“Stories with a click!”: Summer Education & Entertainment Workshops at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle

An interdisciplinary educational workshop with multiple thematic activities for children 6-12 years old. Each thematic unit includes entertaining games of art, photography, visual arts and creative writing! The activities are connected to each other through the discovery of small narratives hidden in the photographs of the temporary exhibition of the Museum of Macedonian Struggle entitled “Yannis and Miltos Manakia. The faces behind the lens”, which is part of the cycle of events of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, under the title “Geoculture”.

Through each photograph, the stories of the people in the region of Macedonia in the early 20th century, their daily activities, the professions of the time, customs, celebrations, ceremonies, emerge. Each photo takes the young viewers to a different environment, mainly in the countryside, where through puzzles, original visual literacy exercises and interactive games with the exhibits and the Museum’s dolls, they recognize and become familiar with the local folklore and anthropogeography of the era.

Female figures take the lead and provide information on the position and social role of women in the villages and urban centres of Macedonia, Epirus and Thessaly, as mapped in these fertile regions through the previously unpublished photographic archive of the two sisters, which was delivered to the Foundation of the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle and Modern History of Macedonia by the Ambassador Emeritus Mr. Alexandros Mallias.

Society and Space are approached in a multidimensional way as fields of interaction with human populations, economy, culture and gender, where children with creative interventions (music, theatrical play, painting) make their own correlations in the present. During the workshops they will have the opportunity to take their own photographs, to compare times, places and people through personal, family photo albums, to create and theatrically tell their own original stories, which will be integrated into the appropriate digital environment to be presented to the public.

At the same time, robotics and physical activity & quality of life activities will be carried out by specialized Museum collaborators, while small excursions will be carried out in the city centre, to historical landmarks of Thessaloniki (White Tower, Port, etc.) as part of the discovery and research activities of the programme.

In view of the limited number of seats, there will be a strict first-come, first-served order. As in previous workshops, the Museum provides breakfast for the children and all construction materials.

Scientific supervisor: Stavroula Mavrougenis, Professor of Art History in the Balkan area, PA.MAK – Director of KEMIT, IMMA

Coordinator of actions: Fani Tsatsia, Art Historian – PhD in Contemporary History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Director of IMMA

Planning – Implementation of educational actions: Katerina Tzavaras, MSc Educator – Author, IMMA Educational Programmes

Administrative Support: Kalypso Tryfonaki, IMMA

Digital actions: Silia Fasianou, Archaeologist – Cultural Heritage Manager, IMMA

Museum Manager: Eleni Mavridou, Historian IMMA

Animation of historical actions: Vangelis Kansizoglou, Historian – Research Assistant, IMMA