 DEPAK’s
Building KALAMATA MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION FOR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPAK was established in 1985 as an umbrella organization for efforts to develop a high quality cultural policy. It also marked the beginning of a dynamic period of a broad intervention program for the city’s cultural life by the municipality. The aim of the organization is to put into operation an allencompassing cultural development program in Kalamata and the broader region, by creating the necessary infrastructure and taking steps to promote intellectual and artistic activities, while advancing the entertaining, informational and education character of the arts. For the purposes of this program, DEPAK has created three departments; for music, dance and the visual arts. Visual Arts Department
The visual arts department is centered on the School of Arts, whose objectives are to initiate the public to the arts, to create fertile conditions for the development of artistic expression and to organize events of an educational and entertaining nature.  The School
of Arts Music
The Municipal Conservatory is DEPAK’s music workshop, which has been in operation since 1985 and is housed in a beautiful 19th century building south of the Kastro. It provides a fertile and creative climate, along with new teaching methods, for the development of musical skills in the classical, traditional and Byzantine genres. Every year over 500 children complete their studies, giving recitals, auditions, attending workshops, seminars and lectures. Over 10,000 music students have attended the Kalamata Municipal Conservatory, where they are taught by internationally famous soloists, members of the ERT (Greek state media) Orchestra, sopranos and tenors of the Greek National Opera, distinguished composers and university professors. The conservatory has awarded 30 diplomas and 120 degrees. Every year, students of the conservatory are among winners of scholarships to foreign music academies, win first prizes in national competitions, while others also return to teach in its departments. Its Symphony Orchestra, Student Symphony Orchestra and the triphonic Children’s Choir, as well as the conservatory’s general advantages, have made its presence felt not only among the public in Kalamata but in neighboring towns. Events including all genres of music at the town’s Cultural Center, Cultural Cafι at the conservatory’s lecture hall, collaboration with Greek and foreign cultural organizations (Greek National Opera, Camerata Orchestra, Vienna Children’s Choir, to name a few) are all part of the conservatory’s work. Kalamata International Dance Center
The Kalamata International Dance Center, an important cultural body in the city, active in research, communication and artistic expression-production, was founded in 1995. Its activities include organizing dance performances, supporting and promoting contemporary Greek dance, and conserving and recording Greek dance in general.  The
Municipal
Conservatory Organizing the Kalamata International Dance Festival is its chief activity. The festival, held every July since 1995, has been developed into an attraction for people from all around Messinia and other parts of Greece, as well as drawing personalities from the fields of politics, the arts, academia and the business world, from Greece and abroad. The broad public appeal of the festival –which is now seen as one of the most important events of its kind in Europe– is due to the professionalism that goes into its planning and to the presentation of internationally acclaimed artists and groups as well as young talent, whose later professional course has so often justified their being selected for the festival. The Kalamata International Dance Festival has to date presented 56 dance groups of international acclaim, 43 of which appeared in Greece for the first time in Kalamata. Presenting Greek ensembles alongside these well-established groups has a significant impact on the evolution of the contemporary Greek dance scene, while commissioning new works to Greek choreographers also helps them enhance their image abroad. The festival’s success is reflected in the rave reviews it receives in the press every year. The program is also listed beside established European festivals of international prominence in European and American dance magazines. THE REGIONAL MUNICIPAL THEATER OF KALAMATA
The Kalamata RMT was founded in 1984. It has two theaters, the Central and the New, which during the winter stage three Greek or foreign plays and one children’s play. During the summer season, the amphitheater in Kalamata Castle is used to stage a classical play, and ancient Greek tragedy or comedy, or the work of a classical writer. The three productions of the winter season are staged in Kalamata, the neighboring regions and often even in Athens. The annual children’s play is put on for primary and secondary school groups from the entire prefecture of Messenia as well as from surrounding areas. The production of the summer season, moreover, is not presented just in Kalamata, but goes on tour, every year, to all the major festivals held throughout the country. The Kalamata RMT has so far presented some 150 productions of Greek and foreign plays.  Municipal
Dance
School Its activities are centered on the following axes: combining the entertaining, informative and education character of theater, placing emphasis on the classical repertory as well as on contemporary theatrical expression and promoting Greek theatrical traditions hand-in-hand with the leading works of the international repertory. Awareness-raising in and education of children is special areas of emphasis. In parallel to the performances and tours, which aim at forging new roads of communication with the country’s young theater-goers, the Kalamata RMT has also established a series of events for children in primary and secondary school, such as the Theatergames and the Student Theater Meetings. Within the context of the staging of plays and running in parallel to them, the company also organizes lectures and round-table discussions with eminent personalities of the arts and letters, exhibitions and film screenings. With every new production, the company also publishes a magazine titled Theatrical Kalamata, which aims at showcasing, as fully as possible, each individual production. Last, but not least, one of the municipal theater’s key objectives is to attract important collaborations to the city of Kalamata.
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