Summer Studio Art Classes at the Armenian Museum of America!

The Museum is offering two art classes this summer for kids interested in learning to paint and draw among the objects in the galleries - SIGN UP SOON!

Painting and Drawing I

ages 6-10, July 11 - August 1, 2017
Tuesdays, 9:00 am - 11:00 am (4 Classes)

Painting and Drawing II

ages 11-14, July 13 - August 3, 2017
Thursdays, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm (4 Classes)

Tuition $120, Members receive a 25% discount!

All materials will be provided: Gouache paints, brush sets, pallets, charcoal, graphite pencils, ink sets, sketchpads, and canvases.

Class size is limited to 12 students in each class.

Students will be introduced to key artistic methods at the heart of the drawing and painting process. Observational skills will be developed through experimentation with a variety of drawing and painting techniques, including gouache, watercolor, charcoal, graphite and colored pencils, and ink.

The Museum collection will be a source of inspiration and learning. Students will be exposed to art objects and artifacts in the galleries as sources of inspiration to create original works of self-expression.

About the instructor

Arevik Tserunyan is the 2017 Artist-in-Residence at the Museum. She received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2015 and has shown her work in Yerevan, Armenia, as well as in Boston, MA. Arevik has taught at Yerevan Pedagogical University and the School of Fine Arts for Children in Armenia and was a Teaching Assistant at the SMFA in Boston. Arevik is fluent in Armenian, English, and Russian and brings her unique artistic perspective to these courses to help children explore ideas within the Museum setting.

For more information or to reserve your spot, call 617-926-2562 x4 or visit the Museum shop

A Fascinating Lecture by Taner Akçam

Akçam being documented at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown for his presentation

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 the Armenian Museum of America and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research were proud to present The Story Behind "The Smoking Gun": A Presentation of Never-Before-Seen Documents by Dr. Taner Akçam, the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. Akçam also serves as the Academic Advisor to the Board of Trustees for the Armenian Museum of America.

The presentation featured an article on Akçam's recent work - published on April 23, 2017 in The New York Times - that focused on an Ottoman document Akçam states is "the smoking gun," which demonstrates the Ottoman government's awareness of, and involvement in, the elimination of the Armenian population. The presentation at the Armenian Museum of America was the first time this and other documents have ever been discussed in public.

A packed audience of Armenians and non-Armenians filled the Adele and Haig Der Manuelian Galleries on the third floor of the Museum to hear Akçam (called the "Sherlock Holmes of Armenian Genocide") discuss the puzzle piece that pulls together his life's work in Genocide research.

The "smoking gun" was revealed to be a telegram written in code by an official of the Ottoman Empire, which disappeared in 1922, shortly after the trial that convicted its author. Akçam tracked down the telegram, along with the rest of the trial records, to an archive in Jerusalem where they have been kept since the 1930s. Unable to gain access to the originals, Akçam found a photographic record of the entire archive in New York with the nephew of Krikor Guerguerian, the Armenian monk and Genocide survivor who took pictures of the entire Jerusalem collection in the 1940s. 

Prior to the lecture, a documentary crew from Associated Television International in Los Angeles interviewed Dr. Akçam in a Museum gallery. They then recorded his entire lecture to be potentially included in an upcoming documentary film titled Architects of Denial. The film, which will be released in October, will include a first-person look at Genocide through the eyes of survivors and experts to illustrate the connection between Genocide denial and the continuation of Genocide around the world. Stay tuned!

Check out our events page, follow us on Facebook and join our email list to stay updated on all of the Armenian Museum upcoming events, including lectures like this one!