Aurora Humanitarian Initiative announces second grant to Matenadaran
10 guides will travel to Germany for an international training as a result of the cooperation of Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and the Matenadaran. On October 8, the Feast of the Holy Translators, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has decided to grant US $20,000 to the Yerevan Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the Matenadaran, to facilitate making Armenian culture more accessible to foreign visitors. The grant will fund the training of ten Matenadaran guides. They will travel to Germany to visit museums and cultural centers in Germany to identify and learn the newest principles of museum management and presentation, and to develop skills necessary for museum guides who work in foreign languages. “Matenadaran has always valued the importance of sharing information. We pay huge attention to professional competence of our guides. This project is enormously important and we are pleased that this partnership grows and is becoming strategic,” said Ara Khzmalyan, Advisor to the Director of Matenadaran. The Yerevan Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts has the biggest flow of foreign visitors in Armenia as a research and cultural institution. “Deciding on this grant on the feast of Holy Translators is not just symbolic. With this grant, we are proud to continue in the tradition of the 5th century translators who were instrumental in integrating Armenia and Armenians into world culture. Better representation of Armenian culture through better-trained guides is very important, and an appropriate fit within the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative,” said Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. This is the second instance of cooperation between the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and the Matenadaran as a project of the Armenian Memory Act. In 2015, the Matenadaran received US $25 000 grant to purchase a special scanner to digitize manuscripts making them more accessible for researchers and the wider public. 700 manuscripts and rare archive documents have been digitalized since the beginning of the project. The process of digitization is ongoing. The Armenian Memory Act, subproject of Aurora Initiative, is committed to enhancing the preservation and use of archives and documentation of the Armenian experience. About the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is committed to building a broad, global humanitarian movement. The initiative is rooted in inspiring stories of courage and survival that emerged during the Armenian Genocide, when 1.5 million Armenians perished. Those fortunate few who survived were saved also by the courageous and heroic acts of intervening institutions and individuals. A century later, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative seeks to express gratitude, share remarkable stories of survivors and their saviors, and celebrate the strength of the human spirit. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative instigates, includes and supports projects designed to raise public awareness and address some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues. These projects include the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, the Aurora Dialogues, the Aurora Humanitarian Index, the Aurora Gratitude Projects and the 100 LIVES initiative. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is an enterprise of the IDeA Foundation (Initiatives for Development of Armenia). About Matenadaran Established in 1959, the Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts - Matenadaran is a repository of ancient manuscripts, research institute and museum in Yerevan, Armenia. It is one of the world's richest depositories of medieval manuscripts and books which span a broad range of subjects, including history, philosophy, medicine, literature, art history and cosmology in many languages.
