Ambassador Pyatt delivers opening remarks at the 2018 Museum Conference (State Department photo)
Benaki Museum – Piraeus 138
November 29, 2018-Delivered to the Podium
Kalimera sas,
Minister Zorba, Mr. Manginis, Deputy Mayor Zepou, friends, it is a great pleasure to be here again and to join representatives of so many great museums and cultural organizations in Greece.
I also want to particularly welcome what I believe to be the Greek Foreign Ministry’s entry class who are here as part of their cultural diplomacy educational stream, and I will just say to all of you that I hope you will have as much success and pleasure as I have working on the cultural dimension of our diplomatic relations.
This is the eighth annual museum conference that we are organizing in collaboration with the Benaki Museum and the British Council. And this year, our partnerships are expanding as we welcome the Goethe-Institut among the conference supporters. And I would like to particularly emphasize how honored we are to benefit from the official auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Athens within the framework of this event.
As one of the flagship programs of the U.S. Embassy Cultural Office, the Museum Conference provides the opportunity to exchange best practices between cultural institutions and professionals from Greece, Europe and the United States .
This year’s conference focuses on synergies and collaborations between cultural institutions, and I would like to congratulate the organizers on this very timely and important theme.
As U.S. Ambassador to Greece, I have had the chance to travel this beautiful country and visit some of the lesser-known archaeological sites, such as ancient Olympia Dodoni, Mystras, Delphi, and Vergina. But I also visited some very impressive and lesser known museums – like the Yfanti Museum in Epirus, right on the border with Albania, the Kalavryta Museum which I visited last month, the many impressive museums of the Bank Foundation of Piraeus, including that of Chios Mastiha. Museum, the Goldsmith’s Museum of Ioannina and the Natural History Museum of Stymphalia, of course the Jewish Museums of Athens and Thessaloniki, and last weekend the Averof Art Museum in Metsovo.
All these visits helped me understand how much Greece’s international brand is linked to its cultural heritage and treasures.
Your museums and cultural institutions are repositories of a vast history and knowledge that is of great interest not only to your citizens, but also to the entire world.
Greece also has a vibrant contemporary cultural scene, as the minister and I have discussed. We see this in the hundreds of shows, visual arts exhibitions, film festivals, music events and other multidisciplinary activities that take place every year here in Greece. We see it in this very museum – with world-class exhibitions like the current exhibition on Yiannis Moralis, which I cannot recommend enough to you all; It’s all simply superb.
This contemporary treasure is also evident in the international events that Greece hosts, including the current World Book Capital of Athens.
And despite the obstacles Greece has faced in recent years and despite the reduction in financial resources it has imposed, the cultural production of this country has become stronger and more diverse.
Many attribute this dynamism to local initiatives… to synergies and cross-sector collaborations between institutions, civil society organizations, local governments, private foundations, businesses and many other actors.
Collaborations and synergies have the power to bring together diverse resources: from the public and volunteers to funding. Collaborations are also a form of capital for cultural organizations. They make museums more open, more equitable and more representative of their communities.
Some of these synergies are obvious – for example between tourism and cultural organizations working together to benefit both sectors.
But some are initially unlikely – for example, museums participate in the civil society response to natural disasters or during the refugee crisis. And some collaborations help build bridges between countries to foster understanding, education and social change.
I am extremely proud of the Embassy’s work in this important area and hope that you all will have the opportunity today to share your best practices in synergies and collaboration.
To conclude, I would like to thank our generous partners of this conference: our host here, the Benaki Museum, and our partner the British Council, and of course the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the Municipality of Athens for their auspices ; and the Goethe-Institut for your support.
I would also like to thank our American guests: in particular Adam Rozan, from the incredible Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and all of today’s speakers and participants for their presence and cooperation. And Scott Stulen who will speak to us by video.
I wish you all great success with this conference and continued progress in the important work that cultural institutions are doing to preserve and celebrate the wonders of Greek culture for all that it has brought to the Western world.
It’s true!
