Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center Director Examines Link Between Art and Economic Development
The Greek economic climate is today more imperiled than it ever has been in the modern era, a situation that has affected nearly every aspect of life in the country. This has included, of course, cultural institutions, with museums reporting dangerously anemic operating budgets. The result is impending mergers and closures as foundering institutions are restructured, as in the folding of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art into the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki.
Meanwhile, a €566 million Renzo Piano-designed edifice has been rising in Athens: the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC). Funded by the late shipping magnate’s international foundation, the cultural institution will house exhibition spaces, a park, and the National Library and National Opera. Once completed next year, the SNFCC will then be turned over to the Greek government, with the Ministry of Finance responsible for the public park and various commercial facilities (parking, restaurants, and so on), while the Ministry of Culture, Education, and Religious Affairs will manage the National Opera and National Library....