Fifty years after Philadelphia’s “Younger Meher” statue was first erected by Armenian People on the US Bicentennial, the heroic determine might be on the middle of a brand new everlasting public artwork exhibition slated for a 2026 unveiling. The Armenian Heritage Stroll might be positioned in entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork (PMA).
The information of the forthcoming commemorative house comes as consultants warn of a “cultural genocide” because the Azerbaijani regime destroys Armenian church buildings and different heritage websites in Artsakh (also referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh). Over 100,000 Armenians had been forcibly displaced from their homeland final September, and a current report from the Caucasus Heritage Watch discovered a 75% improve in destroyed burial grounds, sacred locations, and different websites since fall 2023.
The Armenian Heritage Basis of Philadelphia, a gaggle created to supervise the challenge, introduced the walkway in March. Final November, the town’s artwork fee issued a ultimate approval on the general public challenge set up in entrance of the PMA.
This month the group will start procuring supplies wanted to start building by spring 2025, in keeping with its web site.
The thought for the general public outside gallery started as an effort by Armenian neighborhood members to renovate the “Younger Meher” statue, created in 1975 and initially unveiled the next 12 months throughout a ceremony attended by over 2,000 folks. Younger Meher, because the Armenian folktale goes, was imprisoned in a cave, refusing to depart till justice was dropped at Armenia. The epic hero represents Armenian energy within the face of plight. The sculpture’s artist, Khoren Der Harootian, was born within the village of Ashotavan (current day area of Elazığ) within the Ottoman Empire and fled to the US in 1921 after 23 of his members of the family had been murdered within the Armenian Genocide. In 1929, he would transfer to Jamaica, the place he befriended sculptor Edna Manley, and have become one of many first artists to frequently exhibit fashionable artwork on the island. He lived in Jamaica, with some interruptions, till 1944 earlier than returning to the US, the place he lived till his dying in 1991. He had a protracted connection to the Philadelphia space. His “Rebellious Slave” sculpture was exhibited on the Fairmount Park Artwork Affiliation’s Third Worldwide Exhibition of Sculpture on the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork in 1949, the next 12 months he would have a solo exhibition on the metropolis’s Artwork Alliance, and in 1954 his “Descent from the Cross,” obtained the George D. Widener Memorial gold medal at Pennsylvania Academy of the Superb Arts’s annual exhibition.
The monument itself commemorates the “invincible religion” of the folks of Armenia, the primary nation to just accept Christianity in 301 CE, in keeping with a plaque.
Within the first section of building for the outside house, the determine of Younger Meher and its supporting reduction panels depicting varied Armenian Christian imagery might be restored and repaired. This section can even create a winding walkway meant to gradual foot site visitors to encourage reflection, areas for future public artwork, and landscaping paying homage to Armenian geography. Section II, to be carried out at a later date, will embody public artwork exhibitions alongside the stroll.
The Philadelphia exhibition isn’t the primary Armenian heritage stroll to crop up in the US.
Boston’s Armenian Heritage Park, which formally opened in 2012, encompasses a labyrinth celebrating the journey of immigrants to Boston, Armenian or not. The park can also be house to an summary sculpture by fabrication group A&A Industries that memorializes these killed within the Armenian Genocide.
Just like the walkway in Boston, the brand new Philadelphia outside show will rejoice the US as a second house to Armenians.
The unique unveiling of “Younger Meher” in 1976 was replete with American flags. The revived mission assertion of the Armenian Heritage Stroll reaffirms that sentiment: “We People of Armenian descent specific our gratitude to the US of America for the sanctuary, freedom, and alternatives this nice nation has afforded us all.”
Whereas the PMA isn’t financially concerned within the creation of the outside gallery, a spokesperson for the museum mentioned it might proceed to be in dialog with the Armenian Heritage Basis of Philadelphia because the challenge involves fruition.
“We’re completely satisfied to let our guests know in regards to the stroll and encourage them to get pleasure from it,” a PMA spokesperson instructed Hyperallergic.