The digital action entitled “Heritage of Kalamaria” consists of activities that aim to highlight the cultural identity and history of Kalamaria and project today’s image through the lens of contemporary photographers. The entire action is presented on our website, where the visitor, in addition to the history of Kalamaria, as it is presented and summarized in a route of 10 points, also includes the following:
- Collection section of private historical photos of Kalamaria
Website showing the history of Kalamaria
The website includes: Map of Kalamaria with points where there is photographic material per historical unit and search filters based on the area, the period, and the photograph’s subject. For each photo, there is its description and its identification information.
The topics of the website are the following:
- History of the City of Kalamaria
- Settlements of Kalamaria
- Landmarks – Monuments of historical and touristic interest
In the above, the visitor navigates to the sections and sub-sections, where he can read a rich historical text framed by photos with a description and the placement of these points on an interactive map of Kalamaria. The visitor reads the content by pressing a pin-point, displaying the corresponding photographic material. At the same time, there is an interactive map with a route of 10 points of historical and tourist interest in the city of Kalamaria, where the visitor is guided digitally.
At the same time, the website includes:
- Collection section of private historical photos of Kalamaria
This is a form for collecting photographic material from private collections that will depict Kalamaria. Those interested can donate digital copies of their photos and original photos with the possibility of short documentation. The purpose is to create a valuable archive of old photographs of Kalamaria. For the museum to be able to use this material subsequently, the application is also accompanied by an electronic agreement granting the rights to the photographs, which the user will accept by submitting the photographic material.
Contributors
Museum of Photography “Christos Kalemkeris”
The “Christos Kalemkeris” Museum of Photography aims to spread the art and technique of photography. Its priority is the public’s contact with the history of Greece to touch its cultural heritage and experience the awakening of its historical memory.
The Vision of its creators is to form a Cultural institution worthy of those abroad, not so much in size but in quality and dynamics, to become a means of transmitting the history of the Spirit and Culture of Greece throughout the world.
It also intends to hold new exhibitions of high aesthetics based on modern museum standards, always maintaining historical and scientific consistency, which is the basic principle and value of the Museum from its founder, Christos Kalemkeris.
The Museum promotes the use of new technologies and interactive media, offering a harmonious coupling of the past and history with the modern era and the future, as well as the development of its activities in exhibitions, publications, educational programs, audio-visual events, events of various cultural interest, etc.
This action’s coordinator is the Museum president, Pavlos Kalemkeris, and the project curator is the historian-museologist, Kalliopi Valtopoulou. The contribution of Dimitriou Vai, an independent scholar-researcher of the history of Kalamaria, is great and vital.
Historical Archive of Refugee Hellenism (IAPE)
The Historical Archive of Refugee Hellenism (IAPE) has operated since 1994 as a Legal Entity under the Municipality of Kalamaria Public Law. The organization’s purpose is to contribute to the rescue, preservation, and dissemination of the history of refugees and promote the historical identity of refugee Hellenism.
The object of interest of the IAPE is mainly the large refugee flow of the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922) and the Exchange of Populations (1923-24) from Pontus, Asia Minor, and Eastern Thrace. Research efforts also include the Hellenism of Eastern Romilia and the Hellenism of Constantinople, Imbro, and Tenedos, which the Population Exchange Treaty excluded. It also consists of the Greek Cypriot refugees after the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the occupation of 37% of Cyprus, when they were forced to become refugees in their own country. Also, Greek immigrants and expatriates in Europe, America, and Australia, as well as the populations of Greek origin from the countries of the former Soviet Union and Albania, settled in Greece in the 1990s and 2000s.
The regular activity of the Historical Archive mainly includes developing research programs, which the IAPE implements and aims to record narratives from the whole of refugee Hellenism, as well as collecting archival evidence from private collections. After being documented by the donor, the material is reprinted, classified, archived, and made available to the research public and scholars. Additional activities of IAPE are the promotion of this material, which is achieved through its publications and events dealing with issues of Greek refugees. At the same time, it maintains cooperation with universities, institutions, and associations of common interests in Greece and abroad. About three hundred researchers of various educational levels and scientific specialties use the IAPE collections and library annually.
The historian Maria Kazantzidou participates in this specific action.
Clio Muse
Clio Muse was founded in 2014 to contribute to developing global cultural consciousness by developing technological tools that will pioneer international digital tour guides. The company takes its name from the muse of history, Cleo. Inspired by her, our team creates and shares high-quality digital tours worldwide.
The mission is to offer the most modern digital tour technologies to cultural institutions and high-quality cultural products to the global tourism community.
More than 600+ tours have been curated in 35 countries, and the public that has used the tours is more than 1,000,000 users.
The company focuses on the optimal visiting experience, combining technology and content. Each tour is a unique product that must reach the visitor for an experience. The technological solutions have been developed with the platform’s logic to benefit the customer economically. Most of the money goes to expanding and enriching the content. They create technologies that can be easily enhanced with new content and extended in the future with new functionality. With the completion of a project, a collaborative relationship begins with the museum or the respective institution to better promote its cultural stock.
Municipality of Kalamaria
The Municipality of Kalamaria supports the action even more by promoting it through the municipality’s website.
Goal
The goal of our Museum is to bring to light and save historical photographic material in the personal collections of residents of Kalamaria and people from Kalamaria. In addition, it wants to highlight Kalamaria with a modern look and present contemporary creative photographers to the general public. Finally, it highlights the history of Kalamaria and attracts both Greek and international audiences, thereby promoting its tourism promotion.