In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the Fulbright Foundation in Greece launched an initiative titled Great Ideas, a series promoting educational and cultural ties between Greece and the United States where noted American experts and artists were invited to give lectures on issues of mutual interest. Great Ideas was supported with a generous grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and organized in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki.
The Great Ideas series included seminars on topics such as economics, medicine, education, fine arts, cinema, jazz, architecture, and urban development. The public lectures and seminars, for both professionals and students, took place in Athens and Thessaloniki and attracted more than 14,000 participants. Four noted Americans participated in the Great Ideas Series:
-BIOMEDICAL ETHICS Ruth Faden, Executive Director, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, spoke on “Better, Healthier, More Beautiful: The Ethics of Biomedical Human Enhancement.”
December 19, 2007 – Eugenides Foundation, Athens
December 17, 2007 – Anatolia College, Thessaloniki (“The Moral Challenges Posed by Pandemics”)
-ART & CULTURE Glenn Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), spoke on “Making the Modern the Modern: A Disruptive Theory of the Museum of Modern Art.”
March 17, 2008 – Megaron - The Athens Concert Hall, Nikos Skalkotas Hall
March 18, 2008 – Athens School of Fine Arts, De Chirico Hall
March 19, 2008 – Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
March 19, 2008 – Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce
-EDUCATION Richard Levin, President, Yale University, spoke on “The Internationalization of the University.”
May 6, 2008 – National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, I. Drakopoulos Auditorium
May 6, 2008 – Zappeion Megaron, Athens
May 7, 2008 - Anatolia College, Thessaloniki
-FILM & ENTERTAINMENT Jim Gianopulos, Chairman & CEO, Fox Filmed Entertainment, spoke on “Hellenism and Hollywood: from Aristotle to Alexander (Payne).”
November 23, 2009 – Megaron - The Athens Concert Hall, Banquet Hall
November 24, 2009 – Greek Film Archive, Lais Bulding, Athens