As part of the 2025 Greek Festival of Sydney, the Chau Chak Wing Museum held a series of school holiday workshops titled Mythos: The Myths of Ancient Greece in April.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney houses the Nicholson collection of antiquities from the ancient Mediterranean region, including artefacts and artworks from ancient Greece and Cyprus. It is the largest collection of Greek cultural objects in Australia with permanent exhibitions exploring the legacy of ancient Greek art and culture.
It is a significant teaching tool for the University of Sydney’s undergraduate and postgraduate program with thousands of students annually taking part in object-based learning classes, and thousands of school students visiting each year who are studying ancient history and related subjects in the classroom.
The museum also runs school holiday programs for primary aged students and tries to focus on Greek culture heritage as often as possible.
The Mythos program has enabled visiting children and their parents to handle genuine archaeological objects from the museum’s collection and invited them to explore ancient Greece through the museum’s collection of vases and sculpture.
In the two-hour programs, children decorated vases with Greek-inspired designs and heard stories of myths and legends from Mount Olympus and discussed why the ancients told these stories. Hundreds of children from across Sydney participated in one of the workshops in April.
Chau Chak Wing Museum Head of Public Engagement Dr Craig Barker says, “we are excited to have partnered with the Greek Festival of Sydney once more.”
“We feel the children’s programs are an important way to help celebrate Greece’s rich cultural legacy and for children to explore their interest in ancient Greek myths and stories often encouraged through series like the Percy Jackson book. We love welcoming the next generation of historians and philhellenes to visit our museum,” Dr Barker said.
