First Hellenic museum of Michigan to be built

Group plans a more comprehensive look at Greek culture

 

Jan. 22, 2010

By Brian Coburn

UNITED STATES - When Wayne State sold the building that was once its Children’s Museum to a group of local Greek business leaders last November, it lost an unused facility. Now its department of classical and modern languages, literatures and cultures might gain a museum.

The group purchased the 5,000-square foot building for $355,000 with the intention of turning it into Michigan’s first Hellenic museum, which could open as soon as April, sources said.

The founders of the museum plan to partner with WSU and help boost the university’s Modern Greek program. Several in the CMLLC department are hopeful that the museum will serve as a place for students who study Greek language and culture but don’t have Greek lineage to establish contacts and further enrich their education in the field.   

“I would like to see it be a place that’s interactive intellectually as well as creatively,” Leonidas Pittos, a lecturer in Modern Greek studies at WSU said.

“Often, there’s a danger in museums to just gaze at displays.”

Ernest Zachary, founder and president of Zachary and Associates, an urban planning and development firm in Detroit, is a principal in the purchasing group.

In addition to art and other historic displays, the museum will feature a cafe where students can study and converse in Greek, a resource center and areas dedicated to dance, he said.

“There are ways of tying language, culture and community together,” Zachary, a Wayne State alumnus of Greek descent, said. “We plan to make it a museum for the city but plan on working with Wayne as much as possible.”

The building was left in “great shape” and won’t need much work before the museum can open its doors, Zachary said. It is located at 67 Kirby St., between the Park Shelton and International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit.

Metro Detroit has had a strong Greek presence for decades — a recent article in The Detroit News cites an estimate of more than 200,000 Greek Orthodox Christians in the region – and the museum will be the first of its kind in Detroit.

“The Greek people showed in the [2004 summer] Olympics they can put on the best show people have ever seen,” Adam Adamopolous said. He immigrated to the Detroit area from Greece in 1970 and now owns Johnathan’s Family Restaurant in Canton.

“(The museum) would be such a privilege for the people here to learn about Greece without spending a bundle of money to fly overseas,” he said.

The museum has already applied for grant money and will work with the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, Zachary said.

Possibly during the museum’s opening weekend in April, his group plans to hold a large fundraising event to collect money to hire a staff. Many of the initial displays will likely be donated by the local community of Greek-Americans.

“Our Greek community has been pretty good about this stuff. I’ve heard about as much as $250,000 being raised at events for nonprofits like this,” he said.

ΠΗΓΗ / SOURCE: The South End

 

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