Lithuanian Theater, Music and Film Museum

Contacts
Address: Vilniaus g. 41, LT-01119, Vilnius.
Tel. (+370 ~ 5) 262 24 06.
E-mail: ltmkm@takas.lt
http://www.ltmkm.lt
Director – Regina Lopienė.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday 11–18; Saturday 11–16.

Admission:
adults – 5 Lt;
pupils, students, pensioners – 3 Lt;
„Family ticket“ – 10 Lt;
child under 7, disabled, ICOM members – free.

Guided tour:
lithuanian language – 20 Lt;
foreign language – 40 Lt.

Collections
Collections contains different artifacts about Lithuanian theatre, music and cinema:
Photographs;
Music instruments;
Cinema technology;
Video;
Recordings;
Costumes;
Memorial things;
Drawings of animated films;
Theatre puppets;
Sketches;
Documents;
Posters;
Scripts;
Correspondence.

Departments
There are 5 departments in the museum. They acquire, document, research and preserve collections, attend visitors, organize exhibitions and events.

Theater Department
Displays accumulated in the department make the biggest part of the stock of the museum up to now. Valuable personal collections of Borisas Dauguvietis, Konstantinas Glinskis, Juozas Vaičkus, Antanas Sutkus, Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas, Petras Kubertavičius, archival material of Lithuanian theaters of different periods are among them.
One of the oldest displays is eulogy of Vilnius School Theater "Algirdas the Great – Duke of Lithuania" of 1687. 

Music Department
The stock of the music department consists of music instruments, recordings, personal collections and those of music collectives (education institutions, societies, and music theaters).
Valuable personal collections of Juozas Naujalis, Antanas Kačanauskas, Juozas Bendorius, Juozas Pakalnis, Konstantinas Galkauskas, Kipras Petrauskas, Jadvyga Jovaišaitė-Olekienė, Antanas Zauka, Juozas Grybauskas.
There is some material about Fiodor Saliapin, Lithuanian emigrant musicians.
A collection of music instruments of 18-20th century is interesting and rather rare which includes precursors of a gramophone – mechanical music instruments made most often by the famous J. H. Zimmerman's enterprise.
Quite many folk wind instruments, kanklės (Lithuanian stringed instrument) made by local masters have been accumulated. A rich collection of violins, cymbals, accordions, concertinas.

Art Department
The most significant and the biggest part of the displays of the Art department consists of creative and biographical material of Lithuanian scene-designers of the 20th century or of those who worked in Lithuania. Those are sketches of the scene, costumes and technical drafts, models of the scenery, costumes of characters, articles of properties. One can find here creative works of our first professional scene-painters Vladas Didžiokas, Vladimiras Dubeneckis, Adomas Galdikas, Adomas Varnas, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, Liudas Truikys, other famous scene-designers of the past and these days.
Memorial things having belonged to prominent workers of theater 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 there in the museum. Personal collections of scene-painters contain many written and photo documents.

Cinema Department
Cinema department was founded in 1992, when the museum became independent. It contains artifacts about Lithuanian feature, animated and documentary films. The biggest part of artifacts is in the Lithuanian film studio collection. It contains photographs from feature films, portraits of cinematographers, posters, advertising material. A collection of cinema technology is interesting. The most valuable part is heritage of one of the first cameraman Stepas Uzdonas, containing cameras made in 1930–1970, film copying machine of “Arnold and Richter”. There is a video collection in cinema department with almost all Lithuanian animated films.

Library
In the museum library side by side with books, periodicals there are copies of directorial productions, notes, and claviers, impressive collection of playbills.

History of the Museum
The origin of the Lithuanian Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema dates back to 1926 when two famous lithuanian writers Balys Sruoga and Vincas Krėvė founded the theater museum within Kaunas university. Material collected by a Lithuanian theater worker in Petersburg Antanas Jasūdis became the first collection of the museum. Later the museum was moved to the State Theater. Disturbance of the war and post-war period deranged the activity of the museum; many artifacts disappeared. The museum was renewed in 1957. In 1964 it became a branch of the Lithuanian Art museum and was renamed into the Lithuanian Museum of Theatre and Music. In 1992 the museum was renamed into the Lithuanian Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema. In 1996 it moved to a newly restored premises of Radvilos palace which in 1795–1810 used to house the Public theater of Vilnius.

Photographs from the stock of the museum