VENICE — For 41 years, Venice has hosted a three-week intensive summer course in Armenian language and culture. It is organized by the Padus-Araxes Armenian-Italian Cultural Association, under the presidency of Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, a distinguished scholar and religious figure.
This year, the course brought together 28 participants born and living in from 15 countries: Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The teaching staff consisted of Professors Jesse Arlen (US), Artsvi Bakhchinyan (Armenia), Avedis Jenanian (Italy), Tamar Mangasar (Turkey), Sossi Soussanian (Hungary), and Theo Van Lint (United Kingdom), who taught the Armenian language and various subjects related to Armenian studies. Extracurricular duduk lessons were conducted by Aram Ipekdjian (Austria), while traditional dance lessons by Artsvi Bakhchinyan.
The teachers and participants attended the Divine Liturgy in the Medieval Armenian church of the Holy Cross in Venice (the oldest Armenian Church in the West) and the Solemn Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption at the Mother Monastery of San Lazzaro. They also attended two lectures by Artsvi Bakhchinyan, entitled “The Armenian Contribution to World Science” and “The Armenian Contribution to World Art,” as well as Archbishop Levon Zekiyan’s lecture, “The Forty Years of the Venice Summer Intensive Course and Future Perspectives.” Cinematographer Ashot Mkrtchyan, who had arrived from Armenia, regularly filmed classes and extracurricular activities with the aim of producing a documentary about the course.
And thanks to the direct Yerevan–Venice air connection, among the many languages heard in the streets of Venice, Armenian was not an uncommon one either…
