PRESS RELEASE

August 4, 2015

The Lithuanian Jewish Community for the first time in our country’s history is holding an “en plein air” outdoor painting and arts workshop called “Litvak Artists: The L’école de Paris Period” from August 10 to 14. The goal of the workshop is to remember the rich legacy of Litvak artists and their contributions to art history and to fortify and celebrate the memory of this unique cultural heritage in the consciousness of Lithuanian Jews and the broader Lithuanian society.

“The heritage of Litvak artists is a unique phenomenon in the context of Lithuanian as well as global art history. The Litvak artists include people such as Arbit Blat, Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine, Lasar Segall and Jacques Lipchitz. It is exactly the desire to share the rich history of the Litvak artistic legacy and to gather art-lovers and the like-minded together which have given stimulus to undertaking this educational project,” Junona Berznitski, the initiator and coordinator of this educational plein air event, said.

Plein air participants are to be treated to an interesting educational and hands-on program of painting, drawing and ceramics under well-known and professional teachers. Internationally-recognized Israeli painter Alexander Ganelin and famous Lithuanian painter, sculptor and photographer Viktoras Binkis

are to teach painting, while renowned and award-winning animator and cartoonist Ilja Bereznickas

 is to teach drawing. Lina Šeškauskaitė-Dieninė, a master craftsperson in the art of blackware ceramics and a member of the famous Šeškauskas family of ceramics artists, is to teach ceramics.

Raimondas Savickas, a member of the family of the famous Litvak painter of the same surname, is to serve as art director for the educational workshop.

An exhibit of works by participants at the plein air workshop is to be unveiled at 6:30 P.M. on Thursday, August 20, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on Pylimo street No. 4 in Vilnius, featuring a lecture called “Litvak Art in the L’école de Paris Milieu” by author and professor Antanas Andrijauskas

https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Andrijauskas  and a jazz concert.

Workshop supporters include the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Goodwill Fund and the Joint Distribution Committee.

For more information, call Junona Berznitski, workshop coordinator, at 865211723 or email her at junonab@gmail.com