Lithuanian state decorations for Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik and prof. Jacek Purchla

Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, director of the International Cultural Centre and prof. Jacek Purchla, founder and long-time director of the ICC received in Vilnius from the hands of the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, the Knight's Crosses of the Order of Merit for Lithuania. Such a high state decoration is an expression of recognition for their activities for bringing Poland and Lithuania closer, strengthening Polish-Lithuanian cultural contacts and promoting Lithuanian cultural heritage.

Over the years, the International Cultural Centre has often turned to Lithuania, and Lithuanian researchers, writers and intellectuals have visited the ICC many times. During last year's 5th Central European Heritage Forum, which coincided with the 450th anniversary of the conclusion of the Lublin Union, the special guest was Dr. Kristína Sabaliauskaitė, Lithuanian writer and art historian, author of the best-selling tetralogy Silva rerum, considered by critics in Poland to be a true literary sensation from Lithuania.

At the turn of 2015 and 2016, an important event on the cultural map of Poland became, prepared in cooperation with the National Museum of Art M.K. Čiurlionis in Kaunas, exhibition of the works of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis - one of the most important Lithuanian artists, in whose works one can find elements of symbolism, expressionism, and the beginnings of abstract searches.

By joining the Lithuania in Krakow program: the ICC 2015 culture season has been a place of debate in which experts and intellectuals from both countries took part. Its theme was Vilnius - a city where the memory and history of two nations coexist. Earlier, in 2010, as part of an academic seminar organized jointly with Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Borderland heritage, we invited a group of dorms from Japan to Lithuania, showing them the common Polish-Lithuanian heritage and culture.