Artwork  »  Empowering with Art

"Empowering with Art" posters (photo collage of installed views), Berd, Tavush Region, Armenia Srboohie Abajian delivering "Empowering with Art", Berd, Tavush Region, Armenia "We Are Unbreakable I" (installation view with artist), Berd Museum of Art, Tavush Region, Armenia Srboohie Abajian and others installing "Empowering with Art", Berd School of Music, Tavush Region, Armenia "We Are Unbreakable II" (installation view), Berd School of Music, Tavush Region, Armenia Srboohie Abajian and others installing "Empowering with Art", Berd Cultural Center, Tavush Region, Armenia "The Armenian Spirit Is Unbreakable" (installation view with artist), Berd Cultural Center, Tavush Region, Armenia

About "Empowering with Art"

 

I fulfilled my "Empowering with Art" project overseas in Armenia, where remote communities had been ravaged by war.

The idea came to me after the 44-Day War in 2020, where Azerbaijan aggressively attacked indigenous Armenian lands in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). And in the war's aftermath, Azerbaijani authorities have continued their aggression, war crimes, and human rights violations against Armenian people, even on sovereign Armenian land.

"Empowering with Art" reached villagers who live on the borders of Armenia, uplifting them and giving them strength through art.

In 2022, with the support of the Puffin Foundation, I completed 3 large-scale posters. The murals reinforce positive slogans like "We Are Unbreakable," and "The Armenian Spirit Is Unbreakable." I partnered with YES Armenia to identify and contact remote villages near the Armenian border.

I traveled to Armenia in late 2022, and I visited the town of Berd in the Tavush region, near Armenia's border with Azerbaijan. I donated my three artworks to cultural institutions in the town of Berd.

These large-scale posters (6' x 4') found a permanent home in the Berd Cultural Center, Berd Music School, and Berd Museum of Art.

 

Srboohie Abajian—2023

 

 

 

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Puffin Award
May, 2022

Received Puffin Foundation grant for "Empowering with Art" public art project

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YES Armenia Partnership
2022–2023

Partnered with YES Armenia for outreach and transportation to remote villages in Armenia