Maria Florou

Maria Florou studied History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Since 2011, she has held the position of Head of the Industrial Gas Museum in Athens. She served on the Board of Directors of OPANDA (Organization of Culture, Sports, and Youth of the City of Athens) from 2017 to 2019. In 2020, she was appointed Coordinator of the Museums and Educational Programs Committee under the City of Athens’ cultural development agreement, overseeing museum-related projects and initiatives. In 2023, she managed the development of the Maria Callas Museum, and since 2024 she has been Head of Museums at Technopolis, sharing responsibilities between the Industrial Gas Museum and the Maria Callas Museum.

Maria Florou will be speaking at the Creative Museums Summit 2025 :

Creativity through problem solving

A tiny venue, a poor collection, a modest budget, yet an amazing story to share! How do you combine these factors to create a unique museum experience that captures the essence of the world’s most famous soprano and makes opera accessible to a broader audience without too much technical maintenance? A real challenge indeed!

Our presentation will show how we went about this conundrum in a creative and innovative manner: In the Maria Callas Museum visitors are first immersed in her astonishing voice and stage performance before they can then start exploring her life and work in a multimodal and engaging way.