About Strategies of Opening and Openness in Lithuanian Museology

Abstract

This is the narrative of a museum employee working during the period of ongoing change that is taking place in our country, Lithuania. After the restoration of independence, a new market economy strategy and the emergence of a private sector can be noted, both related to the new political view. They resulted from the attempt to return to the global context after half a century of Soviet occupation. The museum space is traditionally related to the protection and representation of cultural heritage. In Lithuania, as in the majority of Eastern European countries, museums and their collections are owned by the state. Our country has 93 museums of which 3 are national, 16 supported by the Republic, 56 municipal, 14 departmental and 4 private. A free market is characterised by selfregulatory laws. Exceptions slowly replace previously valid rules. Two private sculpture parks are examples of such exceptions in the slowly recovering Lithuanian cultural scene: the International European Centre Sculpture Museum, 1993, and the Grûtas Park, 1999, featuring disassembled monuments of the Soviet period. The stories of their creation represent two different models for establishing private museums, which, in a general sense, may be characterized as the strategy of opening and openness respectively. The story of the lattery type of establishment gives more insight into the essence of the changes that are taking place.