Ms. Melkonian is an independent critic, writer, teacher, arts administrator and curator based in New York City. She has organized more than twenty solo art exhibitions and several traveling group-exhibits including Sniper’s Nest: Art that has lived with Lucy R. Lippard based on the private collection of the noted American author and activist. Over the years she has contributed reviews and interviews to many publications, amongst them the AGBU Arts magazine, ARARAT. The vast and diverse talents she has demonstrated whilst working in the United States have earned her great praise.

Her resolve seems to be to elevate and add meaning to existence through the visual arts. This commitment has taken her on various journeys.

Ms. Melkonian founded NK Arts in 1999, a United States based non-profit organization. Shortly thereafter, she established an annual arts festival in Shushi, the once vibrant Armenian cultural centre of the Caucasus. The intent was to produce art projects to stimulate economic growth in that isolated region of the world, revive local crafts on the verge of extinction, and bring dignity and pride to a populace still recovering from a brutal war. Ms. Melkonian remained NK Arts’ director for a number of years.

More recently she opened an exhibition at Pratt Institute’s Manhattan Gallery entitled Blind Dates: New Encounters from the Edges of a former Empire. The project, a reformulation of which is scheduled to open in Yerevan and Istanbul next year, deals with the contemporary traces of cultures, people and places impacted by the Ottoman rupture.

Melkonian recounted how she was introduced to feminism through art while pursuing graduate studies in art history at UCLA in the 1980s, and how it bothered her that at the time no Armenian women artists could be found in the canons of Western art history. So she began to research the topic independently. A few years ago, when she noticed a repetition of such exclusions within major exhibits honoring women artists internationally she decided to do something about it. Armenian women have been present in art since pagan times, through Medieval and Ottoman periods, as well as Soviet and Cold war eras. Accented Feminism will map such presences while paying attention to the concerns expressed in contemporary art made by Armenian women worldwide.

The thought for the project Accented Feminism: Armenian Women and Art began to take definite shape whilst she taught a summer course for curators in Yerevan. Two years later, in 2009, some of those same ideas were echoed in a paper she presented during the Hrant Dink Memorial Workshop in Istanbul.

Ms. Melkonian has been developing the project since then by inviting other researchers and curators to join the phase one of her efforts which she hopes will lead to a related conference in Armenia. She has garnered support from a wide variety of individuals and institutions as well as the Cultural Ministry of the Republic of Armenia. As she travels to different cities to speak about the project she also encourages individuals from respective communities to mobilize and help raise the financial support necessary to bring such a project to fruition. The enthusiastic response that Ms. Melkonian received at the end of her presentation in Toronto indicates that her thoughts found resonance amongst the audience here as well. If interested to help or learn more about the project you may write to AccentedFeminism@aol.com.

isa basmajian

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Toronto’s Youth Impress Community and Yerevan Artist at This Year’s Musical Talent Show

Aspiring Armenian musicians across Toronto recently had their moment in the spotlight at the city’s annual AGBU Talent Show. On Sunday, March 11, 2012, twenty-five local youths, ages six to 18, shared the stage at the Alex Manoogian Cultural Center.

Seated among the 100 parents, friends and teachers that filled the Centre’s Babayan Ballroom was one special guest who had inspired many of the acts – pianist Jirayr Shahrimanyan from Yerevan. The children were excited to have Shahrimanyan in the audience, and the feeling was mutual. As Shahrimanyan commented after the show, “It is a great pleasure for me to meet the Armenian youth within AGBU Toronto. Working with them is one of the highlights of my stay here.” In addition to Shahrimanyan’s compositions, the show featured guitarists and the AGBU youth vocal group, which Hripsime Demirdjian directs.

While the show’s performances varied, the positive energy remained constant. AGBU Toronto’s Executive Director Salpi Der Ghazarian remarked, “It was a treat to feel the confidence and enthusiasm of the young performers, as well as the pride of the parents watching their children perform.” They already look forward to next year’s event. Until then, these talented youth will enjoy tokens from the evening, which included a certificate acknowledging their achievements.

Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world’s largest non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually serving some 400,000 Armenians in 35 countries.

First, we were pleased to have Dan Antreasyan, Assistant Director of AGBU’s Camp Nubar join us from New York for an informative presentation and reunion. The presentation helped future campers and parents alike realize the incredible opportunities offered by Camp Nubar, which is quickly approaching its 50th anniversary. The evening also allowed past campers, counselors and parents reminisce on some of their most cherished memories and enlighten potential campers about the richness of the program and the variety of activities offered. As a special bonus for the Toronto community, Dan presented an incredible group rate for potential campers.

Following the presentation, the Sports & Youth Committee presented an exciting basketball game between our Junior Boys and Girls teams. The game was a thrilling match to say the least; although the girls led throughout most of the game, the boys managed to pull off the victory by a mere 5 points. The audience witnessed a fun game and both teams were happy to participate in a fundraiser which will help them represent Toronto at the AGBU World Games in Los Angeles this summer.

For more information about Camp Nubar or our other great programs, please contact us at (416) 431-2428.

For more information about YPTO, please email yptoronto@gmail.com or visit www.ypto.ca.

Our association with the Toronto Raptors has been very successful over the past 2 years. In addition to our visit this weekend, we were able to bring former Toronto Raptor Sunny Weems Summer Basketball Camp to our community centre in September 2010. We look forward to possibly holding another visit to see a game in the coming months, so please keep an eye out for more information very soon!!!!!!!

We would like to thank all those who supported the event this past Sunday.
Sincerely,

Jack Hagop Semerdjian
Chair – AGBU Toronto Sports & Youth Committee