Athens Comic Library’s Educational Programs

Our Challenge

Our challenge is Marketing Strategy improvement of Athens Comic Library Educational Programs. In order to learn more about the current situation, the program’s drawbacks and capabilities we first met Ms Lida Tsene, Co-Founder of Athens Comic Library, who gave us a brief about the organization’s pros and cons as well as about its manifesto.

In order to find out more about the organization’s Educational programs we also arrenged a meeting with Ms Vasileia Vaxevani, Organizer of Library’s Educational programs. During the meeting Ms Vaxevani informed us about the program’s schedule so that we learn everything about the activities in which children can participate. In this way now we know our clients ‘product’ and we are going to focus on its marketing improvement.

In this meeting we had the opportunity to ask Ms Vaxevani some questions based on the Cultural Entrepreneurship of Greece. Right below are her answers.

· Could you tell me a few words for your activities in the creative sector?

In this question she didn’t answer in the typical way.. she left her work talk for her! She is philologist, writer, professional storyteller and story lover and the organizer of educational programs of Athens Comic Library. She is one of the ‘Daughters of Tales’ , ‘Paramithokores’ as it is known in Greek, who brought the art of ‘Kamishibai’ in Greece.

· Do you believe that practicing creativity in one sphere has a broader impact on other spheres like places, the economy or/and the society; Could you give me some examples from your experience;

‘In my opinion here h Greece the organizations which are practicing creativity are mostly schools where creativity has a great impact on children. The way I see it creativity is a medicine for the kids in many aspects of their lives. It’s a way to convey thei feeling. their thoughts, their problems. They can even learn theirselves by practicing creativity. So in this shere I believe that creativity has a considerable impact and this is what I see through our educational programs.’

· Has the Greek crisis boosted culture-led partnerships and innovative initiatives?

‘Well, the crisis has definitely ruined Greek peoples’ creativity and that’s a fact. Everyone’s only thought is ‘ How Am I save myself?’ and they are thinking extremely cometitively. They don’t want to share the cultural market, which is something we don’t see abroad. In my opinion they don’t trust themselves and that’s where the problem begins. That’s why we don’t see innovative ideas anymore here.’

· Do you believe that the creative sector as a whole is a pillar of promoting a nation’s and a city’s image? Is it provoking transformations in the reputation of a country and its people? In which ways? Could you share some thoughts in the light of your experience?

‘Absolutely yes! When a city or a nation has creative projects and ideas they become beacon of inspiration and everyone want to visit it. Take as an example Berlin…I’ve been there, It is not a beautiful city but it has this atmoshpere.. the one that you know ones you are there you can do anything you want. So, yes it is a great promotion for a city, a country and its people.’

· Do these culture-led spillovers are self-sustaining or need a ‘push’ from the State or other actors? Which way forward?

‘In my experience culture-led spillovers can find the best ideas bu themselves, there are people who are gifted and talented and they can bring to life amazing and innovative ideas. But when you want to live from that you need to put your idea in the market and that’s the difficult part. So, in my opinion yes a cultural organization can bring an idea to life but it need a ‘push’ from other cultural sectors. As for a ‘push’ from the state, here in greece I don’t think it’s a good idea. I will give you as exemple the ‘Vavel’ which was running some years ago and it had a subsidy. ‘Vavel’ get used to work this way…they had solve their sponsorship problem and they weren’t stand by in case something goes wrong. And it did. The state stopped the subsidy and ‘Vavel’s end came with this decision.’

· If a creative nation/city is a nation which is defined by nationhood, cultural openness, respect and tolerance, the support of innovation, initiative and the creation of activity, in your opinion how could Greece and then Athens become a creative nation/city?

‘In my point of view Greece could adopt its glorious days (meaning Ancient Greece) when people where open-minded and they weren’t afraid to try new things. For instance they ones saw a city celebrating whith wine and dances, they learn about God Dionysus and they liked him as a God, so they decided to celebrate too. They were flexible, they liked the changes. In my opinion Athens is not as ‘strict’ as we think.. It just needs to be more flexible.Greece has all the needed credentials but we must stop surviving and start living. I believe we should embrace the refugees and learn from them new cultures, new ways of working and thinking. In the whole history there is no country which accomodated refugees and it they destroyed its reputation. We should think as all creative countries, we should embrace new populations and work with this new material.’

Team: Xenia Ntavranoglou Ioanna Thanasi Katerina Tsigarida Danai Kontitsi