MISSION STATEMENT
Armenian Creatives meet to exchange developments in our artistic ideas and identities. A free-form get-together provides the setting to discuss projects that may or may not have to do with being Armenian, cultivating a community of integral support and infectious creativity. Initiated to hold a space that we couldn’t find prior, through these gatherings we aim to empower and liberate inventiveness, imagination, and individuality—sharing our different knowns along with our imminent futures and hopes.
These monthly meetings may manifest over a meal cooked together, as well as through publication, printed or digital. We aim to archive a portion of each gathering, not only to tell stories of the past, or to exist for future eyes, but to balance the presence shared in a moment.
Armenian Creatives formed in Brooklyn, NY, but with the natural momentums of members following new dreams we now find ourselves in various corners of the world and aim to touch base through satellite choreography as much as possible. A majority of us still find ourselves in New York.
If you wish to join, let us know! Please send an email.
Images courtesy of Cassandra Tavukciyan and Google
Armenian Creatives meet to exchange developments in our artistic ideas and identities. A free-form get-together provides the setting to discuss projects that may or may not have to do with being Armenian, cultivating a community of integral support and infectious creativity. Initiated to hold a space that we couldn’t find prior, through these gatherings we aim to empower and liberate inventiveness, imagination, and individuality—sharing our different knowns along with our imminent futures and hopes.
These monthly meetings may manifest over a meal cooked together, as well as through publication, printed or digital. We aim to archive a portion of each gathering, not only to tell stories of the past, or to exist for future eyes, but to balance the presence shared in a moment.
Armenian Creatives formed in Brooklyn, NY, but with the natural momentums of members following new dreams we now find ourselves in various corners of the world and aim to touch base through satellite choreography as much as possible. A majority of us still find ourselves in New York.
If you wish to join, let us know! Please send an email.
Images courtesy of Cassandra Tavukciyan and Google
List of members who have attended Armenian Creatives meetings since July 2018, whether one or every single meeting
Alina Gregorian, New York
Anahit Pogosian, New York
Arpi Adamyan, New York & Yerevan
Caroline Partamian, New York & California
Emma Welty, New York
Emly Stamboulian, New York
Harry Berberian, New York
Justin Mayfield, New York
Katie Giritlian, Chicago & New York
Kamee Abrahamian, Ontario
Kohar Minassian, New York
Linus Ignatius, New York
Leah McClosky, New York
Mher Tarakjian, New York & Paris
Rehan Miskci, New York
Roubina Tutunjian, New York
Souren Papazian, San Francisco & New York
Raffi Wartanian, Los Angeles
Anahid Yahjian, Los Angeles
Anahit Pogosian, New York
Arpi Adamyan, New York & Yerevan
Caroline Partamian, New York & California
Emma Welty, New York
Emly Stamboulian, New York
Harry Berberian, New York
Justin Mayfield, New York
Katie Giritlian, Chicago & New York
Kamee Abrahamian, Ontario
Kohar Minassian, New York
Linus Ignatius, New York
Leah McClosky, New York
Mher Tarakjian, New York & Paris
Rehan Miskci, New York
Roubina Tutunjian, New York
Souren Papazian, San Francisco & New York
Raffi Wartanian, Los Angeles
Anahid Yahjian, Los Angeles
MEMBERS
Alina Gregorian
Artist and Poet. Her first gallery exhibition, Talk to me in Parsley and Tambourines: Artists of the Armenian Diaspora was held in Babycastles in 2018. She is the author of two chapbooks: Navigational Clouds (Monk Books) and Flags for Adjectives (Diez). Alina is currently pursuing a Communication Design degree at Parsons School of Design.
Anahit Pogosian
Artist and product designer; creating every day objects that celebrate life.
Arpi Adamyan
Multimedia artist based in New York and Yerevan. She creates queer-feminist world building projects. The complex realities she makes are charged with historical citations and speculations of the futuristic biotechnological world. Adamyan is one of the co-founders of the Queering Yerevan Collective. Her projects were featured at Hyperallergic, n.paradoxa, ArtMargins, Khabar Keslan, OnCurating, etc. Her works were shown at EV+A International Biennial of Contemporary Art Give(a)way (2006, Limerick), VI Gyumri International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2008, Gyumri), FilmIdyll Festival (2009, Stockholm), Decolonizing the City (2012, Berlin), Take Place by VBKÖ (2013, Vienna), Suzanne Lacy’s International Dinner Party in Feminist Curatorial Thought (2015, Zurich), Beneath Them Was Forever (2019, New York), Satellite Art Show (2019, New York).
Caroline Partamian
Sound and visual artist influenced by her training in dance. She works closely with the concept of abreaction – the extraction of dormant memory stored within a muscle, resurfaced through physical movement, of which an individual was previously unaware; these memories span the spectrum and can take many forms – traumatic, erotic, comforting, etc. By focusing on the process rather than anticipated result, her work encourages what can be revealed when one becomes conscious of their kinetic movement in the process of creation. She has shown work at Marfa Open, Wassaic Project, Otion Front, Flux Factory, Anthology Film Archives, Babycastles, Compound Yucca Valley, and more.
Emma Welty
Artist, educator, curator and writer. In her studio she is a weaver and researcher, interrogating her relationship to the loom through craft legacies, inherited muscle memory and the links between textiles and language. She completed her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Fibers and Art History and is currently an MFA/MA candidate in Visual Arts and Art History at Purchase College, SUNY.
Emily Stamboulian
A human in New York who has an internet radio show called Purely Circumstantial. she likes to record stories of synchronicity and funny sounds.
Harry Berberian
Works in fundraising for human services organizations in NYC. He enjoys making-believe, connecting with Armenians over coffee and reading comic books.
Justin Mayfield
Musician/composer/audio engineer based in Brooklyn, NY. As a musician, he writes/records/performs with Sheen Marina and Tag Cloud, and also regularly plays guitar with the Brim, Miracle Sweepstakes, and Edna. He currently edits things like audiobooks and podcasts, and recently finished production on the 4 part audio-doc "Higher Purpose" (NPR).
Kamee Abrahamian
born into an Armenian family displaced from the SWANA (southwest asian, north african) region, and grew up in an immigrant suburb of Toronto. They arrive in the world today as a queer and feminist mother, interdisciplinary creative, scholar, writer, producer, and facilitator. They have a BFA/BA in film and political science (Concordia University), an MA in expressive art therapy (European Graduate Institute), and soon to be MA/PhD in community, liberation, indigenous and eco psychologies (Pacifica Graduate Institute). Their work is steeped with relational, generative, visionary and liberatory practices oriented towards ancestral reclamation, diasporic futurism, and radical imaginaries. They have published both literary and academic work, facilitated workshops, and exhibited and curated art, films and staged performances internationally. Kamee continues working freelance under Saboteur Productions (founder) and collaboratively through Kalik Arts (co-founder), and is the arts & creative expression lead at an international feminist organization called AWID.
Katie Giritlian
Artist and arts worker based in Chicago + NYC.
Katie Giritlian is an artist and arts worker based in Chicago and New York. Attending to histories with the camera and events of photography, both violent and liberatory, while longing for uses that prompt fellowship and mutual recognition, she facilitates intimate performances and assembles publications. She has facilitated workshops at SOHO20, rehearsal residency, Small Editions, among others, and has published with prompt:. Giritlian is a co-founder of rehearsal, a residency for experimentation in a social context. She is currently an M.A. candidate in the department of Visual & Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Kohar Minassian
A Video creator based in Brooklyn. Most recently, she's produced for AOC's 2020 reelection campaign and for Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign. She edited Motherland, a short documentary film about women who clear mines in Nagorno-Karabakh, and has worked with leading digital media outlets to publish countless short-form documentaries and viral videos.
Leah McClosky
Artist and illustrator currently based in Brooklyn NY.
Linus Ignatius
Actor and a filmmaker based in NYC. As a character actor, he specializes in extreme dialects, off-beat personalities, and villains. As a filmmaker, his work twists together comedy and drama to create layered social commentary, dealing heavily with LGBTQIA+ issues, HIV awareness, and taboo psychological terrain.
His short film, MASS, a dark comedy about body dysmorphia, premiered at Newfest (2019). His film UPPER premiered at the NY Shorts Independent Film Festival (2019). His documentary memoir POSITIVE has shown in festivals in Berlin, London, and had its NYC premiere at The 30Under30 Festival in partnership with the U.N. His music videoNIGHT SPIRITS also screened at The Manhattan Independent Film Festival.
He most recently had co-star appearances on The Blacklist (NBC) and Law and Order: SVU (NBC). He also landed the lead role in Shemie Reut's new feature film, Fake Real (Firelane), and the lead role in S+M Records, the new film from Jose Alvarez and Drew Bolton. His first feature film SNAFU! -- an ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional film set -- is entering into production fall of 2020.
Mher Tarakjian
Architect
Rehan Miskci
New York / Istanbul based visual artist working in photography, video and installation. She holds an undergraduate degree in Interior Architecture from Istanbul Technical University and an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, New York. She is the first place winner of Baxter Street Camera Club of New York’s Annual Competition in 2015. Her work has been exhibited in venues including Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, Fridman Gallery, New York, Kasa Gallery, Istanbul. Miskci is an alumna of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2019) and she is the recipient of the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace Fellowship (2019). Miskci was also awarded a NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Fellowship in Photography (2019).
Raffi Joe Wartanian
Raffi Joe Wartanian is a multiplatform storyteller passionate about social justice, creativity, and innovative institutions.
Roubina Tutunjian
Beiruti designer and strategist currently based in Manhattan, NY.
Anahid Yahjian
Anahid Yahjian is an independent writer, director and producer of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema. Her commitment to telling true stories (even if they come from her imagination) was shaped by an early love for visual storytelling that was formalized in college and took flight during her coming of age in Armenia. There, she produced the internationally-awarded narrative short 140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand 2013), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot 2017) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary LEVON: A Wondrous Life (2013). Since returning to her native Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum (2014-2016) and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF 2019). In 2021 she completed Hishé, a meditation on grief that was shot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. When not creating her own work, she directs branded content and music videos. She splits her time between Yerevan, Sofia (her birthplace), Los Angeles (her home), and New York City.
