In 2019, we will commemorate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Adamas Varnas, a prominent personality in the history of Lithuanian culture and education, an art teacher, photographer, collector, promoter and cherisher of folk art, stage designer, promoter of the Lithuanian language, and a renowned artist.
Adomas Varnas (1879-1979) was the husband of the pioneer of Montessori education in Lithuania, the educator Marija Kuraitytė-Varniene (1886-1982), a helper and promoter of the Montessori method.
In 2016, on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of M. Varnienė’s birth, the museum organised an exhibition “The Path to the Child’s Heart. In 2019, we are planning an exhibition dedicated to Adam Varnas. Adam Varnas was not only a famous artist, but also a teacher: he taught drawing at the Voronezh Lithuanian Gymnasium, the Vilnius Vytautas the Great Lithuanian Gymnasium, and later worked together with his wife, Marija Varniene, in Kaunas, Germany and the USA. Maria Montessori’s method of teaching became the guiding light for A. and M. Varnai’s future life together, their ambition to dedicate their lives to the Child. A. Varnas assisted his wife in spreading the Montessori method in Lithuania: together they published 3 books about Montessori’s work (“General laws of my method”, “What is the difference between the Montessori method and other methods?”, “Why the Montessori method can be used in Lithuania?”), together they gave lectures on the extraordinary achievements in drawing of children using the Montessori method and translated into Lithuanian texts by Montessori.
At the end of the 20th century, by the will of Marija Varniece, the legacy of Montessori preschool and school education tools was brought back to Lithuania from the USA. Some of the children’s drawings, essays and photographs, Montessori teaching aids created by Marija and Adamas Varnas, Domicelė Petrutytė, documents and drawings by Adamas Varnas are kept in the Lithuanian Museum of the History of Education. With this project, the Museum has added to the collection of the legacy of Marija and Adam Varnas and acquired unique exhibits reflecting the work and educational activities of Adam Varnas. On the other hand, all these exhibits also illustrate the history of education in Lithuania. In 2017 and 2018, the Museum is conducting research on the legacy of M. and A. Varnas and is preparing an exhibition to be presented to the public in spring 2019. This exhibition will be unique in that it will introduce the Lithuanian people to the comprehensive personality of Adamas Varnas – a sharecropper, educator, educational and cultural figure, photographer, and promoter of Lithuanian language. The exhibition will present his work, his achievements and his personality. The exhibition will be exhibited not only in Kaunas, but also in other Lithuanian cities.
