The ubiquitous university museum: a case study from the University of the Aegean (original) (raw)
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21st Century Museums in Athens, Greece
This paper is based on a talk I gave to the Scottish Hellenic Society April 2010. In this paper I talk about two very different museums in Athens, the exhibits in the metro stations and the new Akropoli museum. I will begin with giving a general background to the metro stations. I will then move on to some individual stations giving a little background and some information on the exhibits shown in each. The last station to be discussed is the Akropoli station which will bring us to the new Akropoli Museum.
It is widely accepted that museums comprise centers for the conservation, study and reflection on culture and heritage. In the Museum context, objects are presented to visitors, not simply as artifacts, but as objects embedded in cultural significance. If one of museums' main tasks consists in the contextualization of objects in their cultural meanings, past and present, museums may be cast anew, theoretically, as spaces not simply responsible for the preservation of artifacts, but as spaces of education as well. In the museum space, visitors, according to their own cognitive capacities and skills, and their educational backgrounds, approach such meanings mentally. University Museums form a peculiar case of museums as they provide laboratories for the training of students. It follows that, a University Museum concerned with the history of education, as it is oriented towards preserving the cultural inheritance related to education, can easily provide material for both study and research purposes to many undergraduate or postgraduate university students. It can cover an enormous variety of activities and excite the interest of different parts of the society. In this paper we present our personal experience from a period of study and professional work at the Museum for the History of Education in the University of Athens, reflecting on ways in which the museum tried to respond to students' needs, and those students undertaking graduate studies in Departments of Education in Greece, or those who attend primary or secondary school classes.
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM 1866-2016 ACTIVITIES AND SYNERGIES IN ATHENS FOR A GREAT ANNIVERSARY
On the 3d of October 2016, 150 years were completed since the foundation of the National Archaeological Museum. The history of the largest archaeological museum of Greece constitutes a long and adventurous chronicle, connected to the cultural climate in Europe in modern times and the official policy of the newly founded Greek state on the protection of antiquities, as part of the cultural heritage. Assembling antiquities from all over Greece, from Cyprus, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Sicily and Southern Italy, the National Archaeological Museum achieved, in configuring its rooms, a multidimensional image of the archaeological past, from the 6th millennium BC until late antiquity, covering the major expanse of Greek culture. Today, the National Archaeological Museum is an open and accessible museum, a space of dialogue, cooperation and voyaging together with the bodies of the local community and at the same time a museum of worldwide range and multiple synergies with international cultural organizations. In the framework of this communication policy, a rich programme of activities was organized for the celebration of 150 years since its foundation (1866-2016). European Association of Archaeologists, TEA 51, March 2017