YEREVAN. – 2016 was an exciting year for the British Council full of new projects and events in Armenia.
The year started off with the British Film Festival featuring seven films. The films were screened both in the capital city, Yerevan, and in the regions reaching about 25,000 people.
EU-Eastern Partnership “Culture and Creativity” Programme extended journalists, cultural operators and managers an opportunity to join a series of workshops and courses hosted by the best experts, who paid a visit to Armenia to share their expertise with local specialists.
In 2016, the world commemorated 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and Armenia joined “Shakespeare Lives” Programme events. The actors of Small Theatre acted segments from their “Shake Speare” production on the station platforms of Yerevan Metro. The 13th edition of the International Film festival Golden Apricot featured seven films on Shakespeare and 8th ReAnimania International Festival presented the film series “Shakespeare on Screen” based on Shakespeare’s works.
This year the British Council continued to work with HighFest International Performing Arts festival presenting “Idiot-Syncrasy” performance by Igor and Moreno.
The British Council Armenian Branch also became part of “UK Big Dance” festival and in partnership with Sofi Devoyan’s Theatre of Dance and Soul staged the dance by renowned choreographer Akram Khan on the open-air platform of Cafesjian Center for the Arts, involving more than 300 participants.
This was a big year for Unlimited project as well. A collaboration between the UK’s Candoco Dance Company and Armenia’s first integrated theatre company, NCA Small Theatre, Hiraeth played at Tramway as part of the Unlimited Festival and had a positive international reception.
Starting from 2016, the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia started considering the certificates of IELTS test results as a proof of English proficiency for those students who wanted to pursue their post-graduate studies. To address the increasing demand of exam-preparation classes, the British Council started delivering IELTS preparation courses to help the exam candidates to get the best language training before sitting for the exam. The candidates can also sit mock test to have their exam performance tested.
Over the year, the British Council in partnership with Children of Armenia Foundation (COAF) hosted teacher training sessions for 12 teachers in Aragatsotn and Armavir.
Finally, in 2016 the British Council started airing its LearnEnglish radio series “Obla Air” on Radio Hai and English language teaching “Word on the Street” series on H3.
More than 800 English language teachers and educators from Armenia and abroad attended series of workshops hosted by Scott Thornbury, a renowned educator and ELT scholar.
In 2017, the British Council will continue building cultural relations with the United Kingdom through its work in the field of arts and English language teaching.
