Demetrios Vital

IDEAL Center Project Lead

Demetrios Vital is passionate about teaching and learning. He has worked in museum collections and exhibitions, Jewish education, and Holocaust and genocide education and pedagogy. As the child of Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors who were resettled in Minnesota during the Greek civil war, Demetrios is passionate about facilitating the kind of deep learning that aspires to disrupting oppression, countering genocide, celebrating diversity, and building community.

In addition to his role in the IDEAL Center, Demetrios is involved in education and anti-racism in the Jewish community. He is an artist, calligrapher, and practices the art of restoring Torah scrolls and related ritual Hebrew manuscripts.

Demetrios spends a lot of time with his kids, with whom he shares one of his deepest joys: dinosaurs! As a child, Demetrios' family brought him to the museum’s Dinosaurs & Fossils galleries, which paved the way for a preternatural desire to illustrate dinosaurs. Demetrios is grateful that he can, in turn, bring his children to the museum. Together, they make art, play dinosaurs, shape their family history, and envision a more just future.