The Department of Art History and Theory was the first school for art historians in Lithuania. Its structure and experience served as a basis for creating similar programmes at other universities. The first art history students graduated from the Department in 1974, and in over ten years the alumni of Vilnius Academy of Arts partially compensated for the lack of professionals in the country’s museums, cultural institutions and schools of higher education. Since 1990, when Lithuania became an independent state again, many new cultural, educational and research institutions have been founded (only in 2009 three major cultural centres were opened: The National Gallery of Art (NDG), Modern Art Center (MMC) and The National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania), which have been expanding their activities and employing the alumni of the Fine Arts Studies and Curatorship programme. Moreover, the knowledge, abilities and skills of specialists with the BA degree are applicable in diverse areas: research, art expertise, cultural heritage protection, public information, cultural management, education, business, museology, publishing, etc. The need for such specialists is felt around Lithuania; therefore, the number of students admitted to the first cycle Fine Arts Studies and Curatorship programme has been constantly increasing and now it is projected to be around 20 students every year.
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