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New Hellenic Museum for Detroit

Hellenic Museum of Michigan
The Hellenic Museum of Michigan is Detroit’s newest cultural addition and the local Greek-American community’s gem.

The vision for a Hellenic museum was first conceived in late 2007, with the aspiration of establishing a center dedicated to “sharing the richness of the Hellenic Heritage of the Greek community and conserving the contributions of Hellenic Culture in shaping our world today and in the future.”

The museum is housed in a 1912 red brick mansion right across from the Detroit Institute of Arts. With a total investment – so far – of about $2 million raised from foundations and individual donations, it will present and promote the many artistic and intellectual achievements of Hellenic culture in every field and the wider story of Greek History from 4,000 B.C. to the present. As part of its mission, “the Museum will chronicle the struggles, triumphs and contributions of the Greek immigrant community’s journey to Michigan. Their legacy will be recorded and preserved through artifacts, oral histories, documents and photographs.

This rich heritage of extraordinary Greek-Americans will be passed on from generation to generation.” It will thus promote the Hellenic culture through exhibits from all over the world, educational workshops, guest lectures, films, cooking classes and music and dance performances and other cultural events. According to its founders, it aspires to be in the truest sense of the word, a Mouseion, a house of the Muses.

One of the first exhibits of the Museum will be the History of Greektown, where immigrants gathered to bring a part of their beloved Greece to the new shores. That tradition still holds true today in modern Greektown.

Museum officials say they hope to attract visitors far beyond the local Greek community, which they estimate numbers about 70,000.

The museum’s grand opening will took place on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The Hellenic Museum of Michigan dedication ceremony was presided by His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Detroit, along with Museum President, Ernest Zachary. They will be joined by Museum Trustees and Honorary Committee: George Reganis, 2013 Special Hellenic Heritage Honoree and Parade Grand Marshal, Jim Papas, Grand Benefactor of the Hellenic Museum of Michigan and one of the first developers of modern Greektown properties, Paul Massaron, Wayne State Board of Governors, Dr. Jim Jacobs, President Macomb Community College, Dr. Kenneth Walters, Professor Department Classics, Wayne State University, Sue Mosey, President of Midtown Detroit, Inc., Effie Weinberg, Hellenic Heritage Society, Dr. and Mrs. Steven Kalkanis, Karla Scherer, and Stephanie Vlahakis, Trustee National Museum, Chicago, Honorary Dedication Committee.

Currently the museum will only operate on Saturday afternoons, due to ongoing reconstruction of the building.

 

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