SNFCC: Anatomy of an Urban “Unicorn”
A conversation with Athena Balopoulou, Chief Strategy and Development Officer of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, on the philosophy and the future of the most successful public space development project in 21st century Athens.
- 01/08/2025, 17:30
From the fifth floor of the SNFCC offices, one can admire the buildings of the National Opera and the National Library, watch the endless flow of visitors in the Agora or enjoy the choreographed fountains that spring up every half hour from the grand Canal. Strategically located at the center of the Cultural Center ecosystem, the offices oversee most of the landmarks of the complex that, for eight and a half years, has been attracting thousands of people of all ages, from all areas of Athens, on a daily basis.
Athena Balopoulou has been working in these offices since January 2017, practically since the Cultural Center opened. She has seen the vast flower beds transformed into a magnificent Mediterranean garden, and the ideas and plans implemented in thousands of actions and events, which have attracted millions of visitors. In 2024 alone, the SNFCC hosted more than three million visits and organized more than 6,000 events – both being record numbers. As the SNFCC’s Chief Strategy and Development Officer notes, “numbers are not an end in themselves, but they have their own meaning. KPIs are important to measure our progress and to be able to move strategically and operate with consistency, integrity and responsibility over time. This, of course, does not mean that KPIs are always quantitative; in some cases qualitative indicators are also important. Regarding traffic, for example, in recent years the most important indicator for us is the NPS indicator. It is practically the indicator that answers the following question in a visitor survey: “Would you suggest to a friend to visit the Cultural Center?” Our NPS score for the previous year was 96, a very high score”.
From utopia to the Esplanade
In every discussion about the philosophy, strategy, or even the future planning of the SNFCC, the word “mission” is mentioned, sooner or later. Athena Balopoulou uses it several times and connects it to all areas of action of the Cultural Center, insisting that “the thread that runs through everything we do is our mission. And our mission is to utilize public space in order to enrich the lives of our visitors and, at the same time, to promote the values and practices for a more cohesive, more sustainable, more inclusive society”.
It is a “mission” that sounds utopian in a city with few functional public spaces and almost zero culture of utilizing them, but the SNFCC has found a way to fulfill it daily. In fact, it has found multiple ways, through the constantly renewed and evolving actions and the choices it offers its visitors. A more recent example is this year’s collaboration with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. “It is a collaboration that emerged through the approach we have in general, regarding the use of our own space as a cultural platform,” comments Athena Balopoulou. “We are a producer of culture, but at the same time, very consciously and strategically, we want to be a platform that, through synergies and partnerships, brings content that it introduces to the very large audience that visits us”.
The forthcoming projects of the Cultural Center are also perfectly aligned with the mission: “I can talk about two initiatives that we intend to work on in the near future. The first has to do with what we call creative aging. We are already planning a relevant survey for people of old age, in order to understand their needs and see how our own programs can attract them and give them opportunities for a more active life”.
“The second initiative concerns the creation of a network for public space. Having covered a lot of ground, we have created the necessary know-how regarding the use and utilization of public space and we are ready to utilize this further. We want to bring together organizations from all over Greece that deal with public space, to exchange ideas and practices and collectively create a pool of knowledge that will be widely utilized throughout the country”.
“And let us not forget that we will soon be ten years old. It is a significant threshold and a strategic passage that we have to cross. We want to celebrate it with a very special anniversary year, which will act as a kind of springboard for the next ten years”.
A walk into the future
Within the next ten years, The Ellinikon project, the undergrounding of Poseidonos Avenue and the creation of the pedestrian path / bike lane that will unify the coastal area are expected to be implemented. The southern suburbs of Athens are set to change and acquire new landmarks. The SNFCC will be called upon to fulfill its mission in a new context, which will be quite different from the current one and, possibly, quite competitive.
“It goes without saying that the way in which the coastal front is being developed matters for us, because we are also part of this field of action”, emphasizes the SNFCC’s Chief Strategy and Development Officer. “Essentially, a new pole of attraction, as well as a new narrative, is being created for visitors to the city. Given that, geographically, we are part of what is currently happening, we want to see where we stand within this narrative”.
“Beyond macroscopic observation, however, our focus is always on our own area and, more specifically, our own neighborhood. For us, the fact that this space functions – officially or unofficially – as the backyard for the houses around us is of great value. There are people who come here every day to exercise, to walk their pet, to celebrate their birthday or to simply take a walk, and this is something that we want to serve over time and to strengthen it, to the extent that we can”, she adds.
The mission of the SNFCC, of course, extends to fields that are much broader than walking and recreation. Within its perimeter, three institutions belonging to three different ministries coexist and comprise a multi-level cultural ecosystem and a very lively, active and vibrant social hub. According to Athena Balopoulou, the harmonization of these three organizations and the fermentation caused by their interaction constitute in themselves a pioneering spirit, which has been at the core of the Cultural Center since its inception by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Then, this pioneering spirit existed perhaps as an experiment, but today it is there as an element of the Center’s identity and uniqueness.
This unique identity makes the people of the Cultural Center look to the future with confidence. SNFCC will continue to be a point of reference, of meetings and escapes in the future and in the regenerated southern suburbs, because it will remain faithful to its past and present. As the Chief Strategy and Development Officer very clearly states, “every future planning of ours emanates from our core philosophy: we want every person who comes here to find something that resonates with them. We want a very large part of the Greek society – ideally the whole of it – to be able to utilize this space. We are not interested in just having someone feeling kindly welcome by us here. We want every person to feel that they truly belong here, that this place is theirs”.
Published in “White Paper: The Big Business of the South”, NouPou Media’s special edition spotlighting the current landscape and future prospects of the Athens Riviera.