A Marathon through the Museums of Yerevan (Armenia)

Tatevik Vardanyan

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Aram Khachaturian, Avetik Isahakyan, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Modern Art Museum, Yerevan, Armenia,
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introduction lines :
In the last 10 years, Armenia joined in the Museum Night events, and has been celebrating it with great verve.
This is a unique year for Armenia as 100 museums over the country joined the event, 39 of which are located in
Yerevan. On May the 17th, the museums are free and open to all visitors, from 6 pm till 12 am. So, I took my
camera and walked through as many museums as I could in the limited time I had.

Modern Art in the Cafesjian Center for Arts
First I visited the Cafesjian Center for the Arts (http://www.cmf.am/) which is located in the center of the
Yerevan. Lots of people were playing and singing with their kids outside the museum, while a long queue of
people was waiting to get inside. The longest queue was for the 1
st
floor hall, where glass sculptures of Dale
Chihuly, Stanislav Libensk and Jaroslava Brychtov were set up. The whole museum was packed with people
wanting to see the modern art.


Waiting to enter the museum hall

Glass artworks of Dale Chihuly

The story of Aram Khachaturian mixed with dance

After, I visited the museum of Aram Khachaturian ( http://akhachaturianmuseum.am/ ), a great Armenian
composer and conductor. This museum was more or less empty. The museum guide was telling the few visitors
there, the love story of Aram Khachaturian. But upstairs, the situation was rather different. People were there to
learn the Armenian traditional dance or the waltz with professional dancers. This was a special event just for the
night.

Entrance of Aram Khachaturian museum


Teaching the Armenian dances

The beautiful garden of Avetik Isahakyan
Close to this museum is the museum of Avetik Isahakyan ( http://www.isahakyanmuseum.am/ ), an Armenian
writer, poet, and public activist. This mans beautiful small house, with its small garden, looked warm and
friendly. Before leaving for the next musuem, I sat to rest a while in the garden full of roses and started to
imagine just how many famous people had came to have a cup of tea or coffee with Isahakyan in his garden.


The sculpture of Avetik Isahakyan in his garden

A trip to childhood memories

I couldnt miss visiting my favorite museum of my childhood, where my grandfather often used to take me, the
Museum of Hovhannes Tumanyan (http://www.tumanyan.info/), an Armenian writer and public activist also
considered as the national poet of Armenia. His house looked ordinary from the outside but dreamlike from the
inside. Many of Tumanyans tale characters and heroes were brought to life in the museum through puppet
sculptures. Every time I come to this museum is like returning to my childhood. I would call this museum a
museum of happiness.


A small layout of Hovhannes Tumanyans tale


Hovhannes Tumanyan sculpture



Modern artists, to conclude

The last museum I managed to visit was the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan (http://mamy.am/ ) where you
can see art works of modern artists from Armenia and modern artistis from outside of Armenia. The many
wonderful museums in my city, like the National Art Gallery, the History Museum, the Museum of
Sergei Parajanov, Yervand Kochar, Yeghishe Charents, Alexander Spendiarian and many others which I
didnt manage to visit during the museum night are no less beautiful and wonderful.


Visitors in the Modern Art Museum


Visitors looking at the modern art of modern, creative artists



I love to visit museums any day of the year, however, dedicating a day to museums is a great idea. Museums are
important for any generation as each museum tells a unique story: a story of people, art and history, which is a
part of our lives.

Photos, text by Tatevik Vardanyan