J. Šliūpa’s museum exhibition – a look at the phenomenon of working roofs and their most famous pioneer in Lithuania | Culture

This time it is dedicated to the modern phenomenon – labor strikes – and will tell the story of their most prominent pioneer in Lithuania – President Antanas Smetonas. The exhibition will be accompanied by a program of accompanying events of the museum that expands the story.

In the new exhibition of the Jonas Šliūpas Museum, visitors will learn that Antanas Smetona was forced to combine work and rest as he was very hardworking and in poor health, and his vacations can be called working holidays, which are becoming more and more popular today. The President’s vacation became a significant state event and a bright highlight in the life of Palanga as a vacation capital.

Then the president was taken to Palanga for a vacation by ministers and other civil servants, the scientific and cultural elite. A. Smetona’s vacation was different, because state affairs followed. Official meetings with residents and employees of cities and towns in Žemaitija and Klaipėda Region were planned on the President’s agenda.

When necessary, the Prime Minister and ministers went to Palanga, meetings of the Council of Ministers were called. Diplomats, artists, and businessmen used to visit the “Baltoja” villa near the beach, which was rented by the President’s office for vacations, with whom important state issues were discussed.

Palangi residents and guests of the city are welcome at the opening of the “President’s Workshop” exhibition and its accompanying events. Visitors will find out what recreation traditions of the Lithuanian president and the political elite were formed in the first half of the 20th century, how they affected the general culture of recreation then and today, whether working days can be a cure for burnout, or perhaps the other way around.

The excursion to the exhibition “Summer in interwar Palanga” prepared by the museum includes the most interesting stories not only of the president and the intelligentsia, but also of the holidays by the sea that became a novelty in the life of ordinary Lithuanians.

LCVA photo/LR President Kazys Grinius enjoys sunbathing on the seashore. Palanga, 1933

To discuss vacations and working days, he will invite meetings with the museum curator of the Presidency of the Historical Republic of Lithuania, dr. Ingrida Jakubavičiene, psychotherapist dr. Eugenijus Laurinaičius, historian dr. Norbertas Černiauskas will invite you to listen to the presentation “Antanas Smetona’s Last Summer”.

Until September, the series of educational events “Workshops at Jonas Šliūpas” will take place in the courtyard of the museum, where children and teenagers aged 5-12 will be invited to creative afternoons by professional creators and artists.

The opening of the new exhibition coincides with the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Jonas Šliūpas Museum. On this occasion, the museum welcomes its visitors immediately after the opening of the exhibition at 5:30 p.m. invites you to a free, upbeat concert by The Ditties, a group of jazz singers, who will play early swing style music characterized by vocal harmony and syncopated rhythms. A stunningly elegant musical performance will transport listeners to the interwar and holiday era.

Stasys Lozoraitis with his son Stasys in Palanga, near the villa “Mahorta”. 20th century I half

The National Museum of Lithuania’s exhibition “President’s Work” opens in 2024. July 3 at 5 p.m. in the Palanga mayor Jonas Šliūpas museum (Vytauto st. 23A, Palanga) and will be open until 2024. September 1