National museum of Greek culture to open in new Greektown digs
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com November 7, 2011 5:40PM
The new National Hellenic Museum, 333 S. Halsted, Friday, October 28, 2011 . | John H. White~Sun-Times.
Updated: December 9, 2011 8:03AM
Aristotle Halikias believes he knows the excitement Odysseus must have felt as his ship pulled close to his island home after 10 years of mythic adventures.
He gets that feeling when he steps into the white halls of the new National Hellenic Museum, 333 S. Halsted, where he is the board president.
“I can just imagine his feelings,” Halikias said. “We’re seeing home, and we’re able to say, ‘We’re home.’ We really have gone through an epic journey.”
Founded in Chicago in 1983, the National Hellenic Museum was initially a small-scale, Chicago-specific tribute to the city’s Greek immigrants. Since its start on Franklin Street it has moved twice, most recently above the Greek Islands restaurant in Greektown. In nearly two decades, museum staff have broadened the museum’s focus to include contributions of Greeks from antiquity to modern times.
In 2003, staff envisioned something much grander than the space above the restaurant. In 2009, after years of fund raising, they broke ground on a new building at the southern edge of Greektown.
On Tuesday, the now 40,000-square-foot, $20 million museum opens to the public with a taste of what’s to come.
“Arts, science, law, theater, the Hippocratic oath — we are trying to reawaken awareness of these contributions, how Hellenic ideals are important to all people of knowledge and culture,” Halikias said. “All Hellenic ideals were invented in ancient Greece, are relevant today and are being dealt with on a daily basis.”
Visitors can check out the building and view the ongoing installation of the exhibit, “In Search of Home, The Greek Journey from Myth to Modern Day.” This permanent exhibit should be complete in 2012.
“We want visitors to come into the creation of it,” said Bethany Fleming, the museum curator. “This invites the visitor into the process.”
On Dec. 10, the museum fully opens with the exhibit, “Gods, Myths and Mortals,” from the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. A 13-foot Trojan horse which children can climb on currently is visible through the front windows.
Those running the museum see not only an opportunity to educate visitors on their culture but also a new Greektown anchor.
“This is signifying in Greektown a change in the whole redevelopment of this area,” said Stephanie Vlahakis, the museum’s executive director. “It’s a game changer for the neighborhood.”
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