The European Capital of Culture 2022 title held by Lithuania’s Kaunas gave a significant boost to the city’s cultural life. The ambition is now to keep it going.
Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022 held its big closing event in early December, following more than a year of cultural activities.
“These were not short-term activities, short-term performances, they have developed into festivals, even into other international events that will continue to develop after 2022,” says Donata Jutkienė, curator of the Kaunas 2022 programme Design for Happiness.
“It is useful to have a break for a year or two, to sort out what projects and events the audience needs and which ones are useful and meaningful to continue in the future,” adds Viltė Migonytė-Petrulienė, another curator who oversaw the Modernism for the Future programme.
European Capital of Culture involved more than 3,000 events in Kaunas itself and the surrounding district, attended by two million people. More than 17,000 artists took part and the events were assisted by 1,500 volunteers. In all, 26 million euros was spent on culture.
One of the lasting effects of Kaunas European Capital of Culture will be a greater taste for art among the city’s public.
“There is going to be an ebb,” says Kaunas 2022 programme manager Virginija Vitkienė. “What Kaunas citizens and the community will miss the most, that’s what should be continued. They will miss artists, they will start looking for partners who could create something interesting.”
“That, probably, is the best thing that the Capital of Culture year leaves behind – loads of festivals, programmes, communities that are able to create,” says communications manager Mindaugas Reinikis.
Kaunas 2022 coincided with some big international shocks. Much of the preparation happened during the Covid pandemic, while the year 2022 was marked by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“During this project, we grew a very thick skin,” says Irutė Tumaitė, curator of Kaunas 2022 sponsorships. “A lot of things that used to scare us in the past don’t seem so scary anymore. […]. Covid, war have taught us how to react to what is happening around us.”
“It’s not that culture is somehow elevated above reality, above everyday life. It is very important for us that culture is in real life, in a real community, and reaches every single person,” opines Rytis Zemkauskas who curated the Kaunas Myth programme.
“I would like to make 2023 the year of longing, so that Kaunas citizens and the whole country see what they miss about the things that the European Capital of Culture offered. When we miss it, we will try to carry on in our own way what we miss most,” he adds.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
