Crafts and art industries sector has been mainstays of Armenian national culture since Soviet times. Armenian artisans, jewelers, and souvenir-makers have been traditionally well-known in the region and beyond. Stone-carving, jewelry, carpet-weaving, lace-making, embroidery, ceramics, and other crafts are among those crafts and arts the Armenian artisans are specialized in. In the Soviet times the activities of artisans, training, and the centralized trade of art industries products were regulated by the Professional or Creative Unions. In the post-Soviet time, crafts and art industries fell out of the state regulations and control and developed according to the market, especially tourism market trends. In 2014 authorities recognized the need to encourage private investments with pubic regulation mechanisms. The Culture Development strategy 2008-2012 already contained some relevant goals, but lacked an associated action plan and evaluation. It stated freedom of cultural and creative activities; self-dependence of cultural organisations; development of new model on decentralisation of management and multi-source finance; and the inclusion of an annual mandatory line in the budget to obtain/purchase cultural and creative products. This new policy orientation resulted in some pilot projects in smaller towns and regions such as Goris, Gyumri and Sisian. However, new policies did not reflect the whole situation and systemic problems and a gap remained between policy-makers and the sector professionals, preventing their interests and visions to be discussed and their feedback to be reflected upon and integrated into policy-making. Lack of transparency, access to information on cultural projects as well as lack of clear vision of systemic approaches by policy-makers seriously affected the development of the field. Similarly, professional unions did not reflect young practitioners or new creative areas’ expectations and interests, and were not going to take over a needed advocacy role. Nevertheless, there have been some “business” hubs or centres taking over the role of promoters of creative industries such as business centres in the American University of Armenia, and Sharambeyan’s centre in Dilijan (Tavoush province).
Along with the development of tourism, the sector gradually becomes more interesting for private donors: Diaspora and international organisations’ investments (USAID, OCDE, UN); some active donors in the country (AGBU Armenian General Benevolent Union and Cafesjian Centre for the Arts) and foreign corporations (e.g. Viva-cell-mts and Orange). There are also private independent initiatives to bridge the gap between arts and culture such as cultural cafés (e.g. Artbridge), cultural centres (e.g. Mirzoyan library) and galleries that propose arts and culture programmes. Also, a big market and cultural hub is the Yerevan “Vernissage” market of art production, established at the end of 1980’s. Currently, it is located in the very centre of the city, occupies about 3 hectares and represents the biggest concentration of craftsmen and artisans in Armenia. Local authorities have implemented several projects on renovation and improvement of the territory and facilities and today it is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in Armenia.
Since the adoption of a national tourism strategy in 2008, the number of tourists as well as accommodation capacity is increasing yearly, except for 2020-2021 due to the pandemic and the II Karabakh War. Currently, the development of tourism is one of the accepted economic development priorities for 2021-2025. The new strategy includes organization and implementation of a big number of state funded cultural events such as performing and visual arts, crafts, gastronomy, local cultures festivals, city days. All these events positively affect the development of cultural and art industries. Special craft and artisan markets are usually organized during these days.
Nevertheless, no special policies on art and cultural industries have been developed yet[1].
[1] The main source for this chapter is Farinha, Cristina, Developing cultural and creative industries in Armenia, report for EU Eastern Partnership programme, 2018
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