11.03.

2022
New Study of Attitudes(დამოკიდებულება) to Diversity in Georgia:
People Increasingly Positive about Minorities
BY GEORGIA TODAY
 
 February 16, 2022
 
in Highlights, Social & Society
 
Reading Time: 3min read
The Council of Europe Office in Georgia presented(წარმოადგინა) the results of the project
“Fight against Discrimination, Hate Speech and Hate Crimes in Georgia” carried
out( ჩატარდა) in 2018-2021 and the main findings(აღმოჩენები) of the study “Hate
Speech, Hate Crimes and Discrimination in Georgia: Attitudes and
Awareness(ცნობიერება) in 2021” conducted(ჩატარდა) under the project and
comparing the change in the public attitudes to diversity over the past three years.

The project carried out with funding (დაფინანსება)from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs(საგარეო საქმეთა სამინისტრო) of Denmark, through its
Neighbourhood(მეზობელი, სამეზობლო) Programme (DANEP), aimed at providing
expertise, building competences, advocating and raising awareness(ცნობიერების გაზრდა)
about equality and diversity in Georgia. To assess the evolution in the public’s attitudes towards
hate speech, hate crimes and discrimination, CRRC Georgia was commissioned to conduct a
study through nationally representative(წარმომადგენელი) survey(კვლევა), in-
depth( სიღრმისეული) interviews and focus groups in 2021 and compare the findings with
the results of the similar study completed in 2018.
The study focused on the awareness, understanding and appreciation(დაფასება) of diversity in
the Georgian society; the protection(დაცვა) of minorities(უმცირესობა) and vulnerable
groups; occurrence of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Georgian society and
who it affects; public attitude to and knowledge of Georgian legislation( კანონმდებლობა)
against discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech; existing redress(მზაობა) mechanisms and
their effectiveness; different actors’ work in this field.
The study demonstrates(აჩვენებს) that knowledge and appreciation of diversity in Georgian
society has increased(გაიზარდა) between 2018 and 2021. Positive attitudes towards diversity
in general increased from 56% to 70%, a 14- percentage(პროცენტი) point increase. In 2018
the most common response to this question was “don’t know” or “cannot think of a minority
group”, named by 36% of respondents. In contrast, 28% of respondents(რესპოდენტი)
reported the same in 2021, a change of 8 percentage points. (აქამდე)
People are more capable of naming a minority group when asked what minority group comes to
mind first. The public has significantly more positive attitudes towards diversity in general,
and ethnic and religious diversity, in particular. For ethnic diversity, the data show a 12-point
increase in positive attitudes, from 56% to 68%. For religious diversity, the data show an
increase of 14 percentage points from 46% in 2018 to 60% in 2021.
The pubic also began to recognise to a greater extent the importance of minority rights and their
protection compared to 2018. The number of persons thinking protecting the LGBTI rights is
important rose from 33% in 2018 to 47% in 2021. At the same time, number of persons that
thought the protection of LGBT rights was unimportant, decreased from 44% in 2018 to 29% in
2021.
While the public’s attitudes have become increasingly positive about diversity, there has been
little if any change in terms of awareness of Georgian legislation against discrimination, hate
crime, and hate speech. Knowledge of and appreciation of existing redress mechanisms and their
effectiveness also remain unchanged.
The full report of the study “Hate Speech, Hate Crimes and Discrimination in Georgia: Attitudes
and Awareness in 2021” is available here in English and in Georgian.
The co-operation Project “Fight against Discrimination, Hate Crimes and Hate Speech in
Georgia” has been implemented under the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Georgia 2020-
2023 with the support of the Danish Neighbourhood Programme in Georgia (DANEP).
Source: CoE.int
Image source: Democracy & Freedom Watch
 Gender Equality and Diversity Month in Georgia
BY MARIAM.MTIVLISHVILI
 
 March 4, 2022
 
in Highlights, Social & Society
 
Reading Time: 1min read
Source of image: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP
UNDP and Sweden are launching a month-long campaign to push for human rights,
diversity, gender equality and women’s empowerment

 
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Government of Sweden join hands
with Georgia’s Government, Parliament, civil society, UN agencies and other partners to stress
the critical importance of upholding human rights, achieving meaningful gender equality and
respecting diversity.
The month-long campaign will focus on recognizing emerging challenges and presenting
solutions for building a fair, just and equal society.
The events and initiatives include:
 Research launch: ‘Gender Equality in Georgia: Barriers and Recommendations – 2021’.
 Conferences on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
 The first enrolment to the Women Entrepreneurs’ Development Program, established in
partnership with the Bank of Georgia.
 Presentation of “To Be a Woman”, an educational board game about equality and diversity.
 Inter-party discussions at the local level to enhance women’s political participation.
 Training sessions for women councilors, Mayors and Deputy Mayors.
 Signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the Labor Inspection Office. Launch of the
Contact Center to raise labor rights awareness among vulnerable social groups, including women
and girls.
 A community-based campaign highlighting the historic role Peri-Khan Sofieva, the first Muslim
woman democratically elected to Georgia’s local governance in 1918 and allegedly the first
Mulsim woman to be elected formally anywhere in the world.
 Workshops in advocacy and political participation for women, including representatives of
minority groups.
 Workshops for young leaders from across Georgia.

Follow the campaign on @UNDPGeorgia, hashtags: #breakthebias,
#embracediversity

With Respect” – Baia Gallery Presents Merab Abramishvili among its Modern and
Contemporary Art Collection
BY GEORGIA TODAY
 
 February 24, 2022
 
in Culture, Editor's Pick, Newspaper
 
Reading Time: 4min read
The past two years marked many changes in our lives and on the planet as a whole, among them
the loss of some great artistic figures. To recognize those lost artists, GEORGIA TODAY, in
collaboration as BI Auction, is continuing its series of coverage of artists who have passed,
‘With Respect.’

Baia Gallery is an art gallery specializing in modern and contemporary art with two locations in
Tbilisi. Since its foundation, the gallery has been at the forefront of the Georgian art marketplace
with highly desirable works of leading artists, historical scholarship, and insightful market
analysis.
Established in 1992 by Baia Tsikoridze, Baia Gallery was the first private structure operating in
this field. The establishment of the gallery connects with events such as war and crisis. It is
paradoxical because the gallery started working at a time and in conditions that were generally
unsuitable for the existence and development of such an institution: in parallel with a civil war in
Tbilisi and the war in Abkhazia raging.
“The war, fire, crisis, and an instinct for survival made for the setting up of the Orient Gallery
(now Baia Gallery), when in an old part of Tbilisi, on the abandoned and empty Chardin Street,
we found a small, two-story house and started to work under conditions unimaginable for a
gallery as well as for any other institution,” Tsikoridze tells us. “Under those circumstances, few
factors made this possible, the first being the mutual desire of artists and the gallery to
collaborate.”
Since the day of its foundation, the gallery has been working in two main directions: cultural
heritage from private collections and contemporary art, thus operating in the primary and
secondary spheres of the art market.
Cultural Heritage of Georgia from Private Collections is a project within the frames of which the
gallery has been studying and popularizing pieces of art kept in private collections. These items
are often rarities in an artistic, stylistic, or epochal sense: to extricate them from the hidden
area of private collections, to study, exhibit and popularize them, is an obligatory condition for
researching the culture. Contemporary art covers those artists acting in the two last decades of
the 20th century and the present day.
From Here 11.03.2022
From its inception, Baia Gallery has presented and prepared exhibitions of such exceptional
Georgian artists as Merab Abramishvili and Irakli Parjiani.
“I discovered Merab Abramishvili’s many artworks at his retrospective exhibition in 2016 at
Moma Tbilisi organized by Baia Gallery. It was both stunning and impressive- artworks and the
excitement of crowds,” says Bengü Akçardak Küçük, BI Auction Co-Founder. “Although it is
rare to find his artworks in museum collections, his artworks have been successfully presented at
not only our BI Auction events, but also at Sotheby’s many times, with record prices.”
Tsikoridze, on behalf of Baia Gallery, tells us more.
“Merab Abramishvili has a distinctive painting style. His thorough knowledge of Georgian
fresco and Persian miniature painting have come together in his exquisite oeuvre. The artist has
developed a technique that employs the early Christian panel painting method. He hand-prepared
his plaster grounds and painted with tempera: washing off and repainting the surfaces several
times, the translucent color palette becoming his trademark. The final glaze of egg yolk gives a
warmer tonality and smoothness to his panels. Abramishvili’s paintings speak of a meticulous
artist of strict discipline: a perfectionist.
“He was exposed to Georgian frescos from a very early age and later would frequently
accompany his art historian father on expeditions. Abramishvili, enchanted by medieval art,
produced studies of frescos while on those trips. He often described his oeuvre as an
interpretation of icon painting. The noticeable two-dimensionality of his paintings is also
inspired by Christian imagery.
“Abramishvili has recurring subject matters. He frequently works on the theme of Paradise and
scenes from the life of Christ. His Paradise series is nostalgic for the absolute values that the
artist’s surroundings were deprived of. The art of Abramishvili is impregnated with the escapist
sentiment. The intricate surfaces of mythological scenes, heavenly animals, and rocking maidens
are opposed to the turbulent surroundings of Post-Soviet Georgia. Abramishvili’s canvases seem
to offer an escape route to idealists, which developed into a trend for the artists of his generation.
Instead of focusing on the turmoil of reality, these painters were concerned with universal truths
and, in Abramishvili’s case, on harmonious compositional aesthetics that evoke sensations of
serenity, kindness, and steadiness.
“Merab Abramishvili is one of the contemporary Georgian artists whose works maintain a
constant and growing price index at auctions. The international institutions have defined the
formal and consistent process of the sales history of his paintings; the demand for them has
increased, and the artist’s works have acquired the status of a solid and reliable investment. It is
not surprising that his painting, which is especially interesting as an example of the synthesis of
Eastern-Western culture, has justifiably gained international interest.
“Merab Abramishvili is represented in Georgia and abroad by Baia Gallery. Our gallery has
organized more than ten exhibitions of his works, including a retrospective one in 2016 at the
Tbilisi Museum of Contemporary Art (MOMA). We have presented the artist at the Sotheby’s
London selling exhibition ‘At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasus and Central
Asia.’ We collaborate with the artist’s Foundation ‘Bison,’ publish catalogs and participate in
determining the originality of his works.
By Mariam Mtivlishvili