I’m honored that jewelry collector Susan Beech has donated two of my major neckpieces, “The Duchess” and “Transcend” to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2024 Susan generously donated much of her collection to both the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.
Some of Susan’s collection will be in the exhibition Handwork: Contemporary Craft at The Renwick Gallery, opening November 13, 2026.
The donated collection is featured in the 2025 book titled, “Feast: Contemporary Jewelry From The Susan Beech Collection”, by By Susan Cummins, Barbara Paris Gifford, Toni Greenbaum and Damian Skinner (arnoldsche, publisher). This gorgeous tome highlights her extensive jewelry collection’s interplay with craft and fine art in her Tiburon home.
Welcome to a private tour of the home of American collector Susan Beech. Since 1991, Beech has been transforming her house in Tiburon, California, into an extraordinary environment, in which the themes of her extensive jewelry collection interact with craft and fine art, all against a backdrop of Art Deco glamour. Beauty is entwined with darker forces of death and decay, and glimpses of pleasure are complicated by a nod to the surreal and uncanny. The result is a wholly original and fascinating stage for a major collection of contemporary jewelry thoughtfully assembled over four decades. (excerpt from Catherine Clark Gallery)