This summer, on August 15-18, the alternative music festival MENCA was held. The 3rd year students of the Department of Graphics of the Vilnius Academy of Arts: Guostė Budrikaitė, Indrė Labanauskaitė, Laura Valiūnaitė and Student of Jewellery and Metal Art at VAA Telšiai Faculty Milda Šimkevičiūtė contributed significantly to its organization. The festival created a creative space where each participant could engage in a specific artistic activity and try out different forms and shapes of expression.

Students of the Vilnius Academy of Arts presented and led workshops for festival visitors. 

Guostė Budrikaitė led a linocut workshop, during which the festival guests could try out this outstanding printmaking technique and gain the necessary knowledge to prepare the cliché. After creating their own unique stamp, participants could have it printed on different selected papers and T-shirts, thus creating their own personal festival merchandise.

In the cyanotype workshop led by Laura Valiūnaitė, the festival guests were introduced to this engaging technique that combines printmaking and photographic processes. The monochromatic blue stamps were created using the sun's UV rays and various organic elements found in the nature of Menca.

Indrė Labanauskaitė prepared an interactive installation, placing her artworks in the depths of the forest and inviting all interested visitors to take part in a magic activity. 

The herbs, gathered in the vicinity of Menca, were carefully prepared, dried and transformed into incense in the workshops run by Milda Šimkevičiūtė.

The organisation of the festival and the workshops were based on eco-friendly tools and organic materials found in nature, in order to highlight the relationship between human beings and nature, and the reciprocal effect of both.

The organisation and implementation of the workshop was supported by the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Author of photographs - Dovydas Niagulovas