Pointe-à-Callière welcomes its 100,000th visitor since the opening of The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great

For immediate release

An enormously popular success
Making its world premiere at Pointe-à-Callière, the exhibition has met with great interest among visitors, as evidenced by the record-breaking winter attendance figures at the Museum. The program of lectures held to coincide with the exhibition has sold out, both at the Museum and at the Université de Montréal. The various books on the exhibition have also enjoyed great sales. The Greeks also drew many visitors during the school break, another indicator of the popularity of this exhibition covering over 5,000 years of Greek history and culture, taking visitors on an exceptional and fascinating journey back to the origins of the cradle of Western civilization and its heritage.

A fascinating period and treasures of humanity
Greek Antiquity is a rich and captivating period, a time populated by mythical heroes and historical figures, under the watchful gaze of the gods on Mount Olympus. The exhibition is divided into six zones that introduce us to this great civilization and showcase rare and priceless artefacts. Visitors will meet many famous characters from Greek history, including Homer, Aristotle, Plato, King Philip II of Macedon, and King Leonidas of Sparta. The heritage of ancient Greece, which we can still see all around us today in various aspects of our daily lives—such as politics and philosophy, arts and literature, mathematics, architecture, medicine, and sports—is clearly illustrated in the exhibition. Among the many highlights of the exhibition are a number of artefacts that are true treasures of humanity never before displayed outside Greece.

A hands-on experience
The exhibition offers visitors a range of interactive elements and items they can actually touch. Visitors are notably invited to handle a Cycladic female figurine, a block of marble, a reproduction of a warrior’s helmet, and a sword. There are also over twenty videos shown in the various exhibition zones, most of them produced by the National Geographic Society, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, and the Canadian Museum of History.

A mobile app
A free mobile app has been developed by the New Media Lab at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. It serves as a guide for visitors before, during, and after their tour of the exhibition. In addition, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports has produced a prestige publication on the Greek collection, and the Canadian Museum of History, together with partner museums in the consortium, have issued a catalogue featuring an overview of the themes addressed in the exhibition, as well as the main objects displayed.

Last chance to see the exhibition
The exhibition, which brings together over 550 valuable artefacts from 21 Greek museums under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, runs until April 26. Remember that the Museum is open every day except Monday, and is also open on Wednesday evenings until 9 pm (only for visits of The Greeks exhibition). The Museum will exceptionally be open on Easter Monday, April 6, from 10 am to 5 pm.

Valuable collaborators
The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great is an exhibition developed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs (Athens, Greece), Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex (Montréal, Canada), the Canadian Museum of History (Gatineau, Canada), The Field Museum (Chicago, USA), and the National Geographic Museum (Washington, DC, USA), with the support of the Government of Canada. The Embassy of Greece in Canada and the Embassy of Canada to Greece are working together to promote the exhibition. The exhibition is also being supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, through its Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Program. The Museum wishes to thank its sponsors: Société de transports de Montréal (STM), InterContinental Hotel, Aéroports de Montréal, Traditours, the Hellenic Community of Greater Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, Pacart, and La Presse.

The Museum is subsidized by the City of Montréal.

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Information – Media:
Claude-Sylvie Lemery
Director, Communications and Marketing
514 872-9124
[email protected]