The Association for the Preservation of Historical Documents and Cultural Heritage "Arxeion Taxis"

“Arxeion Taxis”: a collective effort for empowering archival awareness in Greece and Europe. Personal and collective memory is an essential aspect of cultural heritage. Even more so in many countries, where recent history and everyday life remain difficult issues. However, historical archives (some of the primary sources of memory) tend to be practically inaccessible to the general public and neglected by most people. As collections of memories, archives often suffer from a lack of public awareness and appreciation of their significance; as institutions, they usually confront with minimal public funding. In this light, The Association for the Preservation of Historical Documents and Cultural Heritage “Arxeion Taxis”, which is a non-profit organization established in 2011, has as strategic goals the empowerment of archival consciousness and the enrichment of public dialogue regarding to the configuration of archival policy in Greece and Europe. Collaborating with public, private and non-profit organizations, local authorities and civic society, we are trying to rescue, preserve and highlight archival heritage and implement new technologies in order to exhibit in public access historical archives. Furthermore, “Arxeion Taxis” via seminars trains teachers about the importance of primary sources in the educational process. Community engagement and active citizenship are the basic pillars of our attempt. Since 2017, we have developed and implemented the free digital platform “Αrchive Αlert” https://archivealert.gr/web/en/index, which is a free digital platform for rescuing endangered historical archives in co-operation with citizens and institutions. 14 Greek organizations (public and private) are partners of our platform, which has gained third prize in "best use of digital humanities for public engagement" category of the international digital humanities awards . “Αrchive Αlert” is based on philosophy of participatory heritage, empowering people’s capacity to act on their own behalf, and mediating the relationship between the people who find archives and the institutions that can preserve them. An international network of such intermediaries could be inspired by this already successful digital platform. Furthermore, “Arxeion Taxis” is systematically trying to promote the diverse local identities in urban and rural space by engaging all social groups in public space and cultural life of the cities or villages, using personal narrations, family photos, archives and personal objects. Citizens from different areas, neighborhoods and social statues are the protagonists of the dialogue between the past and the present of their home place. Through this perspective, we have implemented successful projects in city of Piraeus, island communities in Aegean Sea, villages of south Greece and mountain communities in continental Greece. Our goal for the future is to continue our effort and expand our network collaborating with other organizations from Greece and abroad in common projects for the rescue of archival heritage and empower of archival awareness.