In the frame of the International Museum Day 2023, celebrated on May 18, the VAST project participated in the activities of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), with a joint educational activity along with the national Greek project ‘House of Greek Ideas’ titled: Do values travel?.

An educational activity addressed to high school students and adults regarding values and how they are communicated and perceived by today’s citizens. Participants engaged in an interactive and experiential workshop inspired by the ancient tragedy of Sophocles’ Antigone.

Participants were invited to become part of the story in an interactive way, as judges, and were asked to decide whether Antigone was innocent or not based on the values depicted. As a follow up activity, they were encouraged to create their own mind map regarding the values represented by Antigone’s character.

The activity took place under the VAST Pilot: Values in Ancient Greek Drama.

The activity was hosted at the National Centre for Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’ and was included in the ICOM Greece activities on the theme Museums, Sustainability & Quality of Life.

Within the context of the VAST Pilot focusing on the Values in Ancient Greek Drama, the VAST project organised on 10 May 2023 an educational activity titled ‘The moral dilemmas through the heroes of the ancient tragedies” at the 2^nd High School of Gerakas, in Athens.

During the activity, collaborating researchers of NCSR Demokritos Dr. Dora Katsamori and Ms. Konstantina Giovanopoulou encouraged the 46 students to reflect upon the concept of values and their importance in decision-making through the project’s educational activity, which entailed interactive activities and brainstorming sessions.

Students engaged in interactive activities and brainstorming, which resulted in the creation of customised posters focusing on the prioritisation of values that guided the tragedy heroes (Creon and Polynices) through their final decisions.

With the creative collaboration of the school’s teachers and the students, the activity provided a fresh view of how values emerging from ancient tragedies are perceived in modern society today.