Meeting in Heraklion!

It was only week ago when we finished another laborious working-day in Heraklion and were enjoying the lovely evening in beautiful Crete! The forth project meeting in Heraklion, hosted by Kazantzakis museum (read: Antonis, Stella and Varvara), will be remembered for a long time! At first, our friends made us feel so welcome and their hospitality is something to take as a model! Thank you, Antonis, Stella and Varvara! Secondly, the program was really intensive and I think we worked quite hard to settle down all the unsolved questions and remarks we had about the final report and the virtual exhibition. And last but not least - the island with it's beauty and warmth was inspiring itself! Perhaps the deep level of cultural history (Knossos!) and breathtaking views we were surrounded by made us do the best we can to achieve the best results. The subject of the meeting was "Ways of reaching (new) audiences". As usually, all the partners made a presentation based on the questionnaire we composed/redacted in Kajaani.
Again, its was really interesting and educational to see and hear all the different approaches and experiences. The institutions in our project are a bit different and I find it very important - this way we have various ways in dealing with the same subject. And of course to find the intersections at the same time. The first day started with the visit to the Vikelea Public Library of Heraklion. We had an interesting presentation of the archives and the way you could easily access, scan and save old historical records was really impressive. The archive was also connected with the Kazantzakis heritage. After a light lunch we left the town and started our journey to Myrtia, to the Kazantzakis museum. We had most interesting afternoon, having a tour in the museum with very informative explanations of our guide Varvara (the director of the museum). The museum impressed me with it's balance between new technology and more classical approach. It was beautifully designed, content-rich and innovative at the same time. Great work! Also the educational programs we were acquainted after the tour by Stella (educationalist in the museum) were inspiring. And of course, Stella herself was inspiring :-)! The day ended with editing the preface (for the final report). On the second day we made the presentations and had a fruitful discussion about the topic in hand. We also had an extra presentation by Marju Mikkel, who introduced digitization projects made in Estonian Literary Museum. This presentation started a discussion about the ways to show/build/construct literary heritage, history and literary canon in modern, internet-based communities. The main question was: how much narrative should we add if constructing a timeline? People look for narratives, that's for sure. On the third day we had an overview and detailed discussion about our virtual exhibition. We had a sample of the web-page and there were lot's of details - important ones - we had to decide together. It took quite a long time, but I think we solved most of the questions. Probably there will be some more questions during the creating process we will have to decide via e-mail also. But the main work about the structure and outlook is made. On Sunday we had a really crucial meeting about the final report. Claude had made a wonderful job and pointed out all the unsolved questions. I think the final report will be something we'll be really proud of! I'm looking forward to have it compiled already, although I'm terrified when I think of all the work which has to be done first... On the final day we had compendious presentation by Maria Economou (Professor in the Aegean University), called “Νew technologies in the museum”. And after lunch we were introduced with the Nikos Kazantzakis collection in the Historical Museum. The literary educational program(s) in the museum were also quite impressive. We also had a tour in the temporary exhibition dedicated to the Nobelist poet Odisseas Elitis. Those were the days, but we also had the evenings! I think nobody of us will forget the dinners in several beautiful places in Heraklion and the great Cretan food! Not to mention the lovely sense of humor which never left us :-). It was great and I'm really looking forward to meet you all again! See you in Tallinn! Maarja