar is on display at the Met until October 1.