InternationalArtbridge bookmobile travels to the edge of Armenia
Published: Friday December 04, 2009
Students of the school in Vanand reading. Elaine Krikorian
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After years of isolation, the ancient capitals of Yervandashat and Bagaran are now open to visitors
Armen Martirosyan, Antares Holding
On Friday, November 27, Artbridge bookstore café embarked on another of its many journeys with its bookmobile into the outer regions of Armenia. Shakeh Havan, the owner of Artbridge, with three employees, publisher Armen Martirosyan of Antares Holding, Nerses Ter-Vardanyan, advisor to the Minister of Culture of Armenia, and bringing along with them the Armenian Reporter and H1 public television station, visited Vanand, Yervandashat, and Bagaran. Artbridge has been holding book sales for the past six years, acquiring books from publishers at cost and selling them at different locations in Armenia at no profit. It is the third time this year that they have set out from Yerevan with their bookmobile, the first time being in Azatamut in February and the second in Gyumri in June.
Until very recently, the villages of Vanand, Yervandashat, and Bagaran were in a region inaccessible to the public without permission from the state. All three villages lie near the border of Armenia with Turkey. Although a tour of the Armavir province will likely include Etchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Catholicos, and the historic city of Armavir, site of the battle of Sardarapat, it will likely pass over these towns, each of which has its own rich history. Bagaran and Yervandashat were both ancient Armenian capitals.
On top of the historical interest of the villages, the Armavir province is one of the most beautiful regions of Armenia and currently a great undiscovered tourist destination. The Ararat plain is said to have the longest duration of sunshine on Earth (about 2,700 hours a year). Even in late November, sweeping views of the Ararat valley, with the towering, snow-covered Ararat in the background, can be seen crystal clear from all points. Suffice it to say that had the Artbridge bookmobile stopped to capture every astonishing photo opportunity its passengers witnessed, it wouldn't have made it to all the villages on its program.
Certainly the most neglected of these villages by the outside world is Vanand, which was founded as a Soviet farm in 1984. No amount of sunlight is able to warm Vanand's enormous, entirely dilapidated schoolhouse. Vanand has a population of 1,500 according to the village head, although to casual appearances it seems almost deserted. The 140 children that attend this school were released classroom by classroom so as not to overwhelm the booksellers. Artbridge employees Anoush Simonyan and Zarouhi Vartanyan attended the long tables of books while Ms. Havan approached the waiting children and teachers, asking them what types of books they would like to read - for when she next returns to Vanand. She distributed small books as gifts. Artbridge manager Azadouhi Ghukasyan looked after the list on which the children and teachers of Vanand were to write down the last book they'd read, and she encouraged the shy to participate. Most entries were of titles by Hovhannes Toumanyan and Armenian history books.
Yervandashat has a population of around 800, and 144 children attend its school. The arrival of the bookmobile brought on a day of celebration at this school, which set up an arts and crafts exhibit for the benefit of the bookmobile that included needlework, dioramas, paintings and dried gourds decoratively painted. An immense gratitude was displayed on the faces of the children and teachers alike. At the end of the book sale, a young, excited girl told every visitor in turn, "so many thanks from my home to yours."
After the exhibition the faculty of the school in Yervandashat invited the visiting group to have coffee in the principal's office and thanked them profusely. They commented that although their children are very interested in reading, their village is very remote, with nothing around, and cut off from the rest of the world. There is no Internet access in Yervandashat. The faculty mentioned that they had recently moved their offices to the opposite side of the building in order to place the classrooms in the sun so that the students won't freeze during class.
The last stop for the bookmobile was Bagaran. The entire school was assembled in one classroom. In Bagaran all of the books from Artbridge were donated. Ms. Havan hovered over groups of students and encouraged them to think of books they would like to read. She handed a teenage boy a copy of "A Summer without Dawn," by Agop J. Hacikyan and Jean-Yves Soucy. His father was shocked and proclaimed that it was the first book young Krikor would read.
The Artbridge bookmobile brings a broad range of book types to the villages, from classic English titles like Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jane Eyre to contemporary works, travel books on Armenia and the world, encyclopedias, nature literature, Armenian authors, books on artists and political works. Although the bookmobile is currently sponsored by Artbridge, Ter-Vardanyan is working with Havan to arrange ways of providing public funding for the project.
