The International Council of Museums (ICOM) established May 18 as International Museum Day in 1977 in an effort to highlight the role of museums in modern society. The message of this anniversary is for museums to become agents of cultural exchange. Every year, in the days around May 18, events are held worldwide on a special theme related to the protection of cultural heritage, museums, and their role in modern society with speeches, exhibitions, meetings, educational programs and other events . The theme of this year's celebration is "Museums for Education and Research".
The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, as part of the celebration of International Museum Day, will hold on Sunday 26 May 2024, at 10.30 am, the event entitled: "Innovation-Sustainable Development-Inclusion at the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum. Energy and digital upgrade projects. Presentation of results". At this event, the results of two large-scale energy and digital upgrading projects will be presented. With the completion of these two projects, the Museum moves into the second phase of renovation of its infrastructure and is radically digitally transformed.
Specifically, initially the project "Energy upgrade and modernization interventions in the buildings of the Kazantzakis Museum" will be presented, with which the institution proceeded with the energy upgrade of its entire building infrastructure and gradually turns into a modern green museum. The project was financed by a program of the Ministry of Development and Investments and the Municipality of Archanes-Asterousia was responsible for the completion of the project.
Then the project "Nikos Kazantzakis in another way: Digital Cultural Routes inside and outside the Museum of the same name" of the Operational Program "EPANEK 2014-2020 Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" of the Ministry of Development and Investments will be presented. With this project, very important work was done in terms of the digitization and documentation of the Museum's Collections and new digital tools and applications were developed for their digital exploitation and display, which contribute decisively to its complete digital transformation.
All of the above is part of the Museum's wider policy to modernize its infrastructure, services, benefits and actions and to come closer to the public with participatory actions and digital applications utilizing the applications of Information systems, but also to maintain and upgrade the quality criteria on the basis of which it won in the summer of 2022 its official recognition by the Ministry of Culture.
The presentation of the results will be carried out primarily by the executives, but also by the partners of the Museum who worked intensively in the past months for the successful completion of these projects. At the same time, the event will feature video screenings and a live demonstration of the new digital applications.
Participation in the event is free and open, as well as on Saturday 18 May, International Museum Day.
