A World of Gems on Display
Museum educates Institute’s visitors and builds confidence in the industry

By Larne Boyles

Pat Chianello perplexedly peers into a museum display case housing different varieties of garnets. Her gem knowledge is limited to what she’s seen in jewelry stores so the stones she’s looking at, ranging from shades of deeply saturated red and bright orange to slightly yellow green, take a few minutes to register.

“You mean garnets really come in all these different colors?” she asks the guide while on a tour of GIA. “I had no idea.”

Chianello’s limited knowledge of colored stones outside the Big Three (ruby, sapphire and emerald) is not unusual among the many guests who tour the Institute’s Robert Mouawad campus in Carlsbad, California, each day. Industry veterans might easily distinguish demantoid from spessartite garnet, but such information isn’t exactly common knowledge among the general public.

Information about all gemstones is readily available on the Internet these days, but who’s to say what you’re reading is accurate?

“The industry and public look to GIA as the world’s foremost authority in gemology,” says GIA President William E. Boyajian. “It’s our mission to uphold this significant role by protecting and serving the public’s trust in gems and jewelry.”

The GIA Museum is yet another way the Institute helps educate the public on gemology and the types of stones that are available to them. Like Chianello, many visitors walk into the Institute knowing little about gems, but walk out with a whole new perspective.

“Our Museum educates the consuming public by answering their important questions about gems and jewelry,” says Elise Misiorowski, G.G., director of the GIA Museum.

“When consumers are better informed, it inspires confidence in their purchases, which is a win-win situation for all involved.”

More than 4,300 guests, ranging from fourth graders to senior citizens, toured the Institute’s world headquarters in 2003.

A walk down the hallways in the Education wing, which are lined with display cases housing different varieties of gemstones, is a good introduction to gemology, Misiorowski says.

“Our hallway displays give descriptions of gemstones and their localities in a succinct format for those who are interested in gems and want to learn more about where they come from.”

In addition to the hallway displays, the Museum also has rotating exhibits representing the many eclectic styles of gem and jewelry pieces. With exhibits such as “All Natural, Organically Grown Gems,” featuring coral, pearl and amber specimens, to “The Magical World of Ilya Schar,” which showcases gem “paintings,” GIA’s Museum demonstrates that there’s much more to gems than rings and necklaces.

“We want to extol the beauty, science and human history of gems and jewelry with our collections,” Misiorowski says. “There’s so much more out there – such as ornate perfume bottles and intricately carved boxes – made from a variety of gem materials.”

The Museum also offers a themed lecture series that features experts from various fields of the industry to complement the exhibits at the Institute. Presentations on gem carving, jewelry manufacturing and the history of gems and jewelry, for example, give the public a broader perspective of the industry. Some of these lectures have inspired non-gem enthusiasts to seek their own adventures.

One couple took a trip to the Australian Outback after sitting in on a lecture by Andrew and Damein Cody, of Cody Opal Pty Ltd. Their talk, on the history of Australia’s opal mining, was held in conjunction with “Opal and the Dinosaur: Discover the Link,” an exhibit GIA hosted in 2002.

“Our lectures provide a forum to enrich the public’s knowledge, which often- times inspires them to further pursue their gem and jewelry interests,” Misiorowski says.

This year’s themed lecture series, “Gem and Jewelry Brought to Light,” opened with a presentation by jewelry historian Christie Romero in March (see story, page 5) and continues June 9 with a lecture by renowned diamond cutter Gabi Tolkowsky.

The GIA Museum is also involved in collaborative programs with other institutions around the world to further expand its education to the public. The Harvard Museum of Natural History in Massachusetts, for example, has several GIA specimens in its “Romancing the Stone: The Many Facets of Tourmaline” exhibit. The Institute also loaned a variety of gem specimens to the Flandrau Science Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson in conjunction with the 2004 gem and mineral shows for an exhibit that runs through June 15.

“Arguably, GIA has one of the deepest and widest ranging knowledge bases on the practical aspects of gemology in the world,” says John King, Laboratory Projects officer for the GIA Gem Laboratory. “We are able to bring a unique perspective to other museums by calling on this knowledge and experience. The public also benefits from our collaborations by becoming acquainted with ideas and information from us they would not receive otherwise.”

Such was the case last summer when GIA worked with the Smithsonian Institution to coordinate “The Splendor of Diamonds” exhibit. What started as a lunchtime discussion between King, Thomas M. Moses, vice president of Identification and Research Services for the GIA Gem Laboratory, and Dr. Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem Collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., turned into one of the most popular exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in 2003.

“The Splendor of Diamonds” included a collection of seven of the world’s rarest diamonds ever displayed at once. Long lines and an extension of the exhibit followed soon after it opened.

“GIA has the experience and capability to access amazing specimens in the industry, while the Smithsonian is very well known to the public for the quality and magnitude of its collections,” Post says. “When we combine our resources, the result is very positive for the public, the Smithsonian, GIA and the world of gems and minerals.”

Such positive experiences are what reinforced Chianello’s learning process during her recent visit to the GIA Museum. It also sparked an interest in her to keep coming back to increase her knowledge.

“I feel like I learned so much here today about garnets and different kinds of synthetic gems – I don’t know how else I would have seen this stuff,” Chianello said. “There’s so much here, you have to come back again in order to see it all.”