Famagusta New Museum (FNM), initiated by Yiannis Toumazis in 2016, is an active platform, which through its various programs and activities seeks to propose a total restart of the ghost city of Varosha, a re-enactment and an activation in the social, cultural and political fields. Under the motto “I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future”, FNM readdresses the traditional role of museums in contemporary societies and aims at a potential awakening of citizens by enabling public discourse and generating artistic, environmental and social participatory actions and activist interactions amongst the communities. FNM’s central and crucial priority is the active involvement of the two main communities of Cyprus, the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, via various different activities.
Famagusta New Museum: I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future is a 20 -month-long project, funded by the Active Citizens Fund Cyprus. The project desires to “bridge the gap” and encourage creative people and professionals to cooperate with each other beyond constraints and dividing lines. FNM envisages a stronger concept of citizenship by making people actively engaged and propagates equal sharing by making cultural commons accessible to larger groups of people. In addition, FNM aims to foster the idea of volunteerism by creating a devoted group of active volunteers who will implement several activities of the project.
The Project explores how, in this era of divisions and partitions, of segregation and exclusion, culture could play an active role in allowing new forms of community relations to emerge. Through its various activities, FNM aims at shifting away from separation, by providing a strong, active and sustainable platform for creative synergies. The project aims at building sustainable collaborations between the main communities of Cyprus.
FNM’s activities are designed towards drafting hospitable and sustainable futures by encouraging a creative, open and productive dialogue amongst different groups of citizens. FNM strives to promote inter communal cooperation, contributing to the collective efforts of civil society in their engagement with peace building and intercultural dialogue. FNM’s activities aim at creating stronger relations and a more profound integration of the participating institutions with the new social realities in Cyprus and especially Famagusta. Through training, experience sharing and participation, FNM engages the partners and the participants in an active, progressive and sustainable intercultural collaboration towards social cohesion and inclusion.
Turkish Cypriots as well as other communities of the island. Also to enhance capacity building and strengthen the sustainability of the two partners, other collaborating CSO’s and the sector in general.
To explore all the activities more in depth please follow the below links:
