Vilnius protesters rally against writers’ museum closures

In mid-May, Vilnius City Council decided to dissolve the Vilnius Memorial Museum Directorate and to transfer three flats — museums of Lithuanian writers — to a public institution.

According to Tadas Rimdžius, Head of the Municipality’s Culture Department, the city council agreed that the flats of writers Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas and Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, as well as the Venclova house-museum, will no longer host the public under the supervision of public institution Vilnius UNESCO City of Literature, but rather will be open only to literary communities and residencies. 

The Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Vidmantas Bezaras, stated that two of those museums hold memorial value and should be dedicated to showcasing the lives and works of the writers they honor. 

In turn, the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania (KPD) issued a statement emphasizing the memorial nature of the three properties. KPD suggested that the best use of the buildings would be for museum activities, which would not only introduce the biographies of the writers but also present the interiors and the surroundings of the buildings of the historical period to a large part of the public. The department created a petition to stop the dissolution of these museums and stressed that they are protected under the Law on Museums. 

Dissatisfaction with the city council’s decision was expressed by scholars, writers, and students who organized a protest in front of the Vilnius City Hall. 

Simona Bieliūnė, Vice-Mayor of Vilnius, insisted that the municipal administration made a communication error and that the fate of the museums was yet to be decided. The vice-mayor assured the public that it would be up to specialists, not politicians, to decide on the activities of the memorial museums for writers.

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Image: J. Stacevičius / LRT

Translation: Olena Pankevych

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn, Terra Friedman King