The book was finished in 1207, during the reign of Cilician King Levon I, by a scribe the museum identifies only as Garabed. According to the Armenian Museum of America, it was passed down for 800 years before Julie Der Garabedian donated it to the museum's collection. It now sits at 65 Main Street. That's a short walk from Saltonstall Park and City Hall, and it puts a manuscript that predates Watertown's 1630 founding by more than four centuries a block from the Square.

The Gospel is one of two anchors for "Beyond the Curtain: Materiality and Devotion in Armenian Art," which opened to the public on October 22. All of the show's more than 20 objects come from the museum's own collection. Some of the most important religious art in the building has been in town for years. This exhibition is built around how to look at it.

What the curator is asking you to look at

Curator Anahit Gasparyan organized the show around what each object is made of. In the museum's announcement, published by Watertown News, she said, "Rather than asking what these objects symbolize, I hope visitors will ask what these materials do: how cloth conceals and reveals, how parchment carries sacred language, how metal and precious stones reflect light. Together, these materials make devotion physical."

The galleries hold manuscripts, reliquaries, crosses, textiles and clothing. The announcement describes parchment, metal, thread and wood as "carriers of devotion, artistry, ritual, memory, and cultural continuity." Gasparyan also said the show puts "particular emphasis on medieval foundations of Armenian Christian material culture," the groundwork for Armenian art in later centuries.

Her three verbs work as a guide for the visit. Each one points to a specific object in the room.

Parchment, and a book that carried language for 800 years

The Garabed Gospel ties the show to medieval Armenian Christianity. The museum's announcement calls it an anchor of the exhibition. The museum's caption places it in the Kingdom of Cilicia. Watch how the parchment holds the text. Gasparyan's phrase for it is that parchment "carries sacred language," and this book has been doing that since the early thirteenth century.

Cloth, and a curtain made to hide and reveal

The other anchor is the Mardin Altar Curtain. The museum's announcement calls it "a remarkable textile" and the main way into the material and visual world of Armenian religious practice. The Armenian Mirror-Spectator reported that this large liturgical curtain dates to 1766. It's credited to Hakob of Tokat and was made in Yevdokia, or Tokat, for Surp Kevork, the Church of St. George, in Mardin.

You may have seen this curtain before without connecting it to Main Street. It traveled across the river to Medford for Connecting Threads / Survivor Objects at the Tufts University Art Galleries, which ran from August 30 to December 5, 2021. Now it's back home, and it gives the exhibition its title. An altar curtain is cloth with a job to do. It hides and reveals, which is the first verb Gasparyan used.

Metal, and a reliquary that catches light

The third object to find is an 18th-century reliquary. The museum's announcement says it is said to hold a thorn from Christ's Crown of Thorns along with several other relics. According to the same text, reliquaries holding multiple relics like this one are rare and were often linked to major church centers. This one may have come from the See of Cilicia at Sis or the See of Vaspurakan at Aghtamar. Paul and Vicki Bedoukian donated it to the museum. This is where the curator's line about metal and precious stones reflecting light is easiest to see for yourself.

The same three materials run through the rest of the building

"Beyond the Curtain" takes up only part of the museum. Its way of looking applies to the other galleries too. Alongside the new show, the museum's current-exhibitions page lists these:

• Stitching to Survive. More cloth. Once you've stood in front of the Mardin curtain, you're likely to look at the stitches as closely as the patterns.
• Objects That Transcend: Metalwork from the Garabedian Collection. More metal, and the same family name as the donor of the 1207 Gospel.
• The Art of the Armenian Khachkar. Carved stone crosses, a fourth material with the same devotional purpose.
• Karsh: Celebrating Humanity, Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn, My Name Is Saroyan, The Armenian Genocide, and Armenia: Art, Culture, Eternity.

If you went to see the Arshile Gorky show earlier this year, it has closed. The museum had extended it through September 27, 2026, and it's no longer on the current list.

That makes the new show a good starting point if you've lived near the museum for years without going in, or haven't been back since one visit long ago. Start with the curtain, the Gospel and the reliquary, then take the cloth, parchment and metal questions into the textile, metalwork and khachkar galleries. You'll be looking at the whole building through the same lens.

Planning the visit

The show is open now, and the museum lists its run as "October 22, 2026 through summer of 2027." No exact closing date has been posted. That leaves room for a quiet afternoon this fall, a visit with holiday guests, and a return trip in spring.

Thursday is the first day of the museum's open week, so if you're reading this on publication day, the galleries open at noon today. Members got a first look at a preview and reception on Wednesday, October 21. No public talks for the exhibition are on the museum's calendar yet, so check armenianmuseum.org before you plan around a program. The visit page also lists a fully modernized elevator, which helps anyone using a stroller or who would rather skip the stairs.

There are new people at the museum as well. It recently announced Sarah Hayes as Deputy Director, working with Executive Director Jason Sohigian. Armenian Weekly and Asbarez both covered the opening and the curtain's earlier time at Tufts.

Two doors down, a wood-fire oven

The museum's block of Main Street got a new neighbor this summer. Halva Mediterranean Grill opened at 55 Main St. in August, in the former Not Your Average Joe's space, as Watertown News reported. Co-owner Joseph Dagdelen told the outlet the new spot is about four times the size of the restaurant's old space on Mt. Auburn Street, the former New Yorker Diner. A large wood-fire oven lets Halva expand its menu of kebabs and mezze, and the favorites from the original location are still on it. Inside, the room has white walls and dark seating.

The family also kept the 39 Mt. Auburn St. space and told Watertown News they plan to run it as a breakfast restaurant. For now, that's a plan and not an opening date. The Main Street dining room is open today, and the museum closes at 6. You can see the Gospel, the curtain and the reliquary in the afternoon and walk two doors down for dinner.

Plaster, old wood and the way light falls across a room do a lot of the work in a house, too. If you'd like to talk about the character in your own home, or what it might bring when you're ready to sell, Sarah Shimoff would be glad to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.