This Saturday, 31 May, Stasys Museum in Panevėžys celebrates its first anniversary with the unveiling of the Children’s Forest Pavilion – a dynamic fusion of art, education, and sustainability. Originally created as Lithuania’s acclaimed contribution to the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, the pavilion now finds a permanent home at the museum, where it will anchor a free public educational programme running through spring 2025. Admission to the pavilion will be free of charge on the opening day and throughout the duration of the project, until spring next year.
‘The Children’s Forest Pavilion contributes to Stasys Museum as a space where art, education, and environmental awareness come together. Through contemporary cultural practices – architecture, visual arts, and creative work – this space invites engagement, sparks imagination, and encourages critical thinking. The project creates an opportunity for the museum to speak about ecology, industry, and culture together with children. It responds to both global and local challenges.’ says Vilius Vaitiekūnas, Head of Educational Programmes at Stasys Museum and the project coordinator.
The project curators – representatives of Neringa Forest Architecture Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule and Jonas Žukauskas – emphasis e play as both a creative tool and a framework for reimagining ecological futures. Designed as a playful landscape, the installation offers a variety of opportunities for interaction, dialogue, and exploration. It honours children’s innate capacity for learning and discovery, encouraging and recognising unique ways of perceiving the forest – the ability to observe, interpret, and engage with it – and foregrounds their agency in shaping its future.
Forests are essential infrastructures for ensuring a sustainable environment. Across the European Union, there is a shared commitment to expand protected areas, reduce land used exclusively for timber production, safeguard forest ecosystems, and prohibit clear-cutting. Achieving these goals requires a cultural shift – nurturing public awareness of the value and diversity of forest ecosystems. Stasys Museum amplifies this mission by promoting a culture of sustainability.
The pavilion is constructed from salvaged timber sourced from the forests of the Curonian Spit – material otherwise destined for biofuel or paper. Over several years, the Neringa Forest Architecture team collected and preserved this timber at Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, with the intention of using it for material experimentation, creative work, and educational purposes.
Both the materials and design of the Children’s Forest Pavilion reflect the geometry of wind-shaped wood and the distinctive soil conditions of the Curonian Spit. The play area is composed of specially cut timber elements of varying thicknesses – from sheets as thin as paper to solid boards of alder, mountain pine, black locust, birch, chestnut, maple, and pine.
Following its debut in Venice, the installation was relocated to two distinct sites. Its roof structure is now situated in the ancient forest of Juodkrantė, and is used in the Neringa Forest Class – a programme of guided forest walks and environmental learning sessions. The interactive platforms, shadow play projections, and other components are housed in the educational space of Stasys Museum, supporting research and learning activities led by the pavilion’s creators in collaboration with the museum’s team.
Participants:
Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Sengirės fondas, Gabrielė Grigorjevaitė, Laura Garbštienė, Mustarinda association (Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen, Michaela Casková, Robin Everett, Riitta (Nyyskä) Nykänen), Mantas Peteraitis, New Academy (Ikko Alaska, Nene Tsuboi, Tuomas Toivonen), Urbonas Studio (Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas), Kornelija Žalpytė
Curators and producers:
Neringa Forest Architecture (Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule, Jonas Žukauskas)
Architecture:
Jonas Žukauskas, in collaboration with Antanas Gerlikas, Jurgis Paškevičius, and Anton Shramkov
Partners: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Panevėžys District Education Centre
Funded by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Neringa Municipality, Panevėžys City Municipality, Nordic Culture Point
Sponsors: UAB Roquette Amilina, UAB Splius, MB Lairent
Explore the full opening day programme: https://stasysmuseum.com/en/events/birthday-programme/
