In a first-of-its-kind partnership between an arts and culture institution and a professional football club, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (ΕΜΣΤ) and Athens Kallithea FC will engage in a multi-faceted collaboration during the upcoming 2023/24 football season.
Under the partnership, the ΕΜΣΤ wordmark will be featured on the chest of the 23/24 Athens Kallithea FC official kit collection, which will be worn on the pitch by the AKFC first team and sold at the AKFC official web shop at shop.akfc66.gr upon its release in early September. The new collection will also be available in limited quantities in the ΕΜΣΤ museum shop.
AKFC’s shirt collection from the previous 22/23 season was released to global acclaim, with record shirt sales outside of Greece.
At the same time, AKFC will leverage its platform in the world’s most popular sport to promote ΕΜΣΤ and its exhibition and events throughout the season on the club’s official website and social media channels.
“Across the realms of art and sport, ΕΜΣΤ and AKFC have a shared positioning in carrying on a sociocultural dialogue between Athens and the rest of the world,” said Athens Kallithea FC president Ted Philipakos. “We are extremely proud to align with ΕΜΣΤ and engage in this first-of-its-kind partnership.”
“Like sport, art is a universal part of every community and we’re delighted to be part of this distinctively original collaboration,” said ΕΜΣΤ artistic director, Katerina Gregos. “Both football and art enhance social and cultural life, crossing borders, cultures, generations, and languages, encouraging us to connect with one another.”
ΕΜΣΤ is a leading national institution for contemporary art and visual culture in Greece, and one of the flagship institutions in Southern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. The museum regards art and visual culture as a transformative element in education, knowledge production, and storytelling, as well as a driver of progressive and emancipatory values in society. The museum focuses on practices that cast a critical eye on society at large and its political urgencies, examining key issues of our times such as democracy, governance, equity, economics, the environment, the effects of globalization and the dominance of technology, while highlighting the importance of public life and dialogue.
The museum is situated in the old FIX brewery, an Athenian landmark with distinct architectural and sociological significance, located in the heart of the city between Syggrou Avenue and Kallirois Avenue — just 2 km east of Grigoris Lamprakis Stadium, the home of Athens Kallithea FC.
In September, AKFC will kick off their 2023/24 Super League 2 season, as they seek to win promotion to Super League 1, Greece’s top division. In the 2022/23 season, AKFC finished in second place, missing out on a historic promotion by 1 point, which marked the club’s best season in the 17 years since it last played in the first division. AKFC match tickets for the 2023/24 season will be available soon at Ticketmaster.gr.
The club, founded in 1966, has been under new American ownership and management since September 2021, and was rebranded as Athens Kallithea FC in September 2022. The London-based football culture platform VERSUS called it “one of the cleanest football rebrands ever.”
