KAZIMIERA GALAUNIENĖ: A BIOGRAPHICAL EXHIBITION

In 2024, we commemorated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kazimiera Kairiūkštytė-Galaunienė (1924–2016), a museologist and art historian. To mark this occasion, the Galaunė Family House-Museum opened a new biographical exhibition, showcasing over 150 photographs, handwritten documents, and personal belongings of Kazimiera Galaunienė.

Having received her core life values from her parents—Ieva and Juozas Kairiūkščiai, educated farmers from the village of Piluona—Kazimiera nurtured these values further in the gymnasiums of Kaunas and Vilnius. She preserved them throughout times of war, Nazi occupation, and later, Soviet rule. Her Catholic values, faith in an independent Lithuania, and strong family bonds helped her survive imprisonment in the Gulag. Her understanding and spiritual connection with like-minded individuals tied her for decades to the M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, where she found both professional purpose and emotional fulfillment. For over twenty years, she shared her path of happiness and joy alongside her husband, Professor Paulius Galaunė.

Kazimiera Galaunienė's dedication to Lithuanian culture was one of her guiding principles. She authored numerous articles on Lithuanian folk art, wrote memoirs about figures such as diplomat Juozas Urbšys, legal scholar Professor Tadas Petkevičius, translator and writer Julija Jablonskytė-Petkevičienė, artist Vincas Kisarauskas, and others. She compiled the bibliography of P. Galaunė’s writings and contributed to the publication of albums in the Lithuanian Folk Art series. In 1997, she was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, 5th Class, for her services to Lithuania. However, perhaps her greatest achievement was fulfilling her personal mission to establish a memorial museum in the Galaunė family home on Vydūnas Alley and preserve the legacy of the Galaunė family in one place.

The Galaunė Family House continues to reflect Kazimiera Galaunienė’s devotion to museology, her commitment to preserving, researching, and promoting the cultural legacy of Adelė and Paulius Galaunė, and her love for her work, her fellow people, and her homeland. It is a living memory of her tolerance, gentle spirit, deep inner strength, strong will, and unwavering dedication to her ideals and Lithuanian identity—values that were nurtured in the Kairiūkščiai family, took root in the Galaunė household, and remained with her until the end of her life.

Exhibition curator – Miglė Banytė