Helen Tragea recently completed a PhD on Film Theory and Analysis at the department of Culture and Communication of the Panteion University. For the last seven years she has been teaching History of Art andHistory of Cinema in colleges and has been organizing and conducting seminars for adults on the same subjects.
Previously she worked as a film editor in a private company. In the years 2001-2 she was employed as a special scientist and historical investigator by the Film and Photography department of the Diplomatic and Historical Archive of the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2000 she attained the Master's Degree on History and Theory Modern Art at the University of Essex in Great Britain. She was awarded Bachelor's Degree on Archeology and History of Art by the University of Crete.
She has a special interest in artistic B&W photography and has participated in various exhibitions. She also maintains a blog (http://helencomments.blogspot.com/) with articles on art and films.
Helen Tragea
Archeologist-Historian of Modern Art
The National Historic Museum is located in the old Parliament building of Athens since 1960. The museum has assembled various artifacts from the Post-Byzantine years (form 1453) until the Greek –Italian war of the 1940-41.
The gallery has been moved in a new location at the area of Metaxourgio. The gallery is housed in an old neo-classical building of the 19th century which was donated to the municipality of Athens and has been thoroughly restored. The visitor can finally enjoy the extended collection of the paintings of famous Greek painters of the 19th and mostly the 20th century in an open well lighted space.
The goal of the Institute of study of Greek Contemporary Ceramic Art is to study, preserve and present the ceramic Greek art mostly of the 19th century. He institute is located in an old neoclassical building that used to be the house of the family Petropoulou. The house was built in 1875 and functioned as a private home until 1969. In that year the Archaeological Institute took over the house and started using it as office space. In 1999 the restoration of the building was completed and was offered to the Institute of study of Greek Contemporary Ceramic Art.
Wandering in the narrow old streets of Plaka the visitor might discover one of the smaller departments of the Greek Folk Art museum. An old house of beginning of the 19th century holds a collection of tools and artifacts of the everyday life in Greece in the Pre –Industrial era. The building was taken by the ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1981. Its’ interior is turned into exhibition areas while its’ exterior is restored to its’ initial form
The Museum of Folk Musical Instruments is located at Plaka, in an old building that used to be the house of the Greek writer and politician George Lassani (1793 - 1870). The collection of the instruments belonged to Fivos Anogarakis, who donated to the Greek state. It contains various instruments of the 20th century. The display of the museum is organized by the classification system made by Von Hornsbostel –Csachs. According to this system the instruments are categorized by their materials and the vibrating movement through which the sound is produced.
