Hayk’s week one: exhibitions, parks, work, friends and an Armenian Church

Hayk Mkrtchyan (ITP 2014, Armenia), Senior Fellow 2017

Hi everyone,

I want to share some great moments with all of you while I am ‘alone’ in London.

I arrived at the British Museum and this is what a few of the galleries look like before and after 10 am.

My first week started with some research work on UK partner museums and ITP Programme Partners as well as the importance of social media platforms in disseminating ITP news, future opportunities and fellows’ success across the Globe.

On 8th June I joined a departmental representatives meeting with the ITP team, departments which Fellows will be allocated during summer programme. Everyone is excited to meet the 2017 Fellows – to share experiences and have a fun 6 weeks. Later that day I went to the America Dream exhibition.

“America. Land of the free. Home of the brave…”

… which 2017 Fellows will be visiting during their time at the British Museum.

The V&A stays open until 10pm on Fridays, and so after I finished at the British Museum at 5pm I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road. I went to see the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition and through the museum’s use of audio-visual techniques I took a journey through Pink Floyd’s unique world of music. The exhibition reflected on every stage of Pink Floyd’s career and was a great sound experience.

On Saturday I met with Armenian- Iranian friends and had nice lunch and walk in the Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens.

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I also went to Hyde Park where, after queuing for one hour, I had a quick glance at the exhibition by Grayson Perry in the Serpentine Gallery.

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On Sunday morning I explored Armenia culture in London and went to the St Sarkis Armenian Church in Kensington. The church was constructed in 1922-23 by British businessman and philanthropist of Armenian origin Calouste Gulbenkian. Gulbenkian spent his final years in Lisbon and The Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – as it is known in Portuguese – was established in Lisbon as a term of Calouste Gulbenkian’s will.  It is considered to be a major cultural institution in the country, besides claiming to be one of the largest foundations in the world.

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Whilst I was in Kensington I also visited the Design Museum, where I managed to see 2 exhibitions! The first exhibition, Designer Maker User, features almost 1000 items of twentieth and twenty-first century design, which are viewed from the perspectives of designers, manufacturers and users.

The second exhibition I saw, Cartier in Motion, was dedicated to Louis Cartier and his close circle of friends who were part of the avant-garde movement in Paris. It focuses on subjects such as jewlery, aviation and engineering.

To the 2017 Fellows, I highly recommend that you all make visits to these museums over Summer; visiting these spaces shapes  the way you work and are an excellent examples of how to think outside the box.

Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd 70’

Looking forward to sharing your first impressions and opinions about London, culture and museums in person….