An art competition, held by the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne and the Bank of Cyprus, is set to reward winners from a $24,000 prize pool.
The competition’s theme: tales of the Greek migrant a modern odyssey, is calling on artists to explore what migration means to them. Museum director, Vicky Yianoulatos, told Neos Kosmos this is something totally different for the museum.
“We’ve never done it before and I think it’s a really nice way to do it. There’s no age limit, so it’ll be interesting to see entries, I imagine they’ll be quite diverse,” Ms Yianoulatos said. “The theme is broadly around migration. We’re asking artists to explore what migration means to theme with a Hellenic focus.”
Ms Yianoulatos said she has approached arts programs within Victorian universities in order to also encourage non-Greek applicants to enter. “People assume we just cater for the Greek community but it’s about educating the broader community as well,” she said.
The Hellenic museum, in its first two years, has received a terrific response from both Greece and local Greek businesses, Ms Yianoulatos said.
The not-for-profit museum relies heavily on donations and corporate sponsorship, but the current financial crisis in Greece hasn’t affected them significantly, Ms Yianoloulatos said.
She said the museum is conscious of cutting costs where they can, like in shipping art across from Greece for exhibitions. “We’re being mindful of the fact that Greece is under financial difficulty,” she said. “We’ve got 13 branches of the Hellenic museum around the world, we’re just mindful of the fact we don’t want to strain the resources,” she said. “The impact of the financial crisis is minimal.”
Entries for the painting competition close on September 30. The winner will be announced on December 8, and all final entries will be displayed at the Hellenic museum from December 8 until January 28.
For more information visit the Hellenic Museum’s website: http://www.hellenic.org.au
