Since 1977, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has designated 18 May as International Museum Day.  However, events are not limited to this day but can last longer. After all, ICOM’s aim is to highlight the role of museums as key agents of cultural exchange, mutual understanding, cooperation and peace between peoples. Tens of thousands of museums now participate in the celebration in hundreds of countries around the world.

In 2022, the theme of International Museum Day is “The Power of Museums“. Our Mange Museums are participating with activities and events that will take place from 17 – 22 May.

The closest Saturday to 18 May has been established by the countries of Europe as European Museum Night, thus enriching the events and highlighting the message of the celebration

Διεθνής Ημέρα Μουσείων, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης / International Days of Museums, Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum will celebrate Museum Day with free admission from 8am to 8pm on Saturday 14 and Wednesday 18 May. The Museum will offer adult visitors two new presentations on “Hidden Histories of the Diaspora” and “Digital Acropolis Museum. New Interactive Applications”, and will have available for families the new brochure “The Parthenon Sculptures. 6 short stories of separation“.

Μουειο Τηελπικοινωνιών Ομίλου ΟΤΕ / OTE Group Tellecomunications Museum

The Telecommunications Museum celebrates World Telecommunications Day & International Museum Day with activities inside and outside the Museum! The Museum visits the “SOS Children’s Villages” and the Centre of Love of Elefsina and connects online with the Care and Rehabilitation Unit for the Elderly NeaThalpi. Through the Museum’s rare collection of telephotographs, the most important events of the 20th century are highlighted. In the courtyard of the Museum in Nea Kifissia, the little friends and make telephones from pine needles, while the OTE Athens Mixed Choir will be at the Museum to take us on a journey into the world of musical creation.

ΟΠΑΝΔΑ / OPANDA

On Sunday 22 May, OPANDA will participate in the celebrations by opening the doors to eight venues that have designed their activities inspired by this year’s theme of this year’s IMD and thus participants are invited to take part in amazing educational programmes, imaginative art workshops and original creative games, discovering the museums’ collections in the most entertaining way. Young friends express themselves freely, create, play, explore and discover the power of museums! Participating sites: Industrial Museum of Fotairion, Central Library, Arts Center, Museum “Eleftherios Venizelos”, Museum of Folk Art and Tradition “AngelikiHadjimichali”, Gallery (Metaxourgio), Cultural Center “Melina”, Digital Museum of Plato Academy.

ΕΜΣΤ / EMST

With concerts, music, guided tours, screenings, and educational programs, the EMST will participate in the celebration, aiming more than anything else to be an open, welcoming and inclusive museum, promoting new values for our common future, through the week from 16-22 of May. 

The Teloglion Foundation celebrates the International Museum Day with two free guided tours, at 18:00 and 20:00, to the exhibitions:

 “Yianoulis Halepas: A co-production with Onassis Culture. The exhibition attempts a reassessment of the entire work of the “great modernist” of modern Greek sculpture, a penetration into his way of thinking under the casing of the myth created by his tragic fate, his fictional life.

“Katerina Halepa-Katsatou: in the footsteps of Giannoulis” a collaboration with Onassis Culture

Katerina Halepa-Katsatou, a sculptor, a micro-nephew of Giannoulis, chose and dared to pursue sculpture, despite the weight of her great ancestor. She was a sculptor who, as was natural, was influenced by her uncle’s work, lived close to him until she was 13 and created, nevertheless, a strong body of work with large-scale sculptures in marble, in bronze, monumental compositions in public spaces and buildings, as no other woman in the field of modern Greek sculpture.

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Τελλόγλειο Ίδρυμα Τευχών / Teloglion Foundation of Art

On May 25, 2022 at 19.00 the Central Event of the Museum of Science and Technology of the University of Patras, co-organized with the Greek Section of ICOM, will take place: “The Power of University Museums“ 25/5/2022, at 19.00. At the same time, from Tuesday 10 May 2022, two parallel exhibitions at the Museum of Science and Technology and the Archaeological Museum of Patras with works by the Schools of the Thematic Cultural Network “Soil-Water-Fire: searching for the art of the earth from nature to use and from use to the Museum”.

“From the museum to the screen. Stories of Clothing” is the title of the online workshop organised on 28 May by the Hellenic Society of Costume Studies in the context of this year’s celebration of International Museum Day. Through ten-minute presentations, members of the Hellenic Society of Costume Studies will attempt to shed light on known and unknown aspects of all or some of the stories that a garment can tell.

The theme of this year’s celebration of the International Museum Day gave rise to the organization of a wide-ranging meeting of the Museums of Lesvos that will take place on 18 May 2022 at the amphitheatre of the New Archaeological Museum of Mytilene. The main objective of the meeting is to take initiatives and join forces for the promotion of the unique set of Museums that Lesvos has, their exploitation and the promotion of their role and the cultural, educational, social and tourist dimension of their activities.

The action of the Historical Museum of Crete entitled Time and the City is designed by the Educational Programmes Department and will take place on Saturday, 21 May, 11:00-12:30. Starting from the collections of the Historical Museum of Crete, children will learn about the city of Heraklion, the monuments and the historical circumstances that shaped its urban fabric. Using new technologies, they will walk through the streets of the historic centre, making connections with the past. The tangible and intangible evidence will become our guide for our alternative “tour” of Heraklion.