šiauliai "aušra" Museum

Contacts
Address: Vytauto g. 89, LT-77155, Šiauliai.
Tel. (+370 ~ 41) 52 43 90.
Tel./fax (+370 ~ 41) 52 69 33.
E-mail: info@ausrosmuziejus.lt, rastine@ausrosmuziejus.lt
http://www.ausrosmuziejus.lt/
Director – Raimundas Balza.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
Aušros Alėjos Palace:
July – September:
Wednesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday – Sunday 11–17.
October – June:
Tuesday – Friday 9–17;  Saturday 11–17.
Museum of Photography:
Museum is closed for reconstruction until 2013.
Bicycle Museum:
July – September:
Wednesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday – Sunday 11–17.
October – June:
Tuesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday 11–17.
Radio and Television Museum:
July – September:
Wednesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday – Sunday 11–17.
October – June: Tuesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday 11–17.
Museum of Poet Jovaras: 
Exposition is closed for reconstruction.
Ch. Frenkel Vila:
June – September:
Wednesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday – Sunday 11 17.
October – May:
Tuesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday 11–17.
Žaliukių Windmill:
Exposition is closed.

Admission:
Ch. Frenkel Vila, Aušros Alėjos Palace, Bicycle Museum:
adults – 6 Lt;
schoolchildren, students, soldiers of regular army, pensioners – 3 Lt;
guided tour – 40 Lt;
guided tour for schoolchildren, students, soldiers of regular army, pensioners – 20 Lt.
Radio and Television Museum:
adults – 2 Lt;
schoolchildren, students, soldiers of regular army, pensioners – 1 Lt;
guided tour – 30 Lt;
guided tour for schoolchildren, students, soldiers of regular army, pensioners – 15 Lt.

Entry is free:
Child under 7, inmates of children's home, disabled of 1-2nd groups, museum professionals, ICOM members.

Additional services:
booking of review excursions;
booking of thematic excursions;
booking of theatricalized excursions;
ordering lectures;
carrying out archaeological investigations to orders;
carrying out archaeological expertise to orders;
Carrying out restoration works to orders;
publishing services (setting up texts, editing, modeling);
copying services (white-black and color);
taking pictures of the displays of the museum.

Collection
Since 1923 displays of ethnography, archaeology, history are being accumulated in the museum.
Art collection has been accumulated since 1940.
Having appended the former public museums of Photography, Bicycles, Radio and Televisions museum to the "Ausra" museum the lather's volume and structure extended significantly.

Expositions

Aušros Alėjos Palace
History and Ethnography Exposition

Museum of Poet Jovaras
Exposition is closed for reconstruction.

Radio and Television Museum
The museum exhibits radio and television sets, transmitters and gramophone players that were either used or manufactured in Lithuania.

Bicycle Museum
The exposition of bicycles

Ch. Frenkel Vila
The province manor and town;
Jewish heritage in Šiauliai.

Žaliukių Windmill
The exposition of Siauliai "Aušra" Museum

Exhibitions
Exhibitions from the collections of the museum are arranged here (exhibitions of art, history, ethnography, archaeology, literature, techniques).
Exhibition halls of the museum are let out for exhibitions of folk-artists, regional ethnographers' etc.

Cultural, educational activity
Organization of conferences;
Celebration of State holidays;
Representations of exhibitions;
Educational programs for children and school children; (a room for educational activity is arranged in the museum where children and schoolchildren under the guidance of the museum staff and folk artists learn to model pots, make Shrove-tide masks, mottle Easter eggs etc.
Theatricalized excursions: "In our grandparents' village cottage", "No nation without our language".

Departments
Department of Archaeology;
Department of Ethnography;
Department of History;
Sector of Modern History;
Department of Art;
Department of Photography;
Department of Technical History.

History of the Museum
Šiauliai "Aušros" Museum was founded on March 11, 1923, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the first Lithuanian newspaper "Aušra" ever published. The newspaper "Aušra" raised the Lithuania people from a long, hard, lethargic sleep, and we are thankful to the newspaper and its patrons for helping gain independence for Lithuania after 35 more years of occupation since the newspaper's inception…
The museum's founder and long time patron was a noted lawyer Peliksas Bugailiškis (1883–1965).
In 1928, Siauliai "Aušros" Museum with its 469 exhibits was taken over to the Ethnographic Society of Siauliai, which was established one year earlier.
About 1930, the museum began to organize ethnographic expeditions that collected approximately 70% of its exhibits, which consisted of an accumulation of ethnographic archives.
At the beginning of 1933, the museum was moved to its new premises at the school.
At P. Bugailiškis' initiative, publishing activity began at the museum. From 1930, the museum began to publish the "Šiauliu metraštis" ("Chronicles of Šiauliai"), a periodical of information, statistics and ethnography.
Šiauliai "Aušros" Museum was well known in Lithuania. Siauliai "Aušros" Museum also entered into relations with various foreign museums. The museum's exhibits were displayed internationally in France, at the Trocadero Museum (1935), and at world exhibition in New York (1939).
In 1940 (under Soviet occupation) the museum became a part of the Ethnographic Institute of Academy of Sciences.
In 1942 (under Nazi occupation), the museum was transferred to the Board of Education Department of Higher Studies. As a result, its status was returned to that of a provincial ethnographic museum with admonished staff and budget.
After the World War II, a temporary office for the museum was established at P. Bugailiškis' home.
In 1950, a Lutheran Evangelical Church was given to the museum, where exhibits were returned from temporary warehouses and shelters.
In 1953, the Cultural Ministry of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania took over the museum.
In 1955, the museum received permission to use the Venclauskiai home at 89 Vytauto Street. There, in 1959, the first post-war museum exposition was opened. Later, in 1963, the museum reorganized the home, designating it as the place where all materials reflecting the history - from ancient times to 1940 – of Lithuania and, more specifically, the history of the region of Siauliai. In 1991, Danutė and Gražbylė Venclauskaitės gave their parents' home as a gift to Šiauliai "Aušros" Museum.
Today the museum belongs to the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture.
In 1998, Šiauliai "Aušros" Museum established the P. Bugailiškis Award, which is presented to students, ethnographers, museum professionals or other persons for exceptional work done in the areas of museology, ethnography, local-lore studies, culture; also for the works that give added meaning to P. Bugailiškis' own accomplishments.
Šiauliai "Aušros" Museum is a very important cultural institution of northern Lithuania.
Founder of the museum – Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Photos by Janina Siliūnaitė