When Angelos and Niki Goulandris founded the groundbreaking Museum of Natural History in Greece in 1964, they never imagined that six decades later it would play such an important role in environmental education. Both sensitive and cultured people invested their time, resources and personal labor in an organization that lasted a long time because it enjoyed the support of the state, as well as enlightened individuals who shared their vision, such as the late Kaiti Kyriakopulou. Both the businesswoman and later her family continue to support the museum morally and financially. Like a friendship that lasts a long time because it is based on principles and values. So it was especially touching that a room in the museum was named after a benefactor and, more importantly, that there is a 360-degree projection behind which her Emmy Award-winning granddaughter is a virtual reality producer. This is Alexia Kyriakopoulou and her Wonder Immersive company, which collaborated on the project with 2monochannels.

This projection called “The Truth Face to Face” was presented a few days ago when the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, opened the first interactive climate change exhibition in our country at the Kifisia Museum. These two intersections at Goulandris lead to a modernization of the organization, which must keep up, if not lead, in how it will present environmental issues to the general public and especially to young people. Thus, with a new permanent interactive approach that has replaced the existing one of the last 20 years, the museum is once again at the forefront of environmental protection.

The goal is to help young and old visitors understand the effects of climate change, how it affects our lives, and what each of us can do individually to reduce our impact on the environment. The permanent exhibition covers all areas, from energy and transport to industrial production, waste and globalization. And in the Face-to-Truth projection, we are facing climate change and the devastating effects of human interference.

At the opening, where the President of the Republic also delivered a greeting, the speech of Falis Vogiatzakis, President of the Museum, who deservedly continues the work of Nika and Angelos Goulandris, stood out: “We strive to be an important factor that leads the new generation along the path of sustainable development, the only path to real progress.

Hope is the response of the grassroots, of the world, informed and properly educated, that will require action. Leaders will inevitably follow.”