SHIFT: Culture Crowdsourcing Competition

The SHIFT Initiative is your chance to seize opportunities for innovation in Armenia. It’s based on the global ONEArmenia community’s conviction that Armenia’s potential for educational, humanitarian, environmental and cultural dynamism is limitless–it’s about time you took it into your own hands. In spring 2013, we called for anyone in the world over the age of 16 to pitch a project under $10,000 that transforms an element of Armenian culture–be it ancient or modern–into a fresh, 21st century creation. There were no rules as to process or form; we just wanted to shift Armenia’s culture out of its traditional and historic space and make it the basis for an active, modern-day aesthetic. The winning project was chosen by the online community in a single round of open voting. Huge congratulations go out to Armen Sargsyan and the EPSIDON theater group, whose proposal to turn Nar-Dos‘ classic Armenian work “He and I” into a rock opera for the modern stage is officially the first SHIFT project and premiered in Yerevan in June 2014!