100 years Refugee Hellenism The gardens of the Byzantine MuseumAthens Culture Net Find us on Facebook Find us on youtube Find us on instagram

Byzantine and Christian Museum :: About .::. EU Projects

At the Museum with the Roma

The action "At the Museum with the Roma" was coordinated and implemented by the Byzantine and Christian Museum, in collaboration with the Greek Film Centre, in 2013-14.

The aim was to promote the Roma populations’ social access to cultural heritage, to stimulate their historical self-awareness, to introduce society with certain characteristics of the Greek Roma community that overturn stereotypical perceptions.

Therefore, the Byzantine and Christian Museum proceeded to:
• designing and implementing customized museum educational activities for school groups with a significant presence of Roma pupils,
• organizing open events (discussions, film screenings, music events) to promote aspects of the Greek Roma identity,
• training young Roma in cultural mediation and organising, with their participation, activities to approach the community,
• publishing a book with texts that highlight aspects of the historical path of the Roma in Greece and promote various actions related to the current problems in education and access to cultural heritage issues.

Additionally, in collaboration with the regional services of the Ministry of Culture and Sport (Museum of Byzantine Culture, 3rd EBA / Chios, 5th EBA / Sparta, 12th EBA / Kavala, 21st EBA / Corfu 23rd EBA / Halkida 26th EBA / Kalamata) and our liaisons from the Roma communities, we organised educational activities in order to familiarise the Roma communities with local museums and monuments.

On their part, the Greek Film Centre produced four short aiming to change the stereotypes and promote awareness on the issues of the Roma populations. The films are:

• Rainbow St. (50') by Myrna Tsapa
• Short Roma stories (67') by Stavros Psyllaki
• Roma tribes (44 ') by Nikos Anagnostopoulos
• Sam Roma (40 ') by Marina Danezis

The success of the project "At the Museum with the Roma", which is largely due to the close cooperation with the Roma populations, highlights the multiple role of museums and cultural services, to positively intervene on a social level with their institutional role and reputation.