The Stepanavan Culture and Entertainment Center is one of the ten cultural centers participating in the My Step Foundation's Reviving cultural centres in the regions program. Recently, the Foundation staff and project partners, including the architect and the program mentor, made a visit to Lori region.

The Stepanavan Culture and Entertainment Center or more famously, the Stepan Shahumyan House-Museum, is a unique historical and cultural structure. With its human and building resources, it has the opportunity to become a center attracting a large number of tourists.

"With great anticipation, we applied to this program of the Step Foundation and welcomed the news with unspeakable enthusiasm when we heard that we were also included in the list of ten centers. We have really serious problems with the building, but we are sure that with the support of this program and other funds, we will be able to have a more functional center.

A very important achievement is the formation of a volunteer club, where bright young people have gathered and invested their full potential to coordinate the work. We have a dream to organize a regional craft and art festival, we hope that after the renovation of the building's infrastructure, our united and vigilant team will be able to bring it to life," said Hasmik Movsisyan, director of the Stepanavan Culture and Entertainment Center.

The staff of the Center gave a positive evaluation of the work with their program mentor, as well as the series of online meetings aimed at the development of capacities, which are an important component of the Reviving cultural centres in the regions program and the acquisition of new skills. "This program is important not only for us and the center, but also for the many young people in the community who have been involved in this process, acquired the skills to express their dreams, thoughts and goals in a structured way, and use innovative technologies. More and more young people join us. I think we will have a team that everyone in Stepanavan will be proud of. I hope that this unity that exists among the people, the ideas that are here, will help to have a marvelous center. The online trainings organized by the Step Foundation were very interesting, rich in content and provided a lot of information. All this will help us to publicize the work we have done and the center itself at a more effective and high level,” says Mariam Harutyunyan, the head of the center's museum department.

Architect Syuneh Arakelyan conducted a creative training session for the center's students and volunteers, giving them the opportunity to create their own dream room. There are many participants, the youngest being seven-year-old Levon, who comes to the center with his older sister and is no less involved in the daily life of the volunteer group. "I want many colors in that hall," says Levon with shining eyes, showing the model he made.

Thanks to this initiative, the architect will have the opportunity to create an area that integrates everyone's ideas, thoughts, colors and dreams, an environment where the young people of the community can dream and create, work and unite.

"We want to help our community grow, we have learned many skills that will help us throughout our lives. There is a certain responsibility for each of us. Our elders know that we have united to change the rhythm of Stepanavan, to rejuvenate it and they fully support us. It is my dream to have an active community,” says Alex, a volunteer of the center.

The project mentors will work for several more months in the communities with volunteers and center staff, making them leaders of change.

"Taking into account that there are not many opportunities for meaningful entertainment for the youth in Stepanavan, there are no corresponding public spaces, volunteering is an experience that they want to make in their daily life. Young people have a great desire to learn, create, communicate with the world, and a wish to modernize their environment, which is already becoming an intention. There should be lively and interesting events in Stepanavan, platforms of interesting entertainment and socialization for the youth. We are looking forward to a bright post-epidemic future, to apply the knowledge gained online, to test new dimensions of events, to see the reaction of the community and the youth of the city. We will announce the recruitment of new volunteers soon," said Karine Aroyan, mentor of the Step Foundation.

The Stepanavan Culture and Entertainment Center can become a unique catalyst of community progress after the appropriate technical upgrades and renovation of primary infrastructure.

"An open microphone, a movie quiz, a band or a choir, happy and interesting vlogs about the events in Stepanavan - these are our plans for the coming months. The young people are already a little tired of the distance communication, they dream of having live communication, to start practical work, the results of which we will see very soon," concludes Karine Aroyan, mentor of the Step Foundation.

The house-museum of the Armenian revolutionary figure Stepan Shahumyan was built in 1978 by architect Servet Poghosyan. It was unprecedented for the time in its new, modernist-style architecture and currently is included in the list of historical and cultural monuments of Lori region. Today, this institution uniting the Stepan Shahumyan House-Museum and the Stepanavan’s Culture and Entertainment Center is on the verge of positive changes.