The Children’s Plant Library is an experimental educational summer programme developed with children from the Ukrainian community in Neringa, Lithuania, who relocated to the region after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Focusing on the local flora, the programme brought together children ages six to thirteen, their parents, visiting artists from Lithuania, Estonia, and Ukraine, as well as guests and neighbours of Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts (NAC) to exchange knowledge and observations in the process of discovering the surroundings of the Curonian Spit National Park.
From May to July 2024, the NAC library became a collaborative site for rethinking how institutional knowledge and resources are shared and made accessible to new community members from various social, economic, generational, linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. Adapted to the ages of the participating children, the library resources took on new forms – reading groups organised with parents Nina Pavlysh and Tatijana Volosiuk, hands-on workshops, and interactive education sessions. Among the activities introduced during the programme were forest walks, sound recording, natural textile dyeing, wind turbine construction, weaving experiments with found objects, gardening, and music video production, led by invited artists Agnė Juodvalkytė, Diāna Mikāne, Karolina Uskakovych, Kseniia Shcherbakova, Lisa Biletska, Maria Leonenko, Marijonas Verbel, Sandra Kosorotova, and Vasilisa Filatova.
The concluding phase of the summer 2024 iteration of the Children’s Plant Library is a publication, currently in progress, with documentation and reflections on the project.
Participating artists: Agnė Juodvalkytė, Diāna Mikāne, Karolina Uskakovych, Kseniia Shcherbakova, Lisa Biletska, Maria Leonenko, Marijonas Verbel, Sandra Kosorotova, Vasilisa Filatova
Reading Groups Facilitators: Nina Pavlysh, Tatijana Volosiuk
Curator: Mila Kostiana
Coordinator: Yana Ustymenko
Translation and proofreading: Austeja Banyte, Gemma Lloyd, Olesya Kamyshnykova
Design: Mila Kostiana
Administrative support: Asta Jackutė, Karolina Janonienė
Thanks to: Daniella Fitria Praptono, Egija Inzule, Gabija Naikauskaitė, Gražina Žemaitienė, Sascia Bailer, RURUKIDS
Partners: Ukrainian Environmental Humanities Network
Children’s Plant Library is supported by The Europe Challenge annual programme that brings together libraries and communities across Europe to address pressing challenges in their local areas. The programme was first launched in 2020 by the European Cultural Foundation and partners. The Europe Challenge is supported by Fondazione Cariplo, the Scottish Library and Information Council, and public funding through Arts Council England.
The Children’s Plant Library Residency is funded by the European Union and implemented by Goethe-Institut.
