Armenian Museum of America Launches Matching Membership Challenge for 50th Anniversary

Dear Friend,

Greetings from the Armenian Museum of America!

As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, please join us in toasting the vision and perseverance of our founders who built and stewarded the largest collections of Armenian artifacts in the Diaspora.

The challenges we have all faced during the pandemic have shown that we are resilient. Our dedicated team of professionals at the Museum have been updating our galleries with objects from our collection in anticipation of the day when we would be able to welcome you back. That day has finally come, and we could not be more thrilled!

One of our goals in celebrating this milestone is to dramatically increase the Museum’s membership. We are reaching out to members, donors, visitors, and friends of the Museum to participate in this membership drive.

As a special incentive, and in honor of this special anniversary year, a donor has generously offered to match the sum of all new and renewed memberships made throughout 2021. We hope you will join this exciting matching membership challenge!

Membership offers a range of benefits (click here for details) and allows us to continue our mission to preserve, protect, and share our collection and cultural programs with people around the world.

We reopened in June with revamped galleries including the “art, culture, eternity” exhibition on our first floor and new contemporary art exhibits on our third floor. We look forward to welcoming you back and hope you will remain engaged with our online programs including concerts, monthly exhibitions, digitized music from our record collection, and weekly Show and Tell videos with our curator!

We hope you will become a part of the Armenian Museum family (click here to join). 

Our Mission is more important now than ever, especially as Armenians are facing ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure in Artsakh. Your membership today will support the preservation of Armenian heritage and culture in perpetuity.

Respectfully yours,

Jason Sohigian
Executive Director

Armenian Museum of America Statement on Artsakh Cultural Heritage

The Armenian Museum of America regrets the loss of life, injuries, and displacement of Armenians from Artsakh caused by the resumption of war on September 27, 2020. In the aftermath of the war, we express our solidarity with colleagues in the scholarly and cultural heritage community around the world, who are calling attention to the threat of cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.

We are concerned about the Armenian monuments, artifacts, and buildings that are now threatened in areas under Azerbaijani control. We have witnessed the erasure of the Armenian presence in Nakhichevan in recent decades, and Azerbaijan has even resorted to widespread historical revisionism within the past month.

Armenians contributed widely to the development of civilization and culture in the region from ancient pre-Christian sites to medieval monasteries that are awe-inspiring wonders of the world. This is a part of Armenia’s heritage, but it is also a part of the world’s rich culture.

The Armenian Museum of America has doubled down on its mission to protect, preserve, and share Armenia’s heritage so it will forever endure. In our role as a living museum, we are responding with a renewed focus on two areas:

1) New exhibitions documenting our rich cultural heritage, and
2) Safekeeping items of national importance in perpetuity

We stand ready to assist our colleagues and compatriots guarding Armenia’s patrimony and to curate programs so people of all ethnic backgrounds can learn more about our contributions to the cultural fabric of the world.

About the Armenian Museum of America
The Armenian Museum of America is the largest Armenian Museum in the Diaspora. It has grown into a major repository for all forms of Armenian material culture that illustrate the creative endeavors of the Armenian people over the centuries. Today, the Museum’s collections hold more than 25,000 artifacts including 5,000 ancient and medieval Armenian coins, 1,000 stamps and maps, 30,000 books, 3,000 textiles and 180 Armenian inscribed rugs, and an extensive collection of Urartian and religious artifacts, ceramics, medieval illuminations, and various other objects. The collection includes historically significant objects, including five of the Armenian Bibles printed in Amsterdam in 1666.

Armenian Museum of America
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472
www.armenianmuseum.org

Jason Sohigian Joins Armenian Museum of America as Executive Director

Armenian Museum of America Executive Director Jason Sohigian (Photograph by Tamar Barsamian) 

WATERTOWN, MA--After a lengthy search period, the Armenian Museum of America has recently hired Jason Sohigian as the organization’s Executive Director. 

Jason has degrees from Clark University and Harvard University Extension School, and he is well-known locally, nationally, and internationally for his volunteerism and professional work. He has appeared on numerous panels and was featured as speaker at one of the prestigious TEDx events in Yerevan.

Jason served as Editor of the Armenian Weekly newspaper, and most recently as Deputy Director of the Armenia Tree Project. His work at ATP over the past 15 years focused on development, marketing, and environmental sustainability.

“As a leader in the non-profit sector, Jason has led many efforts here in the US as well as in Armenia to help organizations expand and promote their mission,” says Michele Kolligian, President of the Board of Directors. “Jason is a very passionate and proud Armenian with a strong interest in our heritage and rich history. Among other things, his knowledge will play a vital part in our efforts to present the Museum’s incredible coin collection donated to us by the late Paul and Vickie Bedoukian, and their son, Dr. Robert and his wife Gail.”  

In 2015, Jason co-founded the Armenian Numismatic and Antiquities Society, which has held several “antiques roadshow” type events, published a journal/newsletter, and developed a website and social media presence for collectors, historians, and enthusiasts. 

“To say these are unprecedented times has become a real understatement these days, especially for our community. On top of a global pandemic, we are following an ongoing war in Artsakh every day,” notes Sohigian. “Nevertheless, the Museum has been updating its exhibitions and expanding its virtual offerings. As a living museum, we are more than just a collection of artifacts. Our goal is to increase our membership and continue to curate exhibitions and programs as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in the coming year. We will offer something for everyone.”

Jason lives in Watertown with his wife Vicki and their two children.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jason to the Armenian Museum and wish him all the best in his position as Executive Director,” adds Kolligian. “Our goal is to raise the profile of the Museum through exhibitions, public programming, and expanding partnerships. We hope to see more visitors to the Museum in the near future when the pandemic subsides and it safe to resume normal operations. In the meantime, we wish everyone good health and well-being, and wish the same for our Armenian brothers and sisters in Artsakh.”

Founded in 1971, the Armenian Museum of America has grown into a major repository for all forms of material culture that illustrate the creative endeavors of the Armenian people over the centuries. Today, the collections hold more than 20,000 artifacts including 5,000 ancient and medieval coins, over 3,000 textiles and 180 Armenian inscribed rugs, and an extensive collection of Urartian and religious artifacts, ceramics, medieval illuminations, and contemporary art. The Library houses archival materials, more than 27,000 titles, and an oral history collection.

The Museum has the largest and most diverse collection of Armenian objects outside of the Republic of Armenia.

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.