Technopolis City of Athens is a unique cultural complex that promotes arts, innovation, lifelong learning, industrial heritage & public awareness. It is located in the old city’s gasworks, a rare industrial monument which has been transformed into the most vibrant multicultural space of Athens with more than 1.000.000 visitors per year, open and accessible to everyone. Technopolis’ vision is to enhance the development of different communities and to contribute in improving citizens’ quality of life through more than 800 events per year: live music shows, exhibitions, performances, screenings, educational programs, workshops and seminars on entrepreneurship, innovation and new technologies. Technopolis consists of a multi-arts Venue, the Industrial Gas Museum and INNOVATHENS-the Hub of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. In parallel, with an emphasis on its educational dimension, it offers a series of educational programs for school groups, kids, families and adults. Participants work in groups and stimulate their imagination discovering, through interactive activities, and familiarize themselves with STEAM, new technologies, industrial heritage, entrepreneurship & innovation.
INNOVATHENS, executive partner of the eCraft2Learn project, is a highly equipped, vibrant and open space that promotes new technologies and open innovation while connecting young entrepreneurs, academics and creative people. It seeks to support citizens’ personal development and competitiveness in the job market through educational programmes & training workshops in hard and soft skills, new technologies, open/free software, coding, robotics etc., networking events and business acceleration & support units: more than 110.000 people participated in more than 650 events. Within 30 months after its launch, INNOVATHENS has been established as the tech-transfer center of the creative and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the city.
The Industrial Gas Museum, the first city’s industrial museum protecting and promoting the old gasworks that supplied energy and lighting in the Athens metropolitan area for 130 years, was founded in 2013. It promotes and enhances the industrial heritage consciousness of the wider public: more than 70.000 visitors have been guided through the one of the city’s most important industrial monuments, and participated in more than 600 tours, cultural projects and exhibitions. Additionally, the educational programs of the IGM offer an opportunity to the students to learn about the gasworks, the technologies of the 19th and 20th century and the working conditions.