At the core of the meeting was policy development against fighting various forms of corruption.

As the vice-rector mentioned the most vulnerable in the educational process is the assessment policy that shouldn’t be perceived by students as a lash for the assessment helps to increase students’ advancement.

She also informed that a new package of documents on admission order that is under development will be put into force starting form next academic year.

“The new document that will be put into the Academy’s website in September will contain all the necessary information on the students’ rights and obligations both regarding admission order, assessment system and student transfer form one HEI to another”, The vice-rector for education and science told.

The main objective of the project is to develop a joint, accessible and successful system of methodological recommendations that will increase the competitiveness of humanity sciences and involve the social partners into it.

On April 17, 2013 the Information meeting of the above-mentioned project was held at Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts (YSAFA) with the participation of Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction (YSUAC) (These two Universities were involved in the project). The aim of the meeting was to present the achievements and results of the project’s 3-year duration. Lana Karlova- National Tempus office coordinator was also among the guests.

Mary Patvakanyan the head of International relations department of YSAFA outlined in her speech that the programme helped to clearly realize and visualize the inclusion of art into the economic market.
“It’s true that we don’t view art as an economy for the present but a day will come and we’ll be able to clearly view its move to the economy”. From this Tempus programme we received as a heritage several modules. YSAFA chose the modules of “Art management” and “IT in the Field of Fine Arts”, mentioned Mary Patvakanyan in her concluding speech.

She also outlined the importance of advisory board establishment that had helped to the management of chosen modules. The advisory board consisted of the representatives of the following institutions: RA Ministry of Culture, “Cultural dialogue” foundation, RA Ministry of Education and Science, National Gallery, History Museum of Armenia, Modern Art Museum in Yerevan, RA Artists’ Union, RA Architects’ Union, Institute for Modern Art, etc.

Mary Patvakanyan was happy to mention that two subjects were implemented in the YSAFA Master programme for the specialty art-criticism; those two subjects were: “Art Management” and “Information Technologies in the Field of Fine Arts”.

Then Irina Vanyan from YSUAC made her speech.

She noted that the aim of the project was not to increase the competitiveness between countries but between the specialties, mainly humanity sciences.

Hovhannes Tajiryan also made a speech introducing the subject he taught in Master programme that was implemented within the Tempus HESDeSPI programme. He went deeper into the provision and definition of the subject “Information Technologies in the Field of Fine Arts”.

As he noted the Academy was the only HEI where the students, namely those from the chair “History and Theory of Fine Arts” deeply investigated such a subject.

Concluding the information meeting of the project’s achievements Mary Patvakanyan added that the final meeting would take place in Armenia through June 26-28, 2013.

The exhibition showcased students’ paintings, graphic and ceramic works, sculptures and posters.

Honored guests of the exhibition were the director of Research Center of Maternal and Child Health Protection Georgi Okoev and Karine Arustamyan.

The opening speech belonged to the YSAFA Rector, prof. Aram Isabekian. He stated that the results of the exhibition would be the evidence of their long-lasting cooperation.

“The objective of the exhibition was to present through art the understanding of healthy lifestyle to a wider public that we succeeded to do for sure. On the other hand it is a very interesting theme for an artist’s self-expression”, said Georgi Okoev.

The exhibition of ceramic works entitled “An instant of life” held on March 21 was not an exception.

This time the mysterious and inexplicable world of colors and images decorated with one paintbrush the ceramics, showing the authors of those works, namely the boundless flight of students’ imagination from Decorative Applied Arts department.

YSAFA’s Rector, Professor Aram Isabekian, happily stated in his opening speech that the exhibition hall he had dreamed of and had put efforts to acquire, operated perfectly at present, worked properly as it should have done.

 “I notice great qualitative difference between the exhibitions of previous years and those of today. The quality of exhibitions has increased greatly and these works will shine with their quality in any place, that is greatly welcomed,” told Aram Isabekian.

The organiser of the exhibition Maria Babayan extended her thankfulness to all the students from Decorative Applied Arts chair outlining that the exhibition would not be a success without their participation.

The exhibition had inspired the head of International relations Mary Patvakanyan with its creative idea and performance. In her speech she noted that the most important was to accept those works as products.

“The student has matured so much as he can turn his works into a product and sell it. So we come to a conclusion that art can be applied in the economy”, told Mary Patvakanyan adding that it was already 4 years YSAFA had signed a bilateral agreement with Limoges-Aubusson National Art School, France, that was specialized in ceramics. The Academy had prolonged its agreement to 2015 that would enable students to continue their education within student exchange programme for one or two semesters in the above mentioned school getting acquainted with the culture of faience production and procession.

YSAFA students and staff participated in the action with deep understanding and great enthusiasm becoming a volunteer donor for stem cells. Increasing the rows of “bone marrow donor registry”, all the participants were hopeful that maybe a few drops of blood they had given would save human lives.

Firstly a few word about the Museum of Russian Art:

The Museum of Russian Art was founded by Dr. Aram Abrahamian- a renowned physician, art collector and public servant, at the end of the 19^th and in the beginning of 20^th centuries in Yerevan. The Museum hosted A. Abrahamian’s personal collections of paintings, sculptures and samples of decorative applied arts.

The Museum Collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and decorative arts traces the development of Russian art and art groups of that period, the 20^th century cultural dynamics and the valuable thread of spiritual perception that connects the pre-revolutionary painters with the masters of our country. It’s worth mentioning that A. Abrahamyan’s collection also includes excellent works of Martiros Saryan’s early period.

It’s the second time that YSAFA has successfully participated in the quiz organized by Russian Museum of Art.

YSAFA was given a letter of gratitude and the students from the department of theory and history of Fine Arts Anna Karazyan and Ani Yenokyan were awarded with diplomas for 2^nd and 3^rd places for participating in the quiz dedicated to the life and work of Vroubel, Nestrov and Roerich on March 21, 2012.

This year also YSAFA got a letter of gratitude participating in the quiz dedicated to the life and work of V. I. Surikov and B. M. Kustodiyev on March 7.

The exhibition was original in its non-standard approach of introduction that was to assist in emphasizing the lightness and immediacy of the sketch. The focus was mainly drawn to conveying the mood of human figures, facial expressions and characters. The sketches exhibited were the results of free choice of paper and material and depiction of individual style.

“Now the exhibition hall is our studio”, mentioned Anna Avetisyan, “we tried to transfer that environment to the hall, the very environment we live in and create.”

Exhibition hall of Albert and Tove Boyajian

The doctor introduced mission and goals of the benevolent fund evolving activities for already 14 years.

“The mission of “Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry” is to save lives by recruiting and providing matched unrelated donors for bone marrow or stem cell transplantation to all Armenian and non-Armenian patients worldwide who are suffering from leukemia and other life-threatening blood related illnesses. Due to the unique genetic make-up of Armenians, it is nearly impossible to find suitable matches among the existing international registries. Hence the importance of establishing a registry that would help facilitate recruiting and identifying matched unrelated bone marrow donors for ethnic Armenians”, told the doctor.

Coming back to the activities of the stem cells recruitment center S. Avagyan mentioned that the center opened in 2009 aimed to contribute to the effective recovery from deathly blood illnesses to save the lives of not only Armenians but also non-Armenian people.

Later the doctor explained how to be registered as a donor. As the majority of students and academic staff expressed willingness to be registered in the donors’ database the doctor explained how it was organized.

First of all the donor gives 3 grams of blood if it is pure it is included in the bank of donors then if someone is diagnosed with blood cancer the donor’s blood goes thorough observation.

“Giving only 200 grams of blood without damaging yourself you save a life”, stated Sevak Avagyan.

Summing up the meeting Aram Isabekyan called on the students and lecturers to be registered as donors in the “National Bone Marrow Donor Registry”, mentioning that he himself would be registered and would be happy to save a life some day with his 200 grams of blood.

The exhibition opened YSAFA Rector Professor Aram Isabekyan. Welcome speeches were made by the President of Chess Academy of Armenia Smbat Lputyan, president of RA Artists’ Union Karen Aghamyan, the head of State Fine Arts College after P. Terlemezyan Anna Mnatsakanyan, dean of YSAFA Fine Arts faculty Edward Vardanyan. In his opening speech Aram Isabekyan mentioned that the theme of the exhibition was itself very interesting and it would have continuation.

There were 30 paintings, graphic works and 4 mini sculptures introduced in the competition-exhibition made by the students of YSAFA and State Fine Arts College after P. Terlemezyan. In the works exhibited the unique world of chess was introduced through the participants’ original perception and interpretation and through interesting depiction of characters.

According to Karen Aghamyan the jury established to evaluate the works could hardly make a choice. The participants were awarded with prizes and certificates. Lilit Shahmuradyan, Hasmik Grigoryan, Narek Saroyan, Vahe Tevosyan and Arthur Azatyan were awarded with the prize for best authors. Mikael Karapetyan, Rose Mnatsakanyan, Garegin Avetisyan and Narek Knyazyan were awarded with encouraging prizes. Others were given certificates for participation.

Albert and Tove Boyajyan exhibition hall

Specialist – Agnes Badalyan