INTERNATIONAL ART FESTIVAL TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA

AZG Armenian Daily #165
12/09/2007

Culture

There is an International Art Festival in Armenia in September of
2007. The exhibition is the 16th one organized by Lantern of the East
Los Angeles (LELA) and will take place at the Municipal Modern Art
Museum of Armenia, 13 Abovian Street, Yerevan. The opening reception
will be on Friday, September 21 at 5 p.m.

Also, on the same day there will be an opening reception at the
Children’s Museum of Yerevan at 2 p.m. for paintings submitted by
children from several countries.

Through the universal language of art several international artists
will be connected with their audience in Armenia. This event celebrates
the diversity of ideas and cultures. It’s a partnership to bring peace
and positive communication. Hideo Sakata is the U.S.A. president of
LELA and the art director in Armenia is Henrik Igityan. Many artists
and visionaries have volunteered their time and talent to bring this
unique project to life.

There will be a press conference on September 10 in Yerevan. During
the following ten days there will be several art presentations and
demonstrations at different locations in Yerevan. The students of
Monte Melkonian School will have the opportunity to take art lessons
from Hideo Sakata. Ben-Hur Villanueva, another talented artist, will
teach clay sculpture at a school for the blind. The Olympics Boarding
Schools director Vahram Gregorian will host the sculpture workshop
(carving the wood of 3 walnut trees) led by Katsumi Mukai. LELA members
participating in these workshops will donate their newly created art
works, which will then be auctioned off to benefit the Armenian people
and help to ensure LELAs mandate to educate and share creativity. There
are more than 140 artists participating from different countries [USA
40, Korea 16, Japan 30, Thai 10, Philippine 5, India 1, Malaysia 1,
China 4, Mexico 5, Guatemala 1, Chile 1, Germany 2, Swiss 1, France 3,
Russia 2, Canada 1, Netherlands 1, Denmark 1, and Spain 1. [Forty-two
of them are Armenian from Armenia and the Diaspora]. 400 children’s
pieces are to be included in the International Childrens Exhibit. They
came from Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Palestine, the USA and Armenia. A
separate catalog is being printed for their show.

Their work is divided by age group. The LELAs board members have been
working enthusiastically to organize this art show.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress