The idea of establishing the Museum of Toys was conceived when one of the founders, Povilas Blaževičius, was working on his dissertation on the topic of the oldest Lithuanian toys. At that time, we were discussing not only what toys were, how archaeological data should be interpreted, but also the meaning of science and research. The material collected was really rich and interesting. We wondered whether it would not just end up in a dissertation and a monograph. Especially as there was no museum in Lithuania at that time that presented the heritage of toys and no museum that was oriented towards families. We believe that it is important to create opportunities for the whole family to participate in culture together, and that involving children in learning about cultural heritage is important for their education and for the future of society in general.
On 8 March 2010, we registered the Toy Museum as a public institution and started to publicise the idea of opening a museum. It took us a couple of years to find a place where we could physically establish the museum and welcome visitors interested in the heritage of toys and games and who wanted to spend their leisure time with their families. We were fortunate that the Vilnius City Municipality supported this idea and leased premises in Vilnius Old Town, Šiltadaržio Street, on preferential terms. In 200 square metres of space, we started to create and develop the Toy Museum. 7 December 2012 was a very important and memorable day for us - the Toy Museum was officially opened together with the Mayor of Vilnius, Artūras Zuokas, and the then Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Gintaras Steponavičius, as well as a number of important guests. In 2013, the museum became a full member of the Lithuanian Museum Association. Since 2017, the museum has been a member of the Hands On! International Association of Children in Museums.
When we opened the museum, we welcomed our visitors with the first exposition "The Oldest Lithuanian Toys", which was basically the presentation of the thesis of Dr. P. Blaževičius on "Toys and Games in Lithuania from the 13th to the 17th century on the basis of Archaeological Data". Eventually, this exposition was enriched by a part of the exposition "Children and Bricks", which was supported by the credit union "Saulėgrąža", presenting the latest scientific research on children's work in the Middle Ages. We are delighted to have received a licence from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to exhibit an original 16th century reproduction of Peter Breigel the Elder's 16th-century painting "Children at Play". This painting allows visitors to see even more clearly that Lithuania's archaeological material is rich and significant, and that play and playfulness is a universal phenomenon.
We have continued to collect material and expand the Museum's collection in order to gradually tell a coherent history of play from ancient times to the end of the 20th century. We are not yet trying to present our own time, but to let it flow quietly until we start to analyse it.
Thus, a year later, the Stone Age exhibition space was created, and a few years after that, the narrative of childhood in the countryside and the city was added, focusing on the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The original toys from the second half of the 20th century are the richest part of the Museum's collection, which is still being added to in large numbers. Visitors donate old toys they have found unexpectedly in cellars or attics, and sometimes we receive toys that have been stored for a long time, but which people have decided are no longer worth keeping in their homes. The Museum's holdings are thus growing, opening up the possibility of not only displaying the toys, but also of letting them be tried out.
We are extremely grateful to all the relatives and friends who supported our enthusiasm, who helped us to renovate, to furnish and furnish, to forge and paint, to invent and draw, to create and make and to make us all believe in the need for such an institution for our city and country. Thank you to the visitors who understood our idea and willingly joined in the exploration of the history of toys. In this way, we have been learning with them, creating further and deepening our experience.
