Distinction for Goulandris Museum
The GAIA Center at the Goulandris Museum of Natural History has been honored among 52 other candidate European museums at a forum of Museums of Europe in Copenhagen, an institution that, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, serves the purpose of helping European museums grow and adapt to changing cultural, financial and technological conditions. It also awards prizes to new or recently refurbished museums. This year’s candidates included the National Gallery of Ireland, the Modern Art Museum of Bonn, the new Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert in London, the National Archaeological Museum in Leiden, the Nobel Museum in Sweden, and the Danube Water Governance Museum in Hungary. The prize for European Museum of 2003 was awarded to the Victoria and Albert for the refurbishment of its display of British collections from the Middle Ages to the 20th century within their historic and social framework. For Greece, whose treasures are displayed in all the great museums of the world, and whose only demand is the return of the Parthenon Marbles, there was a special award for its modern culture. The GAIA Center was awarded a prize as «for excellent achievement in adapting new methods of museology and new technology to the service of the relationship between man and nature.» Mention was also made of the center’s contribution to environmental research and education, the critical goals of the new millennium. Meanwhile, the Goulandris Museum of Natural History has undertaken to organize the 2004 conference in Athens, aimed at providing Greek museums, both private and state-owned, with an opportunity to learn from the experiences of their European counterparts.
