On Thursday, June 20, a group of young Armenians from across the United States and Canada arrived at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, New Jersey for Hamazkayin ArtLinks weekend.
The beautiful abbey campus features tons of greenery and a collection of ancient statues. We all stayed in the retreat center, which used to be a dorm building when the abbey was once a school for boys, so we had spacious rooms and a large common area to gather and chat at the end of the day. We spent time between the retreat center, the dining hall and the library. The dining hall was lovely and became another place of shared community, as we talked to each other across the long tables.
This year, ArtLinks featured six sessions with subjects ranging across history, technology and the arts. Our first workshop on Friday morning was led by voice actor, singer, puppeteer and fellow ArtLinks participant Liana Bdéwi. She shared the journey of her career, from building her own voice studio at home to voicing the goddess Astghik in the “Vardavar!” episode of Disney’s Mickey Mouse Funhouse. Bdéwi was upfront about the many challenges and responsibilities of working in the arts, but also offered advice and encouragement for anyone interested in this career path. Her story gave me some insight into a field I wasn’t familiar with. I half-want to build my own cheap voice studio now and record some audiobooks, just for fun.
