10th issue In-On
First Ladies
“The Museum Nikos Kazantzakis enters a new era. It is not just an ark of memory for Nikos Kazantzakis, but –having set as an ulterior purpose to mingle the value of memory with that of knowledge and prolific study, and confront the challenges of the future- struggles to build a new profile, capable to create new generations of scholars and researchers of its multifarious work”, mentions to “In-On” magazine the curator of the Museum Mrs. Barbara Tsaka.
The permanent modernized Museum Exhibition -she underlined- in his family village in Barbari which is the present Myrtia –was housed in a place where the family used to live. 27 years ago in 1983, the Minister of Civilization and Culture Melina Merkouri at that time, in front of Odysseus Elitis and Antonis Samarakis, inaugurated at this very place the Museum, which was created thanks to the donation, the endeavor and the attention of the well-known intellectual man George Anemogiannis.
On Saturday, July the 3rd 2010 -she continued- having invited intellectual creators, representatives of the field of politics and the press along with friends and students of the work of Nikos Kazantzakis, the new Museum Nikos Kazantzakis was opened in Myrtia in Herakleion, Crete.
She also underlined that “The formation of the Museum File is due to the assiduous research of the founder and impassioned collector George Anemogiannis. The assistance of Kazantzakis’ second wife Eleni was also of significant importance, since many and permanent donations along with many other from famous and common people, always helped in its enrichment. Today the Museum, having already three decades’ presence in the field, continues to enrich its collections, maintain and evaluate every form of the valuable material of Nikos Kazantzakis. However, at the same time the curator along with her collaborators develops actions like the scientific documentation and digitalization of the Files, the production and the implementation of educational programs, the production of printed material and electronic publications etc., in an attempt to enhance the services.
The ultimate goal is to create the conditions for the future Museum, presenting a new proposal of exhibiting the collections. This collective attempt is signed by respectful professionals in the field, and more specifically by the architects George Psomadakis and Maria Marinou, who designed the new permanent exhibition, the author and graphic designer Dimitris Kalokyris, who was responsible for the artistic editing and Dr. Litsa Hatzopoulou who wrote and edited the texts. The next, immediate goal of the Museum staff is the reinforcement and encouragement of the scientific research upon the work of Kazantzakis and the general elevation of his cognitive and educational role, through the creation of such activities that allow the completion of goals that promote its existence.
Through the attractive exhibitions, the educational programs, the electronic productions and the digitalized Files that are at the students’ disposal, Nikos Kazantzakis Museum aspires, by making a new start, to contribute even more to the maintenance, promotion and spread of the work of the Cretan author and great thinker.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Barbara Tsaka is the curator of the Museum Nikos Kazantzakis since 2001. Apart from attending the daily function of the Museum and being responsible for the administration of the valuable material of Nikos Kazantzakis, she coordinates and organizes with her collaborators all the activities and the projects realized by the Museum.
These activities regard the financial management, the coordination and the administration of the human resources, the organization and the function of the Permanent Exhibition, the administration of the museum and the original material, the administration of co-financed projects by the European Community, the coordination and the attention of works that upgrade infrastructures and services, the coordination and organization of students’ practice, the representation of the Institution in the Mass Media and committees, the organization and coordination of the presentation of the Institution and its actions and the participation in the arrangement of various events (conferences, seminars, exhibitions, competitions etc).
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