Project Save Photographic Archive, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving the global Armenian experience through photography, has secured $500,000 in new financial gifts along with significant archival donations, marking major milestones for the organization’s 50th anniversary. 

Project Save's archives contain photographs from around the United States and Armenia, and other locations in Europe and Asia. 

“These transformational investments in Project Save’s future affirm the urgency and impact of our mission,” said Executive Director Arto Vaun. “They help ensure the continued preservation of Armenian social history and culture for generations to come.”

An anonymous donor has pledged $400,000 to Project Save. In addition, New York-based philanthropist Sabine Hrechdakian has made a $50,000 gift. She joins Project Save as a founding member of its newly restructured Board of Trustees. An anonymous New York-based donor has contributed $50,000 in memory of Michael and Katherine Halebian. All the gifts are unrestricted, providing crucial flexibility to expand the archive’s operations and outreach.

In addition to financial gifts Project Save recently received significant archival donations from acclaimed filmmaker Nigol Bezjian, a co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation and a vital figure in contemporary Armenian cinema, and Dr. Carolann Najarian, a physician and humanitarian, who donated decades of photographic documentation from her and her husband’s more than 50 humanitarian missions to Armenia and Artsakh between 1989 and 2012.

Photo: Nigol Bezjian filming in NYC, 1981. (Photo by Berge Zobian)