Month: February 2015

HOW ARMENIA SHAPED THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN SKYLINE

Jakarta Globe, Indonesia
Feb 16 2015

By Antony Sutton on 11:28 am Feb 16, 2015

As long as there has been cross-border trade there have been expats.

Be they Chinese from poor coastal villages in search of a better life,
or unskilled laborers from India dragooned by colonial overlords;
soldiers of fortune from the Japan or sons of the British Empire
brought up on boys’ own tales of pomp and riches, people have bid
farewell to their own shores and traveled in search of a brave
new world.

Expats come and expats go, but their legacy varies. Jakarta’s historic
Old Town is a testament to centuries of Dutch colonialism, India’s tea
plantations legacy to Europeans love of tea. And the Chinese influence
lives on in boardrooms of some of the wealthiest conglomerates in
the region.

And then we have the Armenians. As trade opened up the East and brought
yet more opportunities for the opportunistic, others followed in
the footsteps of the hardy pioneers, including people from an often
overlooked nation sitting at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Little remains of the Armenian presence in Southeast Asia beyond the
odd church, road name and hotel. But what hotels?

Tigran Sarkies was his name, a precocious 23-year-old, and in 1882
he was working as an auctioneer in Georgetown, Penang. He must have
tired of banging the gavel because a couple of years later he opened
the Eastern Hotel and two years after he launched the Oriental Hotel
with his brother, Martin.

Another brother, Aviet, was brought in to manage the Eastern, while
Tigran and Martin extended the Oriental, which they reopened in 1889 —
renamed as the Eastern & Oriental, or E&O as it was know by generations
of planters and officials during those colonial times.

In just a few short years the name Sarkies became so synonymous with
hotels that Sir Frank Swettenham, who has more than left his own
imprint on the peninsula, first related an oft-told joke.

“A little boy at school was asked by his teacher who the Sakais
[indigenous Malay peoples] were, and he replied they were people who
kept hotels!”

In 1891 a fourth brother, Arshak, arrived on the scene and his industry
led to the constant reinvention of the E&O until it acquired its
moniker of the premier hotel east of Suez. Quite a character was
Arshak who could often be seen waltzing round the ballroom of his
hotel with a whiskey soda on his head.

Buoyed by the early success of the island-based hotel, Tigran and
Martin looked into opening a hotel in Singapore. A suitable premise
was found on the corner of Beach Rd. and Bras Brasah Rd.

The bungalow had been a boarding house for students at the Raffles
Institution and needed little renovation. By December 1887, Tigran
opened Raffles with the guarantee of “great care and attention the
comfort of boarders and visitors.”

Again the brothers had backed a winner. Extensions in 1889 increased
the capacity but the demand was still outstripping supply.

Martin returned to Persia in 1890, leaving Tigran to oversee the
construction of Palm Court Wing in 1894, which brought the total
numbers of rooms to 75.

Another wing was opened in November 1899, which led the somewhat stuffy
Straits Times to gush “palatial building with excellent ventilation,
and the vast airy dining room would make Raffles one of the largest
and handsomest hotels in the East.”

Now, with 100 suites, Raffles also was the only hotel in the area
lit by electricity and with a 10,000 gallon water tank!

The last tiger to be killed in Singapore was taken out in the Bar &
Billiard Room. I’m not sure what the patrons’ reaction was to having
their game interrupted by a great cat taking refuge under their feet.

As was common in many buildings at that time, the bar was raised off
the ground to prevent flooding and the tiger had hidden in the recess.

Given the popularity of tiger hunting, no doubt a few of the worthies
would have been disappointed they hadn’t pulled the trigger.

Today it is peaceful and makes for a nice stroll, taking in Chinese
temples and a house used by Dr. Sun Yat Sen as he plotted to
overthrow the Chinese government but in the past has been the scene
for disturbances between various secret societies.

Further south in Singapore stands the Armenian Church, the oldest in
the country. Today it is surrounded by high rises, while a busy road
provides a non-stop symphony of sounds; hardly the place of relaxation
and contemplation.

The neatly manicured gardens have a handful of tombstones, many
featuring the name Sarkie. It is tempting to try and lose yourself in
the moment and imagine Martin and Tigran taking time out from running
a hostelry and seeking solace within the walls of the small church,
but the 21st century is just too close, as is a busy intersection
and a bus stop.

Closer to home Lucas, son of Martin, eschewed the Sarkies successful
practice of setting up in the wake of the British colonials and headed
south east, to Surabaya, a city famous on the maritime maps of the
day but also home to a fair-sized Armenian community.

He opened the Oranje Hotel in 1910, named after the Dutch colonials
in the East Indies. That the Sarkies had opened a hotel was enough
to tempt people to visit the hot and sweaty town in East Java.

Charlie Chaplin, a familiar figure on the screen and at Raffles
attended the opening ceremonies of a refurbishment in 1936.

The Japanese arrived with the invasion of Java and used the hotel as
a barracks, changing the name to Hotel Yamoto.

The Indonesians declared their independence after the war on Aug. 17
but that didn’t stop the Anglo Dutch Country Section Office moving
into the hotel, room number 33 to be precise. On Sept. 19 at 6 a.m.

the officials raised the Dutch flag atop the hotel.

The Surabayans, angered by this arrogance, attacked the hotel, climbed
on to the roof and pulled down the symbol of oppression. They tore
off the blue band on the flag leaving just the red and white, merah
putih, the colors of the independent Indonesia.

TER-PETROSYAN CALLS FOR HEAD TO HEAD MEETING WITH SARGSYAN

Huewire News
Feb 17 2015

Levon Ter-Petrosyan has required a one on one gathering with Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan to actually pass on his worries in regards
to the as of late issued Pan-Armenian Proclamation on the event of
the 100th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. The declaration
was drafted by a state dedicatory arranging board of trustees and
Ter-Petrosyan contends that the body has violated its power by
asserting that it represents the “united will” of all Armenians.

Faceless Council

Armenia’s first president likewise contends that given that
the announcement was tending to the global group it would have
been instilled with more noteworthy gravitas and lawful political
noteworthiness had it been marked by the presidents of Armenia and
Artsakh and church ;eaders as opposed to a few faceless council.

Ter-Petrosyan likewise blames the decree as somewhat more than a
final proposal to Turkey, imminent Ankara to perceive also denounce
the Armenian Genocide submitted by the Ottoman Empire, however,
that it neglects to determine what Armenian arrangements to do if,
and when, Turkey neglects to do as such.

In his public statement to Sargsyan, Ter-Petrosyan additionally
suggests the thought of arranging a consultative panel to at
last portray the position of the Republic of Armenia vis-vis the
Genocide issue. Ter-Petrosyan says that such a panel would utilize
the announcement as a premise to draft another reminder, marked by
the president of Armenia, to be sent to the United Nations Secretary
General, the presidents of the OSCE as well as the EU, and to all
heads of state.

Taking everything into account, Ter-Petrosyan says that such an
update should not harm the arrangement of the most vital issues now
confronting Armenia, in particular a determination of Armenia-Turkey
relations and the Karabakh clash. Ter-Petrosyan then recommends
individuals to sit on the consultative council; people who have
effectively demonstrated fit for climbing above conventional
recognitions and who can see the matter from the point of view of
Armenian state engages and in the connection of contemporary received
worldwide standards.

The folks proposed are:

>From Armenia: Babken Ararktsyan, Gagik Harutyunyan, Vano Siradeghyan,
Vazgen Manukyan, Vardan Oskanyan, Stepan Demirchyan, Ruben Shugaryan,
Alexander Arzumanyan, Arman Grigoryan, Ashot Voskanyan, Ruben
Vardanyan, Ashot Sargsyan, Ara Sahakyan, Ktrich Sardaryan, Hrant
Ter-Abrahayan.

>From the U.S. – Jirair Libaridian, Ruben Atalian, Ara Sanjian,
Khachig Tllyan, Hampig Sarafian plus Raffi Urfalian.

>From France – Arman Sarian, Michel Marian, Jirayr Malkhasian,
Raffi Kalfayian.

>From Turkey – Levon Zekiyan

>From Argentina – Rupen Mozian.

Ter-Petrosyan says that he would be eager to partake in the exercises
of the panel and that he couldn’t care less how his “antagonistic
companions” see his drive. Ter-Petrosyan closes by saying that the
basic of his drive, paying little respect to the turmoil it will
bring about, is made all the more critical given the forthcoming
100th commemoration of the Genocide.

WORDPLAY: HOW HOLOCAUST INFLAMED OUR LANGUAGE

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Feb 17 2015

Books
David Astle

Holocaust caused an unholy row in Parliament this month. Prime
Minister Tony Abbott summoned the noun to describe Labor’s lollygagging
over submarine contracts: “There was a holocaust of jobs in defence
industries under member opposite.”

To be fair to the PM, he promptly withdrew his remark, apologising for
any offence. Going by the media meltdown, that offence was palpable.

Forums erupted, intensified no doubt by the recent anniversary of
the Auschwitz liberation, some 70 years ago.

While the rhetoric was gauche, the analogy regrettable, the same gaffe
has lent us a chance to delve deeper into the word, to understand
how it’s come to be such a sacrament.

Say the word in isolation, and almost every listener will link
holocaust to the murder of six million Jews during World War II. Even
without a capital H, that brutality has become the word’s foremost
association.

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Dictionaries, however, tend to offer the older definition first.

Originally holocaust implied a burnt offering, deriving from Greek
where holos means whole, and kaustos is a cousin of kauein – to burn,
our source of caustic and cauterise. A Bible translator named William
Tyndale hoisted the word into prominence in 1526.

The verse in focus was Mark 12:33. In the King James Version of 1611,
the wording went like this: “… and to love [his] neighbour as
himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Yet
Tyndale lent the Sadducee’s remark a more purple shade, replacing
burnt offerings with holocausts.

In tragic irony, Tyndale himself was burnt at the stake for opposing
Henry VIII’s divorce in 1535, the word he’d revived from obscurity
going on to thrive for centuries to come. First as a sacrifice, and
later a widespread massacre. Winston Churchill himself described the
Armenian genocide of World War I as an “administrative holocaust” –
in 1915.

A decade later, F. Scott Fitzgerald commandeered the word in The
Great Gatsby. Without spoiling the plot, a certain body is found in
the garden, one more death to add to the toll – “and the holocaust
was complete”.

World War II changed the world, and the word, indelibly. What entered
the fray as a noun, fast emerged as a global lament. Auschwitz survivor
Elie Wiesel is deemed the writer to establish the association in
1963. Before then, the Jewish label for the Nazi savagery oscillated
between the Shoah (calamity) and the Churban (destruction).

Yet affirming the name took some time. The biggest obstacle was
the notion of atonement that underpinned the sacrificial sense. But
for Wiesel and others, the emphasis lay on those sacrificed, rather
than the Nazis, or so-called sacrificers. Come 1981, the grim nuance
arrived in mainstream dictionaries, its capital H one more tribute
to the victims.

Holocaust is not alone among nouns in possessing historical
sensitivity. Ground zero and pogrom have a similar potency, apartheid
and crucifixion, just as troubles with a capital T is a sacred
utterance in Belfast. Though for scale alone, holocaust has entered
its own exclusivity zone, as Mr Abbott was quick to see.

In our age of rage, as Richard King identifies our era in his book On
Offence, the sanctity surrounding the h-word has been a more recent
shift. I say this since three previous politicians – John Howard,
Bob Brown and Paul Keating – all enlisted the word separate from its
Jewish context, earning far less reproof. As a litmus test, Abbott’s
cheap shot was conclusive.

Not that the PM was nimble in his retraction, replacing holocaust with
a word as likely to rile a different audience. By strict definition,
decimation means the killing of one in ten, just as Romans murdered
a tenth of mutineers, or enemy prisoners. Unless Labor’s lull over
submarines wiped out 10 per cent of our defence forces, then the
Pedant Union demands an immediate correction.

NO RECORD OF AGGRESSION AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS IN IRAN: LEADER

Mehr News, Iran
Feb 17 2015

TEHRAN, Feb. 17 (MNA) – Iran’s Leader, while pointing to the situation
of Muslims in the West, expressed his regret over the lack of safety
in Western countries.

Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei made the remarks in
a meeting with representatives of religious minorities at Iranian
Parliament.

Addressing the representatives, Ayatollah Khamenei said, we have
learned from Islam to treat the followers of other religions with
“fairness and justice”.

“Today World powers and governments which claim justice do not observe
any fairness except within the bounds of their narrow, limited and
cruel policies,” Iran’s Leader underlined.

He added that what is at issue now is not why Muslims do not have
freedom in many of these countries, but why they do not have safety!

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the Hollywood-made film American Sniper
as an example and said it encourages Christian or non-Muslim youngsters
to harass and offend the Muslims as far as they could.

This approach is not favored by Islam which believes in fairness,
the Leader emphasized.

I often visit Armenian and Assyrian Martyrs homes, Leader said,
stressing their commitment to their country.

“I remember a number of Armenian Christians came to Ahwaz during the
Imposed War to help and serve for their country,” Leader emphasized.

Pointing to Iran’s justice towards non-Muslims, Ayatollah Khamenei
stressed the need to show the world that Islamic Republic of Iran is
so tolerant towards non-Muslims.

The Leader pointed to the lack of similar behaviors towards Muslims
in countries which claim to defend human rights, including the US,
stressing that after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran
in 1979, there has been no record of aggression by Muslims against
non-Muslims.

GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER EMBRACES ARMENIA VISIT

Agenda, Georgia
Feb 17 2015

The Speaker of Georgia’s Parliament is in Armenia on an official visit.

David Usupashvili met Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan
yesterday.

The meeting was held within the two-day official visit of a Georgian
Parliamentary delegation to Armenia.

The sides discussed bilateral relations and cooperation prospects,
as well as historical-cultural links and prospects of enhancing
friendly relations.

Usupashvili and Abrahamyan underlined that intensive communication
at legislative and executive level will be improved.

The Armenian Prime Minister hailed the visit of the Georgian delegation
to Armenia and positively evaluated the state of relations between
the two countries.

Abrahamyan, as the former Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, said
he placed high importance on cooperation between the Parliaments of
Armenia and Georgia.

The Armenian official also stressed Georgia was a strategic partner and
a friend of Armenia, and both leaders should enhance this relationship.

In return, Usupashvili thanked his host for the friendly reception
and stressed the importance of strengthening bilateral relations.

Within the Armenia visit Usupashvili also met Armenian Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandyan yesterday. The parties spoke about Armenia-Georgia
bilateral relations and the different foreign aspirations of both
countries.

Despite the differences, it was noted the two countries’ friendly
relations should be enhanced and the differences in future vision
could be used to benefit the other nation.

Today, on the second day of the visit, the Georgian delegation is
scheduled to meet the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the
Catholic-Patriarch of Armenia, His Holiness Garegin II.

The Georgian delegation will end their visit later this evening.

FOUR MORE MPS OF PROSPEROUS ARMENIA LOSE SEATS, MEDIA REPORT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015 – 1:20pm

Four more PAP MPs will be stripped of their parliamentary seats in
the future on the grounds that they missed more than half of the
sessions in the National Assembly. One of them is Karapet Guloyan,
who is Tsarukyan’s father in-law.

“When the inquiries are completed, we will discuss and we will speak
about it at that time,” the National Assembly Speaker, Galust Sahakyan,
said regarding the non-pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party Chairman
Gagik Tsarukyan’s absences from the NA sessions.

“According to our information, the NA staff have already completed
their inquiries, and the NA chairman will submit a respective report
to the Central Electoral Commission within a week, News.am reports
with reference to the Zhamanak daily.

NULAND: ARMENIA SHOULD RETURN AZERBAIJANI PRISONERS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015 – 2:58pm

Azerbaijani prisoners Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev, held by
Armenia, should be returned, the US Assistant Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said at a press
conference in Baku today.

She said this should be done as a humanitarian gesture. “I will make
that point as well in Yerevan tomorrow,” Trend cited Nuland as saying.

Nuland also voiced US concern over the escalation of violence on
the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops. “We want
to see an end to violence, we want the parties to come back to the
negotiating table. We want to support this process,” she stressed.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA: REALITY OR PHANTOM?

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015 – 4:17pm

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

The internal political tensions in Armenia are considered by many
experts to be a war between the ruling Republican Party of Armenia
and the opposition party Prosperous Armenia. Relations between RPA and
PA began to worsen after a conference of non-ruling political forces
and organizations on February 5th, which was initiated by PA. The
leader of PA, businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, heavily criticized the
policy followed by the authorities. He pointed out the need to form
new power structures involving educated, intelligent people. He also
touched on the issue of early presidential and parliamentary elections.

A few days later, President Serge Sargsyan publicly expressed his
doubts about Tsarukyan’s ability to be a politician. The President
actually ordered an attack on PA and its leader when he pointed
out the frequent absences of MP Tsarukyan from sessions of the
National Assembly and voiced rumors about “hiding a billion drams
of unpaid taxes.” The bureaucratic machine and official propaganda
enthusiastically began to fulfil the order of the President. Tsarukyan
addressed the population to consolidate social efforts and achieve
the resignation of Sargsyan by all legal political means.

The main players in the political war are not only Sargsyan and
Tsarukyan, but also the first and the second presidents, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan. Some experts think that the main
political struggle is taking place between Sargsyan and the initiator
of PA, Robert Kocharyan, who has never left politics after the end of
his presidency in 2008. His activity is aimed at a return to power
and becoming the prime minister. Statements about the influence on
political processes by the second president and his contacts with PA
and its leaders, have become frequent. Moreover, members of RPA and
some mass media raise the question of Kocharyan’s responsibility for
the activities of PA’s leader.

“We all know who created Tsarukyan. They should be responsible and
apologize for the evil which they have brought to our political life.

Everybody knows that Robert Kocharyan is an author of the PA project,”
Armen Ashotyan, the deputy chairman of RPA, said. The number of
articles published in the pro-government press that Kocharyan stands
behind Tsarukyan is increasing significantly.

What is going on in the political space in reality? Is the second
president connected with PA? And what is his influence on the party
and its leader Gagik Tsarukyan?

It is true that PA, which was founded 10 years ago, was a political
project of Kocharyan, who ordered that Tsarukyan fulfil the project.

Apparently, the political party had to become an alternative to RPA
inside the ruling forces. PA began to be formed in 2006. It was planned
that in the parliamentary elections 2007 it should have gained a great
number of votes and many seats, so that Kocharyan could become prime
minister after the end of his presidency in 2008.

However, unexpected events happened in the elections of 2007. First of
all, RPA won decisively. Even though PA got many seats, it couldn’t
become an alternative to RPA. The authorities decided that PA would
join the coalition with RPA.

Why did the well-planned scheme go wrong? In 2005-2006 the PA project
had only started, and the head of RPA was the late premier Andranik
Margaryan. And ahead of the parliamentary elections in 2007, RPA was
headed by prime minister Serge Sargsyan. Margaryan and Sargsyan had
different weights and power in the political space.

However, it was not only the results of the elections that negatively
influenced Kocharyan’s plans. In autumn 2007, ahead of the presidential
elections, the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan appeared on the
political field. He managed to raise a wave of social protest. The
conflict between the authorities and society and the opposition,
which stood against the results of the presidential elections in
February 2008, led to the shootings at a peaceful demonstration on
March 1st. Due to the tense situation in the country, Kocharyan’s
plans for a change of power didn’t come true. He didn’t become the
prime minister, and the project failed. PA had to stay in the ruling
coalition, but it wasn’t Kocharyan’s party anymore. Its real leader
was Tsarukyan.

In time, confrontations between Tsarukyan and the authorities appeared
due to economic issues. Moreover, Tsarukyan has a conflict with
his business partner, the brother of President Sargsyan, Alexander
Sargsyan. Obviously, this influenced his relations with the President.

As a result, PA began to distance itself from the authorities. In
2012 the party decided to participate in the parliamentary elections
independently and rejected joining the ruling coalition after the
elections. These steps contributed to establishing PA as an independent
political force.

The question is whether Kocharyan influences PA at the moment. The
failure of the political plans of the former president led to a
situation in which he had no real leverages of influence on the party.

However, PA includes several MPs who are traditionally thought to be
Kocharyan’s people. This means only a restricted level of influence
on PA and the processes over it by the former president.

At the same time, the second president has personal political interests
and ambitions. His interests could coincide with the interests of
PA in some aspects (for instance, they don’t accept constitutional
changes). However, it doesn’t mean Kocharyan coordinates PA’s activity.

It seems that the pro-government press ties PA with the unpopular
second president to decrease the rating of PA and its leader. Such
a situation would be beneficial for the authorities. However,
representatives of the ruling party and some mass media mistake the
wish for the reality.

It is interesting to remember that the Communist Party imposed on
the people of the USSR that it was the party of Lenin, while the
October Revolution of 1917 was led by Bolsheviks. But that was the
party of Lenin and Trotsky, and the revolution was organized by not
only Bolsheviks, but also the leftist Socialist-Revolutionaries. As
the Bolsheviks wrote the right history, Trotsky turned into an enemy,
and the leftist Socialist-Revolutionaries disappeared from the history
of the revolution completely. Today in Armenia, the authorities want
society to consider the events according to the authorities’ interests.

The same media wrote three years ago that PA would join the ruling
coalition soon. However, repeating an idea doesn’t make it real. The
reality is that Tsarukyan attracts tens of thousands of people to
his demonstrations. People don’t believe the authorities or official
propaganda. And PA is drifting from the moderate to the radical
opposition.

From: Baghdasarian

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA MP DECIDES TO GIVE UP PARLIAMENTARY SEAT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015 – 4:27pm

Today Prosperous Armenia party deputy Melik Manukyan filed a petition
to give up his parliamentary seat.

The MP addressed a statement to parliamentary speaker Galust Sahakyan,
according to the head of the press service of the National Assembly,
Arsen Babayan.

Two other deputies from the Prosperous Armenia party, Aragats
Akhoyan and Karo Karapetyan, submitted applications on Monday to
leave the party. They plan to continue their work in the parliament
as independent MPs, News.am writes.

BROOKHAVEN CERAMIC ARTIST TO SHOWCASE WORK AT PRESTIGIOUS AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL SHOW

The Brookhaven Post, GA
Feb 17 2015

February 17, 2015

Brookhaven, GA, February 17, 2015 – by The Post – Brookhaven Master
Artisan, Adrina Richard, will present her work alongside 225 other
nationally acclaimed craft-makers when the American Craft Council Show
(ACC) returns to Atlanta in March.

The ACC show is the largest juried show in the Southeast and is
known as the nation’s premier marketplace for handcrafted basketry,
ceramics, fashion wearables, furniture, glass, jewelry, home decor
and more made by the country’s top artisans.

“I got into this with my friend Janis, while I was still working at
Oglethorpe University,” Adrina told The Post. “I’ve always collected
pottery and I’ve always loved pottery…and she was doing some
sculpture. She called me up at work one day and said ‘You know there’s
this Pottery Studio in Brookhaven.'” At that time, Mudfire Clayworks
was in Brookhaven, in the same building as Haven Restaurant. “So I
said, sure…let’s go…and we both signed up. I was hooked!”

photo: Small Casserole by Adrina Richard

Photo: Teapot by Adrina Richard

A first generation American born of survivors of the Armenian genocide,
Adrina grew up straddling two cultures – the near east and the new
world. With family members who were experts in music, culinary arts,
sewing, crocheting and knitting, she was richly surrounded by the
arts throughout her life.

“Sometimes I dream of shaping clay. I think about how people, perhaps
thousands of years ago, used fired clay for activities ordinary to
them, like eating, cooking, and storing,” says Adrina. “But pottery
was also commemorative, representing some event, person or idea
meaningful to their lives that they wanted to share and remember.”

Today, Adrina experiments with new techniques, forms and methods to
develop her unique style of multiple textures and impressions that
evoke her lifelong love of the ancient arts. Since working in clay
presents infinite possibilities, she enjoys exploring various methods
of construction and wildly different types of firings.

Adrina’s work is on display in regional exhibits, fine art and
craft galleries. She has worked as an artist-in-residence at MudFire
Clayworks and Gallery in Decatur.

American Craft Council Atlanta Show

All show artists undergo a rigorous juried selection process for
acceptance into the esteemed show at the Cobb Galleria Centre, and
are considered master artisans with extensive training in their genre
of work.

Meet Adrina Richard and her distinguished peers at the ACC Show Friday,
March 13 from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 14 from 10 a.m. –
6 p.m.; and Sunday, March 15 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Get a sneak peek at the Preview Party March 12 from 6 – 9 p.m.,
with proceeds co-benefitting ACC and the Hambidge Center.

To preview the show, visit craftcouncil.org/Atlanta.