Creative Yerevan: the people and places innovating contemporary culture

Yerevan is a site of contestation: a city some claim is older than Rome, the past decades it has seen radical changes to its social, physical and cultural landscape. Following decades of political turmoil, a peaceful revolution in 2018, migration and economic ups-and-downturns, and most recently a bloody war in its nearby borders in 2020, Yerevan has had to fight to keep its cultural momentum. Yet, in a city where all streets are named after poets, painters and musicians, turmoil has always found a surprising way out through creativity. Over the past years, the city has experienced a cultural rebirth: from nightlife to art and activism, the new generations of creatives and up-and-coming cultural hubs fighting to define the place of Armenian heritage in a globalised world are a living testimony of the city’s restless soul.