Promoting Art Education through Game Technology

It all started when last year’s #Bridge4CSOs pro-Bono expert, professor Michael Aghajanian, came to Armenia and witnessed himself the great potential of our Armenian Civil Society Organizations.

This year, inspired and impressed, Michael was the main reason behind creating an opportunity, that allowed his Worcester Polytechnic Institute students in Massachusetts, to travel to Armenia in six interdisciplinary teams to solve problems or needs that lie at the intersection of science and society, by closely working with six different Armenian projects and CSOs. EIVA Arts Foundation is one of these projects.

Established in Armenia in 2012, with the mission to value the role of art globally as well as contribute to the development of arts in Armenia and foster the global recognition of Armenian art, EIVA Arts foundation’s most important element lies in the implementation of a socially engaged art project. Since its establishment, EIVA Arts Foundation has shown works that highlight the value of historical and cultural heritage in a contemporary format and how it is penetrated in the art context globally.

A team of 4 students, Diana, Isabel, Raymond, and Elizabeth, specialized in research of technical arts and applied sciences, will be working closely with EIVA for the period of two months, on developing the digital marketing strategy to promote and digitalize the board game Arvest, which is one of EIVA’s educational art projects.

Arvest is a board game aimed to encourage children’s curiosity towards art in an easy-to-grasp visual and interactive manner. EIVA wants to spread the game to a wider audience, by creating a native smartphone/tablet app version of the game. By applying gaming technology with an emphasis on interactivity, they will build upon the appeal of the game while not compromising its original educational value and objectives.

The Interactive Qualifying Project students are helping EIVA achieve their organization’s objectives through recommending and testing interactive game design techniques along with learning theories, defining the overall game architecture and its underlying technologies which will help expand the game’s features, setting the game’s marketing strategy, and last but not least researching and suggesting new board game concepts.