Numerous articles have been written about museums, repositories, issues of preserving paintings. Needless to speak of the attention the paintings require in terms of maintaining the humidity level, temperature fluctuations and, of course, the number of visitors to make the museums and paintings live.
There has been much discussions on the initiative named “Your Art” yet no art specialist has come to suggest taking the paintings from museums to schools thus far. The reason was those paintings needed special conditions to live, while ensuring those conditions would be much more expensive.
The impression is the initiators have been neither in museums nor in schools. They have probably watched the American film “Mona Lisa Smile” and decided to come up with a creative and cool idea, like in a movie.
The justification of the initiative said that schoolchildren that used to see oligarchs moving around surrounded by bodyguards will now assess the artwork and their value, as they will witness how those works are brought to schools surrounded by security personnel and under special conditions, which sounds equally childish and philistine.
Should the resemblance with oligarchs make children value the artwork? What are the thoughts about these parallels and those who come up with these parallels? First, they have been neither in museums nor in schools. Even if they have visited, they have seen no museum, no painting, no schoolchild and no school.
Since becoming minister [Minister of Education and Sciences], Arayik Harutyunyan’s long-standing approach has been among other thing as follows: do not dictate children about clothes, school principals are bribers, teachers should not force, etc.
On numerous occasions we voiced about miserable conditions of village schools that are often with broken windows, floors, leaking roofs. Those publications were sent to former and new education ministers with no results seen thus far.
The impression is they look into the issues and do not notice the problems. The child whom parents dress and equip with necessary items to send to school is expected to see how a painting is brought to the school and assess its value for the state. Is this the criterion?
Take children to museums through programs and relevant funding envisaged for that. The children will cut off the everyday life and will see how others live, what else are around the world named Armenia.
Take them there to look at and see instead of bringing the paintings in front of their eyes. Do you think children have been envy of oligarchs throughout their lives and now are happy at seeing ‘mountains have come to them’? What a strange frame of mind and crooked view of things and their state are these?
Let us take a look at the Art.
The fresco of Armenian world-known artist Minas Avetisyan “Night” is on the edge of destruction in one of the partially ruined factories in Gyumri.
“It should be recovered then demolished as the venue is a ruin. The approximate price is around 20-24 USD” Arman Avetisyan, the head of Minas Avetisyan Foundation had earlier told Panorama.am.
Great painter Minas had a big heart. Without sparing efforts he utilized his talent on canvases and stages but also on walls across villages, factories, in the eyes of people.
What is the result? How were those works preserved and valued? What do our children learn while passing by those works?
My suggestion is to recover them in places without bringing them to Yerevan for children to see and appreciate, otherwise the idea whether the art and talents are valued are doubted
Children are subtle art and they should themselves filter what is delivered to them.
They should find their own paintings among numerous ones exhibited in museums, find their perspective and discover the ones special for them.
Without understanding children and the art you will never find the ways of connecting them.