Since the day of its opening, Writers’ House has held annual celebratory weeks dedicated to the memory of Davit Sarajishvili. The building, which now houses Writers’ House, was built by Sarajishvili in 1905. We strongly wish to remind our community of various aspects of the deeds and contribution of Davit Sarajishvili and his wife Ekaterine Porakishvili. Thus, since 2013, Writers’ House has marked each November with the Commemoration Week of Davit Sarajishvili.
2013: Writers’ House organized a celebration of the 165th anniversary of the great benefactor’s birth. The Commemoration Week opened with an exhibition. A catalogue of exhibits was also published in the frame of the Week, and a conference was held dedicated to the activity of Davit Sarajishvili.
Conference topics included the following:
- Davit Sarajishvili
- Davit Sarajishvili and Cognac production in Georgia
- Davit Sarajishvili’s house in the Machabeli St., and Tbilisi Architecture in the First Half of the 20th Century
2014: the year was commemorative of the winners of Davit Sarajishvili’s Scholarship, which included the publication of Winners of Davit Sarajishvili’s Scholarship leaflet.
2015: the main focal point of the celebratory events was the construction projects implemented by the Sarajishvili family. An exhibition and several lectures were held for secondary school students Tbilisi. The lectures were delivered by art critic Tsira Elisashvili.
2016: Davit Sarajishvili and Ekaterine Porakishvili – an exhibition and a conference;
Philosopher Lela Gaprindashvili discussed the most distinguished women of the early 20th century, while philologist Rusudan Margishvili talked about Ekaterine Porahishvili. The evening included an exhibition of portraits of of Ekaterine Porakishvili and other famous women activists and figures of her time.
2017: Ilia Chavchavadze and Davit Sarajishvili.
In relation to the 180th anniversary of the birth of Ilia Chavchavadze, Sarajishvili days were dedicated to the memory of the friendship, relationship, and joint activity of these two great public figures. Davit Sarajishvili was one of the first to listen to Ilia Chavchavadze read his new stories and poems to the audience. Many people may not have heard of their close relationship, and these several events enabled us to remind the society of their friendship and their contribution to the development of Georgian society. Ilia Chavchavadze and Davit Sarajishvili exhibitionincluded several illustrations of Ilia Chavchavadze’s works by Polish painter Henryk Hryniewski, and particularly those that depicted his works read at Sarajishvili’s house. Critic and literature scholar Nona Kupreishvili discussed the friendship of Sarajishvili and Chavchavadze, and the age they lived in.