Wishing a Blessed Armenian Christmas to all of our Armenian Families from around the world! May you all have Good Health, Happiness, and Peace in 2018, and always.
Dolls from the collection of the Armenian Museum of America
Wishing You a Joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We hope to see you in 2018 for new exhibitions, lectures, musical events, and gallery renovations.
Illumination of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Hand-copied in AD 1711 by Yeghia Marsvantsi Elijah of Marsvan. Donated to the Armenian Museum by Adele and Haig Der Manuelian.
GIVE THE GIFT OF ART AND CULTURE!
Giving to the Armenian Museum is a gift of art and culture this holiday season.
It shows that you value the commitment the Museum is making to display and create conversations around the long and complex history of Armenia. You can give to the General Museum Fund or the Children’s Program Fund or join or give a Membership to a friend or family member. Membership and Giving provides a full year of privileged access to our galleries, invitations to lectures, openings, and musical events, and provides discounts at the Museum shop and for Studio Class tuition.
Give a donation and/or purchase a gift membership online at armenianmuseum.org, over the phone by calling (617) 926.2562, or stop by at 65 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02472, Thursday – Sunday, 12-6 pm.
Chris Edwards: Changing gender in an Armenian family
Watertown, November 2, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHRIS EDWARDS (ESKANDARIAN): Changing gender and the powerful role family played in his transition
Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 7 pm
Q&A and book signing/reception immediately following the presentation.
In honor of Transgender Awareness Month, Boston advertising creative director Chris Edwards, son of Ed & Nancy Eskandarian, discusses life before, during and after his gender transition in heartfelt and hilarious detail. He describes the fear and relief of coming out to his parents and sisters as well as his extended family of Armenians or “Armos” as he likes to call them, and explains the powerful role their support played in his success both at home and at work. His memoir BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some is an Amazon bestseller, Foreword Reviews Indies gold-winner and rated one of the best books of the year by Shelf Awareness.
About Chris Edwards
Chris Edwards made his advertising debut in 1993 as a copywriter at Arnold Worldwide, a high-profile ad agency in Boston. There he used the principles of branding and marketing, along with his ever-present sense of humor, to orchestrate what was quite possibly the most widely accepted and embraced gender transition of its kind––at a time when the word “transgender” didn’t exist.
After building an award-winning career spanning nearly twenty years, Chris left his Arnold post as EVP, Group Creative Director to write his memoir, BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some. Since then he’s become a sought-after speaker, keynoting at conferences and inspiring audiences at places like Apple, Google and Harvard with his courageous story and compelling message that we all have the power to control how others define us.
About the Armenian Museum of America
The Armenian Museum of America houses and preserves objects of art and culture collected from Armenian families and donors from around the world. The Museum holds its collection in trust for future generations as objects of witness and survival to serve as a record of Armenian creativity, ingenuity, and wisdom for those who are familiar with Armenian history and culture, as well as for those to whom these objects, manuscripts, and ephemera are a new experience.
Museum Website www.armenianmuseum.org
Museum Contact: Berj Chekijian
berjc@armenianmuseum.org
617-926-2562
Armenian Museum of America, 65 Main St., Watertown, MA 02472
Parking: Watertown Municipal lots behind the Museum.
Public Transportation: Bus 59 from Needham, 70 from Waltham Commuter
Rail/Cambridge Central Square, 70a from Waltham Commuter Rail/Cambridge Central Square, 71 from Harvard Square.
Museum Hours: Thursday–Sunday 12–6 pm, Wednesday by appointment.
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!