CSN Lab, with the initiative and support of EUNIC Armenia, for the past months has been implementing the research project “Green Armenia: Towards Sustainability in Culture.” Recently, the presentation of the project’s primary findings was held at the Goethe-Institut’s premises, bringing together representatives of diverse state and non-state institutions from Armenia’s cultural field.
The “Green Armenia” project is the first comprehensive study in Armenia to address the intersection of culture and the environment. It maps the green cultural landscape and examines, through the lens of sustainability, the strategies of both state and non-state institutions. By exploring the multifaceted experiences, practices, and often-overlooked challenges of cultural organizations and initiatives, the project highlights current issues in the field and proposes recommendations for addressing them.
Within the program, CSN Lab’s founder, Tigran Amiryan, in his opening speech reflected on the purpose of “Green Armenia: Towards Sustainability in Culture,” emphasizing the importance and urgency of connecting culture and the environment, particularly in the context of the intensifying climate crisis. CSN Lab team members Arsen Abrahamyan and Nanor Hovanessian presented the aims, key research questions, and structure of the study. Referring to already implemented environment-focused cultural initiatives, as well as the actions and procedures of state and non-state institutions and Armenia’s cultural development strategy, the researchers outlined the main challenges of the cultural field’s green transition and possible approaches to addressing them.
The project presentation was followed by a Q&A session, during which participants from cultural and environmental organizations also shared their experiences related to green transition processes.
The “Green Armenia” project will next move into the stage of developing recommendations and publishing the research. It will be concluded with the presentation of a research manual, aimed not only at raising environmental awareness among individual cultural practitioners and institutions, but also at influencing the state strategy for cultural development.
The research project “Green Armenia: Towards Sustainability in Culture” is an initiative of EUNIC Armenia, implemented by CSN Lab with the support of the European Union Delegation to Armenia.