Sevan Melikyan is the director of Wired Gallery in High Falls, New York, a founding member and director of Chagall in High Falls, Inc., a lecturer on art museums, and an artist. In 2013, Art Society of Kingston presented Melikyan with its ASKars award in recognition for his “significant contributions to the arts” and The Ulster County Executive recognized Melikyan as an Arts Ambassador. Prior to the U.S., he lived in Paris, France where he earned a BA focusing on arts marketing, and prior to that, in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was born of Armenian parents in 1965.

One August afternoon, during the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, I was fortunate to meet Sevan through my friend Jon Nakamatsu. When Naki won the Van Cliburn in 1997, Sevan was the marketing person there and his wife Maria was Naki’s manager. Sevan and Maria came to the Cape one summer to meet up with Naki (and to hear some great music). We got to know each other quite well over long nights of card games at our dining room table.

" . . . these trips with you cannot be closer to my core values of sharing amazing art through the ages, with which we also learn about ourselves and our civilization. And my hope is always that at the end of it, people are left to believe in humanity, on our own power to create amazing, positive things. And I also hope they smile, because...I like to be funny!”

Years ago, it was suggested to Joan that she might offer an art program, and she jumped at the chance of a lifetime. Bringing together all of her life's passions, the development and administration of Artful Journeys is an exhilarating process for Joan.

Joan was born and raised in the apple country of the Hudson River Valley in New York; her father was a gentle, very tolerant, educated land surveyor, and her mother was the efficient business administrator and home engineer. The youngest of four children, Joan was encouraged to pursue anything she wanted, but also to do her best. Sometimes that was very difficult, especially succeeding three very accomplished siblings.