Press release, 29 August 2019
In September, beginning with the autumn parliamentary session, the Visitor Centre of the Seimas, located at 60 Gediminas Avenue, will launch its activities.
When the Visitor Centre opens its doors, the guided tours organised in the Seimas to this day will be complemented by various educational activities, lectures and discussions, which will provide the public with a deeper insight into the history of parliamentary development, activities of modern parliaments, and legislative procedures. The Centre will also host meetings with members of the Seimas. It is noteworthy that each resident or guest of Vilnius will have access to the Visitor Centre during its opening hours without prior registration.
The main objective of the Centre is to promote an open dialogue between the Seimas and the public, ensure the accessibility of the Seimas, and encourage the responsible behaviour of voters. The Visitor Centre will become an excellent educational space for families, children, individual visitors, communities and pupils.
The educational activities and guided tours organised by the Visitor Centre will contribute to lessons of civic education in the secondary school curriculum. Teachers have already been adding variety to their lessons by bringing their pupils to the Seimas. However, the teachers have repeatedly expressed their interest in being offered other forms of civic education by the Office of the Seimas.
The staff team of the Visitor Centre is taking its first steps by opening the doors to society and looking forward to, first of all, dialogue with the public, teachers and educators, who will be able not only to express their impressions and expectations with regard to the functional content of the Visitor Centre, but also to actively participate in the development of its space and activities.
‘The creation of the Visitor Centre of the Seimas has necessitated the study of similar centres operating in Lithuania and abroad. Many of them are very modern and innovative. Surely, such centres are very attractive to the public and, in particular, to young people skilled in modern technology. However, the staff of these centres also pointed out to the errors where some visions failed to match the reality and some implemented projects turned out unattractive to visitors, were impractical, or required permanent updates. We have realised that we cannot waste millions of taxpayers’ money and fit out the Visitor Centre as we choose,’ says Arvydas Nekrošius, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas.
At the initial phase of its operation, the Visitor Centre will examine visitors’ needs, develop educational activities, hold discussions, and organise meetings with members of the Seimas.