Music, Theatre, Dance, Festivals, Art, Exhibitions, Concerts, Creative Workshops, Lectures, Tours, Educational Programmes.
The City of Athens is currently implementing a three-year plan for culture, the primary objective of which is to assist artists and employees in the cultural sector, who have been gravely affected by the healthcare crisis, while also exploiting and creating modern infrastructure and elaborating a programme of cultural activities for all.
The City’s top priority is to provide ongoing practical support to artists and employees in the cultural sector, who have been extremely affected by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To implement the plan, the City of Athens has joined forces with two of the city’s organizations that employ executives with many years of experience and significant expertise in the field: the Culture, Sports and Youth Organization (OPANDA), and Technopolis. The plan receives support from Anaplasi Athinas SA. The City also collaborates with the Ministry of Culture & Sports and the Region of Attica, while continuing its creative synergies with the city’s cultural entities, through the Athens Culture Net.
In the summer of 2021, the City of Athens’ cultural venues will open again. Technopolis, OPANDA’s theatres in Kolonos and Gravas, and AB cinema, will be used to host concerts, plays and dance performances.
A unified cultural programme for the whole City of Athens is being implemented at the same time. Existing events receive assistance, while new events are planned in the whole spectrum of the arts (music, dance, theatre, cinema, visual arts, architecture, books), and investments are made in modern tools and new technologies for organizing and implementing them.
Meanwhile, existing infrastructure and buildings are being used and upgraded. Historic buildings that have been closed for years are reopening, new museums are being created, collections are re-exhibited with a modern approach in keeping with the latest international trends.
Existing art galleries, libraries and cultural venues are evolving, and new venues opened, as open and fully accessible cradles of culture in Athens. The plan is already in progress, and the first surveys are being elaborated, for example for the “Maria Kallas” Museum in the neoclassical building at 44, Mitropoleos street, for the EAT-ESA building in Eleftherias Park, which aims to make the park a central cultural destination, and for the Georgantis Residence, which is to become a sculpture centre.
Theatres in Athens are receiving a new lease of life, while the OLYMPIA Municipal Music Theatre “Maria Kallas” continues its successful operation, with a programme including concerts, opera, dance and performances by famous Greek and foreign artists.
The city’s cultural plan includes the elaboration and implementation of programmes for children, adolescents, adults, schools & families, in museums and the renovated cultural venues of Athens. The particularly successful educational programme entitled «The kids, the city and the monuments», awarded the gold prize at the Educational Leader Awards, is also still running.
A city’s culture is found in its buildings, its monuments and its public spaces. It is found in the theatres, the music studios, the dance schools, the art workshops, and in creative interventions in the neighbourhoods and streets of Athens. It is found in its great human capital. The City of Athens is here to embrace artists, employees in the cultural sector, and all cultural entities. The City is creating a field for networking and effective interaction, turning Athens into one massive scene, into a vehicle that will allow the city’s voices to be heard.