The Cafesjian Center for the Arts (also known as the Cafesjian Museum Foundation) is an art museum in Yerevan

Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

, Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

. It is situated in central Yerevan in the area in and around the Cascade. At the core of the museum's permanent collection is the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection of Art. The inauguration took place on the 17th November 2009.
www.cmf.am

History

Construction began in the Spring of 2005 and was expected to be completed in Spring 2008. The Museum was completed in the Fall of 2009.

The museum was inaugurated on November 7, 2009, in Yerevan. The opening ceremony was attended by the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, minister of culture Hasmik Poghosyan, minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, as well as representatives of diplomatic missions in Armenia, various artists and political figures.http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=39035

Architecture

It is said that "the museum project represents one of the most ambitious works of contemporary architecture undertaken in any of the former republics of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

." The New York Times described it as "a mad work of architectural megalomania and architectural recovery, (...) one of the strangest and most spectacular museum buildings to open in ages."

The project was designed by the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 based architecture firm David Hotson Architects. The rest of the design team includes architect of record David Hotson Associates Architecs, Yerevan; structural engineer Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners, New York, NY; structural engineer of record ArmProject, Yerevan and services and environmental engineer Atelier Ten, New York and London, UK.

Governance

The museum is run by the Cafesjian Museum Foundation, which was established in April 2002 in Yerevan under the auspices of the Armenian government and the Cafesjian Museum Foundation of America. The Armenian government provided the Foundation with a half-constructed "Cascade" complex and the surrounding area. The Foundation invested over 35 million dollars to complete the reconstruction of the Cascade.

Collection

Sculptor	Work
Lynn Chadwick Lynn Chadwick Lynn Russell Chadwick CBE was an English artist and sculptor trained as an architectural draughtsman,but began producing metal mobile sculpture during the 1940s. Chadwick was born in London and went to Merchant Taylor's School.Chadwick was commissioned to produce 3 works for the 1951 Festival of...	Sitting Forms, Stairs, Two watchers
Barry Flanagan Barry Flanagan Barry Flanagan RA OBE was a Welsh sculptor, best known for his bronze statues of hares.-Biography:Barry Flanagan was born in Prestatyn, North Wales. He studied at Birmingham College of Art and Crafts before going on to St. Martin's School of Art in London in 1964. Flanagan graduated in 1966 and...	Hare on Bell
Fernando Botero Fernando Botero Fernando Botero Angulo is a Colombian figurative artist. His works feature a figurative style, called by some "Boterismo", which gives them an unmistakable identity...	Cat, Roman warrior

External links

• Official website of Cafesjian Museum of Art