SPEAKERS – MY MUSEUM

SPEAKERS

Ath
Anticlastics
Co-founders, Athens Jewelry Week
GR
Ath / Thess
Katy Ashton
Director, People’s History Museum

UK

Thess
Yiannis Boutaris
Former Mayor of Thessaloniki – President of the Foundation for the Holocaust Memorial Museum of Thessaloniki
GR
Ath
Christos Carras
Executive Director – Music Program Curator, Onassis Stegi

GR

Ath / Thess
Sophia Handaka
Conference Host, Curator of World Culture, Benaki Museum
GR
Ath / Thess
Catherine Devine
Business Strategy Leader, Libraries and Museums, Microsoft
U.S.A
Ath
Cécile Dumoulin
Responsible of Publics and Cultural Programs,  Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem)

FR

Ath
Kimon Frangakis
Journalist, Founder, Sophisticated Media
GR
Ath
Despina Geroulanou
Member of the Board of Trustees, Benaki Museum
GR
Ath
Akis Goumas
Jewelry Maker

FR

Ath
Chrysa Zarkali
Museologist,Communication and Public Relations Officer, Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus)
GR
Ath
Sophie Lamprou
Co-founder, Impact Hub Athens
GR
Ath
Aliki Kakoulidou – Dimitra Vassilakou
Co-founders, Metoo Communication Design

GR

Ath
Marlen Mouliou
Assistant Professor of Museology, Faculty of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
GR
Thess
Syrago Tsiara
Art Historian-Acting Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art – Experimental Center for the Arts, MOMus
GR
Ath
Meriç Öner
Director of Research and Programs, SALT
 

TR

Ath
Irini Papageorgiou
Curator of Prehistoric, Ancient Greek and Roman Collections, Benaki Museum
GR
Ath / Thess
Kristin Prestegaard
Chief Engagement Officer, Minneapolis Institute of Art
U.S.A
Ath / Thess
Marcelo Rezende
Co-director, Archiv der Avantgarden (AdA),Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
DE
Ath / Thess
Katrina A. Stacy
Curator of Education and Interpretation, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
U.S.A
Thess
Aspasia Tasiopoulou
Librarian, Veria Central Public Library
GR
Ath / Thess
Maria Tsantsanoglou
CExecutive General Director, Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), Creative Director, MOMus – Museum of Modern Art – Costakis collection

DE

Ath
Amalia Zepou
Social Innovation Expert, Founder, synAthina
 
U.S.A
Thess
Yiannis Ziogas
Dean – Associate Professor, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Fine Arts, University of Western Macedonia
GR
Thess
Athanasios Kolalas
]Visual Artist, Stage Designer and Director
DE
Thess
Anna Mikoniou
President – Managing Director, Central Macedonia Regional Culture Center
U.S.A

Anticlastics

Co-founders,
Athens Jewelry Week
GR

Athens Jewelry Week is a festival organised by the Anticlastics group, a non-profit entity that was formed to promote – through collective action – contemporary Greek jewelry, both in Greece and abroad. The group consists of Erato Kouloubi and Niki Stylianou. Both of them are active in the contemporary jewelry scene following parallel paths. Their work covers a wide range of areas in the field of creative expression: from research and design to creation and teaching. Athens Jewelry Week first opened its doors in 2016. It is an institution that creates the space where artists and audiences from the contemporary jewelry field can meet and exchange ideas, network and develop future collaborations. The works exhibited during AJW, are not only art pieces that express states of being, provoke discussions and comment on current sociological structures and tendencies, but are also a means to an end. The strong connections that are formed between individuals and groups coming from different cultures, support AJW and become the source for new and progressively more impactful actions. In particular, the festival aims to inform and educate the public on issues related to contemporary jewelry as an art form and as a means of creative expression; to support individual artists and creative groups that are active in this particular field and to bring together all interested and collaborative parts/members (artists, galleries, collectors, museums and other institutions promoting the arts and culture) through communication and networking. ​

Katy Ashton

Director,
People’s History Museum
UK

Katy Ashton has worked in the museum sector for 20 years with roles in national, local authority and independent museums, working with military, social history, industrial and transport collections. Prior to joining PHM in 2010, Katy’s work was focused on learning, social justice and citizenship within museums and she led the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law (NCCL) in Nottingham. Katy has a strong background in learning and audience engagement which underpins a passion for museums to be relevant to contemporary issues and events, resonant with people’s lives – empowering them to get actively involved in their own history, heritage and communities. Katy has a History Degree from the University of York, an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, and she is an Associate of the Museums Association. Katy is a member of the Steering Group for the Women Leaders in Museums Network, Secretary and Board Member for the International Association of Labour Museums (Worklab) and has previously held non-executive positions with the Group for Education in Museums and North West Federation of Museums.

Yiannis Boutaris

Former Mayor
of Thessaloniki, President of the
Foundation for the Holocaust
Memorial Museum of
Thessaloniki
GR

Yiannis Boutaris was born in Thessaloniki in 1942. He is a businessman and politician, and from January 1 until August 31, 2011, he served as the sixtieth Mayor of Thessaloniki. He graduated in Chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and is also a certified oenologist. In the early 1970s he acquired a privately-owned vineyard in Giannakochori Imathias, where he planted a pure grape variety of xinomavro, applying revolutionary techniques. At the same time, his activity in the area played a significant role in boosting Naoussa’s viticulture. He had a major contribution to the establishment of the Arcturus environmental organization which focuses on the protection of wildlife fauna, and is actively involved in various ecological initiatives. He has served as President of the Hellenic Wine Association and member of the Board of Directors of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall

Christos Carras

Executive Director – Music
Program Curator,
Onassis Cultural Center
GR

Christos Carras was born in London, UK in 1962. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University and then successfully completed his PhD at the Sorbonne (Paris I) in 1989. His thesis was entitled “Philosophy of Music and Composition since 1945 – On the Conditions of Criticism.” On moving to Greece in 1990, he worked for some years in the wine and organic foods sector. Amongst other things he was the co-founder of the Wine Roads of Northern Greece. From 2000 onwards, he has been working in the cultural sector, initially as the Project Manager of the EU funded MediMuses network. In 2006 he became the first General Manager of the B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music, in Athens. In 2009 he joined the Onassis Foundation as the Executive Director of the Onassis Cultural Center (Onassis Stegi) which opened its doors to the public in December 2010. Since then he has curated the music program as well as coordinated several visual arts projects and conferences. He is responsible for the overall coordination of the Center and reporting to the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

Sophia Handaka

Conference Host,
Curator of World Cultures,
Benaki Museum
GR

Working at the Benaki Museum since 1998, Sophia Handaka has developed numerous exhibitions, publications, research projects, public programs, cultural synergies and networks, relating to state-of-the-art museum practices, including co-founding and hosting the yearly International Museum Conference, co-organised since 2011 with the U.S. Embassy and the British Council; and establishing the first national peer-to-peer Museum Professionals Network empowered by the British Council. In her capacity as Curator of World Cultures, she perceives herself as catalyst for creating awareness on cultural diversity and promoting ideals of inclusion, accessibility and social cohesion. Sofia has been invited in selection juries, training workshops, special consultations and public talks and is member-alumni of international networks, including the Bosch Alumni Network and the International Visitor Leadership Program alumni (2019). She currently also collaborates with the City of Athens as an expert in matters of cultural democracy and access to culture (R.O.C.K. project). Sofia is Vice-President of the NPO HOPEgenesis, fighting against birth deficit in Greece, and volunteer in the Omada Aigaiou, supporting life improvement in the Greek islands. Holding a DPhil from the University of Oxford, Sofia is a social anthropologist specialized in museums and material culture, with plenty of experience in the field of cultural heritage and cultural management.

Catherine Devine

Business Strategy Leader,
Libraries and Museums,
Microsoft
U.S.A.

Catherine Devine leads strategy for Libraries and Museums within Microsoft’s Education division. In this role her goal is to leverage technology to further the missions of Libraries and Museums globally in attracting visitors, optimizing the visitor experience, supporting research, serving the community, improving operations and exploring emerging opportunities for Libraries and Museums as their role is defined in a continually changing world. Catherine was most recently Chief Digital Officer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In that position, she led the digital transformation of the Museum for 7 years, as part of a 25-year career in technology across a variety of industries. Catherine has had a lifelong love and interest in technology and its ability to optimize outcomes across all aspects of life and society. Catherine is originally from Sydney, Australia, holding a BA in Business (Accounting) from the University of Technology, Sydney and an MSc in Business Analytics (Data Science) from Syracuse University.

Cécile Dumoulin

Responsible of Publics and
Cultural Programs,
Musée des Civilisations de
l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem)
FR

Cécile Dumoulin studied French Literature and History of Art and was working as a teacher of French Literature, prior to her involvement in the museum sector. From 1998 to 2002 she was the Head of Education at the Louvre Museum (1998-2002). In 2003, she joined the team that prepared the opening of the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris and her work was focused on the mediation program and public studies. Later on, she was appointed Deputy Director of Publics at the Quai Branly Museum. In 2010, she joined the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) as the Responsible of Publics. Since 2017, she has also been directing the Department of Cultural Programs of the Museum.

Kimon Frangakis

Journalist,
Founder, Sophisticated Media
GR

Kimon Frangakis is a journalist, founder of Sophisticated Media, editor and manager of Andro.gr, a sophisticated website for the modern-day thinking man. With Andro, he presents Artisans Events that are dedicated to handmade products and unique services. He is also the organiser of Ladies Run, a philanthropic athletic event for ladies only, which takes place in Asteras Vouliagmenis. He is also the co-presenter of the daily breakfast radio show (8-10 am) on Pepper 96,6. In the past, he collaborated as an editor and editor-in-chief with leading Greek and international press and websites. Among others, for 10 years he was the Director of STATUS magazine in Greece and Publishing Editor of GQ magazine in Romania. He was also the inspirer and co-organiser of the Spetses Mini Marathon. He was a student at the European School in Brussels and the Greek-French School in Athens. He holds a Maîtrise in History from the Sorbonne University.

Despina Geroulanou

Member of the Board of Trustees,
Benaki Museum
GR

Despina Geroulanou studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and at the Drama School of the Greek Art Theatre (Theatro Technis) Karolos Koun. She worked in theatre and cinema with Dimitris Horn and Nikos Panayiotopoulos. She also attended drawing, sculpture and jewelry classes in Paris and in 1991 she organized her first solo exhibition of jewelry in Athens. More solo and group exhibitions followed. Since 1994 she has been the Director of the Benaki Museum Shops, reorganizing the first shop of the museum and founding three new ones, designing both objects and promotional material for all the shops. She has curated several exhibitions and events in the fields of applied arts and design. Among them are the series “Material Quests” and “Kriezotou 3 Window,” highlighting distinguished representatives of the applied arts and design in Greece. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Benaki Museum and Greece’s representative in the Cultural Council of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship.

Akiss Goumas

Jewelry Maker
GR

Akis Goumas is a Greek contemporary jewelry maker and researcher of ancient metalsmithing techniques. After obtaining his diploma in Economics, he was trained as a jeweler and silversmith. He is a member of the Greek Chamber of Fine Arts. Starting in 1989 and for more than 15 years he was the designer for ONAR S.A., a jewelry and design company. Since 2000, he has been teaching Creative Jewelry in Chalkis Jewelry School, which is a Department of the Chalkis Art School. In the last 15 years, he has participated in more than 25 exhibitions in Greece and Europe. In 2013 he exhibited his work at the Benaki Museum shop on Pireos street, under the title “Diadromes P 137” (Routes P 137). Since 2006 he is a member of a team of archaeologists studying, researching and experimenting firstly, prehistoric metal technologies of the Aegean region, and collaborating with the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and the Museum of Cycladic Art; secondly, Hellenistic goldsmithing techniques, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, and thirdly, Minoan seal stone engraving with the Department of Classical Studies of the University of Heidelberg. His late work is very much influenced from this research and some of his works belong to private or museum collections.

Chrysa Zarkali

Museologist, Communication and
Public Relations Officer,
Metropolitan Organization of
Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus)
GR

Chrysa Zarkali graduated from the Department of History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and then completed her MA in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. She has worked in several museums and cultural institutions in Greece and abroad – British Museum, TATE Britain, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Municipality of Volos, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and many more – on various posts, such as the Educational Programmes, Visitor Services, Audience Surveys, and Communication. From 2006 to 2018, she held the position of Communication and Public Relations Officer at the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, which she retains in the new organization MOMus, since the merging of the Thessaloniki-based museums of visual arts in 2018.

Sophie Lamprou

Co-founder, Impact Hub Athens
GR

Sophie Lambrou kicked off the Impact Hub Athens in 2013, as a node for positive impact driven people and organizations to meet, work and learn. Impact Hub Athens is a proud part of the international Impact Hub network; an international system of community centres, social business incubators, and problem solving consultancies. She also co-founded El Sistema Greece; a programme that through music aims to foster integration and cultivate character to refugee, migrants and local underprivileged youngsters and children in Greece, along with numerous other projects that bring impact into business and business practice in social change. The questions that matter to her the most at the moment, and she is pursuing: What are the systems and the structures that allow people to act as responsible citizens and create value into the social, environmental and cultural? How can cities become microcosms of impact driven economy? How do we identify and deliver for unlikely allies to meet, work and deliver outcome together?

Aliki Kakoulidou – Dimitra Vassilakou

Co-founders,
Metoo Communication Design
GR

Metoo Communication Design is a team that came together in 2005, comprising of Aliki Kakoulidou and Dimitra Vassilakou. It specializes in visual communication, with an emphasis on cultural research. It has collaborated with important institutions and artists, participated in exhibitions in Greece and abroad, and has received a variety of distinctions. In recent years, the team has been creating motifs and characters inspired by Greek tradition, and has been applying them on everyday objects. This new vision is implemented by combining graphic art with design and up-to-date technology with traditional production techniques.Thanks to this project they have established ongoing collaborations with museum gift shops (the Benaki Museum being their prime collaborator) and various other organizations that aim to promote Greek design. Metoo Communication Design is also part of the Urban Motifs Lab, an experimental commercial platform that came together for the Municipality of Athens’ This is Athens – Polis program. Putting together an open creative network and interacting with people from various fields and backgrounds is one of their principal goals. ​

Marlen Mouliou

Assistant Professor of
Museology, Faculty of History and
Archaeology, National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens
GR

Marlen Mouliou is Assistant Professor of Museology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Faculty of History and Archaeology) and Scientific Coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in Museums Studies, NKUA. She is coordinator of Public Archaeology Activities in the context of the university excavation in Marathon. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Panel of Judges for the European Museum of the Year Award and Vice-Chair of the European Academic Heritage Network (UNIVERSEUM). From 2010 to 2016, she served as Secretary and Chair of the International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities (ICOM-CAMOC). She was also co-coordinator of CAMOC’s project Migration: Cities/(Im)migration and Arrival Cities. She studied Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Museology (MA, PhD) at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. She has worked as an archaeologist – museologist at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programmes, 1997-2013). Her research focuses on the social value of museums, museum archaeology, city museum policies and urban narratives, participatory museum interpretation, historic house museums, university museums, professionalism and training, museum accreditation, archaeological ethnographies and local communities. She is a founding member of the Scientific Committee of the journal Tetradia Mouseiologias (Museological Notes) and of the journal CAMOCnews.

Syrago Tsiara

Art Historian-Acting Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art – Experimental Center for the Arts,
MOMus
GR

Syrago Tsiara was born in Larissa. She completed her studies in History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued with a master’s degree in Social History of Art at the University of Leeds, UK. Her PhD thesis focuses on art in public space and the formation of national identity and memory. Since 2000, she has been working as a curator at the State Museum of Contemporary Art (current name, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis collection), while since 2007 she is the Director of the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art (current name, MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts). She has taught at the University of Thessaly (2004-2008) the following subjects: Art in Public Space, The Avant-garde and Modernism in Europe, Greek Art (19th and 20th century), and Contemporary Art, Theory and Methodology. In 2009, she co-curated the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art under the general title “Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty,” together with Gabriela Salgado and Bisi Silva, and she was also the Director of the 6th and 7th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2017, 2019). She is currently Acting Director of MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art and MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts. Syrago Tsiara is the National Commissioner of the Pavilion of Greece at the 58th International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia / Venice Biennale. ​

Meriç Öner

Director of Research and Programs,
SALT
TR

Meriç Öner was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1979. She is a trained architect and Director of Research and Programs at SALT, a contemporary art institution with exhibition and workshop spaces in Istanbul and Ankara. Focusing mainly on Turkey and its surrounding geography after the 1950s, she develops material culture research with a comprehensive and progressive approach. Her work circulates in forms of print and online publications, exhibitions, and public programs. On behalf of cultural institutions, Meriç claims responsibilities further than public presentations and prioritizes structuring physical and digital co-learning environments that encourage interpretation and production by users.

Irini Papageorgiou

Curator of Prehistoric,
Ancient Greek and Roman Collections,
Benaki Museum
GR

Irini Papageorgiou is an archaeologist and the Curator of the Department of Prehistoric, Ancient Greek and Roman Collections of the Benaki Museum. After a short collaboration with the Ephorates of Antiquities of Chios and Lesbos of the Ministry of Culture, she joined the Benaki Museum in 1991, initially as Scientific Assistant of the Director Angelos Delivorrias and since 2000 as Curator of the Department of Prehistoric, Ancient Greek and Roman Collections. She studied Archaeology and History of Art at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has taken part in several excavations and is a member of the Akrotiri Excavations Team, Thera, since 1987. Her research focuses on the Aegean iconography of the 2nd millennium BC and on the ancient goldsmith art. She has published a number of scholarly papers in exhibition catalogues, collective volumes and archaeological journals in Greece and abroad. Since 2000 she has been involved in the coordination of all archaeological exhibitions presented at the Benaki Museum. Also, she has contributed to any archaeological exhibition in which the Museum has participated, in Greece and abroad. She is a member of the Society for the Promotion of Studies on Prehistoric Thera.

Kristin Prestegaard

Chief Engagement Officer,
Minneapolis Institute of Art
U.S.A.

Kristin Prestegaard is the Chief Engagement Officer at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). At Mia, Kristin oversees the Audience Engagement Division, which was created in 2012 and encompasses marketing, public relations, design and editorial, social media, and visitor experience. Kristin plays a lead role in the museum’s strategic communications and in creating a dialogue with Mia’s many audiences. She is responsible for all audience engagement, a key aspect of the museum’s new strategic direction, and cultivates both internal and external relationships to generate new interest and encourage sustained engagement. Kristin is also a founding member of the International Audience Engagement network (IAE).

Marcelo Rezende

Co-director,
Archiv der Avantgarden (AdA),
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
DE

Marcelo Rezende is a researcher, critic and exhibition-maker. He was Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (2012-2015), Artistic Director of the 3rd Bahia Biennial (2014) and part of the curatorial group of the 28th São Paulo Biennial (2008), amongst other projects and positions. Author of the novel Arno Schmidt (2005), he is Associate Curator of the Museu do Mato (Scrubland Museum) in Bahia and Co-director of the Archiv der Avantgarden (AdA) in Dresden, Germany. He curated the exhibition “Kaffee aus Helvecia” at the Johann Jacobs Museum in Zurich in 2017, and participated in the Museal Episode programme through the Goethe-Institut/Kulturstiftung des Bundes from 2015 to 2017.

Katrina A. Stacy

Curator of Education and Interpretation,
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
U.S.A.

Katrina A. Stacy has been a museum educator and guest advocate for over 20 years. She received her MA in Museum Education from the Rhode Island School of Design, and BA in Studio Art and Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts. She now lives in the complex but culturally rich Mexican border state of New Mexico, at an elevation of about 7000 feet. In her role at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, she directs Education and Interpretation at the Museum’s facilities in Santa Fe and O’Keeffe’s two historic properties in Abiquiu and at Ghost Ranch. Every day, she works to position the Museum as a vibrant center for self-discovery, dialogue, and learning. She has worked on a multitude of collaborative projects, including curating fine art exhibitions, management of large-scale mural installations, storyboarding interpretive technology and video, and collaborating on many community art exhibits. She has worked to develop accessible in-gallery and online interpretive materials, such as: bilingual family guides and labelling initiatives, creative audio installations, touchable interactions, and cross-state/cross-discipline curriculum partnerships. Universal Design is an ongoing passion, and she is an outspoken advocate for ensuring accessibility to all museum guests.

Aspasia Tasiopoulou

Librarian,
Veria Central Public Library
GR

Aspasia Tasiopoulou has been working at the Public Library of Veria in Greece since 1993, right after her graduation from the Library School (Department of Library Science and Information Systems) in Thessaloniki. The Veria Central Public Library is a Public Law Entity, subjected to the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs. In 2010 it was awarded the Access to Learning Award (ATLA) by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on the account of implementing technology into its infrastructure and creating a powerful framework for the local community. The library is recognized as a successful model library, due to the creative use of computing and technology services to fulfill social, educational, and cultural needs of more than 180,000 people – and the number keeps on growing! People from the wider region come to visit the library daily and more than 34,000 people are listed as library members. The library collection includes 150,000 items (books, newspapers, magazines, dress patterns, board games, tablets, kindles, foreign languages teaching methods and tools, CDs, vinyl, DVDs, and more). The library also features a recording studio (Media Lab), a Maker Space/Tech Lab equipped with a 3D printer, an inspiration area, as well as education and learning rooms for relaxation and study.

Maria Tsantsanoglou

Executive General Director,
Metropolitan Organization of Museums of
Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus),
Creative Director, MOMus –
Museum of Modern Art –
Costakis collection
GR

Maria Tsantsanoglou was born in Thessaloniki. She studied at the School of Philology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her PhD thesis, completed at the Lomonosov University in Moscow, was entitled “Russian Futurism, Historical Criticism and Reception.” In 1998 she was member of the Greek State Committee for the reception of the Costakis Collection. From 1994 to 2002, she served as Press and Cultural Attaché at the Greek Embassy in Moscow. She has taught History of Art at the Lomonosov University in Moscow (1997-2001) and has been teaching Russian Cultural History and Art at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki since 2002. She has been the Director of the State Museum of Contemporary Art-Costakis Collection since 2006. In 2007, she was one of the curators of the main programme of the 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art and the Director of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale in 2009. Her scientific interests, her translations and publications apply mostly to the period of Russian avant-garde and the contemporary art of the post-Soviet space. Also, she has been extensively involved with issues on the synthesis of the arts, art and politics, museum policies and transcultural relations. She has organized many exhibitions in Greece, Russia, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asian regions. She has published two books and has numerous publications and participations in international conferences. She participated in the lawmaking team for the creation of the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus) and is currently executive General Director of MOMus.

Amalia Zepou

Social Innovation Expert,
Founder synAthina
GR

Amalia Zepou served as Vice Mayor for Civil Society and Innovation from 2014 to 2019 at the Municipality of Athens. In 2013, she created the civil society platform synAthina which was further developed into an idea that won the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge award in September 2014. synAthina led to two flag projects in the Athens administration, both based in new collaborative processes with civil society: a strategy for addressing the graffiti phenomenon and a new model for the management of a public market building in a neighborhood in Athens. synAthina was further developed as a dynamic network for connecting with active citizens for the integration of migrants and refugees, a project named Curing the Limbo funded by the European Commission’s initiative Urban Innovative Actions. She was responsible for the nomination of Athens as European Capital of Innovation 2018, and the establishment of an Athens Municipality new sector of Social Innovation. Prior to the Municipality, she was working as an independent documentary producer while raising her three children in Athens. She has a BA in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and an MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Yiannis Ziogas

Dean – Associate Professor,
Department of Fine and Applied Arts,
School of Fine Arts,
University of Western Macedonia
GR

Yiannis Ziogas was born in Thessaloniki in 1962. He is the Dean and an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the School of Fine Arts, University of Western Macedonia. He holds a BSc in Mathematics (1988), a master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York (1991), and a PhD from the University of the Aegean (2013). He has realized twenty solo exhibitions and participated in many more in Greece and abroad. He has attended residencies in New York and has taught as a visiting artist in many Greek and foreign universities. His work has been reviewed in Greek and international press (New York Times, ARTnews, Sculpture, Il Giornale dell’ Arte). He has written essays on the theory of art, as well as the following books: Byzantine Malevich (2000), Tarkovsky in Halkida (2007), Aspects of Criticism (2008, collective volume), and The Diary of a PD/407 (2012). Since 2007, he has been organizing the Visual March in Prespes artistic event. He has also organized international conferences and edited publications on contemporary aesthetics and practices, with emphasis on the Walking Art process (most recently the Walking Practices/Walking Art/Walking Bodies conference, Prespes 2019 and the Walking Art/Walking Aesthetics special issue, Interartive magazine, 2018).

Athanasios Kolalas

Visual Artist,
Stage Designer and Director
GR

Athanasios Kolalas was born in Thessaloniki and started painting at the age of eight as a scholar of the Vafopouleio Cultural Centre (1st Prize at the Drawing and Painting Competition in 1990), where he studied watercolor painting, oil painting, Byzantine hagiography, and sculpture. In 2000 he was admitted to the Visual Arts Department of the School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he graduated from Teta Makri’s studio. In 2007 he was admitted to the postgraduate course in Theatre Design of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the UK. He is a PhD candidate of the Theatre Department of the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 2001, he has collaborated as an assistant designer with well-known Greek and foreign stage designers in more than 40 performances by important theatre organisations such as the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Thessaloniki Opera, and others abroad. In 2005 he began his personal career as stage and costume designer. Since then, he is a permanent collaborator with the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the Experimental Stage of Art, the Culture Centre of the Region of Central Macedonia, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall and almost all municipal and private theatres of Northern Greece, while his work has also been presented at theatres abroad (Romania, Italy, Finland). In addition, he has worked on various television productions.
In recent years he has also been involved in direction and theatrical production, directing musical performances (Thessaloniki Concert Hall), operas (Kolossaion Theatre, Avlea Theatre, Kavala Municipal Regional Theatre), and musical and opera nights (Thessaloniki Concert Hall). He has also taken part in exhibitions either as exhibitor (the most important being his participation in the Biennale of Fine Arts Schools in Heraklion, Crete in 2006), or as museographic designer.

Anna Mikoniou

President – Managing Director,
Central Macedonia Regional Culture Center
GR

Anna Mikoniou was born in Thessaloniki. She studied French Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and received her master’s degree in Contemporary Literature and Theater from the Sorbonne IV University in Paris. In 1992 she completed her doctoral dissertation on contemporary poetry of the 20th century, at the same university. She has published many studies and articles on contemporary literary movements and theater, as well as a monograph on the work of Odysseus Elytis titled Elytis and Surrealism: The Recording of an Effect. After finishing her studies, she taught Greek, World and Children’s Literature at the Library Science Department of the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki (1992-2015). At the same time, she worked for the family business, which is based in Lakkoma, Chalkidiki, as General Manager. Since 2015, she has been the President and Managing Director of the Central Macedonia Regional Culture Center.