Armenians on the Internet

ARMEN ARIKIAN STAFF WRITER

Naregatsi Art Institute
http://www.naregatsi.org

Main Categories:
About, Center in Shushi, Grigor Naregatsi, Productions, News, Events, Future Plans, The Artists Websites, Photo Gallery, Press.

Summary:
Naregatsi Art Institute is a non-profit organization in Yerevan, Armenia, dedicated to serving Armenia’s existing cultural heritage by supporting Armenian contemporary artists. Founded in 2002, the institute searches for talented Armenian artists and its purpose is to entertain and inspire the Armenian people, similar to the way St. Gregory of Nareg did through his poetry. Naregatsi Art Institute provides its visitors with a balance of art, with famous artists and aspiring ones, creating in a variety of art styles.

The museum is named after Naregatsi, an Armenian poet and saint from the 10th-11th century, who was known for writing about his relationship with God in his well known Armenian Book of Prayers or Book of Lamentations. The Art Institute was named after Naregatsi because of his “sense of spiritual purity,” which has encouraged many Armenian writers and artists to continue to express and maintain an Armenian cultural identity through their works.

Users of naregatsi.org can access the institute’s featured artists through “The Artists Websites” category. In this section of the website, artists are organized by genre: film, painting, music, poetry, photography, or sculpture.

Another focus of the Naregatsi Art Institute is assisting with the cultural awakening of Shushi, a historic city in the territory of Artsakh. They opened a new center there in 2006 that seeks to support the cultural awakening of the city that was destroyed and psychologically emaciated as a result of the war. The website not only preserves Armenian heritage, but also helps develop it by sharing the artwork of undiscovered talent.

The Naregatsi Art Institute is not just a museum, but a place for the Armenian community to gather together and celebrate their culture through activities such as musical performances, photography classes, dance classes, sculpting classes, films, and lectures by guest speakers.

Naregatsi Art Institute is an organization that thrives on Armenian art.