Address
41 Vilniaus Str.,
LT-2001 Vilnius.
Tel.: (+370-22) 622406.
E-mail: ltmkm@takas.lt
Opening
Time
Tues to Fri
12.00-18.00.
Sat 12.00-16.00.
Museum's
Collections
The museum contains
collections of photographs of concerts, theatre productions and
films. Among the exhibits are programs, posters, costumes, scenery
sketches, models, puppets, stage sets, documents and
musical instruments. The museum collections also include
personal possessions of famous actors and actresses as well as
of directors
and musicians, their portraits and friendly jests, manuscripts
and ex-libris.
Cultural
and Educational Activities
Organization of
exhibitions;
Organization of concerts;
Organization of conferences.
Museum's
Divisions
Theatre
Division
Displays accumulated in the division make the biggest
part of the stock of the museum up to now. Valuable personal
collections of Borisas Dauguvietis, Konstantinas Glinskis,
Juozas Vaickus, Antanas Sutkus, Andrius Oleka-Zilinskas, Petras
Kubertavicius, archival material of Lithuanian theatres of
different periods are among them.
One of the oldest displays is the eulogy of Vilnius School Theatre
"Algirdas the Great - Duke of Lithuania"(1687).
Music
Division
The stock of the music division consists of music
instruments, phono-archives, personal collections and those of
music collectives (educational institutions, societies and music
theatres).
The division includes valuable personal collections of Juozas Naujalis, Antanas
Kacanauskas, Juozas Bendorius, Juozas Pakalnis, Konstantinas
Galkauskas, Kipras Petrauskas, Jadvyga Jovaisaite-Olekiene,
Antanas Zauka, Juozas Grybauskas.
There is also some material about Fiodor Saliapin, Lithuanian
emigrant musicians.
A collection of music instruments of 18-20th century is
interesting and rather rare including precursors of a
gramophone - mechanical music instruments made most often by a famous J. H. Zimmerman's enterprise.
A number of folk wind instruments, kankles (Lithuanian stringed
instrument) made by local masters have been accumulated as well
as a rich
collection of violins, cymbals, accordeons, concertinas.
Art Division
The most significant and the biggest part of the
displays of Art division consists of creative and
biographical material of both Lithuanian and foreign scene-designers of the 20th
century. There are sketches
of the scene, costumes and technical drafts, scenery models, costumes of characters, articles of properties among
the exhibits.One can
find here creative works of our first professional
scene-painters Vladas Didziokas, Vladimiras Dubeneckis, Adomas
Galdikas, Adomas Varnas, Mstislavas Dobuzinskis, Liudas Truikys,
other famous scene-designers of the past and present.
Memorial things who belonged to prominent workers of theatre
and music are kept in the museum; valuable art works are among
them (paintings, sculptures, furniture, and candlesticks).
An interesting collection of portraits of famous artists in
paintings, sculptures and graphic works as well as in ex-libris
is displayed in the museum. Personal collections of scene-painters
contain many written and photo documents.
Cinema Division
Plenty of photographs and posters from feature
films has been accumulated in the division. One can find
material about the pre-war cinema, documentary cinema,
animation, television, cinematography of Lithuanian emigrants,
articles about film-making and film-makers.
A collection of the museum exhibits the heritage of one of the first
cameramen Stepas Uzdonas, containing 10 cameras made in
1930-1970, a unique copying machine of "Arnold and
Richter" films (produced in 1934-1935), cameraman's
documents, personal things, abundance of scripts written by
him. The collection is of great value.
Majority of the displays of Cinema division was given by
Lithuanian Film Studio. Those are the photographs of cinema and
television films, posters, booklets, portraits of
cinematographers, sound recording and reproducing technology,
costumes, articles of properties, sketches of scene and
costumes.
Library
In the museum library apart from the books and
periodicals there are copies of directorial productions, notes,
and claviers.
Impressive collection of playbills, posters of different periods
of the 20th century.
Photo Archives
About 33 000 negatives and slides are kept in the
photo archives of the museum. The names and roles of the artists
photographed are being cleared out.
Facts
From the History of Museum's Establishment
Opened in 1924.
The museum's establishment works started in 1920.
The material collected by a Lithuanian theatre worker in Petersburg
Antanas Jasudis (1878-1963) became the first collection of the
museum which at first was established in the Faculty of
Humanities in Kaunas University.
Later the Museum of Theatre was moved to the State Theatre.
Disturbance of the war and post-war period deranged the activity
of the museum; many displays disappeared during the period.
The activity of the museum was renewed in 1947.
After the decision to establish the Museum of Theatre and Music
was taken, the material accumulated until that was forwarded
to Lithuanian Museum of Arts.
In 1964-1992 the present museum functioned as a branch of Lithuanian Museum of Arts.
In 1965 the first exhibition was organized in the museum.
Up to 1992 the museum was called the Museum of Theatre and
Music.
At first premises of the museum belonging to the Society of
Protection of Monuments and Ethnography were in the so-called
Umiastovskiai palace (2 Traku St.) built in the second half of
the 18th century. In the beginning of 1990s it was
decided to apply the Small Radvilos' Palace (41 Vilniaus St.)
for the needs of the museum. In this building Vilnius Public
Theatre functioned during 1795-1810 and
various troupes performed until 1845.
At present the museum occupies this building. Currently the
museum has 1,500 sq.m. of space for exposition, a cinema hall
and is in the process of establishing an amphitheatre and a
café club. Among future plans is also a broad range of
activities in the field of museum science.
Since that time a large variety of materials depicting the
history and development of theatre and music art in the country
has been displayed. The current collection includes show program
sheets, newsletters, documents, photographs, memorabilia,
scenery scetches, costumes, personal items of famous performers,
a collection of music instruments etc. Also,
here materials on famous art celebrities who
performed in Lithuania or otherwise influenced the development
of national art (such as Shalypin) can be found.
Other
news about the Museum
Founder of the
museum is the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
Aleksandras Guobys has been working as a director of the museum since 1997.
Photographs
taken from the stock of the museum
