Promoting access to culture for groups of citizens

At national level, policies on cultural issues have been adopted in order to facilitate citizens’ participation in the cultural life. Indicatively various policies are mentioned below:

• Free access to theatrical venues for students of theatrical education
• Reduced ticket for over 65 years citizens
• Reduced ticket for unemployed
• Special rates for schools/groups/large families
• Free access to all municipal cultural areas (e.g., Municipal Museums, Libraries, Akadimia Platonos, Municipal Gallery, Theatres etc).

Theseis policies are implemented since over 40 years, by the Municipality of Athens, OPANDA (City of Athens Agency for Culture and Sports) and Ministry of Culture and Sport are ongoing. 

Main results and impacts produced by the initiative on the selected MESOC crossover themes.

The promotion of access to cultural places through measures of either free entrance or reduced fees actually correlates two of the MESOC crossover themes since it not only enhances the participation to cultural events for groups of citizens under special social/economic conditions, but also in overall promotes a quality lifestyle for the citizens. Thus, the wider impact refers to the increase in participation as an audience and also the contribution to the general well-being of the citizens.

Other relevant impacts 

At a further scope, the policies that target students and school-groups promote the access to cultural education and create conditions and incentives for students to educate on culture both at school and at the venues where culture takes place.

Elements that contributed to the generation of these impacts

The key factors that contributed to the afore-mentioned impacts refer initially to the following points:

• Norms and regulations: more specifically, this initiative is under the prism of the cultural policy at a national level.
• Social aspect: the promotion of measures that promote cohesion and integration of all social groups was the target of this initiative.
• Business model: in terms of human resources, new jobs and competences on the cultural sector were boosted since students in the cultural domain are supported.
• Resources: At a national level this initiative is adopted horizontally by all cultural venues and points of interest, hence the financial resources are not affected unevenly.

To summarize, the cultural landscape of Athens was studied in the course of MESOC while mapping the cultural policies of the city thought MESOC city dialogues. This is landscape is further leveraged and expanded through the recent strategic plan on culture and other initiatives for public engagement: updatedopen calls for the use of city cultural venues, the Athens Film Office etc.