10 years of cultural highlights at the airport During the 10 years since the airport’s opening in March 2001, Athens International Airport has hosted more than 50 exhibitions and cultural initiatives, presenting art and culture highlights to the millions of passengers and visitors passing from the airport every year. Art and culture is always present in airport areas thanks to the remarkably positive response of cultural organizations to the invitation of the Athens International Airport, underlining the fact that, beyond its role as a modern, functional facility, the airport is also a crossroad of people and cultures.
AIA’s 10th anniversary programme “Art and Culture wishes” On the occasion of the airport’s 10th birthday, 16 cultural organizations with whom the Athens International Airport has cooperated during the last 10 years, will again be present at the airport, participating in AIA’s cultural initiative “Art and Culture wishes”. The anniversary art and culture programme will run at the airport from the beginning of April through the end of December 2011.
Athens International Airport has the great pleasure of welcoming again the Foundation of the Hellenic World, the Museum of Greek Folk Art, the Benaki Museum, the Goulandris Natural History Museum, the George Zongolopoulos Foundation, the National Theatre of Greece, the Museum of Greek Children’s Art, the Byzantine and Christian Museum, the Herakleidon Museum, the Museum of the Hellenic Nobel Collection, Militos Editions, the Cycladic Art Museum, the Onassis Cultural Centre, B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music and the National Geographic Greece.
Expressing the notion of "the voyage" through their own identity, the cultural organizations participating in the action, will display at the airport photographic exhibitions, projections, art banners etc., along with their wishes on the airport’s 10th birthday.
The theatre at the airport… The National Theatre of Greece will also “travel” to the airport, taking part in the airport’s celebration with Sophocles’s “Antigone, directed by Takis Tzamargias. This performance is part of the National Theatre’s initiative “The national Theatre of Greece in Education”, and aims at bringing closer to teenagers and young people one of the most important plays internationally. On May 12th, at the airport’s Departures, Lyceum pupils will see the performance and feel the magic of the theatre, in an “alternative” theatre venue.
…and a literary competition In cooperation with the monthly literary review “Diavazo”, Athens International Airport holds a short story competition, on “Journeys by Air”. More information on this “literary journey” will soon be available on the websites of Athens International airport and “Diavazo” magazine.
The airport’s permanent exhibitions Passengers and airport visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the airport’s permanent exhibitions: “The Exhibitions of Archaeological Findings from the Airport Area” (“Airport Museum”), the exhibition dedicated to the great Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, after whom the airport was named, and the exhibition on the “New Acropolis Museum”.
Athens International Airport looks forward to welcoming passengers and visitors, with “Art and Culture Wishes” throughout the year, offering a travel as well as a cultural experience in the history of Greece, Greek, its nature, and the country’s art and culture.