1995_05 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper May 1995

              4—A&E
Hye Sharzhoom
May 1995
Eleventh Annual Saroyan Festival
By Karen Karabian
Hye Sharzhoom
Ben Amirkhanian was one man
with a vision. A vision of unity,
appreciation, and recognition that
begins in 1985. It was the celebration of Fresno County's anniversary and Ben led a walk through
Saroyan's "Armenian town." The
response and participation was so
successful that the William Saroyan
Festival Committee was formed to
honor a remarkable literary talent.
"Saroyan was a persistent
writer with a style of his own. He
was fast on a bicycle. Saroyan
delivered telegrams on his bike and
the first twenty dollars he made
was spent on a typewriter. It was a
time when making a living as a
writer was unheard of," Ben recalled.
To mark Saroyan's riding days,
the Festival will feature two days
of bicycling for 400 racers. Saturday, May 20, there will be an eight
mile course east of town and Sunday, May 21, riders will tackle forty
laps around eight city blocks.
Other activities include: The
Saroyan Armenian Historical Walk
on April 29. Thursday and Friday,
May 12 and 13, two plays written
by William Saroyan will be performed live on stage at the
Laundromat Performance Space,
1114 N. Fulton—"The California
Boyhood of William Saroyan" and
"The Best Year in the History of
the World." For tickets call 222-
0674.
The committee also sponsors
a writing contest for students first
grade through college. Treasury
bonds are awarded to the winners
and their names will be announced
on 88.1 FM June 4 at 8:00.
On June 26, the Saroyan in the
Park Band Concert will take place
beginingat6:30at Woodward Park.
An expected 3,000 will be present
to enjoy the festivities.
Fifty short stories written by
William Saroyan about famous and
not so famous people he met will be
available only at the Festival.
The first obstacle appeared
when the committee attempted to
implement its tradition of activities
by publishing a general calendar.
This approach was hit and miss
since the majority of the public
remained unaware of the festivities. Recently a public relations
man under former Governor George
Deukmejian has organized a media
guide, mailing list, and press re
leases in order to take advantage of
the main sources of publicity.
The main priority facing Chairman Don Eskender and committee
is to ensure that all events go off
smoothly. The committee hopes to
expand their activities in the future
to encompass as much of the public
as possible. They have shown an
interest in including adults in the
Saroyan writing contest.
Saroyan is the only writer to
receive the prestigious Pulitzer
Prize (although he did not accept it)
and honored with the Drama Critic
Circle Award in the same year.
Saroyan's Oscar is on permanent
display at the Fresno Met.
The William Saroyan Festival
Committee anticipates a huge turnout of Armenian and non-Armenians. "For Saroyan was a famous
native son, he was born in America
and became an American writer,"
said Ben Amirkhanian.
The Festival Committee is a
way of appreciating Saroyan.
Amirkhanian stated, "It represents
the deserving recognition for
Saroyan's literary works, Broadway plays, and as many as 150
unpublished books yet to be discovered."
Armenian Painting Course
creates student interest
By Sean Clark
Hye Sharzhoom
What is Armenian art? Art created by Armenians seems like a
reasonable answer. However, is an
Armenian artist painting New England barns creating Armenian art?
Perhaps, then, by definition it is art
done in Armenia. Would that
qualify an Italian artist sketching
Armenian churches? Our need to
categorize creativity with labels
falls short when describing contemporary works. There was however, one time-period from which
art can be separated and identified
as purely Armenian. Manuscript
illustration or miniature painting
done by Armenian artists, with
Armenian scribes, bound by Armenian bookmakers in Armenia is
an excellent window to the origins
of Armenian art. The earliest fragmented pages begin adramatic progression of art and storytelling,
beginning from copied works-of-
ten of foreign sources-leading to
the unique masterpieces of the Armenian greats.
This journey was recendy directed, as a course of study at California State University Fresno, by
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, Haig &
Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies. The intensive
three-week study incorporating five
centuries of Armenian Gospel miniatures was only an introduction to
the immensity of the subject. One
would not think the study of manuscripts over a millennia old as ongoing process, but there is still much
to be discovered. The information
is extensive and the trained schol
ars are few, therefore the class was
encouraged to offer independent
points of view. The attendance was
composed of students currently
enrolled and«members of the com-
munity-at-large eager to investigate this rare opportunity of study.
The class was assigned the role
of the scholar. So much is still
unknown about these miniatures
that many interpretations are open
to fine tuning. We looked at the
images deductively and learned
from them simultaneously. The
dynamic of the course was to be
exposed to as many miniatures as
possible. The emphasis of individual description was association
to time period and other related
material. The three week course
benefited from these approaches
by immersing us in the total scholarly experience. We absorbed and
assimilated the material more efficiently than had the format been
the normal twelve weeks.
Even with the compressed time
advantage the amount of data was
over and above what can be covered in a three unit section. There
areover 30,000known manuscripts
with some 5,000 to 7,000 containing one or more miniatures. In the
first meeting alone, we viewed over
onehundred slide reproductions and
still barely scratched the surface.
Starting from fragments attributed
to the late 6th century we discovered images dated beyond 1,000
A.D. The challenge put to us was to
find the correlations between images, and then relate them to other
known sources, whether Armenian,
Byzantine, Latin or Persian. Indi
vidual topics included references
to iconography, text, binding,
parchmentand even Sunday School
lessons for the Biblical stories. In
all, Dr. Kouymjian covered more
information than time would allow.
We learned that to our instructor Armenian miniature painting
was more than a subject to be taught-
tbis is his life's work. The slides of
the miniatures were photographed
by him. Major scholarly studies
have been published by him. And
the advancement of the field is his
focused priority. For us, on the receiving end, we drew knowledge
directly from the source. It is true
that a group of students can be
overwhelmed by quantity: over
twenty-five years of research do
not condense easily into three weekends. Despite these limitations, the
depth and beauty of the miniatures
came through, as did Dr.
Kouymjian' s own passion for these
rarities. His efforts continue in a
fashion that bespeaks an expertise
not often found at the California
State University.
Beyond the course, Dr.
Kouymjian seeks to advance the
study of the Armenian Arts. His
devotion to manuscriptresearch has
put him on the cutting edge of technology. Currently he is in the midst
of initiating the first CD-ROM database of the Index of Armenian
Art, an enormous undertaking unprecedented in its breadth. It is that
kind of vision that Armenian Miniature Painting 121 came out of.
ARMENIAN STUDIES PROGRAM
FALL 1995
SCHEDULE OF COURSES
ArmS 10-Intro Arm Studies 1010-1100 MWF
ArmS KHntro Arm Studies 0945-1100 TTh
Arm S 10-Intro ArmStudies 1245-1400 TTh
Armenian 1A- Elem Arm     1110-1200 MTWtf
Arm S 45- W Saroyan 1245-1400 TTh
Arm S 108A- Arm History I 0900-1000 MWF
Arm S 120T- Arm Film 1810-2200 T
Arm S 120T- Arm Cooking   1710-2200 F
0910-1700 S
Course meets the weekend of Sept. 29,30
Arm S 120T-Arm Church     1710-2200 F
0910-1700S
\Course meets the weekend of Oct. 13,14
Books and Gifts
to ASP
Gifts to the Armenian Studies
Program Sahatdjian Library
and Avedian Archives
Professor Dickran Kouymjian
and the Sahatdjian Library of
the Armenian Studies Program
would like to thank the authors
and publishers for the following
books and periodicals.
Books
Beledian, Krikor, LesArmeniens,
in the series Fils d'Abraham,
Maredsous, Belgium: Editions
Brepols, 235 pages with maps
andcolorplates. Ahandyover-
view of the religious history,
literature, and art of Armenia
by one of France's leading
authorities on Armenian literature. Krikor Beledian is
Professor of Armenian in Paris
and Lyon and a poet
Der Mugrdechian, Jr., Bob, for a
copy of Volume 5 of the
Gantzasar Armenian Theological Journal. The Journal is
published by the Diocese of
the Armenian Apostolic
Church of Artsakh.
Kamalyan, Seyran, Avon mer
achkerov [Avo through Our
Eyes], Erevan: Nairi, 1994,238
account of Monte Melkonian
and how he was loved and
respected in Armenia and
Karabagh.
Shemmassian, Vahram, for an
important collection of Armenian language books on Armenian history. These books
cover a wide period in Armenian history.
Varoujan Mardirian. Sculptures
1985-1994, Beirut, 1994, 95
pages, beautifully illustrated
with color and black and white
reproductions. Available
through Marine Mardirian,
1331 Bamngton Way, Glen-
dale, CA 91206. A stunning
catalogueof Mardirian's sculptures in wood.
Whitmore, Jon, William Saroyan.
A Research and Production
Sourcebook, Westport-Lon-
don: Greenwood Press, 1994,
268 pages. A particularly rich
guide to Saroyan's theater with
synopses of his major plays.
Full of new information on
production and archival material. Jon Whitmore is Dean of
the College of Fine Arts at the
University of Texas in Austin
and holder of the Effie Marie
Cain Regents Chair in Fine
Arts.
Etian Appointed Peace Corps
Director for Armenia
Sylva Etian has been appointed
to the position of Peace Corps Director for Armenia. She has been
working in the field of international
development since she served as a
TEFL volunteer in the Ivory Coast
in 1973.
From 1990 to 1994 Ms. Etian
was employed by the Centers for
Diseae Control as a technical advisor for AIDS and child survival to
the Nigerian Ministry of Public
Health.
From 1983 to 1987 Ms. Etian
workedfor USAJ.D as the regional
director of the Center for Nutritional Planning, an institute of the
Zairian Ministry of Public Health.
Ms. Etian is very excited about
the challenges of working and living in Armenia. She is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Hovig Etian of
Clovis.