Governance

The main government authority responsible for creativity and culture is the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Based on the P.D. 4/2018 (Government Gazette 7/A/22-01-2018), the mission of the Ministry of Culture and Sports is summarized in the following main axes:

• The promotion of scientific research, the finding, rescue, protection, rehabilitation and promotion of all cultural heritage (material and immaterial, movable and immovable)

• The support and development of contemporary artistic creation

• The diffusion of cultural products among citizens, their creative participation in contemporary artistic production, their awareness for the protection of the cultural stock

• The promotion of Greek Culture worldwide and the encouragement of international collaborations for the management and protection of our cultural heritage

• The systematic cultivation, dissemination and consolidation of fair play in social consciousness

• Safeguarding the values ​​of Olympism and spreading them at national and international level by all appropriate means

• The scientific diagnosis and documentation of the country's sports needs and their capture in a strategic sports policy, with the subsequent specialization in operational programs and regular actions and projects

Executive competent bodies are the General Secretariat of Culture and the General Secretariat of Modern Culture. The General Secretariat of Culture includes the Acropolis Monuments Maintenance Service, the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage and the General Directorate of Restoration, Museums and Technical Works. The General Directorate of Modern Culture is subordinate to the General Secretariat of Modern Culture.

The central areas of the Ministry of Culture and Sports are Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Culture. The Foreign Archaeological Schools belong to the field of Cultural Heritage and part of Modern Culture are the following:

• Music

o Conservatories

• Theater

o Municipal Regional Theatres

o Higher Schools of Dramatic Art

• Dance

o Higher Professional Private Dance Schools

• Cinema & Audiovisual media

o Network of Municipal Cinemas

• Visual arts

o Network of Municipal Art Workshops

The supervised entities in the field of Cultural Heritage are:

• The European Center of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments

• The European Cultural Center of Delphi

• The Folklore & Ethnological Museum of Macedonia - Thrace

• The Acropolis Museum (Public Entity/Legal Person Governed by Public Law)

• Paul & Alexandra Kanellopoulou Museum

• The Museum of Natural History of the Petrified Forest of Lesbos (M.N.H.P.F.L.)

• The Organization for the Management of Archaeological Resources (former Archaeological Resources and Expropriations Fund)

Furthermore, in the field of Cultural Heritage the major museums of the country per Region are found as indicatively mentioned in the Subordinated Special Regional Service Units.

The supervised bodies in the field of Contemporary Culture are:

• The Higher Schools of Dramatic Art

• The Higher School of Dance of the National Opera

• The Municipal Regional Theaters (DI.PE.THE.)

• The Municipal Cinemas

• The National Opera

• The National Theatre

• The National Gallery, Alexandros Soutsos Museum

• The Hellenic Festival S.A.

• The State School of Orchestral Art

• The National Museum of Contemporary Art, etc.

Policies are made at a national level, as decision-making responsibility rests with the central government. Local authorities are responsible for implementing the programs through the funding they receive from the government.

Cross-sectoral cooperation

In accordance with the Ministerial Decision 30964/2022, an inter-ministerial working group was set up with the aim of planning, coordinating, monitoring, promoting and formulating policy proposals applied to youth, without discrimination and exclusion, to ensure rights and equal opportunities for all young people. The inter-ministerial working group aims at recording the existing policies of each Ministry concerning young people aged 15-29, its continuous updating and the recording of the implementation of policies to achieve sustainable development goals in the areas related to the country’s youth. The specific working group is made up of members of all the Ministries as well as of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and specifically from the Directorate for the Development of Contemporary Creation of the General Directorate of Contemporary Culture.

An important initiative is the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation for Cultural Prescription between the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Health signed in 2021. This Memorandum of Cooperation concerns Cultural Prescription, the planning and adoption of initiatives that use arts and culture as a preventive and therapeutic treatment to promote the mental health and well-being of citizens. This is a project integrated by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in the National Recovery Plan "Greece 2.0" financed by the European Recovery Fund, with a total budget of 10 million euros and a horizon of implementation within the next three years. The program is based on the assumption, now recognized by bodies such as the World Health Organization, that the arts have a beneficial effect on the mental health of people dealing with dementia, depression, addiction, trauma, etc., and that participation in them brings positive results at both an individual and social level.