European Capital of Monoculture 2009?<\/FONT> By the end of the summer, if property developers get their way, the iconic LIETUVA cinema will disappear from the Vilnius landscape altogether. In a City which has already lost fifteen cinemas in recent years, the demolition of the LIETUVA will effectively signal the end of independent film-screening in the capital city. Not only will this mean that the viewing choices of thousands of film-goers will be severely limited, but valuable cultural and economic benefits will also be lost to the so-called European Capital of Culture 2009. <\/P> Thankfully, none of this is about to happen without a fight. At the core of this controversy is an initiative called Pro-Test LAB, a well-organized and articulate network of people representing all aspects of the arts and cultural community. Formed with the express aim of stimulating debate and positive action against the creeping loss of public spaces to private property development, they see the impending loss of LIETUVA as particularly disturbing. \u201cApart from everything else, this cinema has great symbolic significance for many people in Lithuania\u201d says Nomeda Urbonas, a media artist and one of the initiators behind Pro-Test LAB. \u201cWhen it was built in 1965, naming it LIETUVA was an act of bravery and it\u2019s still incredible to think that they managed to get away with it. When people said \u201cLet\u2019s meet in LIETUVA\u201d it meant much more than \u201cLet\u2019s go to the movies\u201d. <\/P> Situated in the former ticket office of LIETUVA, Pro-Test LAB are working against the clock to initiate multiple protest actions in support of saving the cinema and other public spaces. \u201cWe are a production house of creative protest when it comes to the issue of losing public spaces\u201d say Urbonas. <\/P> So how does this all relate to measuring the social and economic impact of such cultural institutions? In the modern world of networking, partnerships and cultural diversity, LIETUVA plays a significant role in the promotion of all three practices. Through it\u2019s partnership with Europa Cinema, LIETUVA networks extensively within Europe and internationally with independent film-makers, programmers, producers and directors. It provides a forum to explore and debate the world of film and culture and through these networks is able to schedule a culturally diverse programme of films. Indeed over the last 3 months, LIETUVA has successfully scheduled four international film festivals from Japan, Africa, Italy and the UK and is host to \u201cKino pavasaris\u201d the biggest annual international film festival in Lithuania. And, there is a clear demand for such films. Vida Rama\u00f0kien\u00eb, the Director of LIETUVA, has seen the demand for mainstream films drop significantly over the last five years, so much so that the scheduling programme is now equally balanced between independent and mainstream films. The other detail worth mentioning is that the price of a ticket at LIETUVA is half the price of a ticket elsewhere in Vilnius, thereby making it more accessible to more people.<\/P> Of equal importance but much harder to quantify, is the knock-on economic benefits of such a cinema and the value of its networks on the Vilnius community. There is little doubt that such relationships help to raise Lithuania\u2019s profile in the European business and cultural community as an independent, progressive, creative and culturally tolerant society, and such traits are now widely used by investors as positive economic indicators. It is also now widely accepted in the business community that a city rich in artistic diversity and supportive enough to encourage the emergence of diverse artistic talent will bring investment. More importantly, a population which is stimulated and challenged through art and culture is happier, more motivated and creative, and has a better sense of pride in their city. <\/P> This is a different kind of bottom line. It is one that has to be measured beyond the short-term financial gain of a few private individuals. It is an issue that requires long-term vision and imaginative thinking because ultimately, the benefits to Lithuania will be incalculable.<\/P> Nell Harrison To find out more about Pro-Test LAB go to www.vilma.cc\/LIETUVA<\/A><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" European Capital of Monoculture 2009?How do you measure, in a non-monetary sense, the value of a cinema to the community it serves? How would you quantify its contribution towards the well-being and social development of a community and its positive knock-on effect to the economy? Such questions have always been fiendishly difficult to answer but … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[256,298],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-en","tag-old-id-379"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nugu.lt\/dossier\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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How do you measure, in a non-monetary sense, the value of a cinema to the community it serves? How would you quantify its contribution towards the well-being and social development of a community and its positive knock-on effect to the economy? Such questions have always been fiendishly difficult to answer but if there was ever a pressing need to do so, it is now. <\/P>
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Dartington College of Arts, Devon, UK<\/P>
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