The capital renamed three writers’ apartments-museums

According to the Vilnius Municipality, the exhibits and activities will be « revealed historically, culturally rich in the capital’s life » during these places.

« These spaces are not only memorial objects, but also a living cultural place with a significant architectural and historical context. Our goal is to keep them authentically preserved and creatively used for education, excursions, meetings or creative work, » Vilnius City Vice -Mayor Simona Bieliūnė told reporters on Tuesday.

The exhibit space of V. Mykolaitis-Putin and V. Krėvė-Mickevičius apartments on Tauro Street will be called the Professor’s House, Venclovai apartment-Pamėnkalnis villa.

The units will be maintained by authentic furniture, collections of museum values, exhibits.

Events, education, expositions

Although the units are located in different parts of the city, they will be united – the same visual identity will be used, a joint website at Vilniusliterature.lt will be used, and a single ticket system will be introduced in the future. Visitors are invited to the Professor House on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and the Villa of Pamėnkalnis will work on weekdays.

Education for students will continue to be organized in the professor’s house, which has been its main activity so far, but it will be open to adult visitors as well. There will also be a changing exhibition of one exhibit, introducing the personalities and works of the writers and professors who lived in the house, presenting the history of the building itself, and the evenings of music and literature. It is planned to set up an information center and a souvenir shop in the house.

On the second floor of the building, V. Mykolaitis-Putin’s apartment will preserve the existing exposition. According to the vice-mayor, after the current architectural-historical study, it will be able to restore and currently not use the kitchen room.

According to Rūta Elijošaitytė-Kaikarienė, Director of the Venclovai House, the director of UNESCO Literature City, to rename the villa of Pamėnkalnis because it is the only inter-war Vilnius modern villa of one family.

There will be a cultural space that is open to the literary community, the city residents and guests, and will lead to a museum activity, and residences will be opened later. The first events will take place in Pamėnkalnis villa in the summer of this year.

« During the warm season, some of the activities will also move to the terrace in the yard, » said R. Elijošaitytė-Kaikarienė.

Later, on the first floor of the villa, work residences will be opened.

« One of them will also be applied to a temporary life to regularly participate in international residence programs and to encourage writers who translate or illustrate books between literary cities around the world.

Photo by M. Mikulėnas

Planned space updates

St. John Street is located in Vilnius Literary House – they act as the work and event of the administration of Vilnius, UNESCO Literature. They will work on weekdays.

According to the municipality, the proposals were made by an expert in various fields to the new concept of the organization.

Renews of the spaces and some facades are not planned. According to S. Bieliūnė, the whole transformation will last for years and will cost about several hundred thousand euros.

According to S. Bieliūnė, about 1.8 thousand people visited the Venclovas house last year. V. Krėvė-Mickevičius apartment-about 2.4 thousand. and V. Mykolaitis-Putin’s apartment-over 4.5 thousand. visitors. Mostly these were groups of students.

As BNS wrote, more than a year ago, the Vilnius City Council decided to liquidate the Vilnius Memorial Museum Directorate. Following this decision, she belonged to the writers Vincas Mykolaitis-Putin, Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius and Venclovas’ apartments passed the public institution Vilnius UNESCO Literature City. The publicists were then concerned about whether they would continue to remain with writers and their work.

The plans to close the three writers’ memorial museums near the Vilnius City Municipality were held a protest.

Writers V. Krėvė-Mickevičius (1882–1954), V. Mykolaitis-Putin (1893-1967), Antanas Venclova (1906-1971) for some time collaborated with the Soviet authorities occupied at different levels.