SNF-LC Agora Initiative’s First Transatlantic Arts Collaboration Arrives in New York and Athens

A woman holding a bicycle and walking on the sidewalk in front of a wall of artistic posters

Photo Credit: Sachyn Mital

What does a hero look like in New York? How about in Athens? A free outdoor visual arts exhibition held in parallel at Lincoln Center and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) explores. The exhibition represents the inaugural artistic collaboration of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation – Lincoln Center (SNF-LC) Agora Initiative, which seeks to reimagine and reactivate public spaces and the arts for a new era through international “Twin Agoras.”

The Faces of the Hero exhibition features works reflecting on what a hero is and what heroism means by students from the Parsons School of Design and the Athens School of Fine Arts. The show is an element of Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages and the SNFCC’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution.

“Particularly vital at a time when travel is limited, the SNF-LC Agora Initiative endeavors to build bridges across the ocean, connecting us through art and public space,” said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. “We hope the ‘Twin Agoras’ in Athens and New York City serve as a creative catalyst and valuable reminder of the importance of connection across people and cultures, and the many forms this can take. We look forward to the students’ interpretations of heroism, from the past to its new implication in the present.”

In December 2020, SNF announced support for the SNF-LC Agora Initiative as part of its $100 million global COVID-19 relief initiative.