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Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens

The Hellenic Folklore Research Centre is one of the fourteen Research Centres of the Academy of Athens. It became part of the Academy in 1926, when the Academy of Athens was established. The Academy of Athens has the legal status of a Legal Entity of Public Law and is supervised by the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religion. The Centre was established in 1918 by Nicolaos G. Politis. It functions as a Documentation Centre for traditional and contemporary Greek Culture. It has a specialized library and a rich archive of unpublished material on all aspects of traditional Greek life and culture. Its activities include field researches, research projects, publications, conferences, exhibitions and other events. It provides academic support for museums and for cultural bodies in the provinces of Greece. It collaborates with other academic institutions in Greece and abroad.

History

Τhe Folklore Archive was established in 1918 (Law 1304, Greek Government Gazette A΄, n. 85/18-04-1918). It was Nicolaos Politis who inspired and founded it. He was Professor of Greek Archaeology and Mythology at the University of Athens and “father” of the discipline of Folklore in Greece. Stilpon Kyriakidis was the first Director of the Archive. In 1926, when the Academy of Athens was established, the Folklore Archive together with the Commission for the Historical Dictionary of the Greek Language, and with the National Music Collection, founded in 1914, and some other scholarly commissions, were placed under its aegis. [Law 4398/29, Greek Government Gazette 308, n. A΄, 18-03-1926]. In 1944 the Senate of the Academy of Athens approved of the first Regulations for the Operation of the Folklore Archive, compiled by Georgios Megas, who was Director of the Archive since 1936. In 1966, while Georgios Spyridakis was Director, the Folklore Archive was renamed the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre (Law 4545/1966). In accordance with the Law on Research (Law 1894/1990), the personnel of the Centre, formally referred to as compilers, were renamed Research Staff and assigned positions on the basis of committee review. Since 1996, thanks to the assistance afforded by European Community programmes, the Centre has been modernising its operation and digitalising its rich archival material. The Hellenic Folklore Research Centre is a national repository of folk culture. Promoting and facilitating research, it functions as a platform for the debate of theoretical and methodological issues, thereby reflecting manifold social reality and, in particular, the academic identity of Greek folklore studies. The archive of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre contains a rich collection of holdings, which have been collected and added to since the late 19th century. It contains a great deal of folklore material in written form, both published and unpublished. It also holds musical recordings, photographs and film and video material that pertain to every aspect of folk culture regarding the material and spiritual life of the Greek people. Today the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre is better placed than ever to promote its permanent, fundamental aims and to respond to contemporary needs that arise as a result of changes in academic thinking over time. Such changes include contemporary academic trends that favour rapprochement and communication among the academic disciplines of folklore, ethnology and social anthropology. Thanks to assistance afforded by various European Union programmes, the Centre is also better placed than ever to preserve and digitise its collection of valuable material. Its physically surroundings have also been considerably upgraded, as it is housed (since 2002) in an elegant Neoclassical building in the centre of Athens, the gift of the Foundation Lilian Voudouri.

Manuscript Archive

This Archive consists of mostly unpublished manuscripts containing information on a variety of folklore material. They derive from fieldwork carried out by the Centre’s Research Staff Members, by external associates of the Centre and by members of the public with a personal interest in Greek folklore. The oldest manuscripts of the Folklore Archive consist of the Politis material, which are numbered independently from 1-3149. Some of these items date from the early years of the 19c. The addition of manuscripts to the Archive and their processing are part of the archival work of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre. As part of the Centre’s participation mainly in European programmes, the Archive manuscripts have been digitized.

Music Section

A Music Section was created as part of the Folklore Archive, which in 1927 absorbed the National Music Collection. The National Music Collection was founded in 1914 (Law 432), “to preserve and collect the songs, dances and musical instruments of the Greek people”. In 1939 the Archive acquired recording equipment. Due to the stormy events of the time and despite the then Director’s, Georgios Megas’ efforts to employ this equipment “for the recording of folk music”, it was not until 1950 that it finally began to operate, when the Folklore Archive acquired a music Research Staff Member, with the result that the Centre possesses recordings dating from 1952. Today the Archive contains about 30,000 reels and cassettes, of mainly musical material. As part of a series of special projects, the entire recorded material is being gradually copied in digital form in the specially equipped studio of the Menelaos Pallantios Centre. In 2005, as a result of a donation by Eleni Dalas, the Centre acquired a collection of musical recordings in eighty cylinders and the "Panarmonium" once belonging to Constantinos Psachos.

National Record Collection

The National Record Collection was established in the Folklore Centre in 1966 in accordance with Law 4545. In the National Record Collection records of folk and popular music are deposited by record companies. Today the Collection possesses about 13,000 records and considerable number of CDs in duplicate and is continuously acquiring new material provided by music companies and individuals. Museum Collection of Folklore Objects The Museum Collection of Folklore Objects was established in 1939 and today has about 1,200 exhibits. The Collection consists of such objects as agricultural tools, utensils, clothes, ceramic objects and musical instruments. It has recently acquired new holdings, including the "Panarmonium" once belonging to Constantinos Psachos and objects of folkloric interest belonging to the Hellenic Folklore Society, some of which are displayed in the Municipality of Athens Centre for Folk Art and Tradition, housed in the former residence of Angeliki Chatzimichali. The objects in the Museum Collection have been recorded in a database. The Archive is responsible for their conservation and various objects are displayed in turn in a permanent exhibition in the premises of the Centre. A catalogue of the contents of this Collection is also currently being compiled.

Photographic collection

The Centre has a rich photographic collection, of about 40,000 photographic prints and numerous negatives. These photographs constitute part of the manuscripts produced by Research Staff Members during the course of their fieldwork. The Photographic Archive is gradually acquiring more holdings, thanks to Research Staff Members’ fieldtrips and important donations, such as the donation of 1,600 photographs by Helen Fay Stamatis. The electronic classification of these photographs in special picture files is but one of the special projects being currently carried out by the Archive, a process that naturally contributes to the fullest possible development of the Archive.

Cinematographic Section

In 1962, the then Director Georgios Spyridakis founded the Cinematographic Section for Folk Culture Topics. This was subsequently added to by Research Staff Member Georgios Aikaterinidis. The Archive possesses 82 films, of folklore material recorded on 16mm film. Since the 1980’s, Research Staff Members have been using video cameras during fieldwork and at present are also using digital cameras. As part of its ongoing programme of reorganisation and modernisation, the Folklore Centre has embarked on converting its cinematographic material to digital form, thus making it more easily accessible. A start has been made with the 16 mm films in the collection. Greek television has often made use of cinematographic material held in the Centre in its programmes.

Folklore Library

The Folklore Library of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre was founded in the very earliest years of the Folklore Archive. It was further organized after World War II and acquisitions were generally dictated by the research interests and needs of the Centre’s Research Staff Members. The library is a specialized scholarly non-lending library and is used chiefly by the Research Staff Members of the Centre. It is, however, also used by scholars, postgraduate students and other researchers who may wish to consult it. It contains about 40,000 titles, among which are rare folklore and other publications of the 19c and the early 20c. The Library is acquiring material all the time and is systematically kept up to date through purchases and donations of books, journals, offprints and other Greek or foreign publications.

Today access to the printed material of the Library is also possible through an online catalogue.

Reading room opening times: Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday, 9.00΄ a.m. – 14.00΄ p.m.

Tel.: +30 2103664768. e-mail: folklibr@academyofathens.gr

Publications of the Folklore Archive / Hellenic Folklore Research Centre

Publications of the Folklore Archive / Hellenic Folklore Research Centre •

Piges tou Laikou Politismou / Sources for Greek Folk Culture: This new series by the Centre deals with the publication of unpublished manuscripts. It commenced in 2002. •

Educational Programs •

Occasional Publications •

Annual of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre / Folklore Archive, Academy of Athens

Conferences (selection) •

International Scientific Congress “Folk Culture and Literary Creation (Poetry – Prose – Theatre” (Laikos Politismos kai Entechnos Logos, Diethnes Epistimoniko Synedrio), Athens December 8-10, 2010, and One-day Conference, December 12, 2010, Zacharias Papantoniou. The Proceedings have been published. •

The 15th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR) took place in Athens, June 21-27, 2009. The Proceedings have been published.

One-Day Conference entitled "Kostis Palamas", Wednesday December 16th 2009. The Proceedings have been published. •

Constantinos Psachos as Musician and Scholar, November 30 2007. The Proceedings have been published. •

International scholarly Conference, entitled, "O N. G. Politis kai to Kentron Erevnis tis Hellenikis Laografias" (N. G. Politis and the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre), 4-7 December 2003. The Proceedings have been published. •

As part of the European programme ACRINET eleven scholarly meetings were held on the subject of “Ta Akritika tis Εvropis” (Traditions and Folklore from the Borderlands of Europe): 1. Athens, 24- 25 November 2002, 2. Paris, 21 March 2003, 3. Barcelona, 26 June 2003, 4. Venice, 14 November 2003, 5. Sofia, 19 march 2004, 6. Ioannina, 7 May 2004, 7. Venice, 25 June 2004, 8. Karpathos, 10 July 2004, 9. Thessaloniki, 4 September 2004, 10. Girona, 20 October 2004, 11. Athens, 22 October 2004. The Proceedings have been published. •

Symposium entitled, "I Elia kai to Ladi ston Choro kai ton Chrono" (Olive Oil in space and Time), Preveza, 24–26 November 2000, in conjuction with the University of Ioannina and with the "Aktia NIkopolis" Foundation. The Proceedings of the Conference have been published. •

Musicology Conference in memory of Spyridon Peristeris entitled, "I Dio Opsis tis Mousikis mas Klironomias" (The Two Faces of the Greek Musical Heritage). Central building of the Academy of Athens, Athens, 10-12.11.2000. The Proceedings of the Conference have been published in 2003. The Proceedings have been published. •

International conference entitled, "I Elia kai to Ladi apo thn Archaiotita eos Simera" (Olive and Olive Oil from Antiquity to the Present), Athens, 1-2 October 1999, Academy of Athens. The Proceedings have published.

Museums and exhibitions

The museums was realized and brought to completion under the academic guidance of the HFRC. The Museum of Bread, Amphikleia The Museum for the Acritans of Europe Εxhibition «In Praise of the Olive» (2004) The Museum of the Olive, Kapsaliana, Municipality of Arcadi, Rethymnon Permanent Exhibition of Mementos from the fifty-year period (1962-2012) of the International Folklore Festival of Lefkas “The Gifts of the Festival” Museum of Kavalos, Lefkada

CONTACT: 3 Ipitou St., GR-105 57 Athens, Greece Telephone: +30 210 3318042 / +30 210 3318043 Front desk: +30 210 3664751 Entrence: +30 210 3664753 Fax: +30 210 3313418 +30 210 3664735 E-mail: keel@academyofathens.gr http://www.kentrolaografias.gr http://www.academyofathens.gr

Sources

Acts of the Academy of Athens, vol. 1-88 (1926-2013).

Annual of the Folkore Archive / Hellenic Folklore Rechearch Centre, Academy of Athens, vol. 1-33 (1939 - 2010).

Aik. Polymerou-Kamilaki, Kentron Erevnis tis Hellenikis Laografias: Istoriko, Programmata Anaptyxis, Eksynchronismos / Hellenic Folklore Research Centre: History, Development Programmes, Modernisation), (third edition revised) [in Greek and English], Athens 2006, pp. 40.

Aik. Polymerou-Kamilaki, Developing a National Documentation Centre for Popular Culture. “Information Society” Operational Program, Athens 2008, pp. 24.

Nicolaos G. Politis and the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre – Acts of the International Scientific Conference (Megaron of the Academy of Athens, 4-7 December 2003), Aikaterini Polymerou-Kamilaki (gen. ed.), Paraskevas Potiropoulos, Panagiotis Kamilakis (eds.), Publications of the Hellenic Folklore Rechearch Centre, Academy of Athens 23, [in Greek and English, with English summaries], Athens 2012, pp. 1192 [vol. Α΄, pp. 1-646, vol. Β΄, pp. 645-1192].

Aikaterini Polymerou-Kamilaki, Evangelos Karamanes, «National Ethnology Reports. Folklore Studies in Greece», International Society for Ethnology and Folklore Newsletter, November 2014, vol. 12, no 2, σ. 12-16.