“Freedom is inexhaustible. It is like an endless trip. We should not think that we have reached our destination already, as freedom is duty. Our life is responsibility to freedom,” the poet Just.Marcinkevičius believes.

The wisest people of Smetona times wanted to build the House of Culture. The philosopher S.Šalkauskis saw the end of political independence in 1939, when he answered questionnaire “Lithuanian Nation and its Future” of the magazine Naujoji Romuva. He indicates the main reason, i.e. the cultural factor: “No House of Culture was built”. Now we set ourselves to a more modest mission: to construct a huge shopping centre.

In brief: Experts of jazz music state unanimously in Lithuania that the most interesting events taking place on the jazz scene today are related with the name of Liudas Mockūnas. It is not accidental, most probably. L. Mockūnas, who has jazz and academic education, melts borders between jazz and contemporary academic music.

In brief: Justinas Marcinkevičius was called the herald of freedom at the time when people learned to pronounce "Li-thu-a-nia” along with Mažvydas in the darkness of the theatre hall. The label of a “Soviet writer” never suited him, as his poetry speaks calmly, intimately and sincerely about the dearest and most important things. Earlier and now he is the poet of all of us, Lithuanians.

The most stable and artistic chapter of the album is “Muses”; meanwhile, the chapter “Vanishing Manor” is too long and constructed in the worst manner. It is hard to understand why R.Požerskis needed to desecrate religious temples. Perhaps the artist wanted to astound everybody by his artistic courage by making a naked beauty stand with spread legs on the roof of a decrepit orthodox church?

In brief: The puppeteer Rimas Driežis evaluated by the Government’s Culture and Art Prize for merits to Lithuanian culture and art at the end of February states that this award is like the confirmation that the time has come to look at the puppet theatre as to the full-rate field of creation.

Is Vilnius Small Theatre celebrating its jubilee the only theatre established during the 20 years of Lithuania’s independence? Perhaps the top politicians don’t know how to count? Perhaps they have not heard how many theatres were founded in free Lithuania, how many of them are evaluated highly in the world but have no roof in Lithuania? It is the authorities who did not establish or build a single theatre in free Lithuania and tried to create as complicated the conditions as possible so that nothing would be here.

Užutrakis Manor is returning to its golden age. The most of attention is allocated to the renewal of E. F.Andre park. The representational parterres of Diana and Bakch will be restored, terraces, sculptures, vases, flower beds will be renewed, historical exotic trees and bushes will be planted. The view of the lake terrace with open pavilions will be reconstructed, and the bank of the Galvė Lake will be tidied up. Three ponds will be reborn in the landscape part of the park.

"The youngest people of our theatre are hostages. The entire generation are hostages. I pity them and want to help them. They want to live, desire recognition, they are faster and more dashing. They are hostages of our requirements. Life has become harsh and relentless. They are not needed by anyone, and they feel it. They hurry to prove that they are needed. Still, one has to have patience and to learn,” speaks the director R.Tuminas.

K.Galaunienė remembers her husband P.Galaunė as a special person, who was loyal to his conscience and moral values. The starter of professional museology died twenty-tow years ago after forming the basics of professional national art history and criticism, after leaving graphical works, six albums “Lithuanian Folk Art”, almost five hundred publicist and scientific articles and studies on various issues of Lithuanian art and culture.

Aesthetics of waste and destructiveness of art has not destroyed and cannot destroy any ancient values. Perhaps the vanity of post-modern art and its endless inventiveness is the wonderful contrast that may highlight the old values and to expand the understanding of them.

In brief: The poet Justinas Marcinkevičius celebrating his 80th birthday became the winner of the nomination “Man – Coeval” in the election of national values of Respublika. The poet recognised by all generations of Lithuanians is sure that each of us is born to be a good man. Still, this goodness is often dwarfed by material greed.

In brief: Tickets to the performance "Ward" by Anton Chekhov directed by Rolandas Kazlas at Kaunas State Drama Theatre are sold immediately for four months in sequence already. Increased ticket prices do not scare the audience. Why is the serious performance with the actors R.Kazlas and Liubomiras Laucevičius in the main roles acting a patient and doctor at psychiatry hospital so popular?

The Japanese master Tadashi Suzuki visited Vilnius himself last weekend at the invitation of the international theatre festival "Sirenos" and Oskaras Koršunovas-Vilnius City Teatre. T.Suzuki and his troupe SCOT (Suzuki Company of Toga) presented the performance “Dionysus” (according to the tragedy of Euripides “Bacchae"). The interest of the audience was so huge that the performance was acted two times in the packed Black Hall of the Arts Printing House on the 26th of February.

In brief: The Lithuanian music culture of inter-war period was enriched by Jewish musicians who played on big and small stages. The Hofmekler family was very famous among them. An evening dedicated to this family was organised at Mikas and Kipras Petrauskai Lithuanian Music Museum.

In brief: If we want Lithuania to be a grave country, we should change our attitude to culture. It is necessary to encourage the interest of people in real art and to support creators according to three representatives of serious music world that were interviewed by Santaka.

In brief: The ones who are going to the exhibition “Francisco Goya. Los Caprichos” opened today at Vilnius Picture Gallery should fetch a magnifier. The graphic cycle "Los Caprichos" of the Spanish genius published in Madrid in 1806-1807 includes 80 small pictures with many tiny details. It is the second edition of the cycle replenished by snappy author’s comments.

Now one may only guess what the road of J.Vaitys would be if he had decided to emigrate to the West along with Adomas Galdikas, Viktoras Vizgirda and Alfonsas Valeška.

M.Matušakaitė: “I wanted my life to be interesting, and I succeeded to make it such – with many discoveries. Everyone should find a field of their interest. No matter if it is cookery or something else. I believe there are many interesting things in the world. Still, if you ask “what’s the use of it for me?” and seek for material benefit, you will not achieve much.”

In brief: After the exhibition of Vytautas Kasiulis works, which spread the mood of gardens of paradise, was organised in Vilnius, one question became actual: will the works of the artist who created in emigration return to Lithuania for good? There is no final answer yet. One thing is clear: if the works of V.Kasiulis return to the homeland of the painter, it will not be Kaunas, where the artist lived until his emigration in 1944.

In brief: The poet, publicist, translator and Professor of the prestigious US Yale University Tomas Venclova states that he feels in any place of Europe like at home. He has not fallen in love with the United States, where he has lived for more than thirty years.

In brief: The festival Kaunas Jazz is going to celebrate the 20th anniversary loudly, even though the organisers admit that it is the first time it is so complicated to organise the jazz festival. The organisers are trying to lure jazz stars to Kaunas and to find supporters for almost half a year already.

In brief: “When I create a hero for a new story, I give him/her features of an animal and replenish them by human features,” the author of the best book for children of 2009 Kęstutis Kasparavičius admits. When asked who the target audience of the snappy stories is: the little readers or their parents and grandparents, the 55-year-old writer assures that he makes no distinction among children and grown-ups.

“In fact, I am a black and white man. Colour would kill “Blooming”, “Lee”, “Land of Inspiration”. It would distract the attention from the most important things. There are so many grey shades, silver shining, subtle play of light, mystery and fantasy in black-and-white photography. Introduce colour and you will have daily realism instead of poetry and nostalgia,” says the photographer R.Rakauskas.

In brief: To call an artist a classic is the same as to give him the label indicating the achieved last creative point, recognition and the fact that everything that could be created has already been created. This thought persists while watching the attempt to sum up and to present the results of creative activity of Post Ars group existing for 20 years in the exhibition.

In brief: “Memories about Dalia Tamulevičiūtė warm one up. I think what was her life like, how it should be described in a few words? She took me to her native Varėna some time in an early beautiful spring. However, it was terribly cold at the river, which freed from the ice recently, even though the sun shined merrily. It seems to me that such was her life.”

In brief: President Dalia Grybauskaitė granted the National Culture and Art Prizes to six artists of the country on the 16th of February. The solemn ceremony was started by Chordos quartet, which performed an extract from M.K.Čiurlionis’ string quartet, in the President's House.

“I said in some television broadcast that the Ministry of Culture should be the most important ministry in the country. Everybody started laughing at me; however, I spoke about the institution which could control economics, politics and other fields rather than ministers. There is no meaning in trying to create such thing as a state without deep culture and honour," S.Parulskis believes.

In brief: The premiere of the director Artūras Areima “Happy” staged according to the play of Friedrich Schiller “Intrigue and Love” that was presented at Kaunas State Drama Theatre at the end of December is important by two aspects.

People argue about the artistic value of Banksy’s works, but it is hard to deny the fact that each drawing created by him tells ironically about issues ignored or hidden in the society. Banksy has stated once: “Graffiti drawings were used to start revolutions, to stop wars; it is the voice of people to whom nobody listens. Graffiti is one of the tools when you have almost nothing.”

In brief: The main hall of Vytautas Magnus War Museum was opened officially after the restoration work that lasted more than one year on the 11th of February. At the same time the ceremony of consecration of the royal flag of the ruler of Lithuania and Poland August II (the Strong) restored by the textile artist Bronė Neverdauskienė and its handing over to Kaunas War Museum was organised.

In brief: What makes artists organise an exhibition of women – complexes, distrust in oneself or the wish to discuss themes that do not interest men? The exhibition "About Them" of the female artists’ association open at Arka gallery in Vilnius became one of the most interesting events of Vilnius art life.

“In general, being a small chamber theatre, we have the privilege to stage performances for a small number of spectators. We may choose what we and our audience enjoys. I am very glad that we have tamed the educated spectator. Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has stated, we are responsible for the ones we have tamed,” the director S.Rubinovas says.

In brief: Despite conflicts and different attitude to the Royal Palace in Vilnius, culture people hate the fluff of artificially created image. It is testified by the reaction of people from the world of books to the politicians’ plans to sell other people’s work as their own.

In brief: Tidy and falling apart wooden houses of Žaliakalnis covered by snow, surrounded by lush greenery of trees or a crowd of people: such views revive in paintings of the French artist Gilles Vuillard. The exhibition of the newest paintings and drawings of the painter living in Kaunas is open at the Old Town Club in Kaunas.