The renovated building of the "Skoufas" Musical and Literary Association of Arta was delivered to the public following a donation by the Onassis Foundation

This initiative of the Onassis Foundation is part of a set of activities realized under the aegis of the pillar of Culture, which extends especially for the 2022-23 season all over Greece. With curiosity, knowledge, and experiment as its raw material, and future as its sole destination, the Onassis Foundation discovers cities and their hidden dynamics, releases their capacities, highlights monuments or the bearers of creative tradition, and encounters the positive individuals behind culture. In this way, it ceaselessly carries all over Greece the message of a society that persists in creating, even when the broader conditions seem adverse. The local becomes collective and collective knowledge is applied on a local level.

Following the renovation of the event hall and the restoration of the building’s facade, the construction of a foyer area, the installation of new lighting equipment, seats, and air-condition units, as well as the creation of a new stage, the "Skoufas" Musical and Literary Association of Arta becomes more functional and indeed modern. Moreover, an access corridor, an escape exit, and a sanitary area were further constructed especially for people with disabilities, in order to cater to their need for better accessibility to the Association’s spaces.

The element that brings Onassis Foundation and “Skoufas” together is that of culture, a culture presenting Greece at its best; the tradition that does not stand ‘frozen’ in time, but renews itself, as well as the fact that this donation in Arta constitutes another initiative on the map of activities set forth by the Onassis Foundation all over Greece.

“During the 2022-2023 season, our goal is to open up more and more towards this ‘other’ Greece and present our activities outside the walls. The cultural center, from which the Onassis Foundation projects its message, is not a mere landmark. On the contrary, it is Athens and entire Greece” the President of the Onassis Foundation Anthony S. Papadimitriou characteristically noted in his greeting speech during the opening on October 15.

“Such examples are the exhibition ‘Yanoulis Halepas: Debits and Credits’ at the Teloglion Foundation of Arts, where the sculptor’s journey from his birthplace of Tinos to Europe and the Athenian epicenter was particularly highlighted; the exhibition of selected manuscripts and editions by Athanasios Psalidas in Ioannina, successfully completed in 2020; the spectacular concert given by Jeff Mills in the archaeological site of Delos last January; our support towards the Drama International Short Film Festival, where two of our awards have been established; and the upcoming digital arts exhibition that the Onassis Stegi is preparing for next May in the city of Ioannina. In this framework, the Onassis Foundation values infrastructures, as it values content – and vice versa. This is also the element that differentiates it from other, similar initiatives: that it does not exercise a strategy of donations and sponsorships, but rather acts as a catalyst, showing its trust to the local communities to select the manner in which they want to cover their own needs,” Mr. Papadimitriou further noted.