When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the response of Olga Oleksenko, a former Van Cleef & Arpels executive, collector and arts patron, was not to retreat, but to create. “In the first months of the war, we were all in shock,” she recalls. “Then, one day, I started to think about beauty again. Supporting Ukrainian jewellery art became something deeply personal to me — my way to pull myself out of the chaos and back into a world of creation. It was my own form of resistance, not armed but artistic.”
From that impulse, Strong & Precious, a charitable art foundation and educational programme, was born. Oleksenko and participating designers will present their most significant New York exhibition to date at the Ukrainian Institute of America on November 19-21, during NYC Jewelry Week.
The initiative was first shown at the jewellery fair GemGenève in Switzerland in May 2022. “At that moment our main goal was simply to be heard,” says Oleksenko. “There was no budget, no concept, only my connections from years in the industry. I just wanted to tell the world that Ukrainian jewellers exist and that we are a nation that creates rather than destroys.”
What began as a gesture of visibility has since matured into a structured cultural movement. Inesa Kovalova, the programme director, describes Strong & Precious as “a form of cultural diplomacy”. She joined the project in its earliest days, originally as a designer. “Our focus has expanded,” she explains. “We are now building an organisation that nurtures the future of the Ukrainian jewellery industry, from education and mentorship to grants and international representation. Ukraine has immense potential and, with long-term support, our jewellery scene can truly flourish on the global stage.”
Across the programme’s network, there is a shared expressive vocabulary: bold silhouettes, narrative-driven compositions and an instinctive return to cultural symbols disrupted throughout the 20th century. “There’s a spirit of experimentation that echoes Ukrainian avant-garde and constructivist traditions,” says Kovalova.
Most of the jewellery presented at Strong & Precious is handcrafted in a Ukrainian workshop and, in many cases, features gemstones from national mines.
Kovalova’s Links brooch, in titanium, gold and diamonds, centres on a clear yellow heliodor mined in Volodarsk-Volynskii, a region in north-west Ukraine famed for beryl. The structure of interlocking forms is drawn from the industrial architecture of Donbas, where she grew up — the stone and structure meeting across the country’s geography. It stands for unity.
Another work, the Cosmos Trypillia brooch, created collaboratively between jeweller Iryna Karpova and her son Ihor Karpov, combines 18-carat gold, sterling silver, diamonds, Ukrainian amber and ebony. Its expressive geometry nods to the Ukrainian avant-garde, while its story reaches further back: to the Trypillian civilisation that flourished more than 5,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, Olga Vynogradova’s Imaginary Heritage bracelet features a rough-cut Ukrainian beryl flanked by sharp-edged cubes set with diamonds, surrounded by metallic spheres with gemstone inlays. She describes it as a tribute to lost cultural heritage, particularly jewellery treasures unearthed on archaeological expeditions across modern-day Ukraine.
For Oleksenko, the cultural stakes are profound. “Our jewellery tradition was interrupted by revolutions, Soviet expropriations, the second world war and the current war,” she says. “Unlike France or Italy, we don’t have a continuous lineage of family jewels passed down through generations. The fact that we still have artisans capable of working at this level is almost a miracle.”
Her long-term ambition is to stage a major museum exhibition tracing a line from Trypillian ceramics to contemporary jewellery. “I want to show the continuity of Ukrainian identity,” she says. “To show that our cultural roots are deep, sophisticated and alive.”
Another jewellery studio that was created in the middle of the war is Aga.te, which was launched in Kyiv during the winter of 2022 as air raid sirens sounded daily. “Despite everything, we wanted to continue doing what we know best: creating jewellery as an art form,” says founder Alyona Zavorotnia. She and her partner joined forces with the craftspeople, artists and small workshops that had stayed in the city, and they began creating “a collection that resonated with the emotional needs of that moment”.
That relationship between place, memory and jewellery-making echoes throughout the movement. “Being born in Ukraine, you grow up learning about absolutely marvellous painting techniques, ancient melodies from our traditional instruments, or historical artefacts from the past,” says Odesa-born Alyona Kiperman, founder and creative director of Nomis. “All of this nourishes you from childhood. As an adult, you find yourself returning to these symbols and cultural references again and again because they live deep within you.”
Three years after its inception, Strong & Precious is no longer merely a platform — it is a cultural and economic ecosystem, one that nurtures careers, protects craftsmanship and articulates a shared identity under extraordinary pressure. “We wanted to show that we are resilient, that our culture stands strong,” Oleksenko says. “We are determined not just to survive, but to thrive.”
