The International Council of Museums (ICOM) celebrates the International Museum Day, with the general theme for 2023 “Museums, Sustainability and Quality of Life”. With the theme of this year’s celebration, ICOM wishes to highlight the role and power of museums to contribute to achieving the goals of sustainability and improving the quality of life of society.
In this context Kika Kyriakakou, PCAI artistic director, is invited by the Museum of Greek Costume Lykeion ton Ellinidon to give a lecture on her long-term research around Ama divers from Japan, their clothing traditions, their cultural heritage and the environmental aspects of their practice.
The speech will be followed by the screening of the AMASAN Women of the Sea (2009, 13’39”) documentary, directed by Amie Williams.
TIME Tuesday, May 23, at 6pm
PLACE Halls of the Museum of Greek Costume Lykeion ton Ellinidon at 14 Dimokritou str., Kolonaki
Entrance free
The lecture will take place in Greek / The film is in Japanese with English subtitles
About ICOM
Created in 1946 the International Council of Museums (ICOM) was initially founded by museums professionals who were concerned about the future of the world’s cultural heritage after the disasters of the Second World War. UNESCO decided from the beginning to support ICOM by giving it shelter in its Headquarters in Paris. In 1977, the 18th of May started being celebrated as the International Museum Day. The main concern of ICOM is the notification and the confrontation of the problems related to museums and museum professionals, as well as the development of the field of Museology. To achieve that the above-mentioned goal, 30 international committees have been created, each devoted to the study of a particular type of museum or to a specific museum-related discipline, such as the architecture of museums, conservation, country museums, education etc; they are composed of ICOM members who request membership. These committees have contributed to the compilation of essential manuals like, for instance, the Code of Ethics that was adopted in 1986.
About the Museum of Greek Costume
The Museum was established in 1911 by Callirrhoe Siganou-Parren. When setting its goals it gave priority to the advocacy of women’s rights and became a leading organization for social action, with a dynamic contribution in the issues of women’s emancipation and equal opportunities in work and education. At the same time, by connecting, right from the beginning, its activities with the preservation and the promotion of Greek customs and traditions as part of our national heritage, the Lykeion ton Ellinidon evolved into an exemplary association with an instrumental contribution to the cultural development of Greek society. For its overall work, the Lykeion ton Ellinidon has received an award from the Academy of Athens, while in 2012 it was certified to act as an ancillary to the work of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Today the LtE leads a network of 55 Annexes in Greece and 14 Bureaus abroad, in Greek communities of the diaspora.
Image credit: © Toba Sea Folk Museum
Activity aligned with Goals 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
