With great success, on May 24th, 2024, the YSMA’s educational programme titled: ‘The Parthenon frieze onsite and online‘ was held on the Acropolis, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Museum Day of ICOM – 2024, under the general theme: ‘Museums for Education and Research.’
Within the framework of this event, the Department of Information and Education of YSMA collaborated with the 1st Special Primary School ELEPAP – Rehabilitation for The Disabled aiming to promote equal access to quality education without exclusions, as well as to familiarise students with digital media.
The students who participated in the program had multiple disabilities (cerebral palsy, hemiplegia, spastic quadriplegia), and the majority of them used wheelchairs. Through the programme, they had the opportunity to study the Parthenon frieze in a) a digital form at school, supported and guided by their teachers, and b) at the monument, assisted by the archaeologists of YSMA.
Before the visit, as a preparation process, the teachers worked with the museum kit ‘The Parthenon Frieze,’ which has been borrowed from YSMA. Furthermore, they accessed and got advantage of the online application www.parthenonfrieze.gr, focusing primarily on the digital interactive mini games ‘The Colours of the Frieze‘ and ‘God, Man, Animal.’ This approach enabled the students to study the Panathenaic Procession, examine the depiction of the celebration on the frieze, and analyse the details of the relief representation.
On the day of the visit, the students ascended to the Acropolis hill using the elevator and were able to closely examine the Acropolis monuments, specifically the Erechtheion and the Parthenon. During the educational programme, they were provided with visual resources designed especially for them in order to help them visualise participating in the Panathenaic Procession, either with their horse, their chariot, or by offering the present (peplos) to the goddess Athena.
Surely, the experience of their visit filled them with joy and enthusiasm as, at the end of the programme, they expressed a desire to repeat it in the future!
