The Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, in partnership with the International Coordinating Council for Armenian Culture and Arts, will host the Forum of Armenian Arts and Culture on November 20–21, 2025.
The Forum will bring together 250 cultural professionals from Armenian communities worldwide for two days of dialogue, exchange, and creative collaboration.
A conversation between Syrian-Armenian-American storyteller and Hakawati founder Sona Tatoyan and Lebanese-Armenian-Canadian-American Entrepreneur and Moderna Co-Founder Noubar Afeyan, two visionary Armenian diaspora leaders bound by heritage and a shared mission to heal the world: one through art and the other through science.
Sona Tatoyan | UCLA 2025 | Armenian Cultural Heritage: Past, Present & Future
Ms. Tatoyan shares about the discovery of her great-great grandfather Abkar Knadjian’s 120 year old Karagöz puppet collection, the genesis of Hakawati NGO and the creation of her multimedia show AZAD(the rabbit and the wolf) which incorporates the puppets, in what she refers to as a quantum collaboration with Abkar.
Sona Tatoyan and Micheline Aharonian Marcom in Conversation
American University of Armenia, June 2024
Africa-Press – Rwanda. On Wednesday, July 12, Luiz Coradazzi, a Brazilian Cultural strategist, took charge as the moderator, setting the stage for an engaging cultural diplomacy dialogue. About 25 participants joined the event, which commenced with an icebreaker activity fostering connections among the attendees. As the discussions unfolded, a question emerged time and again: “How does culture intertwine with diplomacy?
CMES welcomes Syrian-Armenian-American actress Sona Tatoyan as she presents her Armenian grandfather’s hand-made Karagöz shadow puppets, which were recently re-discovered in the family home in Aleppo, Syria. Ms. Tatoyan will speak about finding the trove of puppets in the context of her visit to Aleppo as well as the tradition of puppetry in the Middle East and her plans for an exhibition of this remarkable art form that entertained millions until the age of cinema.
