Herete. In another time, we might have gathered for days on end to hear a recitation of the Iliad or Odyssey. Should that be your pleasure, you must come visit us in the Artemision Mountains of Greece where artists and scholars hope to provide some cultural refreshment. Ours is a very simple house where the sheep pens have become the bedrooms and the threshing floor a theatre. At the same time, the house is an invitation outdoors, to a place where quiet may intoxicate the writer and the light hunt the painter down. A short crow’s flight from the great antiquities of Greece, it is a “perch” on the edge of a mountain wilderness where storytime is all the time, and owls and tortoises will remain honored guests.
The house remains a work in progress as you will see from the photographs. Destined to become “a home for the imagination,” ElaGaia requires some imagination at present. But progress is being made. How did the restoration of this old stone house come about? It was my privilege to participate in the cultural programming for the Revival of the Nemean Games at ancient Nemea during the year of the Greek Olympics in 2004. It was there that I came to know Yannis Iordanoglu, a brilliant young musician and musical director who also teaches and advocates for the performing arts in his community. It was from the exchange with Yannis Iordanoglu that a friendship was born, we met the wonderful Thanos and purchased the home that once belong to his brother, Dimitri, and began the renovation on a 100 year-old-farmhouse in the Artemision Mountains with the help of Yannis, Petros the architect, and the excellent Albanian stone masons. But a stone’s throw from many of the ancient Greek antiquities at Nemea, Mycenae and Corinth, our new home “Elagaia” will be (one day) the site for an annual cultural event that promotes the educational mission of The Arete Fund.
In 2008, we intend to host our first presentation of poetry and music on the 23rd of June, 2008, in the hope of giving added emphasis to the cultural aspects of the Nemean Games which are to be held on June 21-22, 2008, in Nemea, Greece. Thereafter, our annual Arete event will take place on the August full moon. Programs and performances will be scheduled throughout the year. Yannis Iordanoglou will be the cultural director of all events at ElaGaia. So it begins….
