News, Creative missions

We celebrate Children’s Day with Creative Missions at the Refugee Reception Center

We celebrate Children’s Day with Creative Missions at the Refugee Reception Center

The third Friday of May is now Children’s Day. Among the regular activities of the Creative Missions program, every week on Friday, the “Artscape” team spent creative time with the children at the Refugee Reception Center.

Creative Missions educators made their prints with the children while enjoying the great weather outside. According to Raimonda Lebelionytė-Alseikienė, Head of Integration Projects at Artscape, this year’s missions are particularly focused on those children and young people who are not yet brave enough to get involved elsewhere or are very brave, but there are no opportunities due to their remote place of residence. The program aims to create a safe space and a sense of community, to help implement creative ideas, to promote creativity, both of participants and artist-educators.

“This year, the Artscape Creative Missions team continues to carry out activities in various locations. We are at the Refugee Reception Center in Naujininkai, we are planning to visit the children in Vilkija as well, we have plans for a separate space in the Foreigner Registration Center for young asylum seekers, we started in Kaunas Shelter with young people from Ukraine. We also have various activities for other age groups, e.g. for women at the National Art Gallery, activities for young teenagers at the center of the International Organization for Migration, etc., says Raimonda.

In 2024 in total, about 50 Creative Missions have already been implemented by regularly visiting the places of activities. The Creative Missions program is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Cover photo Zurab Basheleishvili,

May 17, 2024