Onassis Foundation

First among equals comes culture, understood not just as art but as a way of life. Onassis Culture, with the Onassis Stegi in Athens as its hub, with its theatrical and dance performances, its art exhibits, conversations, lectures, printed editions, and steady digital presence, begins the conversation about what’s happening, what should be happening, what we’d like to see happening in Athens, Alexandria, the Balkans, New York, Buenos Aires — in short, all over the world.
And this journey outward does in fact take place, as dozens of performances that begin at the Onassis Stegi go on to tour all over the world — an example of an outward-looking procession of Greece at its very best — but more importantly, in non-material ways: through ideas, questioning, refutation. With the goal of enhancing the international visibility of Greek artists, the "Onassis Stegi Outward Turn" program has showcased over 100 productions and co-productions in more than 200 cities across 56 countries worldwide, with over 1,000 performances to date.

Art remains colorless if it stays trapped inside. Culture, as the Onassis Stegi understands it, gets out and travels through the city, goes down to the center of Athens and advocates for it as a diachronic, but also living place, a space for the fermentation, collision and exchange of ideas. Onassis AiR is a program dedicated to supporting artistic research and practice, providing artists with a space where they can shape the conditions for the development of their work while fostering a broader ecosystem of international artistic collaborations.

With respect for the past, yet intent on avoiding nostalgia or idealization, Onassis Culture sketches the future, seeks the energy and momentum in every corner and patch of light in the city, encourages talent and personal expression, introduces people to one another and is constantly looking for what sets them apart, what affects them, what has meaning, what will in the end change the city’s particular way of being. At the same time, it speaks up, disagrees, advocates, and takes a position regarding anything that stands in the way of freedom, democracy, life. From the center of Athens, the message travels. The local becomes global. And the global, local.

Onassis Foundation supports the growth and development of the individual. Above all, it seeks out excellence, determination and the rare art of wanting to become the best in your field.

Since 1978, the Foundation has been offering scholarships to graduates of Higher Education and Technical Institutes, supporting schools, university chairs and programs of Hellenic Studies outside Greece, providing fellowships for doctoral research, promoting academic figures whose work has marked the current era through the Onassis Prizes, establishing the Onassis Science Lecture Series at FORTH, Crete and supporting the participation of Greek students in the international and highly-regarded scientific Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

Education has meaning when it is addressed to all. This isn't simply a phrase, it’s an unambiguous political philosophy that involves long-term planning and a clear perspective. The Onassis Foundation opens the doors of the Onassis Library in the historic neoclassical building on Amalias Avenue, offering a diverse journey through time and revealing unknown aspects of Greek – and not only – History. With its six collections and more than 10,000 volumes and rare editions, from the 15th century to the present, as well as rich archival material, the Onassis Library becomes a sanctuary of stories, sources, books, and archives. All of its collections are digitized and available to the public through digital applications and its website.

Similarly, the Cavafy Archive, which the Onassis Foundation is responsible for preserving and promoting, is committed to providing open and free access to the archive for both the public and researchers. It also aims to highlight the global significance of the Alexandrian poet's work through digitization and re-documentation. In keeping with these principles, the Onassis Foundation has established a new space for the Cavafy Archive in Plaka, where the poet's literary and personal archives are housed. At the same time, in collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the Foundation undertook the restoration of Cavafy's House in Alexandria, transforming it into an international landmark for visitors from around the world.

Twenty-five years ago, the Onassis Foundation gifted the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center to the Greek public sector. Since then, the Center has seen 43,713 heart interventions, 1,698,900 visits and 137,062 hospital stays. The Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center was the first hospital accredited in Greece to develop and provide health services in the field of cardiac surgery and cardiology for adults and children. Onassis Foundation continues to believe in a deep political value of increasingly urgent relevance: free public health care for all. With the construction and donation of the Onassis National Transplant Center and the Onassis Paediatric Hospital to the Greek State in the spring of 2025, following the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, a unified and fully digitized Onassis Hospital is being created. This new hospital will embody the digital age in healthcare, transforming the landscape of public health and revolutionizing medical standards in Greece.

Yet, its impact extends beyond medicine. Fighting against solidified preconceptions, beliefs and social conservatism, the Onassis Foundation aims to comprise a catalyst for social change in everything regarding organ donation — for which Greece currently has the lowest rate in all of Europe.

Meanwhile, the activities continue. From rebuilding the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center at the Andreas Syggros Hospital; to supporting of providers and organizations such as the Department of Pharmacology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, ELEPAP Rehabilitation for the Disabled, and the Elpida Association of Friends of Children with Cancer; to granting dozens of fellowships to medical and nursing staff; to numerous activities in the field of Special Education and programming for individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities, the Onassis Foundation’s work in Health has only a single, unwavering point of reference: the individual.

Above all, the Onassis Foundation is a diverse human ecosystem. It is a cosmos of personalities, moods, goals, and talents that allows for unexpected encounters between artists, doctors, business-people, academics, sailors, philosophers, technocrats and activists, resulting in the words that bring them together — words that are always more than they had expected.