Lithuania

Last update: May, 2022

In recent years, the key developments of the Lithuanian cultural policy are related to the establishment of two cultural policy implementation institutions (Lithuanian Council for Culture and Film Centre) due to the cultural policy system reform in 2012–2013. Although these institutions distribute only a small part of public funds (about 7 and 2 per cent of overall central state funding respectively), they have brought into the cultural policy a new ethos of communication and management based on dialogue, openness and accountability to the public. Both institutions prepare activity reports for the public, publish lists of projects that got and did not get funding, collect and publish statistics, etc.

The aim of the reform of the cultural policy system was its horizontal decentralisation and democratisation by separating functions of policy development and implementation. The new model had to ensure that the Ministry of Culture, which previously was mostly engaged with the distribution and administration of funding, undertakes a more active role of strategic cultural policy development and the newly established institutions take over funding functions. In order to ensure the political independence of the Council for Culture, the  Law on the Council for Lithuanian Culture (2012) establishes certain principles for the election of the Council (see chapter 1.1) and its funding. Until 2021, the funding of the Council was carried out through the Culture Support Fund that was comprised of the following: 1) 3 per cent on the income received from the excise duty levied on alcoholic beverages and processed tobacco; 2) 10 per cent on the proceeds received from the lottery and gambling tax; 3) other lawfully acquired resources. This funding regulation increased the Council's independence since the amount of its finances could not be manipulated. A similar funding regulation is established for the Lithuanian National Broadcasting Company (LRT), which is calculated automatically as a fixed percentage of the state's tax revenue and cannot be revised by the government every year. The State allocates to LRT 1% of personal income tax and 1.3% of excise duties collected.

In 2020, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania asked the Constitutional Court to clarify whether these forming principles of the Culture Support Fund and budget of LRT do not contradict its constitutional right to propose a budget to the Parliament, taking into account the social and economic situation of the country. In the LRT case, the court stated that this legal regulation protects the institutional and editorial independence of the national broadcaster and is a way to shield it from political pressures. This argument, however, was not applied to the funding of the Lithuanian Council for Culture and in 2021, the Ministry abolished the Culture Support Fund and changed the Law on the Council for Lithuanian Culture (2021) respectively. According to the new edition of the Law, the funds of the Council consist of the funds of the state budget of the Republic of Lithuania intended for financing the programmes implemented by the Council and administering its activities.

The Lithuanian Art Creators Union published a public appeal to the Culture Committee of the Parliament and the Ministry of Culture, arguing against this change as it removes regulatory safeguard that maintains  the autonomy of the cultural field. According to the new edition of the Law, the possibilities for the field of culture and art to provide arguments regarding the budget of the Council are rather limited. The Council is not an appropriation manager and negotiations on its entire budget are ongoing in the Ministry. Non-governmental organizations in the field of culture have less opportunity to take part in these negotiations than the state cultural and artistic institutions. The Union have proposed to set up a working group in the Seimas to develop an alternative or improved funding model for the arts involving the community within a year.

Last update: May, 2022

Articles 25 and 44 of the Lithuanian Constitution protect the freedom of expression (see chapter 4.1.1). Article 37 of the Constitution protects rights of national minorities: “Citizens who belong to ethnic communities shall have the right to foster their language, culture, and customs.”

In 2015, amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, which decriminalised the offense of private persons and public officials, came into force. According to the Lithuanian Human Rights Monitoring Institute, this was a significant step in the field of the freedom of expression, because it ensures that exercising this freedom will not lead to disproportionately applied criminal liability. After the decriminalisation of the offense, persons still have the possibility to defend their honour and dignity in civil courts.

The self-regulating authorities of journalists, public relations specialists and advertisers supervise limits of freedom of expression and other ethical issues of public communication. The self-regulatory body of media is theAssociation of Ethics in the Provision of Information to the Public. The stakeholders of the Association are public information producers, disseminators, journalists and other participants of the media sector, which seeks to ensure compliance with the provisions of theCode of Ethics in Providing Information to the Public, to foster principles of ethics in the provision of information to the public in public information activities and to raise public awareness on the evaluation of public information processes and the use of public information.

In March 2005, the self-regulatory institution Lithuanian Advertising Bureau was founded on the initiative of Lithuanian advertising agencies, the media and advertisers. The Bureau is responsible for the administration of a self-regulatory system and the application of the National Code of Advertising Practice, which is based on the Code of Advertising Practice of the International Chamber of Commerce. The main aim of this self-regulatory institution is to ensure a relevant and effective system of self-regulation, which could enable the advertising industry to regulate its social responsibilities by itself, employing respective fair-trade principles, actively promoting the highest ethical standards in commercial communications, and protecting consumer interests.

The official institution for supervision of journalist ethics established by the Seimas is the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics. The functions of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics are: investigate the complaints (applications) of the persons concerned whose honour and dignity have been degraded in the media; examine the complaints (applications) of the persons concerned in relation to violation of their right to protection of privacy or processing of their personal data in the media; submit proposals to the Seimas and other state institutions for improving the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public and other laws and legal acts regulating the information policy; etc.

Despite the activity of the above-mentioned institutions related to cultural rights and ethics, some cultural events during the last years raised wide public discussions and revealed a rather narrow understanding of freedom of expression in Lithuania (see Human Rights Monitoring Institute report). For example, in 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania upheld a fine imposed on the company of designer Robertas Kalinkinas for his advertisement campaign that had used the visual images of a young woman and man who were stylized like Jesus and Mary. The fine was imposed by the State Consumer Rights Protection Service deciding that the advertisement violated the provision of the Law on Advertising on public morality. In the same year, a pre-trial investigation was launched against the comedian Whydotas, who posted a song on his YouTube channel called “Devil, please” which contained a verse “Devil, please take my soul, and let me bash children’s heads into the wall”. The author was suspected of inciting violence against a social group – children. Despite the song being obviously intended to be humorous and no actual aim to incite violence being present, Whydotas and other creators of the song were only acquitted on appeal, after almost 2 years of investigation and litigation. In 2018, the Parliament’s Commission of Freedom Fighters appealed to the prosecutor's office to open a pre-trial investigation against writer M. Ivaškevičius regarding his public support for international crimes committed by the USSR or Nazi Germany against the Republic of Lithuania or its inhabitants. According to the applicants, the writer had committed these crimes in the novel “Greens” while assessing Lithuania’s resistance to the occupation and depicting the partisan struggle, its main leader, and other partisans. In general, these events show that even though freedom of expression and the importance of its protection are acknowledged at the highest level in Lithuania, more extreme forms of expression received disproportionate prohibitions and punishment-based responses from the authorities. Performers, designers, advertisers, writers, and social action initiators had to defend their freedom of expression in the courts and these cases demonstrated that law enforcement authorities are not always able to distinguish permissible self-expression, criticism, or black humour from hate speech, bullying or contempt.

Last update: May, 2022

The Law on the Status of Artists and Artists’ Organisations (1996) establishes the basis and procedure for granting and abolishing the status of the artist and artists’ organisations. According to the Law, the status of an artist is granted to a person who creates professional art, and 1) a person’s individual or collective creation of art has been positively evaluated as professional art in monographs, reviews or articles published by professional artistic assessors; 2) a person’s creation of art is included in general education curricula, vocational training programmes and higher education study programmes approved in accordance with the procedure laid down by the law; 3) the creation of art by a person or a group of persons has been honoured with a national or international art prize, other prizes and awards given by organisations of artists, or a laureate’s diploma of an international competition of professional art creators and/or performers (except competitions of pupils and students); 4) the person’s artworks have been acquired by national museums or galleries of Lithuania or foreign states; 5) the person has published art-assessment articles and reviews in Lithuanian or foreign publications for not less than five years; as well as the person who has been awarded a Doctor of Science degree or a Doctor of Arts degree for research activities in an appropriate artform; 6) a teacher in the field of the art who holds the position of professor or associate professor at a higher education institution which prepares professional artists according to art study programmes; or 7) a person who has been, individually or with a group of artists, selected and represented Lithuania at internationally recognised events of professional art.

Article 11 of the Law determines state support for artists from the Artists Social Security Programme, approved by the government in 2011. The Programme guarantees the state financial obligation to cover social and health insurance of artists, and support to self-employed artists. One of the purposes of the Programme is to allocate creative idle time payments for artists. Creative idle time means a period of time when an artist of employable age, for objective reasons, temporarily has no conditions for the creation of art and (or) dissemination of its results. Creative idle time payment is a payment in the amount of a minimal monthly wage, which is paid to the artists from the Programme's budget. The new edition of the programme of 2022 establishes the rules for payments in an emergency or quarantine.

The Law also defines the procedure of granting the status of “artists’ organisation” to an association. The status is granted if 1) not less than 25 artists have founded the association; 2) only artists or organisations holding the status of an artist and uniting not less than five members – organisations of artists – are members of the association; 3) the association promotes creation of art of high professional value, its diversity and dissemination; 4) the association sets conditions for the creation of art, creative work and professional development of its members; 5) the association arranges for art works to be accessible to the public; 6) the association represents artists of the whole country (not just one of its regions).

In 2022, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture provided information about 19 unions and associations that have the status of “artists’ organisation”. These organisations play an important role in cultural policy. According to many Laws that establish the procedure of formation of cultural policy institutions (councils, commissions, foundations), these organisations have the right to delegate their members to consulting or governing bodies. Thus, artists participate in cultural policy decision-making mainly through their unions and associations (see chapter 1.2.5 for more about the activity of artists organisations).

The state funding for individual artists’ creative activity and for the projects of artists organisations is mainly allocated through the Lithuania Council for Culture (see chapter 7.2). The Council awards grants not only to those artists who have a status of art creators, but also to all cultural or artistic creators who are citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, other European Union countries or third countries, if their activity is related to creation or dissemination of Lithuanian culture and art.

In 2021, the Lithuanian Council for Culture commissioned a Study on the Social and Creative Condition of artists. According to the study, there are 6976 artists in Lithuania, of which 52 % are women and 48 % are men. Only 20 % of all artists interviewed said they could make a living purely from creative activities. On average, 35 % of the monthly income of artists comes from creative activities, 37 % is earned from non-creative activities, and 28 % comes from activities partly related to creativity. Responding to questions on the artist's profession and society' s attitude towards it, most of the artists agreed that “artists contribute to the formation of social values” and that it is “important for them to contribute to the development of culture and the arts”. At the same time, they believe that artists are underestimated by society and policymakers in Lithuania. This view is confirmed by the recurring public debates in the media between artists, politicians, and the public about various works of art (see chapter 2.9). These discussions are mainly provoked by patriotic and religious NGOs expressing their negative attitude or dissatisfaction with the way artists treat certain ideas, personalities, or symbols. NGOs are usually supported by populist politicians seeking to use public debate to increase their popularity and visibility. Thus, Lithuanian artists must often defend their professional autonomy and the right to make their own aesthetic and artistic decisions and to tackle the challenges of a narrow understanding of the freedom of expression and low artistic literacy in society.

Last update: May, 2022

In Lithuania, digital cultural policy is mainly implemented in the fields of libraries, museums, and heritage. The beginning of the digitisation process was a project of the Lithuanian Libraries Integral Information System (LIBIS), which started in 1995. The project was implemented by the Martynas Ma˛vydas National Library of Lithuania. The objectives of the project were to develop a library system that would enable automation of all library and reader service processes; create a union catalogue based on shared cataloguing; adapt integrated library information resources to customer service; extend the infrastructure created by LIBIS and develop the existing software tools. LIBIS was launched in 1998. In 2015 – 2021, the National Library implemented the LIBIS modernisation project that aimed to transfer the e-services provided by the LIBIS libraries to a centrally managed cloud infrastructure and to develop the ibiblioteka.lt portal by creating new electronic services or modernising existing ones.

In 2005, the Lithuanian Government approved the Concept for the Digitisation of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage. This policy paper defined the goals and objectives of digitisation of Lithuanian cultural heritage and established a special coordination body: the Board of Digitisation of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage.According to the Strategy, the goal of the digitisation of Lithuanian cultural heritage is to transfer unique and valuable pieces of cultural heritage into digital form. The objectives are the following: to create an integrated information system of Lithuanian cultural heritage based on uniform standards and information usage agreements, ensuring long-term preservation of digitised information and access to it; facilitate the long-term preservation and use of cultural heritage by providing a digital copy and information on it; promote the actualisation and dissemination of Lithuanian heritage in the context of world cultural diversity; and contribute to the creation of an integrated information space on European cultural heritage.

Since 2005, policy for digitisation of cultural heritage in Lithuania is coordinated by the Ministry of Culture (Memory Institutions Policy Group) together with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (since September 2018) and the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania. The Council for Digitisation of Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage provides expertise and consultations on issues in digitisation policy making, implementation, monitoring and reviewing.

Digitisation of cultural heritage activities in the national memory institutions is coordinated by the national network of 15 digitisation competence centres: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania, Lithuanian Central State Archives work at national level; M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Lithuanian Sea Museum, Šiauliai Aušros Museum, and county public libraries work at regional level; Vilnius University Library, Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the public institution Lithuanian National Radio and Television work on a sectoral level. Since the beginning of 2020, the system of statistics on digitisation of cultural heritage has been in place to consistently monitor and analyse the state and development of digitised and digital resources of cultural heritage and evaluate the impact of measures taken to achieve the strategic goals of the cultural heritage digitisation policy, and to initiate qualitative changes.

Digitised cultural heritage of cultural and scientific significance is available through several portals. E-paveldas is a virtual digital cultural heritage information system based on a database of digitised objects, which currently contains about 3 million pages of digitised objects (archive files, manuscripts, books, posters, paintings, graphics, photographs, and digitised images of other objects). LIMIS is the Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System. The Lithuanian Museums' Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS is a specialised department of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. Its purpose is to ensure that information on the cultural heritage accumulated in Lithuanian museums is integrated into the common digital space of the Lithuanian and European cultural heritage. The portal www.limis.lt became available for users in 2012. In 2022, the LIMIS system had 1.150.600 digital items, of which 680.337 were publicly available. E-Kinas is the virtual archive of Lithuanian documentary heritage. Its aim is to create conditions for the preservation and dissemination of the film heritage accumulated in the Lithuanian Central State Archives. On the initiative of the Lithuanian Film Centre, a total of 39 copies of fictional films of significance to Lithuanian film history and 6 documentary films stored in foreign repositories and archives have already been acquired. They have been transferred for permanent storage to the Lithuanian Central State Archives. Film heritage is also available on the website sinematika.lt that offers digitalized and restored documentary films and video art works. EAIS is the Electronic Archive Information System. The system was developed in response to the constantly increasing amount of information stored in documents, registers and information systems, the cost of storing so-called “paper” documents and the need for a unified information search system of the National Document Fund (NDF). The LRT Mediateka is an audiovisual collection of Lithuanian National Radio and Television. Mediateka is open to the public since 2008. Videos and films converted into digital media are free of charge.

In 2008, to ensure targeted dissemination and promotion of the country’s cultural heritage within the European digital platform for cultural heritage, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was entrusted with the representation of the country in the European digital library Europeana. At the end of 2020, Europeana encompassed 227.286 digital objects provided by Lithuanian institutions. In 2020–2022, due to the quarantine restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Lithuanian cultural and arts organisations developed digital content and created virtual tours and expositions, data bases, digital archives, mobile applications and exhibitions. This was paid in financed in part by the special programme of Lithuanian Council for Culture initiated in 2020 and aimed at the adaptation of cultural products and services to the digital environment. The budget of the programme was 10 million EUR that were allocated to 512 projects. Links to their results together with other digital initiatives are available on the website of the Ministry of Culture.

Last update: May, 2022

In Lithuania, the issue of social inclusion and cohesion is mainly related in cultural policy to the equal opportunities of different social groups and inhabitants of different regions to participate in cultural life, i.e. cultural participation is considered to be an important factor of social inclusion and cohesion. The Lithuanian Cultural Policy Strategy 2030 argues that there is a positive correlation between active participation in cultural life and higher quality of personal and social life: people engaged in cultural and creative activities have more trust in other people, they participate more actively in elections, have stronger and more conscious civic identity, feel happier and healthier. Hence, one of the tasks of the Strategy is “to promote the equal accessibility of high quality and various forms of culture for diverse social groups”.

According to the survey Population participation in culture and satisfaction with cultural services (2020) commissioned by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, the inhabitants of villages and small towns (up to 3 000 residents) are less involved in cultural activities compared to residents of the three major cities (42 % and 48 % respectively).   Residents of small towns and villages visit cultural heritage sites, participate in books and press related activities less often. As the main reason not to participate in cultural activities, small towns residents indicate the difficulty in travelling to the locations where cultural activities take place, the high price, and poor health.

In 2018, in order to improve the accessibility of culture in the regions and the development of diversity of local cultural expressions, the Lithuanian Council for Culture created the model of the support of Even Cultural Development. The main idea of the model is to create 10 Regional Councils for Culture, which decide independently on funding of cultural projects through local calls for tenders. The Regional Councils for Culture are formed of representatives of regional municipalities, representatives of regional arts and culture organisations and one delegate from the Lithuanian Council for Culture, who does not have voting rights. Each Regional Council forms its own funding priorities reflecting the situation of local cultural communities, infrastructure and potential. The aim of the model is to decentralise cultural funding decisions, enable regions to decide independently on the implementation of cultural and artistic projects that are important for them, and involve local communities, creators and municipalities in decision-making processes. In 2019, the Lithuanian Council for Culture organised the first contest for funding according to the Even Cultural Development Programme. 487 regional projects were granted 2 981 780 EUR. In 2020, funding of 2 887 016 EUR was granted to 615 projects. However, the funding mechanism of the programme was criticised by the Lithuanian Art Creators' Association because of uneven competing conditions for private and municipal cultural organisations as the latter have guaranteed annual funding from municipal budgets and get the bigger share of finance in this contest as well. The Association proposed to separate the funding of NGO projects from the funding of municipal organisations' projects, arguing that separating this funding would create the conditions for the continued and sustainable operation of the NGO sector.

Last update: May, 2022

In Lithuania, the idea of a societal impact of art (understood as a capacity of art to engage people in common processes of creative activity, enhance their cooperation and strengthen collective identity) is widely exploited at cultural policy of municipal level. In recent years, there have been many initiatives and projects aimed at community building and cooperation through common artistic activities. These projects are funded by municipalities and by the Lithuanian Council for Culture under the "Creative Initiatives of Communities" programme that was initiated in 2018. In 2022, the Council for Culture is going to allocate 250 000 EUR for this programme.

Since 2017, the Lithuanian Council for Culture has been implementing the funding programme “Art for Human Wellbeing”, that aims to promote access to culture and the arts for groups experiencing social and cultural exclusion and that make a positive impact on the personal well-being and health of the individual.  The programme funds projects ensuring the accessibility of professional arts and culture for groups who have limited or no access to culture for objective reasons (e.g. health); projects ensuring cooperation with all categories of health and social care institutions and making professional art and culture accessible to users and services providers of these institutions; creative projects addressing issues of personal well-being or health determined by social and cultural exclusion. Up to 2022, the Council has allocated about half a million euros to the programme.

Last update: May, 2022

According to the UN Sustainable Development Goals Index, in 2021 Lithuania’s SDG Index score was 76.7 and it ranked 31^st out of 165 countries, and last (8^th out of 8) among the countries in the Northern European region. Lithuania has so far achieved the positive indicators set for the 15^th goal (Life on land) only. The biggest challenges are related to the achievement of the 13^th, 2^nd, 9^th, 10^th, and 12^th goals.

Figure 3. Lithuanian SDG trends in 2021

Taking this into account, the National Development Plan of Lithuania for 2021-2030 declares sustainable development as a horizontal priority and sets the target for Lithuania to be in the top 20 countries in the Sustainable Development Index by 2030. The Plan also sets ten strategic goals to be achieved over the next 10 years that are linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals: 1) to progress the sustainable development of the economy based on scientific knowledge, advanced technologies and innovations and to increase the country's international competitiveness; 2) to increase the social well-being and inclusion of the population, to strengthen health and to improve the demographic situation in Lithuania; 3) to increase the inclusion and effectiveness of education in order to meet the needs of the individual and society; 4) to strengthen national and civic identity, increase the spread of culture and the creativity of society; 5) to improve transport, energy and digital internal and external connectivity; 6) to ensure good quality of the environment and sustainability of the use of natural resources, protect biological diversity, mitigate the impact of Lithuania on climate change and increase resilience to its impact; 7) to develop the territory of Lithuania in a sustainable and balanced manner and reduce regional exclusion; 8) to increase the efficiency of the legal system and public administration; 9) to strengthen global Lithuania's influence and relations with the diaspora; and 10) to strengthen national security. The National Development Plan for 2021 – 2030 also encompasses objectives of each goal and their achievements indicators.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Culture is mostly involved in the realisation of the fourth goal of the Plan, which is “to strengthen national and civic identity, increase the spread of culture and the creativity of society”. This goal is linked to the 4^th, 8^th, 10^th, and 11^th SDG of the UN and entails 7 objectives: 4.1. encourage the population to participate in cultural activities and contribute to the development of culture; 4.2. improve the creation conditions in Lithuania and increase the dissemination of Lithuanian culture abroad; 4.3. promote the integration of national minorities; 4.4. aim to increase the highest achievements of Lithuanian sport; 4.5. strengthen the relevance of historical memory in society; 4.6. revive the cultural and national heritage of public significance and increase its usage for the needs of society; and 4.7. increase the relevance of the Lithuanian language in the context of globalization and technology.

In 2021, the National Audit Office of Lithuania prepared a report on Lithuania’s preparedness to implement sustainable development goals. The report has indicated some important aspects of SDG implementation that have to be improved. First, there is a lack of an effective inter-institutional coordination mechanism that results in insufficient coordination of the implementation of the SDGs, both between state institutions (horizontal coordination) and with municipalities and other institutions (vertical coordination). Also, there is no national coordination on publicising the SDGs, and no publicity plan to ensure targeted public communication involving state institutions and other stakeholders. According to surveys (2019), only 24% of Lithuanians have heard of the SDGs or are well aware of them. In three years, the proportion of the population who know what it is or who has heard of it has grown by 4% (from 20% in 2016 to 24% in 2019). Secondly, Lithuania has no effective mechanism to monitor data and assess progress towards SDG. Shortcomings in the localisation of indicators and data collection make it difficult to adequately monitor progress in the implementation of the targets and to react to possible negative trends in indicators in a timely manner.

Despite these shortcomings of sustainable development policy on the governmental level, the NGO sector is aware of SDG and participates actively in various sustainable development activities. According to the Voluntary national review on the implementation of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development in Lithuaniaprepared by an inter-institutional workgroup in 2018, non-governmental organisations of Lithuania or a partner country implement the greater part of Lithuania’s development cooperation projects: in 2017 only 22% of all projects were implemented by the public sector, and the rest were realised by NGOs and businesses. Cultural NGO are mostly involved in the activities designed to introduce the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals to the Lithuanian public. They organised documentary film festivals, photography exhibitions, interactive events, ‘brain fights’ and discussions, disseminate information on television and radio shows and social media, and look for innovative, attractive and accessible forms to present the information.

Last update: May, 2022

In Lithuania, the most fervent public discussions in the field of cultural politics in recent years have been on memory politics and art in public spaces. In cases where these two issues merge, e.g. the establishment of new or demolishing of old public monuments, debates have been ongoing for decades and even reach the courts.

The first wide public debates on art in public spaces were provoked during the programme Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009. Within the framework of the public places humanisation programme aimed at a contemporary interpretation of the city's open space, the sculpture by Vladas Urbanavičius “Embankment Arch” was completed on the river Neris embankment. The sculpture imitates a surfaced architectural-communicative construction. Soon it got the name “Vilnius pipe” and split the residents of Vilnius into two groups, one demanding the elimination of the sculpture as soon as possible, as it is a blot on the landscape, while others petitioned for its preservation and claimed that it is an excellent, ironic, and provocative work of art. Despite the criticism, the capital's authorities decided not to eliminate the "pipe", even though its exposition time had expired. In 2010, by the order of the director of Vilnius Municipality Administration, the Embankment Arch became a permanent art installation. 

Debates on memory policy are constantly provoked by the decisions of the authorities of the cities to eliminate or not to eliminate sculptures and monuments of Soviet times. The most prominent story of this kind relates to the Soviet sculpture composition over the river Neris bridge "Žalias tiltas" ("Green Bridge"). The composition of four sculptural monuments, including a group of soldiers, was listed on the heritage register as a representative example of the Soviet propaganda art of the 1950s. Some of the Vilnius residents saw the sculptures as authentic signs of a time that needs to have a place in the city’s landscape. However, another part of the residents treated the sculptures as a symbol of communist ideology and a monument for Soviet times and argued for the removal of the sculptures. Discussions among the administration of the municipality of Vilnius, artists, heritage specialists, and the local community about the removal of sculptures lasted for several years. Finally, the sculptures were removed because of the need for restoration, by the order of the Department of Cultural Heritage.

The longest story related to the establishment of new public monument is about the monument of Lukiškės Square. The square is the largest square (about 4 ha) in Vilnius, located in the centre of the city. In the Soviet times, the square was renamed Lenin Square and a statue of Lenin was built in its centre in 1953. The statue was removed in 1991, after the restoration of independence of Lithuania. The discussions about the renovation of the square started immediately after the removal of the statue. In 1999, the Parliament of Lithuania adopted a resolution that “the Lukiškės Square in Vilnius has to be formed as the main representative square of Lithuania with memorial recognition of the fights for freedom”.

Until 2019, three competitions were organised for the monument in the square. The first one was organised by the municipality of Vilnius in 2007–2009. After the first phase of the competition, the commission selected 7 works and presented them to the public. The public joined the discussion actively and voiced very different opinions. The Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees, some historians, and senior citizens wanted a traditional monument, while the younger people wanted an urban space adapted for recreation with a historically neutral art object. In 2009, the commission, feeling the pressure of the public and failing to reconcile the interests of the two sides, postponed the decision of the second phase of the competition and none of the presented projects won.

The second competition was organised by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture in 2012–2013. The artists submitted 28 projects to the Ministry of Culture, which were evaluated by 7 experts. The experts selected five projects and recommended to implement one of them – the sculpture “The Spirit of the Nation”. The competition provoked active public discussions again. 33 NGOs submitted a petition to the Minister of Culture, where they expressed a negative opinion on the winning project and on the commission that elected it. Arguing against the decision of the commission, the NGOs claimed that “the genre of abstract composition in the case of the Lukiškės Square is inappropriate in principle”. They also criticized the panel of the commission because “there were only two sculptors competent in the field of monument sculpture. Other commission members represented the so-called ‘trends of contemporary interpretive art’, unrelated to the traditional classical concept of sculpture”.

After the second competition, the patriotic NGOs started an active promotion of the idea that the “classical” monument of Vytis should be erected in Lukiškės Square (Vytis is an old Lithuanian symbol and figure on the Coat of arms of Lithuania that depicts an armour-clad knight on horseback holding a sword and shield). The NGO’s created a Vytis Support Fund, which announced a competition for the Vytis sculptural model. The competition took place in 2016. The sculpture that won this competition was actively proposed for the Lithuanian Parliament and Vilnius municipality. However, the members of the Lithuanian Art Critics Association, historians of arts and scholars of the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute were against the sculpture because of its insufficient artistic quality. They also published a petition that criticized the aesthetic value of the sculpture selected by NGOs.

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture together with the Contemporary Arts Centre announced the third competition for the monument in Lukiškės Square. The artists submitted 32 monument projects. The commission selected 5 of them and proposed a public vote. Among these 5 selected projects was the statue of Vytis, which won the competition of the Vytis Support Fund previously. More than 11.000 people participated in the electronic voting. The statue of Vytis received 37.66 per cent of votes and 37.55 per cent voted for the project of a young artist representing a hillock with a partisan shelter. The latter project got the most votes of the commission – 7 out of 8. The votes of the public and commission amounted to 50% of the final result, so the second project was announced as the winner.

The NGOs expressed their discontent with the competition and the result of it in several public petitions and a meeting. The meeting gathered about 500 people who proclaimed a statement with a requirement that the statue of Vytis should be erected in Lukiškės Square. The Lithuanian Parliament members joined the fight for Vytis and registered a law project, which sets that a monument of Vytis, representing the historical symbol of Lithuanian fights for freedom, has to be erected in Lukiškės Square. 41 members of Parliament supported this law project. This gave rise to the negative reaction of the cultural and academic community that spoke against the initiative of the Parliament members. 166 artists and academics signed a public appeal to Lithuanian leaders, expressing their disagreement with the intention to regulate the square monument by a law and claimed that the opinion of experts should not be ignored when dealing with issues related to art in public spaces.

The draft law had not been considered in the Parliament that year, but it was remembered again and passed in 2020. The 3rd article of this law states: The monument Vytis depicting the symbol of the state together with the memorial to the victims of the freedom of Lithuania is the main focus of the representative square of the Lithuanian state.