Over six exciting weeks in June and July 2025, the Hellenic Museum visited Fronditha aged care facilities and community groups across Melbourne, bringing ancient history to the oldest members of our Greek community.
Participants at Clayton, Templestowe, Mulgrave South, St Albans, Thornbury and Mulgrave enjoyed the Hellenic Museum’s new incursion programs, specifically designed to engage the elderly Greek community with the arts.
Engaging arts programs have consistently been shown to tangibly improve the emotional and cognitive wellbeing of elderly people, whether they live at home or in aged care facilities. It’s clear that taking part in group arts activities reduces social isolation and loneliness for people living in aged care, but the health benefits of arts for the elderly extends even further.
In a 2019 World Health Organisation review, it was found that high level engagement with the arts can improve the symptoms of dementia. Participating in arts activities can prevent dementia worsening, affirm a sense of self esteem and identity, and assist with stronger autobiographical memory recall. Engaging with specific cultural activities is statistically linked with higher levels of quality of life and health satisfaction. Furthermore, taking part in meaningful object-based learning activities, such as handling museum artifacts, can have a significant positive impact on the overall well-being and happiness of people living in aged care.
While these health benefits are impressive, many museums no longer provide in-house museum programs at aged care facilities. Through their collaboration with Fronditha Care, the Hellenic Museum aimed to elicit these exciting health benefits by bringing museum programs to elderly people who may no longer be able to come to museums in person.
The Hellenic Museum created three programs for each session, each with their own unique topic and hands-on activity, and residents were able to engage with as many of the activities as they liked. The programs were specifically designed with elderly people who may have dementia, limited mobility and hearing difficulties in mind.
Ancient Board Games
The Ancient Board Games program explored the history of Petteia, an ancient Greek board game similar to chess. This game was famously played by Ajax and Achilles on a vase by the artist Exekhias (c. 540 BCE). Residents discovered the history of ancient Greek hoplite warfare and had the opportunity to hold ancient artefacts. This included an authentic Roman die from 100–200 CE, a Macedonian coin dating to the reign of Alexander the Great, and real bronze arrowheads. Handling the replica Corinthian helmet was also very popular.
Some people also remembered playing a version of Petteia as a child, saying that it reminded them of “playing games with my cousins”, “how creative we had to be with no toys”, and “my childhood memories”. Later, when having a go at playing it themselves, the competition amongst the residents was fierce!
Weaving
The art of weaving has been a part of Greek culture for millennia, and features in many ancient Greek myths and traditions. In the Hellenic Museum’s Weaving workshop, participants heard the stories of Arachne and Athena as well as the Fates, before weaving their own piece of cloth on a cardboard loom.
The weaving workshop in particular sparked reminiscence for participants across all Fronditha locations, especially with women. Hellenic Museum presenter Mary Christofidis generously brought her own woven family heirlooms along to some sessions, delighting residents who often spoke fondly of creating their own dowries in their youth.
“I shared how my grandmother used to weave, and how I learned by watching her. It was special to remember that part of my childhood,” a resident of Fronditha Clayton remembered.
“Please wait here,” said a resident of Fronditha St Albans. “I want to show you something from my room.” She returned ten minutes later holding a large piece of intricately woven fabric, decorated with traditional crochet patterns. “My Yiayia made this,” she told Mary with emotion. “I told my family it was the only thing I wanted to take with me when I came to Fronditha. Thank you for being interested in my stories.”
The importance of weaving to women’s lives in twentieth century Greece became clearer with every story. “I have a photo of my mum on a loom!” a resident’s daughter exclaimed after seeing the weaving activity. She found the image on her phone – a black and white image of her mother in the 1940s, working a communal village loom with a large group of young women.
For the Hellenic Museum staff, it was a privilege to hear these stories and witness firsthand the endurance of a tradition that has continued from ancient Greece to the present day.
Ancient Greek Music
The World Health Organisation found that in particular, music and singing have been shown to support cognition for people with dementia by improving attention, recent memory, verbal fluency, and general functioning. The Hellenic Museum therefore created a program specifically about music and singing in ancient Greece to hopefully bring these health benefits to Fronditha residents.
After exploring the important role of the lyre in ancient Greek life and the single-note monochords invented by Pythagoras, Hellenic Museum presenter Tom Harris played the ancient ‘Song of Seikilos’ on a replica lyre. Residents were then invited to sing the song – the oldest complete song recorded in the world, dating back to 200 BCE – with the following poignant lyrics:
Όσο ζεις, λάμπε,
καθόλου μη λυπάσαι
Για λίγο διαρκεί η ζωή,
ο χρόνος το τέλος απαιτεί.While you live, shine,
Feel no sorrow,
Life is short,
And time demands the end.
Following every presentation, residents spontaneously sang their own traditional songs for Hellenic Museum staff, demonstrating the timeless importance of music to Greek people.
The feedback from participants after the programs was incredibly meaningful. Through surveys conducted after each session, residents passed on how the programs made them feel “emotional”, “grateful”, “curious”, “calm”, “moved”, and “filled with pride”. For the Hellenic Museum, this feedback only affirmed that programs like this are important to the community and have a genuine impact on people’s lives.
As Hellenic Museum presenter Olga Kastoras told 3XY, “Once we were telling them the stories behind the items, you could see their huge smiles and the tears in their eyes. They were very thankful for this gift from the museum – they started talking more about their past and their childhood.”
The Hellenic Museum is eager to continue these incursion programs, bringing Greek history, culture, and the many health benefits of arts programs to even more communities across Melbourne. If you would like the Hellenic Museum to visit your aged care facility or community group, please contact info@hellenic.org.au for more information!
