Vanessa Kachadurian 145th Birth Anniversary of the great Hovhannes Tumanyan

145th birth anniversary of 'All-Armenian poet' Hovhannes Tumanyan

For many years, Yerevan has been honoring the great poet with Tumanyan days, with the festive events annually lasting from April 4 to 11.

Armenia marks the 145th birth anniversary of the master of Armenian literature, great poet Hovhannes Tumanyan, who played a special role not only in the history of his country’s literature but also in the spiritual life of his nation. “The art should be clear and transparent as an eye and as complicated as one,” the poet said. And, true to his beliefs, the language of Tumanyan’s works is wonderfully simple and natural, but lively and picturesque. Even during his lifetime, Tumanyan was called the “All-Armenian poet.”

February 19, 2014

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hovhannes Tumanyan was born on February 19, 1869 in the village of Dsegh, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lori Province, Armenia.)

His father, Aslan (1839-1898), was the village priest known by the name Ter-Tadevos. He was an offspring of an Armenian princely family of Tumanyan, branch of the famous royal house of Mamikonian that settled in Lori in 10th-11th centuries from their original feudal fief of Taron.
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His mother, Sona (1842-1936) was an avid storyteller with a particular interest in fables. Young Tumanyan was the oldest of eight children; his siblings were Rostom (1871-1915), Osan (1874-1926), Iskuhi (1878-1943), Vahan (1881-1937), Astghik (1885-1953), Arshavir (1888-1921), Artashes (1892-1916).

From 1877-1979, Tumanyan attended the parochial school of Dsegh. From 1879-1883 he went to a school in Jalaloghly. Tumanyan moved to Tiflis in 1883, where he attended the Nersisyan School from 1883-1887. Tumanyan's wrote his first poem at the age of 12, while studying in Jalaloghly school. He lived at the teacher's house for a while and was in love with teacher's daughter Vergine. Since 1893, Tumanyan worked for Aghbyur, Murtch, Hasker and Horizon periodicals and also was engaged in public activism.
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In 1888, at the age of 19, Hovhannes Tumanyan got married to Olga Matchkalyan, 17. They had 10 children: Musegh (1889-1938), Ashkhen (1891-1968), Nvard (1892-1957), Artavazd (1894-1918), Hamlik (1896-1937), Anush (1898-1927), Arpik (1899-1981), Areg (1900-1939), Seda (1905-1988), Tamar (1907-1989).

In 1899, Tumanyan came up with an idea of organizing meetings of Armenian intellectuals of the time at his house on 44 Bebutov Street in Tiflis (present-day Amaghleba 18, in Sololaki). Soon it became an influential literary group, which often gathered in the garret of Tumanyan's house. Vernatun means garret in Armenian, which was the name the group was referred to. Prominent members of the collective were Avetik Isahakyan, Derenik Demirchyan, Levon Shant, Ghazaros Aghayan, Perch Proshyan, Nikol Aghbalian, Alexander Shirvanzade, Nar-Dos, Vrtanes Papazyan, Vahan Terian, Leo, Stepan Lisitsyan, Mariam Tumanyan, Gevorg Bashinjagyan and many other significant Armenian figures of early 20th century. With some pauses, it existed until 1908.
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In 1912 Tumanyan was elected the president of the Company of Caucasus Armenian Writers.

In the fall of 1921, Tumanyan went to Constantinople to find support of Armenian refugees. After months spent there, he returned ill. After surgery in 1922, he started to get better. But in September, Tumanyan's disease started to progress again. He was transferred to a hospital in Moscow, where he died on March 23, 1923.
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Tumanyan’s works range from fairy tales, ballads and poems to novels to include: Anush (1892), with Armen Tigranyan’s opera based on the poem, Gikor, David of Sassoun, The Dog and the Cat (1886), Maro (1887), Akhtamar (1891), Davit of Sasun (1902), The Capture of Tmkaberb (1902), A Drop of Honey (1909), The End of Evil (1908), The Shah and the Peddler (1917).

Tumanyan’s house in Tbilisi, Vernatun, built in 1854, was bought out by the local Armenian community to be turned into a cultural center.

For many years, Yerevan has been honoring the great poet with Tumanyan days, with the festive events annually lasting from April 4 to 11.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/details/176058/

 

Vanessa Kachadurian, "Abstraction" to debute at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival

Come see the AWARD-WINNING Abstraction - Feature Film at the famous New Beverly Cinema on February 12, 2014 at 8:30PM, as part of HRIFF. Tickets are only $12 and ON-SALE at: http://goo.gl/mnpq81

ABSTRACTION is an award-winning action crime drama feature film revolving around the heist of a half a million dollar painting, starring Academy Award® nominee Eric Roberts (Dark Knight), Ken Davitian (Borat), Hunter Ives, Korrina Rico (School Dance), Natalie Victoria (Deadheads), Richard Manriquez, James Lewis (Gacy House), Manu Intiraymi (Star Trek), Sam Puefa, Alfred Rubin Thompson (Sons of Anarchy).

PLEASE SUPPORT INDIE FILMS AND THIS FESTIVAL
DID YOU KNOW MOST ACADEMY AWARD WINNING FILMS ARE NOT MAJOR
STUDIO PRODUCTIONS?  Rockie, Descendants, Hurt Locker and many more were made by small studios and indie productions.

Vanessa Kachadurian Armenian Art, 6 screenings in 16 days of award winning documentary

In Lebanon Next week, back to America in February starting in Los Angeles, then 3 screenings in Northern California.   Next ?  Australia and Argentina. 

Vanessa Kachadurian, Armenian Museum changes name

The museum dedicated to Armenian American history and culture in Watertown Square has a new name.

As of Christmas, the Armenian Library and Museum of America changed its name to the Armenian Museum of America Inc., the museum announced in a piece in the Armenian Reporter.

The museum is one of the largest focusing on Armenian culture and history outside of Armenia. It includes exhibitions celebrating 3,000 years of Armenian history, and honors the victims of the Armenian Genocide by creating a permanent museum and library.

The Armenian Museum of America is at 65 Main St. in Watertown. For more information visit the museum website.

http://watertown.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/watertown-armenian-museum-gets-new-name

 

Vanessa Kachadurian on the book "The Whip"

What can I say about this book? It has all the elements I love in a book. Not only is it a true story, but it is historical...paralleling the lack of rights for African Americans and women. I hope the author who is also an accomplished actress turns this into a screenplay and a movie is made out of this great story.

Best Western, 2013 International Book Awards 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards winner, Western fiction category Award-Winner in the 'Fiction: Historical' category of The 2012 USA Best Book Awards Gold Prize in Historical Fiction & Best Western Fiction - 2013 Global Ebook Awards. The Whip is inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west. As a young woman in Rhode Island, she fell in love with a runaway slave and had his child. The destruction of her family drove her west to California, dressed as a man, to track the killer. Charley became a renowned stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo.

She killed a famous outlaw, had a secret love affair, and lived with a housekeeper who, unaware of her true sex, fell in love with her. Charley was the first known woman to vote in America in 1868 (as a man). Her grave lies in Watsonville, California. http://www.amazon.com/The-Whip-Karen-Kondazian/dp/1601823029

Biography Karen Kondazian's career as an actor, writer and producer is as diverse as it is long. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of eight Karen was chosen to be one of the infamous children on Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things. The opportunity to miss school during tapings was all it took for Karen to abandon her life's goal of becoming a CIA spy and focus on acting. She completed her schooling at San Francisco State College, The University of Vienna and The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), after which she began her career in New York. Her first professional work was in the award winning production of Michael Cacoyannis' The Trojan Women at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Her theater career has included starring opposite Ed Harris in Sweet Bird of Youth, Richard Chamberlain in Richard II (dir. Jonathan Miller), Stacy Keach in Hamlet, (dir. Gordon Davidson), Ray Stricklyn in Vieux Carre (West Coast Premiere-Beverly Hills Playhouse, dir. Clyde Ventura, which she also produced). She also starred in Eduardo Machado's off-Broadway play, Broken Eggs (World Premiere, dir. James Hammerstein). She won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in The Rose Tattoo, in which her work as actor and producer so impressed Tennessee Williams that they became friends and he gave her carte blanche to produce any of his work in his lifetime.

Other awards and nominations include Ovation, Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly and Garlands for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Berkeley Rep.), Orpheus Descending (Fountain Theatre, dir. Simon Levy), Night of the Iguana (Old Globe, dir. Jack O'Brien), Lady House Blues, Freedomland (South Coast Rep, dir. David Emmes), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Fountain Theatre, dir. Simon Levy), Master Class (Fountain Theatre, Odyssey Theatre, Lobero Theater, dir. Simon Levy). She has appeared as series regular lead in CBS's Shannon and guest starred in over 50 television shows and films including, TNT's James Dean with James Franco (dir. Mark Rydell), NYPD Blue, Frasier, Steal Big Steal Little with Alan Arkin, Yes Giorgio with Luciano Pavarotti, and played Kate Holliday in Showdown at OK-Corral (David Wolper's award-winning series). Karen is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of Women in Film. Kondazian is a multi-award winning novelist. Her debut novel, The Whip, won the USA News Award for Best Historical Fiction and also the National Indie Excellence Award for Best Western. It was featured on the cover of Publishers Weekly. She is also the author of the best-selling book The Actors Encyclopedia of Casting Directors, with a foreword by Richard Dreyfuss. Her long running weekly column, "Sculpting Your Own Career" appeared in L.A. STAGE, BackStage, and DramaLogue. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Vanessa Kachadurian and the Vernissage Market home for Alternative Art

A Mainstream Home for Alternative Art in Armenia

Vanessa Kachadurian loves the Vernissage Market and recommends it to everyone.

By ELIZABETH ZACH

YEREVAN, Armenia — Every weekend at the Vernissage Market here, locals and tourists survey handsomely woven Persian rugs, vintage Soviet military medals, samovars, chess sets and intricately carved jewelry boxes. It’s like a step back in time to a Silk Road bazaar says Vanessa Kachadurian

In contrast, just across the street sits a staid and humble building, designed as an auditorium when the Cold War was drawing to a close and then, for a time afterward, left vacant. In front, appropriately, is Yervand Kochar’s towering 1959 sculpture “Melancholy,” seemingly serving as a testament to the political and economic crises that have convulsed Armenia since the collapse of Communism in the region nearly a quarter century ago.

The statue, however, also gestures promisingly to the building itself, which since 1995 has housed the Norar Pordzarakan Arvesti Kentovon, or Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art. Founded by Armenian émigrés to the United States and hailed by many as the epicenter of Armenia’s culture revolution and renaissance, it hosts exhibits by young, avant-garde artists and offers concerts and performances in its large auditorium.

Among other endeavors, artists at the center initiated and organized Armenia’s participation at the Venice Biennale in 1995, and continued to do so for eight years. And the center’s founders are set to introduce an independent study program for graduates in the arts and architecture, modeled on a similar one at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

“It used to be that many of our young artists would exhibit their work in underground galleries,” said Sevada Petrossian, the center’s coordinator of architectural events. “We like to think of the center as a mainstream place for alternative art.”

For a city of roughly one million, Yerevan’s artistic standing and cachet have been notable in the past century. In 1972, the Soviet Union established its first Museum of Modern Art here. The city’s National Art Gallery showcases the third-largest collection of European masters in the former Soviet Union, including works by Rodin, Rubens and Tintoretto. And Yerevan itself exudes a distinct bygone elegance, with its softly hued 19th-century tuff stone edifices that line its leafy boulevards.

Aside from the center and its focus on experimental art, there is also the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. Opened in November 2009, it holds an extensive collection of contemporary and glass art, as well as works by Marc Chagall and John Altoon, who was of Armenian descent.

And yet, despite Yerevan’s artistic fervor, when Edward Balassanian and his wife, Sonia, set out to establish the contemporary and experimental art center, they expected — and encountered — resistance.

“While we believe in academic education, we also promote breaking away from it once study is completed,” Mr. Balassanian said. “Those within certain art circles, namely some artists schooled during the Soviet era and most of the members of the Painters Union of Armenia, still either don’t understand the center’s motives and/or vocally reject its projects.”

The Balassanians are part of Armenia’s global diaspora of eight million. They were both born and raised in Iran, fleeing the country in 1979 after the Islamic revolution and eventually settling in New York.

But when Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Mr. Balassanian, an architect and urban planner, and Mrs. Balassanian, a painter and poet who has exhibited at major venues in the United States and Europe, including The Project Room of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, were eager to return.

After the Islamic revolution, Mrs. Balassanian began concentrating her art on cultural, political and social suppression, and she felt a natural calling toward Armenia. In 1992, she organized her first contemporary art exhibit in Yerevan, including her work and that of eight other artists, culminating in the center’s official opening in 1994. She and her husband gradually introduced video and multimedia art to the Armenian art scene, as well as photography as its own art genre.

Not everyone in Yerevan has been receptive. Among those is Anatoly Avetyan, who began his artistic career in the 1970s and has gone on to command strong sales of his art, which includes metal works, paintings and sculptures now owned by current and past presidents of Russia, Finland and Germany, not to mention George W. Bush.

“Much of the best generation of artists has already passed away,” he said. Rather than reinvent the wheel, he said, he and his contemporaries are pushing for a larger building to house the works now at Yerevan’s Museum of Modern Art.

In response, Mr. Balassanian says the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art in 1972 was indeed “a daring act,” and he draws a parallel between it and the center he co-founded.

“It was an expression of resilience and audacity under politically repressive conditions,” he said, noting that his center had “institutionalized the concept and role of the curator as a distinct profession, something that didn’t exist previously in Armenia, as such tasks had been performed by government-appointed managers.”

With poverty, corruption and a weak democracy continuing to bedevil Armenia, the center’s artists say they seek to tether their work to social and political issues alongside questions of national identity and culture. The center organized an exhibition in 2007 called “Yerevan Crisis,” for example, which focused on social problems resulting from rapid growth, a spontaneous boom in high-rise construction and escalating property prices.

This issue was also at play in 1997, when Gagik Ghazareh, a film student at the time, was hard-pressed to find a place to screen his work. Despite Yerevan’s growth, there is only one operating cinema in the city, and he did not feel it fit his alternative genre, he said. A friend suggested contacting the center, which offered him a screening room.

“One year later, I was invited by the center to chair their cinema department,” said Mr. Ghazareh, who joined in 1999, later becoming the center’s artistic director and has since gone on to develop annual festivals in Yerevan for film and theater.

Vahram Akimian, another young filmmaker who joined the center’s staff in 2005, is now the program director for the “One Shot” International Short Film Festival, which has partners in Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Slovakia, among other countries. He was also the center’s associate curator of the Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2009. Today, he is the center’s director of video, cinema and theater.

“Our government speaks of a ‘national culture’ or ‘national art,”’ said Mr. Akimian one afternoon at the center as he looked across the street at the bustling Vernissage Market. “But there’s still no agreement today on what that is.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/arts/international/a-mainstream-home-for-alternative-art-in-armenia.html?_r=0

 

Vanessa Kachadurian "Abstraction" a movie premiere. "Action" "Femme Fatale" and more