Hovhannes Sharambeyan Museum of Folk Arts is a unique hearth of national culture. The mission of the Museum is to safeguard, ensure the continuity and popularize the values of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The collection of the Museum (around 12.000 exhibits) includes samples of different branches of Armenian decorative-applied art (woodworking, metalworking, stone carving, embroidery, lace making, rug and carpet weaving, ceramics, as well as works of self-educated painters).
The Museum, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, presents the program “The Birth of Crafts”. In the framework of the program, 6 short (1-2-minutes long) animated films with stop-motion and other animation techniques are being created. The films will feature folk crafts and related skills that are part of the intangible cultural heritage of Armenia- rug and carpet weaving, embroidery and lace making, felting, woodworking,
blacksmithing, ceramics. Animation techniques will make it possible to revive samples of folk art and, as a result, make them more attractive to the viewer. The animated films will feature a step-by-step process of creating samples of Armenian folk crafts, basic ornaments, as well as a brief historical sketch. A lot of work is being done to show the most important fragments of Armenian folk art with a long history within a few seconds of the animation and convey them to the viewer’s heart.
Ornaments bearing certain meaningful elements are often repeated on various samples of Armenian folk art, it may be wood, clay, metal or textile, and the collation of these short films will allow one to see those similarities, perceiving
Armenian culture as one integral system. After the completion of the production process animated films can be disseminated among the general public (local and foreign), go beyond the Museum of Folk Arts, serving as educational material in various institutions of formal and non-formal education, they can serve as a material demonstrating the cultural side of the tourist attractiveness of Armenia,
can be shown on television, on screens accompanying various international exhibitions and other events, presenting elements of the intangible cultural heritage of the Republic of Armenia in a brief, simple and attractive way. Soundwise and visually attractive material, and especially animation, which gives new life to inanimate objects, are attractive not only for children, but also for adults.
With this method, it will be possible to “tell” a large number of people about the rich Armenian culture, in particular, about folk crafts, in an attractive way.
One sample of Armenian folk art, such as a rug, can tell a whole story that is passed down from generation to generation and makes up one of the passports of the Armenian identity.