NEWS: The Museum of Cycladic Art launches “Cycladic Identity”
This initiative will actively contribute to the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of the Cycladic islands.
® Museum of Cycladic Art
The Museum of Cycladic Art has launched Cycladic Identity, a new initiative that aims to actively contribute to the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of the Cycladic islands and their local communities and visitors. This effort has been launched in response to the pending effects of increased tourism, abandonment of local traditions and customs, and climate change that these islands face. Through cultural programming and preservation projects, the museum seeks to motivate the islanders to participate in the cultivation of their own heritage by safeguarding the elements that led them from the past to the present and can direct them to a more sustainable future.
“The Museum of Cycladic Art owes its existence to the Cycladic islands, and we feel it is now time to give back to them. The Cycladic Identity initiative is our way of transforming our words of gratitude into works of impact,” said Sandra Marinopoulou, President and CEO of the Museum of Cycladic Art.
® Museum of Cycladic Art
Cycladic Identity acts as a donation-based and sponsors’ platform that raises and allocates funds to organizations and projects implemented in the Cyclades. The fundamental elements of the operations are:
Mapping of the unmet needs of the islands.
Identifying existing activities.
Connecting with the current active organizations of the islands.
Identifying the capacity and potential of those organizations.
The focus areas of this initiative are the culture, environment (with a focus on Biodiversity), and the intangible heritage of the Cyclades.
Culture
The Cycladic islands stand between Europe and Asia, and they were a precious anchorage and means for commerce across a number of civilizations, from prehistoric times to Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods. The islands’ prehistoric settlements, monuments of historical times, castles, forts, neoclassical buildings, monastic complexes, and more define their influence and history.
Environment
The Cycladic Initiative describes the islands as “a living evolution laboratory.” The collection of islands are home to unique beaches, coral reefs, grasslands, marshes, olive groves, and more. They are habitats for rare bird species, marine organisms and mammals, and home to flora and fauna which are endemic to the area.
Intangible Heritage
This heritage includes the customs, rituals, and traditional practices that are unique to the region such as festive gatherings, agri-food production, musical instruments, constructions and crafts, and architecture that form the connective tissue of these local societies. These practices create a sense of common identity on the islands, and are part of the Cycladic Identity’s preservation efforts and goals of upholding these traditions for future generations.
Applications for the Cycladic Identity program were opened earlier this year. After evaluations by the entity’s Scientific Committee, nine proposals were selected on eight islands: Amorgos, Andros, Mykonos, Paros, Skinos, Donoussa, Ios, and two on Kea.
The program on Amorgos, in partnership with the Municipal Public Benefit Organization of Amorgos, aims to record oral testimonies of elderly residents of the island to preserve its history and traditions. Arts and practices such as stone-building and tobacco cultivation, music and dance, and household and social life are the types of topics under discussion. The recordings will be produced into a documentary.
In Ios, the program funded by the Cycladic Identity consists of a cinematic educational workshop for secondary school students. It invites these students to become more involved in the production and filming of the “invisible side” of their island including the exploration of the island’s contemporary identity, landmarks, local history, landscape, and architecture through diverse perspectives beyond the academic framework. Activities include theoretical and technical training of the participants, shooting and editing of the produced materials, and public presentation of their work.
The abundance of water is a defining feature of Andros, as compared to the other islands. The Andros Research Center (EKA) has been awarded funding to preserve its surface water management system, an ancestral ritual process that has been passed down from generation to generation linked to ownership. The limited rainfall and increased temperature of recent years has shown the risks of water shortages, increased fires, and earth of trees on the island. The program deemed it vital to study and document the aquatic health of the island and ensure its water management systems became accessible to a number of audiences. The implementation of the program includes fieldwork in the central massif, digitally recording all central water sources and cross-checking with maps from the Hellenic Military Geographical Service, conducting historical research using archival materials and testimonies to document the water management practices of the irrigators, and creating a digital tour utilizing the principles of the heritage interpretation to communicate the water wealth of the island and emphasize its importance to engage locals and tourists.
The full list of funded programs can be found here.
The Museum of Cycladic Art was founded in 1986 by Dolly and Nikolas Goulandris to house their collection of antiquities, and now holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Cycladic Art in the world.
