Armenian Museum of America
Saturday, October 21 12-1:30 PM
The Armenian Museum of America, located in Watertown Square, contains the largest and most diverse holding of Armenian cultural artifacts outside of the Republic of Armenia. The collection includes over 20,000 artifacts, including: 5,000 ancient and medieval Armenian coins, over 3,000 textiles and 180 Armenian inscribed rugs, and an extensive collection of Urartian and religious artifacts, ceramics, medieval illuminations and various other items.
Join BOLLI members on Saturday, October 21 at noon for a tour of three floors of the museum, with a focus on two current special exhibitions. The cost is $8 and covers both museum admission and a private tour. Payment can be made through Zelle or Venmo to Jencoplon@gmail.com or by check to Jennifer Coplon, 735 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118. The deadline for payment is October 18. The group wil have lunch together after the tour at a nearby restaurant.
The museum is located at 65 Main Street in Watertown, with parking available at the municipal lots behind the museum.
Read below to find out more about the special exhibitions.
Ara Oshagan: Disrupted, Borders
“Ara Oshagan: Disrupted, Borders” with autobiographic photographic work that focuses on diaspora, displacement and colonization. It combines photography, collage, installation, and film.
Expanding across transnational geographies and interconnected spaces, Disrupted, Borders weaves together several transdisciplinary series of works that address my interest in diasporic identity, afterlives of displacement and colonization, erasure, and (un)imagined futures.
I am interested in diasporic processes and the visible and invisible crossing of physical, cultural, and linguistic borders. My own history and identity is entangled in my work as I live and work directly among disrupted and marginalized communities. In Disrupted, Borders, I employ photography, film, and collage to present a layered and multi-disciplinary vision that intertwines documentary with the imaginary, text with image, fact with speculation, personal history with collective history. Disrupted, Borders entangles past-present-future and considers the afterlives of visible/invisible borders across space and time.
– Ara Oshagan, 2023
If you are interested in learning more about this exhibit, click on the video below.
Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn covering
Known for her charisma, intelligence, and incomparable flamboyance, Joan Agajanian Quinn has served as an inspiration for artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Frank Gehry, Ed Moses, Helmut Newton, Billy Al Bengston and many others.
As artists sought to record her image across a variety of media, Joan Quinn found herself with one of the world’s largest and significant collections of contemporary portraiture — a poignant representation of friendship, appreciation, and respect. On display in “Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn” is a selection of Armenian artists from the collection.
You can learn more about Joan Quinn in the video below.