22-06-16 Education minister attends art exhibit with works

Education, Research and Religious Affairs Minister Nikos Filis attended the June 22 opening of a special art exhibit, with works by youths held at the Avlona juvenile detention centre, organized at one of the central Athens Evelpidon court house buildings.

The exhibit consisted of nine large mural-type works on paper, and 30 small and large individual works, which revealed the anxieties and concerns, the hopes and dreams, of the youths, both for their own lives and for the world.

“This exhibit is an example of the quiet and systematic rehabilitation work being carried out at many prisons, which has already begun to bear fruit,” Filis said.

The reference was to the second chance schools that the current government has established at certain Greek prisons.

“There is a marked change in the climate [at these prisons]. It confirms, if you will, the view of so many experts, that education liberates. It is indeed a form of freedom when youths participate in educational processes and artistic events within prisons,” Filis said.

“I believe this programme will continue and be extended to all Greek prisons. It is not so much an issue of funding as it is a matter of a shift in mentality. We are already moving in that direction, in cooperation judicial authorities and the justice ministry,” the minister noted.

The exhibit opening was also attended by Greek Supreme Court President Vasiliki Thanou, Chief Supreme Court Prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou, and the justice ministry general secretary, Eftyhis Fytrakis.

The director of the gymnasium and the lyceum at the Avlona detention centre, Petros Damianos, and seven of the artist students at the second chance school attended the exhibit opening, along with their art teacher, Vasiliki Douzeni.

The exhibit will be open from 10am-3pm, through 24 June.