“Diamonds, Dragons and Crosses – The Story of Armenian Rug Weaving”

Order Video:         click here
Event:              Lecture by Dr. Lucy Der Manuelian:
Date:               Sunday, September 25, 2005
Time:               4:00 p.m., preceded by reception from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location:           Toll Room in the U.C. Berkeley Alumni House, U.C. Berkeley Campus
Admission:          Free

Directions and Map:   click here

Lucy Der Manuelian in Armenia

On September 25, 2005, the Armenian Rugs Society and the Armenian Studies Program of the University of California at Berkeley will co-sponsor a talk by Dr. Lucy Der Manuelian, holder of the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History in the Department of Art History at Tufts University. Her lecture is entitled "Diamonds, Dragons and Crosses: The Story of Armenian Rug Weaving" and will be held in the Toll Room at the University of California Alumni House, located at the end of Dana Court just off the Bancroft Way/Dana Street intersection in Berkeley. The event will begin at 3:00 p.m. with a reception in honor of Dr. Der Manuelian followed by her talk at 4:00 p.m. Admission is free. 

Lucy Der Manuelian received her B.A. degree from Radcliffe College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in art history from Boston University. Hers was the first Ph.D. dissertation in the United States in the field of Armenian art. Since 1984 she has held the only endowed Chair in Armenian Art and Architectural History in the United States at Tufts University. She has given more than a thousand lectures and interviews at educational and governmental institutions all over the world, including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the American Embassy in Moscow. She has produced documentary films, including her most recent project, Lost Treasures of Christianity: The Ancient Monuments of Armenia, shown on 58 PBS stations in major cities in the U.S., including New York, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago.

Since 1977 she has made countless trips to Armenia to do fieldwork and research. Braving energy blockades, transportation and fuel shortages, Soviet bureaucracy and KGB officials, she has managed to do ground breaking field work in Armenia photographing and chronicling medieval Armenian churches and castles. During one major visit, she spent seven months in the former Soviet Union doing fieldwork and research in Armenia, followed by a three-month expedition under fellowships awarded her by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. She has photographed, studied and written about hundreds of medieval monasteries in mountainous regions all over the country. She is the first American to carry out such a project.

Dr. Der Manuelian has authored three volumes and co-authored a fourth on Armenian architecture published by the Armenian Architectural Archives Project. Her publications also include major articles on Armenian art for the Dictionary of the Middle Ages and the Dictionary of Art; and papers on medieval Armenian sculpture. She organized and wrote the catalogue for the University of Michigan exhibit entitled The Gregorian Collection. She co-authored the catalogue, and was consultant and lecturer for the Kimbell Art Museum's exhibit entitled Weavers, Merchants and Kings: The Inscribed Rugs of Armenia, which traveled to five museums in the U.S. She has been the subject of many newspaper, radio and television interviews, has introduced Armenian history and art to millions of people here and in other countries, including l42 million listeners to Voice of America broadcasts. She has also appeared on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and other television programs.

-co-sponsored by the Armenian Rugs Society and the Armenian Studies Program University of California Berkeley