The Armenian Museum Welcomes Dr. Alisa Dumikyan

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Armenian Museum of America, we are very pleased to announce the arrival of visiting scholar, Dr. Alisa Dumikyan.  Born in Armenia, Dr. Dumikyan received her master’s degree from the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences (1995-2000) and a second master’s degree from the International Center for Scientific Education of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) (2006-2008).  She received her PhD from the Institute of History of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (2009-2013).

Dr. Dumikyan has spent her career teaching and researching in Armenia and abroad: from 2001 to 2009 she taught at the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences, the Russian-Armenian University and other universities. From 2008 to 2019, she worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

Her area of focus surrounds the issues in the historiography of ancient and early medieval Armenia from the 19th century and has written prolifically on this matter.  Her publications include the following articles and papers:  ‘’To the problem of conceptual approaches of the French Armenologists and Orientalists to the history of the Kingdom of Van,’’ ‘’Taik in the Assyrian and Biainian cuneiform inscriptions, ancient Greek and early medieval Armenian sources (the interpretations of the 19th century french armenologists) ,’’ ‘’Historical and spiritual perception of Armenia in the maps of French researchers of XVII-XIX centuries,’’ ‘’The reliability of the 19th century French and modern Armenological interpretations of the Biblical information about Mt. Ararat in the light of the Qumran manuscripts,’’ “The Interpretation of information on the Armenian King Abgar by French Armenologists of the 19th century".

Dumikyan says “I was very honored when I was invited to work at the Museum as an Armenian Researcher.  The Armenian Museum is a unique institution with a very rich and extensive collection representing various periods throughout Armenian history, and I feel extremely fortunate to have this wonderful opportunity to share my knowledge and expand upon it with the vast resources at the Armenian Museum and its library. “

According to Dumikyan, “of special importance are the materials from the Urartu/Van Kingdom, the collection of ancient Armenian coins and stamps donated by Paul Bedoukian (the largest collection outside of Armenia), medieval Armenian manuscripts, ceramics, metal ware and rugs, which are a testament to the rich Armenian historical heritage.”

Dr. Dumikyan’s initial attention will be on strengthening the Museum’s scholarship of its ancient and medieval objects.   

Armenian Museum awarded $100,000!

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Watertown, MA nonprofit receives Cummings Foundation grant

Watertown, MA, June 6, 2019 – The Armenian Museum of America is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program. The Watertown-based organization was selected from a total of 574 applications during a competitive review process. 

Representing the Armenian Museum, Stuart Green and Berj Chekijian joined the approximately 300 other guests at a reception at the TradeCenter 128 in Woburn to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston’s nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $260 million to Greater Boston’s nonprofits alone. 

“The Armenian Genocide is an essential story for our Museum to tell.  Our collection objects tell the tragedy of the Genocide, while often also serving as objects of survival and witness. We are extremely grateful to the Cummings Foundation and Bill and Joyce Cummings for their generosity and vision that will allow us to continue our mission to share the art, culture and history of a proud and enduring people.” 

Michele Kolligian
President

The funding will be used to strengthen the Museum’s visitor experience, particularly as it relates to exhibitions exploring the Armenian genocide and resultant diaspora community. Dispersed over a four-year period, the grant award will allow the Museum to expand its current display that focuses on the Armenian Genocide. By showcasing unique family histories entrusted to the Museum’s care, renewed interpretation and exhibition design will articulate these histories through deeply personal objects that tell this important historical narrative. 

The $100k for 100 program supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, but its affiliate Cummings Properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation. 

“By having such a local focus, we aim to make a meaningful positive difference in communities where our colleagues and leasing clients live and work,” said Joel Swets, Cumming Foundation’s executive director. “We are most grateful for the nonprofit organizations that assist and empower our neighbors, and we are proud to support their efforts.”

This year’s diverse group of grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food security. Most of the grants will be paid for over five years.

The complete list of 100 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org. 

Cummings Foundation announced an additional $15 million in early May through its Sustaining Grants program. Through these awards, 50 local nonprofits will receive ongoing funding of $20,000 - $50,000 for 10 years.

The history behind Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation is detailed in Bill Cumming’s self-written memoir, “Starting Small and Making It Big: An Entrepreneur’s Journey to a Billion-Dollar Philanthropist.” It is available on Amazon or cummings.com/book

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single commitment to date has been to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org

In the Shadow of Branches

Diana Apcar in Japan in 1890. Berj Kailian, Untitled, mixed media on board, about 1970

Diana Apcar | Berj Kailian

The Republic of the United States of America has been compared to that grain of mustard seed, which when planted in the earth budded forth and grew into such dimensions that the birds of the air lodged under the branches thereof. I pray that the shadow of those branches be extended over my bleeding nation.

NEW EXHIBITION AT THE ARMENIAN MUSEUM IN WATERTOWN, MA

Opening: Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 6–8:30 pm
Adele & Haig Der Manuelian galleries

AN UNTOLD STORY

The Armenian Museum presents a new exhibition in the Adele & Haig Der Manuelian galleries that explores the intertwined lives of diplomat Diana Agabeg Apcar (1859–1937) and artist Berjouhi Kailian (1914–2014). In 1919, history connected these two women in Yokohama, Japan. As refugees from the Armenian Genocide, Berj and her mother found themselves in the shadow of Diana’s sturdy branches as she helped them find their way to a new home in the United States. Berj’s creative life flourished for 95 more years because of Diana’s compassion.

This exhibition centers on the notion that individuals who take a stand can impact lives exponentially.

Not many know of Diana Apcar and the impact she had on shaping the discourse about the plight of Armenians during WWI. Born in Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) into a prominent Armenian merchant family, she grew up in Calcutta, and later moved to Yokohama with her husband to start a new company. In Japan, she became aware of the plight of her fellow Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and acted as an unofficial diplomat to write letters, newspaper articles, and books to create a network of support for Armenians throughout the world. She provided food and shelter, helped with visas and travel documents, and fiercely negotiated with the steamship companies to unite Armenian refugees with relatives in the United States. She was named Honorary Consul to Japan by the Armenian Republic, making her one of the first female diplomats in the modern age.

A survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Berj Kailian fled from her home in Ottoman Turkey, strapped to her mother’s back, to Yerevan (present-day Armenia). They managed to board the Trans-Siberian railroad to a refugee camp in Vladivostok, Russia, where Diana Apcar reached out to bring them to shelter in Yokohama. She arranged their passage on the Mexico Maru to sail to Seattle, Washington, where they made their way to join family in Weymouth, MA. Berj became an artist and made paintings and prints, many of which recall her early history as a refugee in a visceral way. Layered surfaces with earthbound colors reveal a buried past that revisited her memory throughout her long life. This significant body of work was donated by her family to the Armenian Museum in 2018.

Brought together for the first time, the objects, ephemera, and paintings on display connect these two women to tell this important story of persistence, survival, and witness.

—Jennifer Liston Munson, Executive Director

The exhibition will take place in the newly-renovated third floor galleries. This contemporary space, designed by Ben Thompson in 1969, has polished concrete floors and a cement waffled ceiling, and will contain objects from Diana Apcar’s life, including her pen that she used to write diplomats, world leaders, and friends around the world. Her personal papers and official documents will help tell the story of her astounding ability to create an extensive global network of supporters a hundred years before the emergence of social media.

The Museum’s recent acquisition of Berj Kailian’s work includes mixed media paintings on wood panels that seem to come from the earth—the thick layers are gouged, chiseled, and marked as part of a physical process “to release the hurt”. Suppressed loss emerges through to the surfaces with recurring imagery of lost architecture to convey the frenzy of looking for the siblings she will never find.

Together, their work intermingles at the Armenian Museum in Watertown, MA to bring context and connection to each of their substantial contributions to Armenian and Armenian-American experience.

OPENING RECEPTION & GALLERY TALK:

April 24, 2019, 6–8:30 pm
6 pm: Candlelight gallery viewing to observe Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, 1st floor
7 pm: Reception and gallery talk, Adele & Haig Der Manuelian galleries, 3rd floor

This exhibition will open on April 24, 2019 in recognition of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. The Armenian Museum wishes to engage in meaningful dialogue around this solemn subject that permeates Armenian experience around the world.

Join us from 6–8:30 pm for a candlelight viewing of the galleries followed by a discussion of the traumatic effects of the Genocide to remember the victims, survivors, and individuals who chose to intervene.

Armenia: art, culture, eternity

Watertown, MA, October 25, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Stephanie Garafolo sgarafolo@armenianmuseum.org, 617-926-2562 Ext 4 

The Armenian Museum of America Presents

Armenia: art, culture, eternity

A new permanent gallery

Opening Reception Thursday, November 15

6–7:30 pm: Gallery viewing and talk. Speakers include Michele Kolligian, President of the Board of Trustees; Jennifer Liston Munson, Executive Director; and Virginia Durruty, Project Architect. 

Live music in the gallery.

7:30–9:00 pm: Special Armenian-inspired reception in the Adele & Haig Der Manuelian Galleries, 3rd floor.

The Armenian Museum of America is pleased to share its vision for the future. Founded in 1971, the Museum serves as the largest repository of Armenian artifacts in the diaspora, as well as the largest ethnic museum in Massachusetts. As the Museum builds towards the future, it strives to create a stronger, more connected community through shared exploration of Armenian art and history, both for Armenians and those who are new to Armenian culture.

The Museum’s new gallery Armenia: art, culture, eternity provides an overview of Armenian culture from antiquity to present-day Armenian experience here in the United States. Over fifty objects are on display, illustrating Armenia’s origins in the Asian continent, the invention of a unique Indo-European language and alphabet, the early adoption of Christianity, Armenian medieval illuminated manuscripts, interconnected trade routes, and the tragedy of the Genocide. 

Armenia: art, culture, eternity is the culmination of twelve months of intense research and design and represents a new level of scholarship and interpretation at the Museum. The project was made possible by the support of the Board of Trustees and was spearheaded by Executive Director Jennifer Liston Munson and architect Virginia Durruty, who worked side-by-side with Michele Kolligian, President of the Board of Trustees, on the inspired design. 

The gallery represents an incredible achievement and is the start of a holistic consideration of the entire Museum, which will examine everything from the building’s distinctive Brutalist architecture—including how the hard space is a meaningful metaphor for Armenia’s difficult history—to the Museum’s role in telling the modern Armenian-American cultural narrative. 

As a major moment in the process of awakening the building and developing a vibrant cultural space, the Museum is proud to welcome the public to its new gallery and invites the community to share in its future. 

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 Hours: Thursday–Sunday 12:00 pm–6:00 pm
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.

We are building a new gallery!

We are renovating galleries as part of the first phase of the reinvention of the Museum. Follow us on Facebook for updates.

Become a member to receive an invitation to the opening in November.

These objects will come out of storage with many others  to tell the story of Armenian culture in a new way. Pardon us as we close the Museum from July 21–August 5, 2018 during renovations.