Artist and Cultural Producer, founder of Šilainiai Project
Šilainiai Project has beed nominated for the “Most memorable 2018 Kaunas city initiative” award. It is nice to feel appreciated. Thank you. Really looking forward to sharing what we have planned for 2019!
To see the list of all Kaunas initiatives and to cast your vote, visit Kaunas Artist Home website. (Lithuanian only)
Image: judges visiting Šilainiai Project last month. Artwork by local artists Lukas Šiupsinskas (sculpture) and Tadas Šimkus (drawings).
Kaunas has been declared the European Capital of Culture for 2022.
At this point I would very much like to thank the most resilient, hardworking home team, my creative colleagues and everyone who supported Šilainiai Project through it’s first couple of years. It has been a surreal experience and I cannot wait to start this new chapter for the project.
Next five years the activities in Šilainiai will continue and expand into other neighborhoods. I am very pleased that Šilainiai Project was one of the inspirations for ‘Fluxus Labs’ that are part of Kaunas 2022 programme.
“The Fluxus Lab, involving both local inhabitants and international cultural workers, are state of the art of creative participatory neighbourhood development.” – The Selection Panel’s report Final report, available: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/sites/creative-europe/files/ecoc-2022-lithuania-selection-report_en.pdf
This is a huge challenge and an immense opportunity, that can only be achieved by working together. So let’s start a conversation: https://www.facebook.com/FluxusLabs/
I will be presenting Šilainiai Project and my further research in public art practices at these conferences/ events:
Audience Links Xchange Conference and Baltic Audience Links workshop, Stockholm, Sweden 20-24 February 2017.
3rd International Pulblic Art Research Network Meeting for global research about art in public space and place-making, Zhejiang Province, China 13-16 March 2017.
College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.
Art, Place-making and Resilient Cities Conference, Hong Kong 17-20 March 2017.
IPA-Hong Kong Baptist University Conference, and the IPA-HK Govt. Dept. of Leisure and Culture Services – Oi! Workshops.
It is important to me to share my practice and learn from other good examples. I feel very privileged to be able to do so.
This year has started with some pleasant surprises. Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania has awarded me an Art Creator status.
And I was nominated for the ‘Kaunas woman of the year’ award for my work in Šilainiai. I feel very grateful for the support everybody has been showing me here in Kaunas.
Thank you!
Evelina Šimkutė 