For Immediate Release

Armenian Library and Museum of America
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472
Website:

April 19, 2006

April 20–Reception for the Grand opening of the Armenian rug
exhibit.

On Thursday, April 20, Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA)
will host a reception for the grand opening of the Exhibit ~SArmenian
Rugs and Weavings: Textiles of Hearth and Heart~T. The exhibit
features a wide range of the weavings from the mountains of Armenia
and the Transcaucasus. The exhibit is unique in that it features
rare inscribed rugs from ALMA~Rs collection, as well as smaller woven
textiles and rugs from the newly acquired Offen-Alimian Collection.

Furthermore, a dozen exceptional rugs have been loaned to ALMA by the
members of the Armenian Rugs Society: these are publicly exhibited
for the first time.

The reception is scheduled for 6pm through 9 pm on Thursday. In
addition to ALMA trustees, members and friends, members of the
Armenian Rugs Society (ARS), who have loaned rugs for the exhibit,
are arriving from around the world especially for the exhibit. Among
them, Joe Bezdjian (ARS President), Mr. and Mrs. John Sommer, and
Carol Hoerner from San Francisco, Jack and Joan Agajanian Quinn from
Los Angeles, Harold and Janis Bedoukian from Canada, Yeran Megerian,
Valot Atakhanian, and Peter Balakian from New York, Loretta Boxdorfer
from Dallas, Berdj Achdjian from France, and Bob Bruner from Denver.

Daniel Shaffer and Lucy Upward from HALI magazine in London, UK will
be covering the grand opening of the exhibit at ALMA.

As part of the grand opening program, Professor Lucy Der Manuelian of
the Department of Art and Art History at Tufts will present a
lecture titled “Diamonds, Dragons and Crosses: The Story of Armenian
Rugweaving” at 8:00 pm. Professor Der Manuelian is co-author of
WEAVERS, MERCHANTS AND KINGS: THE INSCRIBED RUGS OF ARMENIA, the
catalog for the Kimbell Art Museum’s exhibit which was also shown at
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Textile Museum of Washington,
D.C., the Worcester Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of
Fresno, California.

The reception and the presentation are open to public. ALMA is
located in Watertown Square (intersection of Rte 16 and Rte 20), at
65 Main Street, Watertown MA 02472. For more information please visit
ALMA~Rs website or call the office at 617.926.2562
ext. 3 .

Contact Person: Mariam Stepanyan
Phone: 617.926.2562 ext. 3
Fax: 617.926.0175
Email: info@almainc.org

Armenian Library and Museum of America, Inc.

65 Main Street
Watertown MA 02472

Tel: 617 926 2562
Fax: 617 926 0175

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress