# Davit Poghosyan

Davit Albert Poghosyan, director of the History Museum of Armenia Armenian museum specialist, PhD (pedagogical sciences), Associate Professor.

## Education

Davit Poghosyan received his museum specialist’s diploma from Armenian State Pedagogical University after KH. Abovyan in 2005, where he continued as post graduate student at the Chair of Library Studies and Bibliography (2005–2008), then as an applicant researcher at the Chair of Art History, Theory and Culturology (2012–2013). He received his PhD in Pedagogical sciences in 2015 in the same university. The topic is “Museum as an Informative-Communicative System, Its functions and Prospects of Development /on the base of experience of the museums of RA/” (Higher Certification Commission‘s “Pedagogy” 020 council).
Davit Poghosyan is specialized in museology, museum communication, museum management. Parallel his professional activities and formal education he participated in non-formal professional development programs in Armenia and abroad including New York University intensive Summer Institute Program for museum specialists (2006), British Museum International Training Program (2015) “SKD Fellowship” Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden international program for researchers at Grassi Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig (2015–2016), Japan International Cooperation Agency “Museum and Community Development” Knowledge Co-Creation Program (2018) etc.

## Professional career

Davit Poghosyan has worked at practical field of museums and heritage management more than 15 years. He started his career from Service for the “Protection of Historical Environment and Museum-Reserves” NCSO (Ministry of Culture of Armenia) in 2006, where he was in the department of development (2006–2008, 2010–2013), then as an expert (2014–2017). He was also invited to teach in the Armenian State Pedagogical University after KH. Abovyan from 2010 as a part time lecturer (2010–2013), then full time lecture (2014–2018) and as a full time associate professor (2018–2020). Now he is part time associate professor in the same university (at the Chair of Museology and Library Studies).
He has worked at the National Museum of Armenian Ethnography and History of Liberal Struggle as an adviser of the director, then head of the Department of Museum Collaboration and PR from 2017 to 2019.
Davit Poghosyan was appointed as the new director of the History Museum of Armenia from 2020 August by the decision of the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Republic of Armenia.
Beginning in early stages of his career Davit Poghosyan has participated in activities of Association of Armenian Museum Professionals, ICOM National Committee of Armenia (from 2008, founding member) and many international and local trainings, workshops, conferences. He has been involved in planning and organization several international and local professional events, workshops, conferences, trainings on Museum Studies. He is elected board member of ICOM/ICTOP (Kyoto General Conference- 2019-2022, Prague General Conference -2022-2025) and ICOM Armenia from 2014.

## Director of the History Museum of Armenia

Since August 2020 Davit Poghosyan organized the designed earlier installation of the new climate control systems in the all historical building of the museum in the position of the director of the History Museum of Armenia. He has organized unprecedented evacuation preparatory works in the museum during 2020 Azerbaijan aggression. The museum did not stop its activities even with closed doors to the public.
The first exhibition of the History Museum of Armenia after the active phase of the pandemic and the post-war situation in Armenia was "Fragments of Identity: Costume" organized in the building of the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which became the basis for the continuous display of ethnographic exhibitions of the museum ("Fragments of Identity. Carpet" and "Fragments of Identity. Adornment" in 2022). Along with ongoing modernization process in the museum there was started openings of some galleries with temporary and permanent exhibitions. The large-scale "Secret of the Land. Artashat at the crossroads of cultures" temporary exhibition (2022) became new format for organizing similar exhibitions in 2022-2023. ("Ancient Metsamor: Armenian-Polish Discoveries", "Forgotten Kingdom: Verin Naver", "Lchashen: Submerged Treasury").
The museum continued its international collaborations in the post-pandemic period by organizing the largest Armenian foreign exhibition with the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands, where 160 remarkable exhibits were displayed during “Under the spell of Ararat. Treasures from Ancient Armenia” exhibition. The exhibition got the Museumtijdschrift Exhibition Prize 2022. The prize is awarded annually to the best exhibition of the cultural year in Netherlands.
Under the direct coordination of Davit Poghosyan, the reopening of the permanent exhibition spaces of the History Museum of Armenia began on September 9, 2022 with the official opening of the "In the Footsteps of Early Man: The Stone Age" exhibition. The museum reopened more than half of its permanent exhibition spaces in 2023-2024 (“Bronze Age: through Reality and Myths”, “Iron Age”, “The Kingdom of Gods: Urartu/Biainili”, “Armenia in the 6th-4th CC. BC”, “Power and Beauty: Antique Armenia”, “Christian Armenia: 4th-9th Centuries”, “Ani Museum of Antiquities”, “Ani: “Bagratids’ World Renowned Capital”, “Armenia in the 10-14th Centuries”, “Armenia in Historical Maps”, “The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia: by the Power of God (11th-14th CC.”), “Museum-105”). Different joint temporary exhibitions (“Arms: Struggle and Culture” , "Reminiscence","Gagik Harutyunyan: In the heart of the instant", “Non-Denunciator Women”, “Winslow Martin: To My Armenia”, “Voices from Our Collective Past: The Artistry of 19th century Armenian Carpets from the James Tufenkian's Collection”, “The Phenomenon of the Jar in the Funeral Rite: The Culture of Jar Burials in Antique Armenia", “Documenting the Eternal: Aram, Ara, Artashes Vruyrs”, "Genocide of the Monuments", "The Coin in Armenia: Times and Relations", “Relics of Identity from Lost Gardman, Shirvan and Nakhijevan”, “Czech Castles and Chateaux” ect) were held with partners at the other galleries of the museum during 2022-2024. Within framework of international collaborations, the museum continued to participate in different international exhibitions (Luxury and Power: From Persia to Greece”, the British Museum, 2023, “Kingdom of Urartu: The heritage of ancient Armenia, Urashtu – Yarminuya – Armina”, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, 2023–2024, “The Worlds of Marco Polo. The Journey of a 13th-century Venetian Merchant”, Palazzo Ducale, 2024). Under the coordination and curation of Davit Poghosyan there was organized the permanent exhibition in the Governmental Building of Republic of Armenia (the Clock Hall) from 2021–2024, meanwhile the museum started to do poster exhibition under the front arch-gallery of the museum building in the Republic Square dedicated to different historical events. Another important exhibition activity became the digital projects in the museum web-site (“Treasures of Artsakh”, “In the Origins of the Army”,“Travellers of the Eternal. Names, Stories and Dreams that are with us”, “Karabakh Movement -35”.
New format of special international exhibition projects was initiated and realized by Davit Poghosyan in the History Museum of Armenia starting from 2024. The year’s museum event became the “Mother Goddess: From Anahit to Mary” international exhibition in the museum organized with British Museum and other partners. In the framework of the exhibition for the first time History Museum of Armenia loaned remains of 2nd -1st cc. BC bronze Statue of Armenian pagan goddess Anahit (Satala Aphrodite). The head and the hand of the statue were found in the historical Armenia Minor, not far from the main worship place of Anahit mentioned in many historical sources. The artefacts were curated with more than 60 iconic exhibits from the collection of the History Museum of Armenia depicting the worship of mother and woman from Neolith to Christian Armenia. The next such kind of international project was “Yesterday and Today: In the Footsteps of Jacques de Morgan" exhibition, organized in collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum of France (Musée d'Archéologie nationale - Domaine national du château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye). Five bronze and iron age museum exhibits excavated in 19th century from the north Armenia was loaned and curated with more than 60 archaeological findings by Armenian-French Archaeological missions working in Armenia from 1990s’. The conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the declaration of independence of Armenia in 2021 became good start for the organization of the museum's annual conferences, as well as publishing the museum periodical the "Proceedings of the History of Armenia" after a 40-year intermission. History Museum of Armenia developed new police for educational programs, series of public lectures and other educational activates also outside from the museum and online formats etc.
The museum also developed its new collecting police based on mainly public donations. The first such project was the implementation of the project "Eternal Travelers... names, stories and dreams that are with us..." after the cessation of the active phase of military operations in Artsakh, which began with collection of stories and objects of died soldiers. The visits of first Armenian Nobel prize laureate Ardem Pataputian and first Armenian Cosmonaut James Baghian to the museum and donations was very big event in 2022.

## Scientific researches

Davit Poghosyan's scientific interests include cultural heritage management, museology, museum communication, cultural tourism, open-air museums, cultural landscapes, museum marketing, branding, ecomuseums, community museums. He is author of more than two dozen scientific articles and three book on museum communication, Museology and museum-reserves in Armenian:
* Poghosyan D., Museum as an Environment of Cultural Communication. Scientific monograph, author’s ed. -Yerevan, 2008, 216 p. (Armenian)
* Poghosyan D., The Process of Formation and Main Principles of Historical and Cultural Site Museums/Museum–Reserves in the Republic of Armenia. Scientific and methodological manual. -Yerevan. “Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum Reservations” SNCO of RA Ministry of Culture, 2018, 144 p. (Armenian)
* Poghosyan D., Theory of Museology and Museological Thinking in Armenia. Educational manual. Yerevan, 2020, 275 p. (Armenian)