KAUNAS IN NUMBERS 387,158 INHABITANTS The longest pedestrian street 29 MUSEUMS 58 LIBRARIES (combined City and Metro) in Europe Liberty Avenue – stretching for 1.6 kilometres 1,556 CULTURAL HERITAGE 13 THEATRES and 9 INTERNATIONAL 7 MUSIC SCHOOLS and OBJECTS 4 THEATRE FESTIVALS CONTEMPORARY ARTS 9 MUSIC FESTIVALS FESTIVALS 12 UNIVERSITIES and 30,000 UNIVERSITY and 115 SCHOOLS, 44,257 109 CHURCHES and COLLEGES COLLEGE STUDENTS SCHOOL STUDENTS HOUSES OF PRAYER 15 BRIDGES Average monthly gross wage 18,549 ENTERPRISES BC Žalgiris has earned 696 Eur, minimum wage 350 17 Lithuanian Basketball Eur Championship gold medals. 1 EUROLEAGUE GOLD MEDAL. CONTENTS 02 Introduction RARY CAPITAL 2022 CAPITAL RARY 10 Contribution to the long-term strategy 15 European dimension TEMPO 22 Cultural and artistic content 68 Capacity to deliver 73 Outreach KAUNAS CON KAUNAS 78 Management 2 25% of population over 60; 34% of population under age 30 Unemployment rate 5,7% 99 Additional information 1 Why does the city which you represent wish to take part in the competition Q1 for the title of European Capital of Culture? Introduction Remember us? Yes, we are the same citizens of Kaunas with a wish TO RETURN OUR CITY TO EU- ROPE by competing for the title of Europe- an Capital of Culture in the second round. And this is to assure you that our wish has grown even stronger. After nearly two years of intensive map- ping and studying, discussions with com- munities of the City, public meetings with artists, city officials, minorities, students, school children, clergy, elderly citizens and the press, our team has gone a long way and now there’s a lot more of us. We have learnt that behind our City there are builders, invaders, defenders, tyrants and jokers. Behind every inferiority com- plex we have here as previously multicul- tural capital city, but for many years now – sterilised, neglected and bullied second city is a personal and very intimate drama. Kaunas is not a proud city, and Kaunas is not a miserable city even though it still # has reputation as being such. There are real people who may feel or act either way CONFUSION in different moments in time. There are our citizens, who would do good things CONFLUENCE and horrible things. Behind every beauti- CONSCIOUSNESS ful and every ugly building in Kaunas there are architects, landlords and tenants, hat- ers and admirers. Behind every initiative there are those, who cannot sleep until it is done and then there are always those, who would rather stay on the sofa... © RP THE riVEr by romualdas Požerskis, 1977. Before the street dividing the City and its So, all of this is our inheritance. River was built. and we can even help others by precisely exists as an act of culture and through Kaunas. The one Kaunas has never had — Kaunas as ECoC could serve as a cat- We truly come from a land of confusion showing how to do it, because we know we culture it speaks to itself and to the outer before. alyst of change for at least 27 other and to borrow a verse from a Genesis song are not alone in this and a good deal of Eu- world. second cities of the EU having simi- “this is the world we live in and these are ropeans can identify with our experiences The European Capital of Culture as a lar self-esteem problems so big there the hands we’re given”. and benefit from them. “Story” here is understood in a very broad means of inviting citizens to participate in must be a term invented to describe sense as a complex of activities which all aspects of society may be extremely in- them. How about second-city-itis for We are now poised to create a future for Therefore, we decided to employ the world would encompass: strumental in implementing our goal. We a start? Kaunas by fully acknowledging our past we are given: our confusion of the past see the project of ECoC as a powerful tool and thus shaping our present. Inherit- and confluences of the present, and turn — Evaluation of historical legacy and re- we need. It‘s our crash course in inclusive So we very strongly wish to become a case ing confusion, we have always been and them into a productive consciousness of programming certain counterproduc- culture which is: study and a laboratory. still are at the crossroads of ideas, ideolo- the future by creating a new story for Kau- tive aspects of it e.g. dealing with con- gies and systems. Think of Kaunas as of a nas. And the idea of the European Capital fusion. Kaunas, previously been known — A possibility to effectively put Kaunas We haven’t lost our sense of humour from multi-storey apartment block with shared of Culture is something we positively need as “temporary capital of Lithuania”, into European context. the first round, but this time it is all about ownership but limited responsibility and to bring this story to life, because culture is should seek to become Contemporary — A unique chance to have every cultural delivery for us. accountancy. The amount of social turbu- the only means effectively capable of tying Capital of Culture. aspect of the city stimulated simulta- RARY CAPITAL 2022 CAPITAL RARY lence the citizens of this City have gone the past, present and future together. — Acknowledging major problems Kau- neously. And yes, we want to make a bit of hiSTORY. through during the past hundred years nas has now with proposals of how — A chance to share experiences we Who wouldn’t? TEMPO could easily be enough to delete Kaunas To put it simply: we want to create a uni- they can be dealt with. have and going to have with other cit- from the political let alone cultural map fying identity. — Creating a scenario for the future. ies in the region and beyond. of Europe. But we are still given hands to — Interweaving all the above into one — The very bidding process in itself is a KAUNAS CON KAUNAS hold the City same as our two rivers do. Identity based on cultural story because comprehensive vision of the past, valuable learning laboratory for eve- 2 We have learnt to live on the confluence a city, a collective of citizens essentially present and future seen as a story of ryone wishing her or his city good. 3 Q 2 Does your city plan to involve its surrounding area? Explain this choice. # Introduction 400,000 KAUNASIANS UNITED THROUGH Introducing: since the system works both ways. There- Lithuania, including Vilnius inhabitants) CULTURE fore, the bid to become the European Capi- can reach Kaunas within around 1 hour’s Kaunas District (Kauno rajonas) – a self-go- tal of Culture opens a range of new pos- drive. So we use ECoC as an engine and verned municipality surrounding the City sibilities for the whole conglomerate to meeting point for the majority of Lithu- of Kaunas. grow. ania’s population. Kaunasian (kaunietis) – citizen of Kaunas, The cultural field of Kaunas District is very In summary, the geographical context of an English term introduced by this bid for much grass root and based on folklore and Kaunas 2022 – at community, District and the first time in known history. traditional approach to culture serving National level – is to encourage and drive mainly senior citizens, who are its strength a much stronger focus on the decentralisa- Nearly 400,000 people living in Kaunas and weakness at the same time. tion of culture from what is still a largely and the District “capital-centric” model for our country and In December 2016 the team of Kaunas “City-centric” model in Kaunas. Stronger seniūnija (plural seniūnijos) – is an 2022 and the City municipality hosted a regional cultural infrastructure in smaller administrative devision of the city or su- coach visit of the programme Culture for countries with culturally strong capital cit- burb, synonymous to the borough. Kau- Cities and Regions run by the EUROCITIES ies in particular is a significant European nas is divided into 11 seniūnijos, Kaunas network. Using this opportunity of the issue. So a key aspect of our programme District –into 25. coaching visit, we put forward the topic of and our European dimension is how size- the regional collaboration and discussed able second tier cities can be more cultur- For us the involvement of our surrounding it with a wide group of stakeholders in ally relevant on a national and internation- area is not a choice. It is an inherent ne- a series of meetings and workshops. It al scale. cessity. was commonly agreed between the rep- resentatives of both municipalities and Kaunas is a seat for two mayors – the City their cultural centres that more focus has Mayor and the Mayor of Kaunas District to be drawn to our internal communica- and there is about 20 minutes driving dis- tion, developing touristic offers, marketing tance between the two offices. Do they get of cultural services, building new cultural along well? There definitely is one project offers around the rivers and other natural they do agree on and that project is Kau- resources, implementing artistic residen- nas’ bid to become the European Capital cies, working on building communities and of Culture. new identities of the seniūnijos. We agreed that the ECoC programme should be used Kaunas District Municipality Council has as a momentum to create new models of voted in favour of participating in the ECoC co-operation. programme together with Kaunas City on 24 March, 2016, which makes Kaunas Dis- Indeed, the cultural margins that sepa- trict a part of this bid and an active part- rate the City and the District municipali- ner with 87,000 residents, living in 3 cities, ties are somewhat hard to define.