Opened in 2015, TUMO Center for Creative Technologies’ Gyumri branch became one of the symbols of the city’s technological renaissance.
Photos : TUMO
The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies is a free of charge, after school learning environment that merges the latest in the tech and art fields to give teens everything they need to survive in the increasingly digital world. Students from the ages of 12 to 18 come to the center to learn from the four main focus areas consisting of filmmaking, animation, game development and web design. They also gain knowledge in a variety of complementary skills ranging from music and photography to 3d modeling and robotics.
The TUMO center in Gyumri was opened in 2015 through the partnership between the Simonian Education Foundation and the Armenian General Benevolent Union. There are 1500 students in attendance. The center is currently located in the Gyumri Technology Center, but will soon be relocated to the historic first theater where it will maintain the location’s heritage as the city’s epicenter of culture and progressiveness.
In the past year alone, the students have created great results during their workshops and learning labs. LA-based graphic designer Shoghak Kazandjian led a branding lab; a new TUMO News team was established when PR consultant Jackie Abramian came to the center; robotics guru Joseph Fargas showed his teens how to program their own robots using LabVIEW software; musicians Arik Grigoryan and Areni Agbabyan taught their teens about traditional Armenian music; and photographer Katarina Roters led a lab on architecture photography. The student results of Katarina’s lab were featured as part of the Republic of Armenia’s booth at the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale.
