Vision and Mission

Understanding the importance and uplifting role of culture, the Municipality of Athens presents a single, integrated cultural programme with the cooperation of organisations that foster culture and creative learning. Thus culture effortlessly becomes part of our everyday life, changing and improving it.

The Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, underlined in a statement: “Athens is going through a cultural reboot through a project implemented for the first time in the city, a programme that “invests” in the people of culture, our cultural legacy and enlargement. Over the next few years, the aim is to support cultural workers and create conditions that will provide opportunities and space for new ideas and artistic expression to flourish within the city. “Athens will start shedding its cultural light again”.

Our goal is to make culture accessible to everyone, younger people and adults, in every neighbourhood of Athens. We embrace artists, cultural workers, creative professionals, and cultural institutions. Together, we create a canvas, a field of networking, exchange and meaningful interaction among them while exploiting cultural synergies with other sectors, opening new possibilities for the city.

With high-quality events, permanent collections and temporary exhibitions in the city’s museums, educational and cultural programmes for children and adults, festivals and international performances, partnerships and synergies with the city’s cultural organisations, we create the conditions for sensational experiences in every corner of the city. As a result, we are placing Athens at the core of the global cultural map as a fertile field of creative processes, a centre of the creative economy, and a modern city, open, friendly and welcoming towards its residents and visitors from Greece and abroad.

In this context, the Municipality of Athens is planning and implementing, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture & Sports Ministry and the Region of Attica, “Culture is Athens”, a three-year project aiming to upgrade, enhance and integrate the cultural fabric of the city. We are developing an artistic network that connects the different aspects of Athens, its modern structures with its ancient and contemporary monuments, thus blazing new trails for the city.

• We are actively supporting the artists and all cultural workers affected by the pandemic.

• We are implementing a single cultural programme for the Municipality of Athens, enhancing and opening up the events in the city while planning new ones to include the whole spectrum of arts (music, dance, theatre, cinema, visual arts, architecture, books). To do so, we invest in modern tools and new technologies.

• We are upgrading the infrastructure and highlighting the legacy property of the Municipality of Athens. We are re-introducing historic buildings that have been closed for years, creating new museums for the city focusing on visitors, re-exhibiting important collections and adopting a modern approach in line with the latest international trends. We are refurbishing our galleries, libraries and cultural venues already in operation and look forward to creating new, open and fully accessible cradles of culture in the city. We are restoring and sustaining the operation of historic theatres in Athens and continue to run the Olympia Municipal Music Theatre “Maria Callas” successfully following the partnership between the City of Athens Cultural, Sport & Youth Organization (OPANDA) and Technopolis.

• We are designing and implementing modern educational programs for all children, teenagers, adults, schools and families in the new museums and the restored cultural venues.

• We are more than happy to continue the highly successful educational programme “The Child, the City & the Monuments”, which won the gold prize at the Educational Leader Awards. The programme is implemented under the auspices of the Presidency of the Hellenic Republic.

• We continue the creative synergies with all city cultural organisations through Athens Culture Net, the Culture Network of the Municipality.

• We support the Greek Film Industry by making Athens a film-friendly city through the Athens Film Office.

• We promote free expression and creativity by offering equipment and know-how through the Municipality’s Maker Space.

• We strengthen entrepreneurship and digital skills with modern training programmes through Innovations.

• We want to make sure that Athenians are well informed about the cultural or other events happening around the city by staying tuned to Athens 9,84, the city’s radio.