Rediscovering the Cultural Heritage of Upper Svaneti, Georgia, Mestia, Svaneti, July 26–August 4, 2024
This project takes place in Upper Svaneti, the spectacular mountainous region of Western Georgia, which not only has an abundance and variety of cultural heritage, but also a unique way of life. Even today, the local population preserves various pre-Christian beliefs and rituals. In Upper Svaneti, medieval churches and residences with defense towers have been preserved in their original forms. Almost all these churches are decorated with paintings, and original treasuries are kept in most of them: medieval painted and revetted icons, crosses, ecclesiastic vessels created in local workshops or many other regions of the Christian East and the West. Exposure to this extraordinary material will provide all students of medieval art with an entirely new perspective on their field.
The ten-day workshop will enable ten PhD and MA students to visit significant monuments of cultural heritage in Upper Svaneti, to take part in discussions on-site, and to engage in various field activities.
The workshop will be held in English.
Applicants of any nationality must currently be enrolled in an MA or PhD program in Medieval or Byzantine art history or a related field.
The International Cultural Workshop (RCHUS) is free of charge Travel from Tbilisi to Mestia, field trips, hotel accommodation and meals in Upper Svaneti are covered.
The workshop participants must cover their own international flights to and from Georgia, and hotel accommodation in Tbilisi.
The International Cultural Workshop is organized by the Institute of Art History and Theory at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, in cooperation with the College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University and the Art History Department at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The project partner is the Svaneti Museum of History and-Ethnography.
The International Cultural Workshop (RCHUS) is funded under the US Embassy Georgia Cultural Small Grants Program.