MUSEUMS OF ARMENIA WAIT FOR PARTNERSHIP

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From 21 to October, 28, 2012 a pre-monitoring visit to the Republic of Armenia of the expert group of the project “New breath of culture: fill heritage with life of arts” which is implemented within the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme funded by the European Union took place. The purpose of the visit was the project presentation and meetings with non-governmental organizations and museums which had submitted applications to participate in the project. The total number of applications is 94 (15 are from museums and 79 are from NGOs).

On October, 22 an official presentation of the project organized by the project partner from the Republic of Armenia – Armenian Young Women Association (AYWA) took place in the Geological Museum named after H. Karapetyan, Yerevan. During the presentation the conversation again dealt with best practices worthy of being used in order that traditional museums grew into cultural centers for local communities.
Within a week the expert group visited eight regions of Armenia, i.e. all 15 museums which had submitted applications to participate in the project. Leaders of NGOs which showed interest in the development of partner relationships with those museums were invited to the meetings as well. The general impression of the state of the museums-applicants is positive enough. Through the efforts of museum workers exhibitions are up to the mark, museums are interesting, various and inspiring for collaboration. In the settlements where there are several museums they compete with each other in a friendly manner – each is craving to be a visiting-card of the region.
The expert group came to the conclusion that Armenia has understanding of importance of museum for society; therefore the attempts to support museums by all possible means are noticeable enough. But like in Ukraine and in Georgia local museum managers tend to count on development of tourism more than on work with communities. That is they depend upon external factors, but not upon their own possibilities. Meanwhile there are bright examples of how youths full of enthusiasm and love to their native land and its history destroy stereotypes in relation to indifference of new generation toward preservation of historical and cultural heritage. Thus, in Dzhrarat (the suburb of Razdan) a future museum specialist Armen Ayvazyan collected an extraordinarily interesting ethnographic collection and despite all difficulties insistently works over creation of a fully fledged museum.
In the cities of Eghegnadzor and Dilijan museums moved to new buildings and made attractive exhibitions, but they are far from becoming the centers of cultural life in the region yet. However, participation in the project will give them a chance to find out community needs and involve NGOs in collaboration. The National Architecture and Ethnic Museum in Gyumri has already created not only a remarkable exhibitions but also tries to develop infrastructure having started with opening an ethnic cafe on the ground floor.
The museum’s branch – the Museum named Sergey Merkurov – located to the next door houses the Center of Creation which is open for all sections of the population. By the way, the museum workers deal with such target group as disabled people developing the programs of art-therapy.
A separate discussion in relation to the course of events within the project took place at the EU Delegation to Armenia, where two partner organizations told about the experience gained, successes and difficulties which have to be overcome so far for building effective international cooperation within the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme.

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