A lifetime opportunity, Abel needs your support

For some people the future is uncertain, but not for me!

Hello, I am Abel Martirosyan, an Armenian Fashion Designer born and raised in Armenia. I have successfully finished my bachelor's degree at the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia. During my career, I worked in the industry. My experience is full of various skills and experiences, from visual merchandising, and styling, to design, design development, art direction, creative direction, branding, concept development, etc. After all of this, I decided to apply to an international leading institution to continue my education.

For my Master's Degree, I have been admitted to the Parsons School of Design for MFA in Fashion Design and Society with a 75% scholarship. The scholarship I received is the highest anybody in Parsons for Graduate program can get, more importantly, the most that an International student can get. Parsons is a leading institution in the world. The latter is a new program developed by Lucia Cuba Oroza, particularly for Parsons. It is the first one of its kind that involves Social Justice and its ties to Fashion.

I decided to continue my education because the whole industry is changing worldwide, but here we need a change, and one thing that I learned at a young age, is if you want to see a change you should be that change. My past experiences made me understand that there is a lack of authenticity and quality in the Armenian Creative Industry, so I decided to pursue further international education to invest my knowledge and experiences into the growing light industry and fashion in general, to make the local market competition among international markets. There is a lot of potential in Armenia, and we: the creative people of Armenia, need to push that potential, and grow into a developing spot on the world map.

I truly believe that we as a nation, with our huge cultural heritage, have a lot to offer, both economically and culturally. In this inclusive and diverse world that we live in right now, we should be represented proudly, and be authentic. There is a shortage of the latter.

As I finish my studies in the States I plan to return to Armenia with a huge experience in a multicultural environment and an incomparable bigger network and bring the way to be authentic. My lifetime dream is to have a label that will demonstrate the idea of being yourself and being authentic in every way. Which will serve as an example of the value of being genuine in all aspects of who you are. The latter will also lead to the growth of the Armenian market, which will be beneficial for the creative industry and the economy. Nowadays, not only STEM can bring light to the country and economy, but also the creative industry. At the end of the day, we should understand that no matter how much AI grows, or how many STEM scholars we have, there is something that nobody can do, but humans. Authentic creativity through Art. Consciously or unconsciously, people are going towards the authentic.

My future will be completely certain for me if you decide to help me anyhow to pursue the most important thing in my life, my education. To continue my education and make my future goals come true and cover all the fees I need 32.000 USD, which is 25% of my actual fee for 2 years excluding the 75% that the university pays for me with the scholarship I received. Excluding also housing fees approximately 25000 a year. This help can also be in any form, starting from a place to stay, to books, little contributions, or anything. Let's make my future and Armenia's creative future certain!