Yerevan's Cafesjian Center For The Arts - the most unusual museum you will ever see.

I was in this region in 1967 when we camped overnight by Mt Ararat, en route overland from London to Delhi. Hence I was excited to be back in Armenia after so many years. Yerevan is an interesting city and I regret that we stayed only 2.5 days during this trip. Lots of old buildings beautifully maintained, tons of restaurants, a vibrant cultural scene with an excellent Opera House where we had a chance to see a performance. The Open market was really good with lots of quality items on sale. And then there is this most unusual of museums….. Cafesjian Center for the Arts.

The Cafesjian Center for the Arts is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture to the world. Inspired by the vision of its founder, Mr. Gerard L. Cafesjian, the Centre offers a wide variety of exhibitions, the majority of which are derived from the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection of contemporary art. A diverse program of lectures, films, concerts, and numerous educational programs for adults and children augment the Centre’s vigorous exhibition schedule. In addition,

The Cafesjian Art Trust Museum was established in 2022 by the family of Gerard Cafesjian (1925–2013) to bring free and accessible modern and contemporary art to Shoreview, Minnesota, a few miles north of the Twin Cities. The collection features nearly 3,000 works of art and continues to grow. So, this family is into the very active promotion of the understanding and development of art in all forms.

As you stand on the pavement facing the Cascade, as this place is known, you cannot visualize the vastness of the place. You don’t notice all the large sculptures laid around in the foreground as your eye is attracted to a myriad of sights starting with an imposing figure of Long John Silver, the pirate. As you begin walking, you see huge pieces placed randomly – deer leaping in a graceful arc, a large blue kiwi bird, a rather fat lady lying down, an intricate tea pot made of wire, a fat paunchy roman soldier (?) etc. There are children playing on the grass, people sitting enjoying the afternoon sun, nobody telling them to get off the grass . as you’d find in England!!   It’s a wonderful relaxed happy atmosphere.  

The Cafesjian Museum Foundation was established in April 2002 in Yerevan under the auspices of the Government of Armenia and the Cafesjian Museum Foundation of America. The Armenian government provided the foundation with the half-constructed Yerevan Cascade complex along with the surrounding area.

The construction of the Cafesjian Museum was launched in April 2005 and was expected to be completed in April 2008. However, with a slight delay, the grand opening of the museum took place on 17 November 2009. 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. The Cafesjian Museum Foundation invested over $ 35 million to complete the reconstruction of the Cascade.

Gerard Leon Cafesjian (1925-2013) was a businessman and philanthropist who founded the Cafesjian Family Foundation (CFF), the Cafesjian Museum Foundation (CMF) and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. After attending to his family needs, Cafesjian established the Cafesjian Family Foundation. Through that Foundation he devoted millions of dollars to Armenia on relief projects including renewable energy, headed a TV station, ran a newspaper, contributed to the clearing of land mines by specially trained dogs, founded a bank, insurance company, and supplied the resources for many other projects. If any of the projects were to prove successful, the profits were to remain in Armenia for further development. He received accolades and recognition from both the United States and Armenia institutions, including the Ellis Island Award in 2000.

G. Cafesjian completely renovated the Cascade site in downtown Yerevan, Armenia. The Cascade was a huge old crumbling Soviet structure of epic proportions. He opened the Cafesjian Center for the Arts at the Cascade in 2009. Over one million people have visited the Center annually since its opening. His goal was to bring some joy into the lives of the Armenians through exposure to art. The Museum enjoys a world-class sculpture garden with works by Botero, Flanagan, Chadwick, Plensa and Lalanne, to name a few. Admission to the sculpture garden is free and it is now the most prominent meeting place in Armenia.

The museum is situated within the cascade complex of Yerevan and along the adjacent pedestrian area and gardens at the entrance to the cascade from the Tamanyan Street. The beginning of the construction of the cascade dates back to 1971. The first phase of the plan was completed in 1980. The cascade is a complex massive staircase on both sides with fountains in between, ascending up from the Tamanyan Street gardens and pedestrian zone. Having five levels, the number of the stairs is 572, ascending along 302 meters upwards.

The museum is considered one of the most ambitious works of contemporary architecture undertaken in any of the former republics of the USSR. The New Your 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 building that now houses the Cafesjian Center for the Arts is well known to the Armenian people, especially those living in its capital city of Yerevan. Known as “The Cascade,” the complex was originally conceived by the architect Alexander Tamanyan (1878–1936). Tamanyan desired to connect the northern and central parts of the city—the historic residential and cultural centers of the city—with a vast green area of waterfalls and gardens, cascading down one of the city’s highest promontories. Unfortunately, the plan remained largely forgotten until the late 1970s, when it was revived by Yerevan’s Chief Architect, Jim Torosyan. Torosyan’s conception of the Cascade included Tamanyan’s original plan but incorporated new ideas that included a monumental exterior stairway, a long indoor shaft containing a series of escalators, and an intricate network of halls, courtyards, and outdoor gardens embellished with numerous works of sculpture bearing references to Armenia’s rich history and cultural heritage.

Construction of Torosyan’s design of the Cascade was launched by the Soviets in the 1980s but abandoned after the Armenian earthquake of 1988 and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. With independent rule and the transition to democracy, Armenia entered a period of severe economic hardship, and the Cascade remained a neglected relic of the Soviet era for more than a decade. Mr. Cafesjian, working with the City of Yerevan and the government of the Republic of Armenia, initiated its recent revitalization in 2002. Over the next seven years, virtually every aspect of the monument was renovated, and much of it completely reconstituted into a Center for the Arts bearing the name of its principal benefactor.

Cascade Statistics
Number of steps - 572
Distance from the bottom to the top of the Cascade: 302 m / 991 feet
Distance from the bottom to the top of the Monument Terrace: 450 m / 1476 feet
Width: 50 m / 164 feet
Height of unfinished section: 78 m / 256 feet
Height of Monument Terrace: 118 m / 387 feet
Incline: 15 degrees

Structure

The museum consists of 2 separate sections: the external "Cafesjian Sculpture Garden", and the internal "Cafesjian Art Galleries".

·        The Cafesjian Sculpture Garden is the front gardens of the cascade where many sculptures are exhibited. Sculptures are also exhibited in the garden terrace along the massive steps and fountains ascending up from the Tamanyan street gardens. With unobstructed walkways, long vistas, and formal garden areas, it has been specially designed to provide a modern setting for large-scale sculpture by many internationally recognized figures.

·        The "Cafesjian Art Galleries" including the Gallery One, Khanjyan Gallery, Eagle Gallery, Sasuntsi Davit Garden Gallery, Star Landing and the Special Events Auditorium, located underneath the exterior staircase and fountains. The galleries are home to a massive collection of glass artwork exhibited in several galleries and sections, including permanent shows or temporary exhibitions.

·        Khanjyan Gallery is home to the large scale mural triptych "History of Armenia" by renowned Soviet and Armenian painter Grigor Khanjyan. Sasuntsi Davit Gallery includes basrelief by Artashes Hovsepyan depicting scenes from the Armenian epic fable David of Sasun.

The majority of the museum's collection are derived from the private collection of the founder Gerard L. Cafesjian. With more than 5,000 works, the centre exhibits one of the most comprehensive glass collections in the world, particularly the works of the Czech couple Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, whose collaborative work revolutionized the use of glass as an artistic medium. Other important glass artists in the collection include Dale Chihuly, Bohumil Elias, Pavel Hlava, Jaromír Rybák, Ivana Šrámková, Bertil Vallien, Lino Tagliapietra, Mark Peiser, and Hiroshi Yamano.

I have been to many museums worldwide and seen many museum shops. I can honestly say that this museum is unique and one of the best in terms of architecture, works displayed etc. We actually saw only the Cascade area as we did not have time to see any of the galleries. The Museum shop has some of the most beautiful and original pieces of art I have ever seen. The mind boggles with the selection on offer. 

You come out after a few hours in the Cascade with your mind in a daze. You have seen art works which are so unusual, so beautiful and with such a variety that your mind takes time to assemble your thoughts. This museum’s design is like no other I have ever seen. It beats Bilboa’s Guggenheim, any of the old established ones like MOMA or The Tate. It is so unique and they have used space so effectively; even whilst going up an escalator, you see art as you progress upwards !!  As I walked back to the exit and pavement I was thinking of all that I had seen in so short a time. My lasting regret being that we had no time to see the Galleries. 

In a blog of this nature, its best to look up the experts. The website of "Museums of the World" and Wikipedia have detailed information and i have gratefully quoted data from that. Thank you. 

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