As summer begins, we’re celebrating the most essential human resource—health—with the most essential human joy—being together. Lively discussion, bold ideas, forward-looking questions, thoughtful reflection, and perhaps even collaborative answers(?) will meet with energizing music, interactive entertainment, and spirited athletic activity at this year’s SNF Nostos, the annual open and free event from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Join us for SNF Nostos Health.
Together, on June 23 and 24, 2022, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens, we will seek to shed light on important issues related to health. Now is the time to look at the big picture and assess things with more clarity. It’s time to question why the past two difficult years of the pandemic have laid bare the fundamental weaknesses of our health care systems—even the most advanced ones—as well as weaknesses on many other fronts. It’s time to recognize inequalities in access, not only to specialized and advanced health care resources, but even to the most basic treatments. It’s time to discover how science can show us the way forward through new technologies and innovations. And, of course, it’s time to see how we can keep working to empower humanity.
Inevitably, along with everyone else, our attention is also focused on Ukraine and the devastating consequences of the war. We hope that the hostilities will soon cease and that the immense human suffering they are producing will begin to ease. We must all keep striving for the common good. It is in this spirit that we are planning SNF Nostos Health to be a landmark event in our effort to inform, discuss, and lay the foundations for quality health care that is accessible to all.
This year, as usual, the essential components of SNF Nostos will be the SNF Nostos Run, the SNF Nostos Conference, and SNF Dialogues, held in parallel with an artistic program of interactive installations, activities, exhibitions, and concerts. Within this familiar framework, this year will be something totally new for SNF Nostos, but as always, the program will be substantial and the atmosphere exciting.
SNF Nostos Run
The SNF Nostos Run: Running into the Future is at the heart of SNF Nostos and, as every year, will set the pace at the beginning of the two-day celebration. For the first time in three years, we are planning a race without restrictions and without special requirements for entry. On June 23, Olympic Day, starting at the Panathenaic Stadium and finishing at the SNFCC, we will run—as many of us can and all together—to support a good cause.
The run is held under the organizational supervision of Regeneration & Progress and the medical supervision of the First Orthopedic Clinic of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA).
Registration for the race will open in May.
SNF Nostos Conference
This year, we are taking a fresh new approach to the SNF Nostos Conference. In collaboration with journalism nonprofit iMEdD (the incubator for Media Education and Development) and with integral participation by young people coming from different fields, countries, and perspectives, we are creating an open, interactive, and dynamic two-day event for all. As part of this effort, we have created the SNF Nostos Youth Advisory Committee—a group of young people that offers space for open dialogue, for listening to young people’s concerns and opinions on health-related issues, and for inviting them to help shape the program of the SNF Nostos Conference.
We will discuss the progress of the SNF Health Initiative and the core values that underpin all its individual projects, including ensuring access to high-quality health services for all, harnessing the power of public-private partnerships, and implementing an open, transparent, and participatory development process. Through the lens of the initiative, we will examine a range of issues—from the design and development of internationally leading public hospitals to the empowerment of nursing staff and the importance of mental health as an integral part of our overall health. A Template for Future Hospitals, an exhibition featuring architectural models of the three new hospitals designed by Renzo Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop included in the Initiative will also be on display.
We will touch on major issues such as bioethics, global social inequality in health, and the role of doctors in war zones, an issue highlighted by the war in Ukraine. We will also bring to the fore less discussed but equally important issues, such as scientific journalism, the use of psychedelics in mental health treatments, robotics, and the future of medicine as shaped by new technologies.
We are not approaching this dialogue on health, or on the various specific issues we are examining, as a one-time, open-and-shut discussion. The conversation will inevitably expand, deepen, and flow beyond the event venues. Through parallel activities and interactive exhibitions, visitors, as active participants, will be able to engage in sports games in a virtual reality environment, watch a unique kind of basketball game, browse an exhibition by photographer Thodoris Nikolaou dedicated to mental health, and explore a global health data map created by Johns Hopkins University.
We have invited major leading lights to participate in the SNF Nostos Conference. We believe, however, that all of us need to become participants, to actively engage and put forward our thoughts, questions, and ideas. This year, the SNF Nostos Conference has been designed so that everyone will be able to be heard, especially young people, since the future of health must be of their concern as well.
Register for the SNF Nostos Conference here.
SNF Dialogues
As mental health gains universal recognition as a major issue of our time and the special susceptibility of young people to mental health problems becomes better understood, SNF Dialogues, implemented under the supervision of the nonprofit journalism organization iMEdD, will hold an event on Mental Health & Social Media. As always, the discussion will be open to all. Both influencers and followers will participate—with space for live reactions and comments—touching on the complex role of social media in our mental health, interconnection and isolation, addiction, doomscrolling and cyberbullying, and social change via powerful hashtags.
The SNF Dialogues are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou, iMEdD Managing Director, SNF Dialogues Executive Director, and journalist.
Artistic Program
This year, once again, the stage on the Great Lawn will host acclaimed Greek and international artists. On the evening of Thursday, June 23, we will dance, sing, and celebrate to reggae, ska, and Latin music during a one-of-a-kind concert by Locomondo.
Then, on Friday, June 24, the SNF Nostos stage will host a dynamic musical lineup. Greek phenom and hometown favorite Good Job Nicky will kick off the evening with his soulful yet sparky signature sound. Australian rapper Masked Wolf, best known for his song “Astronaut in the Ocean,” will follow up with a stratospheric ride from emotional depths to hip hop heights. Grammy nominee Jorja Smith, who from an early musical beginning in England has bewitched fans around the world with her confident and compelling voice, closes out the lineup.
Both evenings, following the live concerts, DJ sets in the Agora by well-known producers will complete the musical experience, and on the second night the sets will be accompanied by impressive laser projections on the iconic SNFCC building.
The nights of SNF Nostos will once again light up with a spectacular drone show, kicking off on the eve of the festival’s opening. As it did last year with the first ever show of its kind in Greece, the captivating display will illuminate the sky above the SNFCC. (22-24/06)
The full SNF Nostos program will be announced soon at snfnostos.org.
SNF Nostos from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
June 23 & 24, 2022
At the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC)
SNF Nostos Run: June 23
SNF Nostos Conference: June 23 & 24
SNF Dialogues: June 24
#SNFNostos #SNFNostosHealth