An Artist Residency with Women Artists in Armenia
Illuminating Women’s Experience through Contemporary Manuscripts
In November of 2016, I traveled to Gyumri, Armenia and introduced Armenian women artists to the book arts. The project strikes light in a dark corner of Armenia and the books they make blaze new trails for the artists. I have conducted four residencies, each between 3-4 weeks long. I hope to return in 2025 to lead three workshops, assisted by the Advanced Artists of this project.
“New Illuminations is not only an extension of the chronology of Armenian book arts into the twenty-first century and a return to the collaborative nature of traditional Armenian book production, but as a whole, the project takes a giant step in carving out a space for women to contribute to, and evolve the practice of bookmaking in Armenia today.”
ERIN PINON
Scholar
I will return in 2025 to conduct three workshops which enable women artists to join the centuries old Armenian lineage of manuscript making, previously made only by men. I travel to Armenia because I am curious about the real lives women artists live there. Not the airbrushed beauty portrayed in magazines, not the highly manicured visage of women seen in popular culture. The women artists I work with have families or live with their parents, and make their work in response to the realities of their daily life.
A return to Armenia means I continue to explore this work in hopes of seeding these women’s future as artists and teachers, capable of carrying this treasured practice of illuminated manuscripts forward in time, in new hands, with new voices raised in love and outcry for the conditions of their lives. You can help me do this.Come stand for and with a community of women who are making beauty in their lives, with eyes on the future, intricately engaged with the legacy of artistic practice in Armenia but aching to make more of their lives there.
For the time being, Suzi has paused raising funds for her next residency. Please join her in prayers for peace to come to Armenia in the war with Azerbaijan. And, for peace in the Ukraine and Russia. These conflicts have driven many refugees to Armenia whose infrastructure is strapped at best.
To learn more about the conflicts, go here: https://oc-media.org/ or https://chaikhana.media/en
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Alison Dunne of NPR’s 51% interview with Suzi.
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Serene Mastrianni’s interview with Suzi on Radio2Women.
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WAM Theatre’s interview with Suzi.
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Harryet Candee’s interview in The Artful Mind magazine. You can view it here.
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New Illuminations was featured in the UK Book Arts Newsletter. View it here on page 52.
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Here on the KASA Foundation site is a piece in Armenian and French, illustrated by Sona Andreasyan.
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The Mirror-Spectator of Watertown, MA ran this feature.
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Fractured Atlas featured Suzi in their Member Spotlight here!
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Asbarez featured a long piece about New Illuminations. Read it here.
Stand closer to New Illuminations by joining a mailing list exclusively for this project. You will receive updates on the project and weekly posts from Gyumri when I am in residence.Support the collective creative energy of women nudging boundaries in Armenia.
Many thanks for your interest in the artists of Gyumri, Armenia and New Illuminations.
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This mailing list is specifically for New Illuminations, to fund raise for the artist residency and to share news from Gyumri about the artists and their work learning to teach the traditional Armenian binding style and experimenting with many book art techniques with Suzi.
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