The Kapodistria Museum is on track for upgrading, with the Ministry of Culture encouraging its administration to begin the process of formal certification and recognition immediately.
As Lina Mendoni, the Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, explained in response to a topical question from independent MP Alexandros Avlonitis, this move will allow the museum to fully exploit the advantages and financial tools provided by the Greek and European museum recognition system.
With the completion of the process, the institution will gain access to new opportunities for the development and protection of the cultural heritage it manages.
“The Kapodistria Museum-Centre of Kapodistrian Studies is a very remarkable scientific organisation. I think that for Ioannis Kapodistrias, as a personality and as a politician, apart from the Corfucians and all of Greece is proud of him and if it had not been for his assassination and many things might be different today. Therefore, we all ought to honour him,” Lina Mendoni said and clarified:
“This museum is a private initiative. In any case, it is not supervised by the Ministry of Culture. However, the Ministry of Culture has supported and is supporting the museum, not only financially. From time to time it has provided funding, but it has also supported it on issues that are key to its operation. The museum’s building has been designated a monument by the Ministry of Culture and in the various programmes that the museum rightly claims, the ministry has always been supportive. There is scientific assistance, technical assistance, for the organization and exhibition of collections, staff training, presentation of educational programs and the relevant departments of the Ministry of Culture encourage the Museum to enter the process of recognition, because the Ministry has a process of certification of public museums and recognition of private museums, because from 2026 and onwards only recognized museums will be funded. We therefore encourage the Kapodistria Museum to be recognized so that it can now take advantage of the possibilities offered by this European system, the Greek system of certification and recognition of museums.
Until now, the Kapodistria Museum can receive regular grants from the Culture Ministry through the invitations issued each year for important museums and could receive a grant of 25,000 to 30,000 a year from the ministry, the culture minister also said. He noted, however, that so far this museum is not taking advantage of the register issue. “We want to help, but these museums, which are important both for the country and for the local communities, must first and foremost be supported by the local communities,” the culture minister said.
“The Kapodistrias Museum must continue to operate, offering – as it does now – the greatest contribution to the preservation of historical memory and the legacy of the governor. And for this to happen, sufficient and stable funding must be ensured,” said independent MP Alexandros Avlonitis, who called for the Culture Ministry to support the museum. The MP said that the three intellectual institutions that operate the museum, namely the Corfu Reading Society, the Corfu Philharmonic Society and the Corfu Studies Society, ask the State to support the operation and further development of the Kapodistria Museum – Centre for Kapodistrian Studies, which performs a work of national importance and can and should be supported financially, without requiring a change in its legal status, provided there is the appropriate political will. In this context, Avlonitis proposed stable funding from the Ministry of Culture, the signing of a programmatic agreement and the establishment of a special cooperation regime to recognize the State’s obligation for ongoing support.
“The Museum is not supervised by the State,” the Minister of Culture said: “To be subsidised by the Registry is a matter of choice for the Museum. It should nominate itself. Annual invitations go out. Each year, then, it could nominate. And just because of its importance and because of the relationship and the partnership that it has with the Ministry of Culture, I think it would provide the maximum, the 30,000 euros that one can have through the Registry. Beyond that, of course, legislation can be made, but then the museum would acquire another status, its board of directors would not be defined as it is today. The board will include representatives of the Ministry of Culture, it will have control. It enters a different logic. Let’s see it, let’s discuss it, but now the Museum and its contractors will have to realize that they will not only get money, they will have obligations.”
The programmatic contract, Lina Mendoni said, is a way, a means, by which such organizations can be financed. “But I think it is very important for a museum, as important as this one, to be embraced by the local community,” the culture minister said, adding: “I have not seen either from the region or from the municipality concerned a proposal to enter into a programmatic contract and support the museum. If this comes as a demand of the local community, through the coordinated bodies, with financial and those contributions, I assure you that the Ministry of Culture will not remain uninvolved,” according to the APM.
