You are cordially invited to attend the 2024 Thalassa Benefit for the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University on Tuesday, May 14 at Thalassa Restaurant (179 Franklin Street) in New York City.
Join us for a night of delicious food and drinks and celebrating the incredible students of the Center with the presentation of two distinguished awards:
The Fr. John Long, S.J., Award for undergraduate achievement in the Orthodox Christian studies minor and/or potential for postgraduate studies in the field; and
The Stella Moundas Award for Orthodox Christian Service, presented to a senior who has shown deep commitment to serving others during his or her undergraduate career.
Reception and Presentation | 6 p.m.
TICKETS
General Ticket | $150
Young Member Ticket (40 and under) | $75
On Monday, April 15th at 4:00pm ET, authors Jesse S. Arlen and Matthew J. Sarkisian will discuss their new book, Odes of Saint Nersess the Graceful: Annotated Translation, in conversation with Prof. George Demacopoulos. The Zoom webinar is hosted by the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University and co-sponsored by NAASR and the Zohrab Information Center.
The Zohrab Information Center cordially invites you to a book presentation and signing of Ted and Nune‘s Stone & Candle: Armenian Monasteries (Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 2023) to take place on Wednesday, April 10th from 7–9pm at the AGBU Central Office (55 East 59th Street, 7th floor, New York, NY 10022). At the event, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen will speak on “The Function of Monasteries in Medieval Armenian Society.”
Stone and Candle is a long-term photographic project examining ancient Armenian Monasteries.
The Zohrab Information Center cordially invites you to a book presentation and signing on Saturday, March 2nd at 1:30pm at Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs in Bayside, Queens.
Fr. Dr. Abraham Manuk Malkhasyan, Dr. Armen Khachikyan, and Dr. Michael Malkhasyan will present their newly published book The Current Stage of the Demographic Transition in the Republic of Armenia (Ժողովրդագրական անցման արդի փուլը Հայաստանի հանրապետութիւնում).
The event is co-sponsored by the Zohrab Center and followed by a research presentation: “Public & Security Problems in Armenia,” with research conducted by ԱՐԱՐ հիմնադրամ / ARAR Foundation and presented by Dr. Armen Khachikyan, moderated by Zohrab director Dr. Jesse Arlen.
Thursday, January 18, 6:00–8:00pm
at Atamian Hovsepian Gallery (227 East 24th Street)
To read a press release, in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, click here.
The Zohrab Center is pleased to invite you to Obscured Geographies, an art exhibition by Meghan Arlen (wife of Zohrab director Dr. Jesse Arlen), opening on January 18th, 6:00-8:00pm ET at the gallery of Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice (227 E 24th St, New York, NY 10010). The exhibition will be on display from January 18–February 24, 2024.
The work that will be on exhibit (selections available to view hereor scroll down) was born out of the artist’s curiosity about land use and the monumental changes observed in the span of just one or two generations. Arlen was struck by the new and often surreal aerial geographies created by landscape alterations brought about by modern industrial agricultural farming, natural gas extraction, and large-scale residential developments. These changes of course are now visible to all simply by using Google Earth, or from the seat of a passenger airplane flying overhead. Arlen’s uneasiness about the large-scale processes that have produced these unnatural landscapes were at odds with the awe she felt about the eerily beautiful curves, colors, and compositions they created.
This collection of work—textural explorations of obscured aerial landforms—plays with movement and tactility. Obscured Geographies is also an ode to the medium of Venetian plaster and Arlen’s desire to use this material in new and creative ways. To observe the interplay of plaster with other materials, she incorporates charcoal, liquid iron, copper paint, gauze, fabric and other found textured and corrugated media. The results are beautifully intricate and wholly original.
Based in Brooklyn, Meghan Arlen (https://www.megarlenstudio.com/) studied fine arts as an undergraduate but has in recent years focused her energy on learning skilled trades. These include Venetian wall plaster application techniques, high-end interior design, specialty installation and fabrication, and building sculptural wood furniture. Beginning in 2015, Arlen apprenticed for several years under Justino Guerrero, a Los Angeles master Venetian plasterer. She concurrently worked for LA-based designer Andrea Michaelson, a savant in innovative material design, including metal, wood, glass, plaster, plastic, stingray skin, leather, and fabric. In 2021 Arlen moved to New York, where she undertook training in carpentry, learning to build sculptural, solid wood furniture from milling to finishing. She approaches her art practice as an artisan, submitting to the sometimes physically strenuous efforts that her material demands. Her recent work conveys her love for the historically two-dimensional medium of painting and a desire to explore its capabilities and create works where the wall plaster steps off the wall or canvas and becomes more relief than flat.
MEGHAN ARLEN Obscured Geographies
Opening reception: Thursday, January 18, 6-8pm
January 18-February 24, 2024
227 E 24th St, New York, NY 10010
The black crept in: somnambulance, 2021 Plaster and medium over gesso on raw canvas, 34″ x 42″Unrealized Utopias, 2023 Gesso and liquid copper on unprimed upcycled canvas (reclaimed dowel frame) 30″ x 24″Unearthed II, 2023 Plaster and Charcoal on canvas 36″ x 36″Y-Y Dyptich, 2021 Gesso and liquid copper on unprimed upcycled canvas (reclaimed dowel frame) 30″ x 24″
His Grace Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan will lead an ecumenical prayer service for Christian Unity at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral on Thursday, January 25th at 6:30pm. All are warmly invited to attend. For details, see the flyer below.
If you missed David Hotson’s talk on “Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the Design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church” then you can watch the recording of the talk below (or a previous and similar talk given at an international conference on Eastern Christian architecture and Modernity at Fordham University.
“The Making of Saint Sarkis Church,” Fordham University, June 1, 2023
“Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the Design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church,” Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), November 1, 2023
Come together tonight Thursday, September 21st, at 5:00pm for a community gathering in St. Vartan Cathedral, in light of the crisis in Artsakh. The gathering will go forward under the auspices of Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan and Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian.
Afterwards, come down to Guild Hall for a Zohrab Center sponsored book release event, with Christopher Atamian presenting his translation of a new novel by Denis Donikian.
The Zohrab Information Center cordially invites you to attend the Vemkar Zoom lecture series, entitled “Entering the World, Mind, and Soul of St. Nersess Shnorhali.” Organized in commemoration of the 850th anniversary of the saint’s repose and in response to the pontifical encyclical of His Holiness Karekin II issued earlier this year (ARMENG), the lecture series begins a week from today on Tuesday, August 22nd at 7:00pm ET and runs six consecutive Tuesday evenings through September 26th.
