As President of HICD-USA headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, I join the Athens-based Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy and our Founder and President Peter Dennis Kapsaskis in extending a warm welcome to each of you across America and in Greece, and to invite you to join us in this rich cultural exchange.

Cultural Diplomacy can be a calming embrace of the various and beautiful art forms of another culture; the discovery and awakening to unfamiliar history or new perspective; or a bold and robust intellectual exchange. Each interaction offers possibilities for greater understanding and collaborations for mutual benefit. The special relationship between Greece and America is historically unique as the Home of democracy and the always evolving Promise of democracy; the symbolic parent and child who instinctively share a mysterious bond. And it is upon that bond that we weave, here, new threads of collaboration and a special gifting to one another of our rich cultures.

It is befitting that Nashville, closing in upon its 2024 Bicentennial as the "Athens of the South," and home (since 1897) of the world's only full-scale replica of the Parthenon, was designated as the American headquarters for this dynamic cultural exchange. We look forward to bringing into the US branch of the expanding 15-nation Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy the vibrancy of affiliate cities across America.

Let us build together in new and transformative ways!

DeeGee Lester