The International Council of Museums (ICOM), in its effort to highlight the role of museums in modern society, established 1977 the 18th of May as International Museum Day. The message of this anniversary is to make museums the vehicles of cultural exchange “to enhance education, promote mutual understanding, peace and cooperation among peoples”. 18 May is dedicated each year to a specific theme concerning museums, their role in modern society, and the protection of cultural heritage. The theme of the celebration of International Museum Day 2023 is ‘Museums, Sustainability and Quality of Life’. By highlighting cultural and natural heritage, as well as contemporary creativity, museums make an essential contribution to improving the quality of life.

The Helmi Museum of Natural History of Zakynthos, in the run-up to the International Museum Day on 18 May, in collaboration with the painter, writer, storyteller, and psychodynamic color therapist, Zoe Nikitaki, invites you to the program “The Magic Garden of our Heart”.

The Helmi Museum is considered one of the best and most complete natural history museums in Greece and the Balkans. 3,000 specimens welcome you and allow you to admire the beauties of the natural heritage of Zakynthos and other parts of the world. Birds, fish, shells from the seven seas of the world, plants and animals that have disappeared from the Earth, minerals, and rocks unfold their history.

Zoe Nikitaki, who brought the folk tales of Zakynthos to life through her book of the same name, published by Trimorfo in 2012, and has three decades of experience with children through museum education programs, experiential story workshops, educational art programs, and fairy tale performances throughout Greece and Cyprus, in collaboration with the Helmis Museum of Natural History, will implement an experiential workshop on storytelling, visual imagination and creativity for children. Using the magical world of the art of storytelling and imaginative practices of visual imagination and creation as a vehicle, children will experience that the gifts that each creature carries from all the kingdoms of nature and Heaven on the wondrous journey of life are the treasure of all of us, the magic garden of our hearts, which can change our lives, our world, and the planet. If we are to be able to preserve the biodiversity and beauty of the wonders of our planet, we are called to each of us to discover the wondrous gift we carry within ourselves and to seek how with this gift we can help all the kingdoms of nature, humanity, and our planet. The shell, the stone, the tree, the animal, the bird, and the human being, each possess a special, unique, and unrepeatable gift. The gift of each creature is connected to the gifts of others. Life is a magical web that depends on the threads of all of us, each thread is beneficial in a special way and this great secret can only be understood in the Magic Garden of our Heart, where all the creatures of the planet live. The transformation of the planet begins within us!

The aim of the educational program is:

1. to cultivate sensitivity for our brothers and sisters from all kingdoms of nature
2. to activate the imagination and strengthen creativity, but also creativity and the

The children’s imagination, creativity, and environmental awareness through knowledge, creativity, and awareness of the environment

knowledge, truth, and also the poetry that fairy tales can hide

3. to understand the value and importance of the gifts we all bear and we are called upon to understand. If we discover them, the magic garden of our hearts will be revealed, and we will flourish. And so will the world around us.

The program is addressed to students from second to fourth grade of primary school.