Helen Evans to Speak at Tufts Genocide Commemoration Program

MEDFORD, MA –Tufts University, the Darakjian-Jafarian Chair in Armenian History, the Department of History, the Armenian Club at Tufts University, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will sponsor the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at Tufts on Thursday, April 4, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.  The Tufts event will feature a lecture by Dr. Helen C. Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled “Medieval Traditions of Commemoration.”

The commemoration and lecture will take place in Goddard Chapel on Tufts’ Medford, MA, campus.  A reception will follow in the Coolidge Room in nearby Ballou Hall. Parking is available in the Dowling Garage at 419 Boston Avenue and in designated on-street areas.

In the wake of the successful exhibit Armenia!, Dr. Helen C. Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will speak at Tufts on the Armenian belief in the power of memory using works recently on display in the Armenia! exhibition at The Met. Medieval monuments offer exceptional testimony to a long tradition of commemoration through colophons in manuscripts and inscriptions on church facades, reliquary containers, textiles, and doors. Commemorative art has preserved memory, cultural tradition, and identity for the Armenians through wars, invasions, and displacement.

Dr. Helen C. Evans was the curator of the acclaimed exhibition Armenia! at the Met. Previously she co-curated the Morgan Library and Museum’s 1994 exhibition, Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts. At the Metropolitan Museum, she curated The Glory of Byzantium (843-1261) in 1997, Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) in 2004, and Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th century) in 2012. His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, presented her with the Order of Saint Sahak–Saint Mesrop at the opening of the exhibition Armenia! and the Prelacy of the Great House of Cilicia has presented her with the Mesrop Mashtots and Queen Zabel awards and most recently with the “Spirit of Armenia” for Armenia!.

More information about the lecture is available by contacting NAASR at 617-489-1610 or e hq@naasr.org; or by contacting Prof. McCabe at ina.mccabe@tufts.edu.