Jess Tolbert is Assistant Professor of Art and Head of the Jewelry + Metals program at the University of Texas, El Paso. She received her Masters and Bachelors degrees in Fine Arts, both with a focus on metal and jewelry. Jess actively exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Her research and studio practice explores and reconsiders the commonplace objects of everyday life and mass production, creating an intimate link to our relationship with labor and the built environment.

• Windgate Fellowship Nominee - Center for Craft (11/07/2023)
• Windgate Fellowship - Center for Craft (04/15/2021)
• College of Liberal Arts Finalist - University of Texas Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award - University of Texas Regents (04/13/2021)
• Loewe Foundation Craft Prize Finalist - Loewe Foundation (01/21/2020)
• Outstanding 3D Studio Artist - Department of Art, College of Liberal Arts (11/27/2019)
• Arleigh B. and Maxie G. Templeton Endowment for Art - UTEP Department of Art (04/08/2019)
• Windgate Fellowship - Center for Craft (03/27/2019)
• Honorable Mention, Craft Forms 2018 - Wayne Art Center (12/07/2018)
• Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize, Finalist - Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (09/14/2018)
• Arleigh B. and Maxie G. Templeton Endowment for Art - UTEP Department of Art (05/01/2018)
• Arleigh B. and Maxie G. Templeton Endowment for Art - UTEP Department of Art (05/16/2017)

• MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign (2013)
• BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Texas State University, San Marcos (2009)

• Art + Labor Contexts (2023), Jessica L. Tolbert, Maria C. Morales, Nancy Plankey-Videla.
• Art + Labor: Using the Sociological Imagination for Creativity and Understanding the Global Feminist Workforce and Environmental Sustainability Contexts: Sociology for the Public (2023), Jessica L. Tolbert, Cristina Morales.
• Remote Making & Defining Artifacts of Our Time Artifacts of Isolation: Creative Responses During the Unprecendented COVID-19 Pandemic (2021), Jessica L. Tolbert.

• Sedimento: Variaciones de Materia y Memoria (2024), Volume Azul Arena, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, MX, Jessica L. Tolbert.
• Missed Connections (2024), Volume The Steuben Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Jessica L. Tolbert.
• drifters: along, across, and among (2024), Volume San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, Jessica L. Tolbert.
• Missed Connections (2024), Volume San Diego, CA, Jessica L. Tolbert.
• Artist Talk (2024), Volume Tucson, AZ, Jessica L. Tolbert.

• The Rachelle Thiewes Endowment ( - 12/31/2024)
• The Rachelle Thiewes Endowment ( - 12/31/2023)
• The Rachelle Thiewes Endowment ( - 12/31/2022)
• The Rachelle Thiewes Endowment (03/01/2021 - 05/31/2021)
• From Mass Production to Raw Material, Material Specificity in Contemporary Jewelry (02/01/2021 - 08/31/2021) University Research Institute Grant, UTEP
• From Mass Production to Raw Material, Material Specificity in Contemporary Jewelry (05/20/2021 - 08/13/2021) Career Enhancement Award, College of Liberal Arts, UTEP
• Art + Labor (01/30/2020 - 12/31/2020) College of Liberal Arts
• Rachelle Thiewes Endowment (11/14/2018 - 05/14/2020)