Greek museums take part in International Museum Day festivities
Museums around the country participate in this year’s festivities to mark the International Museum Day 2013.
There will be lectures, exhibitions, workshops, live music and guided tours, but most importantly dozens of museums will remain open until late on Saturday and offer free admission to their premises.
A tourist stands in front of a row of busts in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
On Saturday museums around the country will offer free admission and extended opening hours as Greece celebrates the International Museum Day 2013.
There will be lectures, exhibitions, workshops, live music and guided tours in a number of museums across Greece, including the Acropolis Museum, the Benaki Museum and the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
This year’s theme is “Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change” and the Archaeological Museum of Delphi has been selected as Greece’s honoured museum.
In recent years about 30,000 museums have participated in the International Museum Day, organising activities in more than 120 countries.
Traditionally, International Museum Day is celebrated on May 18, but festivities can last up to a whole week.
To find a museum near you, you can take a look at the culture ministry’s interactive map of museums and archaeological sites.
Below is a selection of museums that organise special events for the day.
Archaeological Museum of Delphi
The Greek section of the International Council of Museums has decided to declare the Museum of Delphi as honoree for 2013 for its contribution to the preservation and promotion of ancient Greek culture. On the day there will be conferences, workshops for adults, free guided tours, educational activities and a music concert.
Acropolis Museum, Athens
The Acropolis Museum every year creates a commemorative medal for the occasion. This year the medal depicts a fighting rooster, the competitive prototype for athletes and fighters in ancient Athens. The museum will be open from 8am until midnight with free admission. Museum archaeologists will present various programmes for children and adults related to the rooster. There will be 20-minute-long gallery talks in Greek, English and French throughout the day. Participation is limited to 25 visitors per session on a first-in first-served basis. Gallery talks in English: 10.30am, 12.30pm, 6.30pm. Gallery talks in French: 4pm. At 9pm the Orchestra of the Centre of Arts and Culture of Dion will perform in the museum’s entrance courtyard.
Benaki Museum, Athens
Ten live workshops will be scattered in the museum galleries, where artists inspired by the exhibits will reveal step by step the secrets of their art. Three educational workshops for kids over 5 will teach them art techniques, how to make jewellery and how to use their imagination in a creative way.
Navarino Natura Hall, Messinia
The Natura Hall will organise free guided tours open to all guests as well as a musical concert entitled “Songs about Nature”. The Environmental Group of the Musical School of Kalamata will perform songs about the environment of the area linked to the museum’s exhibits. There will also be a special educational activity entitled “I know and I promote the nature and history of Messinia”, which will take place in the museum with a group of local young disabled people in order to conclude this academic year’s educational programmes for schools.
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, on the occasion of the International Museum Day 2013 decided to share, using Facebook, its own memories of everyday life and history. It has invited the public to share their memories and codify their experience through objects or places that are part of their precious memories (photos, stories, testimonies, poems, videos, etc.). All these memories will be the core of an online virtual exhibition. There will also be two free guided tours at the exhibition “Trafficking of antiquities: stop it”.
GREEK WORLD MEDIA 