The 40th Summer Intensive Course of Armenian Language & Culture in Venice

VENICE– The Armenian Language and Culture Summer Intensive Course organized by the Padus-Araxes Cultural Association took place this year from August 1st through August 18th. Classes were held at the seminary of the Patriarchate of Venice, in collaboration with the Patriarchate’s “Studium Generale Marcianum” Foundation.

The course’s teaching staff were: Raffi Setian (U.S.A.), Artsvi Bakhchinyan (Armenia), Rosine Tachdjian-Atamian (France), Sossi Soussanian (Hungary), Tork Dalalyan (Armenia), Tamar Mangasaryan (Turkey), Jesse Arlen (U.S.A.), and Aram Ipekdjian (Austria) for special extracurricular lessons of Duduk. This was the permanent teaching staff of the course in the last years, including Benedetta Contin who this year could not participate.

This year the program had 30 participating students, both Armenians and non-Armenians, from 15 countries, including several students pursuing advanced degrees in fields related to Armenian studies.

Participants were divided into four levels, from complete beginners (learning the alphabet) to lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced students. Those in the fourth (highest) level took courses in Classical Armenian, Modern Armenian Literature, History of Armenian Language and Literature, and Armenian Performative Arts, with all instruction conducted in Armenian.

Participants of the first three levels had the option to take a course in either Armenian History or Classical Armenian Language (taught in English).

Extracurricular lessons were available for participants in Armenian Dance (taught by Artsvi Bakhchinyan) as well as Duduk (taught by Maestro Aram Ipekdjian).

This year marked the 40th anniversary of the course’s founding and was accompanied by four special evening events to mark this milestone.

The founding president and director of the Padus-Araxes cutural association, Mgr. Levon Zekiyan, delivered two evening lectures dedicated to the history of the course and the significance of West Armenian culture and language. In the first, on August 7th, entitled “Վենետիկի դասընթացքին քառասուն տարիները / Forty Years of the Venice Summer Intensive Course,” Mgr. Zekiyan reflected on the early years of the course, telling the history of its founding and explaining the ways in which the course has evolved over the last forty years, noting how over 1,500 participants have taken the course in those years, many of whom went on to become key figures in Armenology. The second, given on August 11th and entitled “Արեւմտահայ մշակոյթը եւ հայ ինքնութիւնը / West Armenian Culture and Armenian Identity,” reflected on the significance of Western Armenian language and culture and the principles and strategic methods by which the course has attempted to foster Western Armenian identity and culture in its stateless, diasporic condition.

On August 14th, Prof. Theo Maarten van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at Oxford University, delivered a lecture entitled “On the Road of Discovery to Untold Riches of Human Culture: Learning Western Armenian in Venice,” in which he reflected on the long and interconnected history of Armenians in Venice and the significant role the summer language course has played over the last forty years, delivering his remarks based on his own personal experience as a student in the first iteration of the summer course in 1986, and an interested follower and supporter of the course from then until today.

On August 16th the final lecture in celebration of the course’s fortieth anniversary was delivered by Suren Danielyan, founder and president of the “Spyurk” (Diaspora) Scientific-Educational Center of the Armenian State Pedagogical University, entitled “Արեւմտահայ կրթութեան ներկան եւ հեռանկարները / The Present and Future Prospects of Western Armenian Education,” in which he reflected on the endangered status of the Western Armenian language and the general disregard and neglect this branch of the Armenian language has had in the Republic of Armenia. Prof. Danielyan explained the efforts the “Spyurk” research center has undertaken in the last decades to promote Western Armenian language and literature through teacher training programs, elementary school education, conferences, and publications and made several suggestions for ways in which mutual intelligibility between Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian can be fostered, including a return to classical orthography in the Republic of Armenia and further hours of instruction devoted to Western Armenian language and literature from elementary school to university classes. Prof. Danielyan noted with optimism the recent establishment of a new master’s program in Armenia for Western Armenian language and literature.

Mesmerizing solo performances on duduk were given by Aram Ipekdjian following the latter two evening lectures. During the course, participants also had the opportunity to engage in many other optional activities of cultural and intellectual interest, including a book presentation, tours, and liturgical celebrations at Santa Croce degli Armeni and San Lazzaro degli Armeni.

SECRETARIAT OF PADUS-ARAXES CULTURAL ASSOCIATION