Vahan Janjigian Joins Museum Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees of the Armenian Museum of America recently announced that Vahan Janjigian has joined as its newest member. Vahan is Chief Investment Officer of Greenwich Wealth Management, former Editor of the Money Masters Stock Report investment newsletter, a former Forbes magazine columnist, and former Editor of the Forbes Special Situation Survey. He frequently appears as a commentator on various television and radio networks.

Vahan is the author of “Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect” and he co-authored The Forbes/CFA Institute Investment Course. Vahan has served on the faculties of several universities including the University of Delaware, Northeastern University, American University of Armenia, Boston College, and Baruch College.

"We're excited to work with Vahan, especially given his professional background and his late father Papken's long-standing commitment as a trustee of the Armenian Museum," says President Michele Kolligian. "We extend a warm welcome to Vahan as the newest member of our growing leadership team."

Armenian Museum of America Announces Concert Featuring VAN Jazz Quartet

The Armenian Museum of America recently announced the fifth in its online concert series featuring the VAN Quartet, an Armenian ethno-jazz fusion group. The concert will be shown online on Sunday, June 13 at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am PST and 10:00 pm in Armenia).

 This concert series is supported by a generous grant from the Dadourian Foundation and is curated by Maestro Konstantin Petrossian, artistic director, composer, and conductor. It is free, open to the public, and pre-registration is not required.

 “In recent months we’ve hosted artists from Armenia, as well as from the diaspora,” says Executive Director Jason Sohigian. “This month, we’re pleased to present this concert with talented musicians from Armenia and from our diasporan community in Moscow.”

 The VAN Quartet’s music is based on traditional Armenian folk songs and original compositions. The group is led by pianist and vocalist Vahagn Hayrapetyan and features duduk player Emmanuel Hovhannisyan, percussionist Vardan Babayan, and bassist Makar Novikov. Hayrapetyan is one of leading figures in the Armenia’s jazz scene, and this group gives a jazz feel and modern harmony to Armenian folk melodies.

 “The VAN Quartet blends traditional folk songs with original compositions, and their talent and range as musicians allows for the free-form improvisation and experimentation that makes jazz so exciting,” adds Sohigian. “This concert was recorded live this month exclusively for the Armenian Museum and is only available here online. We’re excited about this collaboration which brings all corners of the Armenian world together around music.”

 The link to this free concert will be available on the Museum’s Facebook page, YouTube Channel, and website www.ArmenianMuseum.org.

 The Armenian Museum of America is the largest Armenian museum in the diaspora. It is planning to re-open on Friday, June 18, and will be open Fridays through Sundays from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. Over the past year, the Museum has been updating its galleries and installed air filtration units on each floor. Reservations and social distancing are required, and visits can be scheduled by calling (617) 926-2562 x104.

Armenian Museum of America Uses Ancient Treasures to Excite New Interest

Article by By Aram Arkun

 The Armenian Museum of America has been closed to visitors since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, but inside its landmark building in Watertown, the staff has been busier than ever, researching its collections, preparing new exhibits, and finding ways to connect through the media and Internet with the public.

 For a museum to be able to operate effectively, it is not enough to possess an extensive and interesting collection. Well-funded research is necessary for identification of items and their proper presentation in exhibits. Fortunately, the museum was able to bring scholar Dr. Alisa Dumikyan from Armenia to help in this work. She was working in France with a post-doctoral grant, related Berj Chekijian, the museum’s director of finance and building operations, when Michele Kolligian, president of the board of trustees, made the connection with her.

 Dumikyan was born in the village of Metsavan in the northern Armenian province of Lori. She went to school in the nearby town of Tashir before going to Yerevan for her higher education. She studied at the Valery Bryusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences from 1995 to 2000 and after graduating, was invited to teach there for about a decade. She also taught at the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University and the French University while continuing her education.

 After a master’s degree from the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, Dumikyan worked as a senior researcher in the Academy’s Institute of History while completing her doctorate, which concerns 19th century issues in French Armenology, and afterwards led to the Armenian-language book “Issues in the History of Ancient and Early Medieval Armenia in French Armenology of the 19th Century.”

 At the museum, Dumikyan explained that it was necessary to first reexamine the collections to see what they encompass. There was a manuscript listed as from the 16th century, for example, which she realized might not be from that period. It was not a hymnal as described, but actually a “manr usumn” liturgical musical codice, with melodies indicated by the khaz type of Armenian musical notation. Dumikyan began contacting experts in Armenia to confirm her suspicions. This type of work was important in the Cilician Armenian kingdom, and indeed, it was confirmed by Arusyak Tamrazyan in Yerevan that it dated from the 14th century.

 Click here to read the full story on the Armenian Mirror-Spectator website.

A Statement From the Armenian Museum of America on April 24, 2021

The Armenian Genocide was the attempted annihilation of the Armenian people – physically and culturally – from their ancestral homeland. This brutal murder of the Armenian nation by the Ottoman Turks constitutes the first genocide of the 20th century.

Those who carried out the crime were never held to account and successive Turkish governments deny the Armenian Genocide, which began on April 24, 1915.

The failure of the international community to respond decisively to this epic tragedy encourages other regimes to conduct similar murderous campaigns, and it was a precursor to the Holocaust. We have witnessed the ongoing legacy of the Genocide in Artsakh in recent months, where Azerbaijan is carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure.

Prevention and punishment for the crime of genocide remains a challenge for all people who believe in a world based on human rights and justice. Therefore, we applaud President Biden for recognizing the Armenian Genocide in his statement to the community on April 24.

For the White House statement please click here.

Our Executive Director Jason Sohigian was interviewed by PRI's The World, where he discussed the Genocide and its relevance to Armenia and Artsakh (click the play button below to hear the interview).

Tufts University Art Galleries presents Connecting Threads / Survivor Objects

Saghavard (Liturgical Crown), 1751. Metal, sequins, gold metallic thread on velvet. Gift of Paul and Vicki Bedoukian, collection of the Armenian Museum of America

MEDFORD, Mass.—Connecting Threads / Survivor Objects explores the kaleidoscopic world of Armenian liturgical textiles from the collections of the Armenian Museum of America and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Embroidered, block printed and painted, these objects dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries show the multidimensional nature of liturgical textiles and bear witness to the vitality of Armenian communities during the Ottoman Empire and their influence along global commercial routes. While many Ottoman Armenian churches are now in ruins after successive waves of persecution from the 1890s to the 1920s, these fragile and beautiful textiles bear witness to the survival of a people, their identity and faith. 

Sought after and admired for their aesthetic qualities, ecclesiastical textiles played a central role in the celebration of the divine liturgy. These stunning works in linen, silk and velvet pay homage to the long-standing Armenian tradition of weaving and needlework. Their rich imagery is a sophisticated reflection of Armenian art and of Byzantine, post-Byzantine, European and Islamic sewing and painting traditions. 

Under the Ottoman Empire, Armenian communities occupied a broad geographical area ranging from the Caucasus to the Anatolian peninsula, from Crimea to Russia and Western Europe, and from Amsterdam to East and South Asia. One of the first Christian civilizations, Armenia was a vital fulcrum for international trade routes and the circulation of visual ideas in the early modern period. 

The textiles in this exhibition originated in the prosperous Armenian communities of Istanbul, Tokat, Talas, Kütahya and Gümüșhane—all in modern day Turkey—as well as in Armenian trading settlements in Surabaya, Indonesia. Their inscriptions provide invaluable information about craftsmen, patrons, and church foundations. These details offer a glimpse into the world in which the textiles were created and convey a sense of the connected and dynamic culture of the Armenian communities before the Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s and the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1922. 

It is critical to acknowledge the history surrounding these objects and promote new academic research, particularly in the current climate, when violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region threatens many Armenian cultural heritage sites. Once again, tangible and intangible Armenian patrimony is at risk of being lost forever. 

The exhibition has been developed with undergraduate and graduate students from the seminar The Threads of Survival: Armenian Liturgical Textiles in Local Collections at Tufts University in spring 2021: Jeffrey Bui, Elettra Conoly, Claudia Haines, Andrea Horn, Sara McAleer, Atineh Movsesian, Grace Rotermund, Shirley Wang, Cas Weld, and Sofia Zamboli. 

Many of these textiles received the scholarly attention they deserve for the first time as students engaged in close examination of each individual textile at the Armenian Museum of America alongside in-class discussions about the objects and relevant literature. The exhibition labels and educational material present the outcome of their extensive research.

Organized by Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture, Tufts University, and Chiara Pidatella, Tufts University Art Galleries research curator.

Connecting Threads/Survivor Objects will be open from August 30 to December 5, 2021 at the Aidekman Arts Center/Koppelman Gallery.