Tuesday, 16 February 2016
Ministry of Culture Performance in 2015 Summarized
Chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, the Cabinet discussed today the 2015 performance report delivered by Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, which covered the Ministry’s key activities, the fulfillment of the Government’s action plan, priority tasks and estimated performance.
To address the cultural sector and comply with the priorities of the government, the draft law on the protection of historical and cultural monuments and historical environment and a government resolution on inclusion in the list of monuments of history and culture were submitted to the Government in 2015.
Within the framework of the Armenian Genocide creative projects dedicated to the 100th anniversary, several events were held in the fields of music, opera and ballet, theater, fine arts, book publishing industries, projects and international literary projects. In particular, organized were the “100 Concerts” and “With You, Armenia” concerts, Yerevan Perspectives Festival.
Two ballet and seven theatrical performances were staged in the period under review. Armenian paintings were presented at the Venice Biennale exhibition entitled “Hayutiun,” featuring 18 Diaspora artists, where Armenia’s pavilion was awarded the Golden Lion prize and the Beijing International Biennale exhibition entitled “Yerazavayr,” featuring 8 Armenian artists from different countries.
Twelve expositions and two international projects were held in Armenia. Support was provided to 17 films, Entitled “Never Again,” slogan short and feature films were screened in several countries. The Literary Ark-April, Literary Ark 2015 international literary festivals and ArmbookExpo exhibition were organized during the year. In the framework of a global public-political forum entitled “Against the crime of genocide” the National Library of Armenia presented an exhibition referred to as “The Armenian Genocide in Literature.”360 books on the Armenian Genocide in Armenian and other languages were published in 2014-2015.
The Minister of Culture also reported that the theatrical repertoire was enriched in 2015 as part of the Government’s drive for the development of the Armenian theatrical art. Under the program of building youth’s creative potential, support was provided to Art Fest republican open youth festival. 5 performances were staged in compliance with children’s plays project. In the framework of the “Dissemination of cultural products” program, 5 international and national theatrical festivals were held in the period under review. Work was carried out to modernize 10 artistic halls nationwide. Vocational training was provided in parallel to the refurbishment of Aram Khachaturian concert hall.
The Minister of Culture further advised that the halls are mostly resolved, are now performed in the current issue of technical equipment. Aesthetics implemented in the regions of the “Cultural Organization-school” subscription system introduction, “We and Our Region” Youth Culture programs, as well as a number of children’s festivals. To preserve and use the national film heritage, the National Cinema Center of Armenia and the documentary films Hayk Studio SNCO digitized with 21 feature and documentary films.
Noting that the Ministry of Culture made serious efforts both at home and abroad in 2015 in the framework of the Armenian Genocide 100th anniversary, the Prime Minister expressed satisfaction with the Ministry’s activities.
According to Hovik Abrahamyan, events like this are important in terms of cultural studies and therefore, the ministry needs to continue endeavoring in this direction. Hovik Abrahamyan noted that the Ministry has a lot to do in 2016, and many of the programs must be based on an integrated approach.
As a priority, the Prime Minister singled out the problem of preservation of historical and cultural monuments. The Head of Government urged the Ministry of Culture to keep this issue in the spotlight.
