Hermine Avagyan, director of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society’s Artsakh Office, was in the United States at the invitation of the ARF Eastern Region's Central Educational Council.
During this working visit, Ms. Avagyan organized group exhibitions for 12 painters from Artsakh in New York and Rhode Island, collaborating with the local Hamazkayin chapters and ARF gomidehs there.
The exhibition took place in the hall of St. Illuminator’s Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in New York on October 10, 2025, with the blessing of the Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian, pastor, and Rev. Fr. Kapriel Nazarian, pastor of the Sts. Vartanantz Church in Providence.
Hamazkayin’s youth and teenagers presented an artistic program, and the beloved Artsakh singer Artur Khachents brought in the spiritual atmosphere of Artsakh with his national patriotic songs.
Ms. Avagyan opened the exhibition with a speech. The Artsakh anthem was also performed.
Many of the 50-odd canvases presented by the Artsakh artists at the exhibitions were works rescued from Artsakh. Each of them found a worthy owner.
“When all the roads leading home are closed, when maps can no longer take you where you most want to go, art comes to the rescue. It comes as a path of solace, an attempt at spiritual healing, both for the creator and for the viewer, the recipient. It is also an expression of struggle and refusal to surrender, an opportunity to speak about Artsakh in the language of art. Art is the only path that no one can blockade, steal, or forcibly occupy. Books, works of art can be destroyed, churches can be ruined, but no one can rob the creative spirit, and whatever happens, it will create and create again and again,” Ms. Avagyan asserted.
The Hamazkayin Artsakh Office presented a clay sculpture of the Door of Shushi, made by students from Hamazkayin’s Gyumri Chapter, to the church in New York. Small children from Artsakh had signed the sculpture with the message: “May the doors of Shushi open again.”
