From Yerevan to Areni: following dream and desire to educate. Arpine Matevosyan

In August 2019, Arpine Matevosyan moved from Yerevan to the border village of Areni following her dream. She wanted to conduct pottery classes for local children and set up her own studio. Speaking about that decision today, she admits that the road to the dream was not so smooth ․

“Everything in Yerevan made me tired. The daily rhythm of work and the noise of the city affected my nerves. “On the other hand, I had an inner aspiration and I was sure that I would pass on my knowledge to the children in the village more correctly and be able to develop the pottery culture in Areni,” she says.

Already in November, Arpine’s studio opened its yellow-green doors for small visitors. During the first months of work in Areni, the connection with Yerjan was not cut off. She often went to the capital to see her friends and buy the necessary things, but the coronavirus and the rapidly rising rates of the disease forced her to decide to isolate herself in Areni, to work in small groups of 3-4 people ․

Arpine confesses that during the epidemic the difference between the city and the village felt more tangible. There were almost no significant damages in Areni during the pandemic. Arpine says living in the village has made her more peaceful.

Despite that, first the pandemic and then the war were a test for Arpine, that taught her to stand on her own two feet․ “Under no circumstances should children be allowed to give up their dreams.”

To alleviate the impact of the pandemic and war on the children of the village, Arpine came up with a new idea․ Now, in addition to pottery, they travel with teenagers on weekends to discover the nature of Armenia.

The studio was closed for the second time at the end of September, during the 44-day Artsakh war. It was closed conditionally, the courses in pottery and painting were simply stopped. Instead, camouflage nets were made with students to send them to the front lines.

 At the same time, Arpine worked with children displaced from Artsakh and sheltered in temporary shelters. During that time she realized that stereotypes about women can be broken only through work.

Full text in Armenian