Yerevan’s young creative generation are tireless, resilient, and unafraid of pushing boundaries. Whether their work means creating inclusive art spaces, putting Armenia on the international fashion scene, or encouraging new generations of photographers, they are all united in one mission: pushing the city’s cultural scene to the cutting edge to keep it both alive and thriving.

Born and bred in Yerevan, Anush Babajanyan believes in photography’s power for social change. Starting with her degree in journalism at the American University in Bulgaria, Babajanyan says “the visual expression pulled me, I loved it. I wanted to photograph way more than I wanted anything else.” It took her ten years to make documentary photography a viable, successful career, but she now boasts collaborations with prestigious publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and a contract with agency VII.

Among her recent reports, Babajanyan’s photographs from Nagorno-Karabakh spotlight the human stories lost between the headlines of the 2020 war that tore through the region, as Armenia and Azerbaijan fought for control of the mountainous land. Babajanyan has been photographing Nagorno-Karabakh for years — always searching to balance out everyday moments of joy and sorrow with the pain and destruction that political conflict has brought to the region. “Documenting what has been going on in Nagorno-Karabakh has brought me closer to understanding why I do what I do,” she told The Calvert Journal. “It’s the question that keeps me searching.”

Victoria Aleksanyan is a filmmaker, photographer, and activist. As a director, her work has always been closely tied to Armenia, from Caregivers, her student film for Columbia University, to her upcoming short, now in post-production, Deep Sky Blue, exploring the themes of migration, After years of working in the Manhattan film scene, Aleksanyan swapped New York for her home city of Yerevan — right on the brink of the 2018 Velvet Revolution, which would overthrow Armenia’s government. “I decided that it was time to go back and make a film in Armenia, to get its stories and narratives out to the world,” she told The Calvert Journal. “But when I started working on my short, I realised many problems were stopping local filmmakers from succeeding, and jumping into the international scene. The state system for film funding, inherited from the Soviet Union, has not been reformed at all. Can you imagine? State funding has such strict budget and time constraints that it is dangerous for the arts. Many filmmakers tried their best, struggled, and failed.”

Since 2003, Karen Mirzoyan, a Tbilisi-born Armenian photographer, has been on the road, developing his photography career and winning multiple awards for his work. Hovering between photojournalism and art photography, his projects often span several years of research into the cultural and sociopolitical context of a story, and the development of personal relationships. Mirzoyan is a member of the Magnum Photography Foundation, from which he has received several awards for his photo stories Underground Culture in Iran, Illegal Weapons in South Ossetia, and Daily Life in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. At the heart of his practice are human rights and unseen stories.

A musician, educator, and social entrepreneur, Anna Mikaelian Meschian, a US-raised and Yerevan-based pianist, is one of the driving forces behind the next generation of Armenian musicians. Inspired by El Sistema, a music education programme founded in Venezuela in the 70s, Mikaelian established the Armenian chapter of the movement in 2013. The project slowly evolved from a series of after-school music lessons for children into what it is today: the Nexus Center for the Arts, a music school, “where people who love making music and art can come together and learn from each other,” explains Mikaelian. Today, Nexus’ students range from preschoolers to adults, and the emphasis is clear: “learn to play, compose, sing, bang on a can, whatever you want, but you must be ready to share the joy.”

After graduating from Yerevan’s State University of Theatre and Cinema and working in drama projects in France and Italy, Vahan Badalyan came back to Yerevan in the early 2000s with a clear idea: Armenia needed free, independent theatres, otherwise, contemporary playwriting would die. As a result, he founded the NCA Small Theater: a company championing artistic independence, innovation, and youth drama education.

Twenty years since opening, Badalyan looks back on his journey with pride, and rightly so. Since its inauguration, the Small Theater has produced hundreds of plays, revolutionising traditional performance with contemporary dance, video, photography, and other art forms.

In 2013, the Small Theater also decided to create the first country’s first dance ensemble with disabled and able-bodied performers. Since then, Badalyan’s inclusive performances have travelled both in and outside of Yerevan, promoting inclusivity in Armenian regions, where disabled people still face major physical and societal obstacles.

There is still a long way ahead for the Armenian theatre scene. “Over the past years, there have been great changes, but our scene still lags behind the contemporary art world. Due to the outdated and stagnating state funding system, very few freelancers get a chance and a platform, and the only opportunities for young artists are to participate in international projects,” explains Badalyan. “We need sustainability for our inclusive work in Armenia, but that cannot happen without government support — although discussions about these topics have begun in recent years.” Badalyan’s latest project, opening a inclusive dance training centre in Yerevan, recently received a green light — another step in the right direction to broaden the Armenian arts scene.

When artist Armine Harutyunyan walked down the Gucci catwalk during Milan Fashion Week in September 2019 — after being scouted in a Berlin mall — she made history as the first Armenian model to do so. Yet Harutunyan, who was born and bred in Yerevan, is used to being on stage for other reasons. After studying fine art, scenography, and theatre design in Yerevan, she started out her career as a graphic designer, illustrator, and set designer.

“I have been on stage from a young age, first as a ballerina, and then I’ve made a career out of being a set and stage designer. As far as modelling goes, it was just another way for me to be on stage; it all ties together. These are all parts of my life I don’t see myself giving up,” explains Harutyunyan. Creativity runs in the family: she is the granddaughter of Khachatur Azizyan, one of Armenia’s most celebrated living painters, and her grandmother and great-grandfather are also renowned Armenian artists. After her brief modelling stint, she was the target of both sexist hate and xenophobia for her unusual looks. Her advice, as she remarked in an interview to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “is to concentrate on yourself, on who you are and what you really love”. For her, that is all things arts-related, and Yerevan’s creative atmosphere — which Harutunyan, who is much-loved by locals for her international recognition in the fashion world, proudly praises for its rich cultural heritage, buzzing exhibition schedule and skillful, innovative young artists.