Creative Spark is a British Council programme aimed at developing enterprise education. Mediamax will provide updates on the implementation of the programme in cooperation with the British Council. 

Our third story is from the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia.

The room for dreaming

An oval table stands in one of the colorful lecture rooms of the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia. Girls are sitting at the table, deep in discussion, and the room is buzzing like a beehive. One of the students has sheets of paper in front of her, another is holding a pen and a pair of scissors, and the third student has a notebook and a magazine in her hands. 

Photo: Mediamax

The girls are visualizing the startup of their dreams. Recently, they have been gathering in this room three times a week and spending three hours each time on research and use of the possibilities of Creative Spark project.

Photo: Mediamax

Drafting the dream

“Girls, this is what you have to do: choose pictures from these magazines and paper that are in line with your ideas for the startup and cut them out. You can use the pens and pencils to draw what is required to realize your ideas. 

Photo: Mediamax

Before we do that, let’s revise what we have learned so far. What is required to implement a business idea? Let’s start,” says the instructor, launching an active discussion. It is followed by visualization of the girls’ dreams.

Photo: Mediamax

A designer transport vision

Suzanna and Elen have come up with a plan to improve Yerevan’s transport system. They are certain it won’t just ease the traffic, but also make traffic jams more bearable and reduce the waiting time.

“We haven’t thought of submitting our plan to the municipality and the mayor, because it isn’t fully ready yet. We don’t want to reveal too much, but we can say that it’s an online system and it can simplify the payment of fees,” said 18-year-old Elen Shahbazyan.

Elen (in the middle)

Photo: Mediamax

Suzanna and Elen cannot say when the final draft of their plan will be ready, as they didn’t set a deadline for themselves. Immediately after disclosing that piece of information, the girls point out a shortcoming in their plan, which needs to be corrected.

“We’ll learn how to do that in a few days, it isn’t an error we can’t fix. We have already learned so many important things, like making decisions quickly, keeping pace with the times in our thinking, choosing the best solution for the given problem,” 21-year-old Suzanna lists quickly. 

Suzanna (on the right)

Photo: Mediamax

A learning experience for both students and teachers

Mane Karapetyan and Lily Arsenyan are the instructors of this course. According to them, the retraining itself was a novelty for them as well as an opportunity to learn new methodology.

Lili Arsenyan

Photo: Mediamax

“It is very important to pass this knowledge to the students. We have 15 members in the group, and these skills are essential for design experts and fashion designers. Why? Because they will be working with production and products for their entire careers, so they need to learn to consume and sell them in a competent way. These skills are not really included in the university’s curriculum,” said Mane Karapetyan, who also teaches at the academy.

Mane Karapetyan

Photo: Mediamax

The students confirm that the curriculum does not have many similar opportunities and Creative Spark enables them to close that gap in their education. Lily Arsenyan highlights that the course teaches the students entrepreneurial thinking.

“It is particularly important for the students of the academy. I am confident that the students in our group will have a better understanding of what they need to realize their projects and advance their careers, which will help them avoid probable challenges,” concludes Mane.

Photo: Mediamax

Creative Spark is a five year initiative designed to support international university and institutional partnerships to develop enterprise skills and creative economy across seven countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan), South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia) and Ukraine through UK support. 

Due to the success of year one of the Creative Spark, the British Council announced it would fund a further 12 international partnerships. Each partnership will receive a maximum of GBP 40,000.

The applications for the grant will be accepted here from April 1 to May 12, 2019.

Lusin Mkrtchyan

Photos: Emin Aristakesyan 

The series about “Creative Spark” on Mediamax.am is supported by the British Council.