Jewelers of America and the GEM Awards Committee have opened applications for the 2027 David Yurman GEM Awards Grant. The window runs from November 3 through December 2, 2026. This is the grant’s second year, and its terms describe a particular kind of help: money for an emerging fine jewelry designer, paired with direct access to people who run a much larger business.
The recipient receives a one-time financial award of $50,000 (about C$70,000), and mentoring meetings with executives at David Yurman, as well as consultative meetings with other industry executives. The grant’s own page sets out what that access includes: a behind-the-scenes tour of the David Yurman workshop and a retail location, a business meeting with David and Sybil Yurman, and two additional meetings with key industry executives. The cash and the meetings are one package, not alternatives.
Who can apply narrows the field considerably. The grant was created in partnership with Jewelers of America and David Yurman Enterprises LLC to support an emerging fine jewelry designer who has been in business for at least three years and shows exceptional promise, but lacks the necessary resources to advance their brand. To qualify, an entrant must demonstrate unique talent in fine jewelry design and a solid business plan for expansion, have operated their own company for at least three years, and be based and manufacture in the United States. A designer in a first season, however strong the work, is outside the terms, and so is one based and making outside the United States.
The selection turns on that business plan, not on the work alone. The David Yurman GEM Awards Grant Selection Committee reviews the applications and selects five finalists. Finalists travel to New York City to present in person to the committee about their brand and how the grant would benefit their business, and the committee then determines the recipient. The recipient will be presented at the 25th annual GEM Awards on Friday, March 12, 2027, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.
The grant itself is recent. Its formation was announced on August 4, 2025, with applications open that year through October 7. The first cycle drew 90 submissions. Johnny Nelson, of Johnny Nelson Jewelry, was the inaugural recipient, honoured at the 24th annual GEM Awards on March 13, 2026. Marion Fasel, the GEM Awards Chair, said the inaugural grant introduced emerging talent to the event and that the initiative is now entering its second year.
For a small independent workshop, the structure is the plainest part of the story. The bench work has to be there first: three years of operating a company and a body of work the committee can judge. But the application does not stop there. It asks for a plan for expansion, and it asks a finalist to stand in a room and explain what the money would change. A one-time award can be spent once. The meetings are a different kind of resource: time with executives whose daily work is the side of the trade a small workshop usually handles alone, from production at scale to selling through a retail location. The grant is built as if the two belong together.
The window is short. Applications must be submitted by December 2, 2026, through the GEM Awards site, and only fully completed applications are accepted and considered.
— Tom