Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

How to save Lithuanian-American heritage

In researching Lithuanian-American heritage, we inevitably discover sad stories about its destruction or slow demise.

We also discover ways how much of this heritage could be saved.

There are many perils that face Lithuanian-American heritage, yet many of these perils could be tackled.

Everyone is able to do something to help the Lithuanian-American heritage, ranging from Lithuanian-Americans to the Lithuanian State to the Lithuanians of Lithuania. Often, such actions may be easier and cheaper than it seems. This article is a white paper offering a framework on how to save Lithuanian-American heritage. Every site is unique yet many sites share similar perils and possibilities.

Why is Lithuanian-American heritage important

Rarely but regularly a doubt is expressed if Lithuanian-American heritage sites are important at all to save. In the same fashion, several centuries ago people did not see the value of saving Roman ruins or Egyptian tombs, destroying them en-masse. Half a century ago, entire historic districts of many world cities were leveled in favor of "urban renewal", now a hated term. In each case, the society later understood how important that heritage was yet sometimes that realization comes too late.

Just like the Roman heritage or the French heritage, Lithuanian-American heritage is greatly important to many groups of people:

*Lithuanian-American heritage is important to Lithuania as it helps teach the Americans Lithuanian culture, history, and its perils. These Americans could be tourists who chose countries for holidays and investors choosing where to invest - and people are always much more likely to travel to or invest at places they heard rather than ones they didn't; Lithuanian sites in America are a good way to make Americans aware of Lithuania. Furthermore, these same Americans are the voters who elect the American leadership, and the position of America may be crucial if Lithuania would come at peril again. Understanding this importance of "soft power", throughout the world, countries are renovating their heritage abroad and those who lack such heritage create new sites and institutions.

*Lithuanian-American heritage is important to Lithuanian-Americans, both new and old. The grand Lithuanian heritage sites are where most of the Lithuanian-American effort has gone to for decades, making them these sites the best repositories of the Lithuanian-American culture. Furthermore, the heritage sites are tools in preserving and passing on the traditions and identity, as well as tools helping the descendants of Lithuanian-Americans rediscover their Lithuanian heritage and thus expand the number of Lithuanian-Americans. While, in theory, buildings are not needed for Lithuanian traditions to continue, in practice, where buildings are lost, traditions falter as well. Furthermore, the existence of grand Lithuanian heritage sites introduces the Lithuanian-American community and its importance to other Americans.

*Lithuanian-American heritage is important to Lithuanians from elsewhere. With the Lithuanian economy better-than-ever and tourism on the rise, the Lithuanian-American wonders are now reachable to Lithuanians, making their trips to the USA more interesting, allowing them to discover both Lithuanian and American history and culture in a new way.

*Lithuanian-American heritage is important to the non-Lithuanian Americans as these sites form an important part of the diverse fabric of the old American cities. Lithuanians had more emigrants to America than every other nation of such size and, likewise, the most heritage. This heritage is a part of the wider story of the USA.

Lithuanian heritage's great perils and forgotten opportunities

Over recent decades, American public life has changed. The participation in communal organizations has declined and it was the Lithuanian communal organizations (e.g. parishes) that have built and maintained Lithuanian heritage sites in the USA. To make matters worse, numerous key Lithuanian sites are not owned by Lithuanians but rather by the Catholic church, which has recently been reluctant to save the ethnic heritage.

However, the new century has also attracted many opportunities, many of which remain underused by the caretakers of the Lithuanian-American heritage sites:

1. Lithuania is now independent and more affluent than ever. For decades, Lithuanian-Americans would spend a fortune to support Lithuania financially and many still do by donating to various heritage protection projects within Lithuania. Right now, however, it is the Lithuanian-American heritage that is in far greater peril than any heritage within Lithuania itself. Therefore, protecting Lithuanian-American heritage sites is now the most urgent and the most important thing Lithuanian-Americans could do for Lithuania. Lithuanian government institutions now also offer programs to help the diaspora, both with money and work.

2. Temporary volunteering is more popular in the USA than ever. Lithuanian-American heritage sites always relied on volunteers but those were a different kind of volunteer: the one who commits to spending years, decades or even their entire lives to be part of the organization, go to regular meetings, etc. All that seems alien to many people from the new generations of Americans. However, they could easily agree to volunteer for a week, a month or for a summer, or for some particular single long-term task helping the Lithuanian site to address some problem or attract more attention (e.g. such "external volunteers" could create and manage a social media account or meet visitors at the site, allowing it to stay open for longer hours). Descendents of Lithuanian-Americans could also learn more about their heritage through such volunteering.

3. Americans are more-than-ever interested in the minority cultures. 100 years ago it was impossible to believe that a minority restaurant or cultural institution could serve anybody else but people from that minority. Today, however, nearly every American eats minority cuisine food, many also study "exotic" dances, languages, arts, etc. While Lithuanian heritage sites have traditionally served just the Lithuanians, they could also attract more non-Lithuanian interest in the activities and lessons they provide.

4. Americans are more-than-ever interested in their roots and over 1 000 000 of them have Lithuanian roots. The fad of ancestry research may well be used by Lithuanian heritage site caretakers drawing attention to it and attracting helpers and volunteers from people they could not have imagined would help the Lithuanian cause some 10 or 20 years ago.

5. Tourism is more popular than ever (the global numbers of tourists double every 15 years). Many people from Lithuania now travel to other continents, including America. "Ethnic tourism" is on the rise everywhere, as people, having already seen the key global sights, choose to visit the sites related to their ethnic heritage instead. This may provide opportunities for the key Lithuanian sites to get additional income by opening up to tourism. To many descendants of Lithuanian-Americans, the "historic homeland" is not just Lithuania but also places such as the coal mining towns their (great) grandparents immigrated to.

How to protect Lithuanian heritage?

What can you do, if you are a caretaker of a Lithuanian heritage site?

1. Draw attention to your activities and importance through media. Contact all three "medias": the media of Lithuanian-Americans, the mainstream local media, and the media of Lithuania. You may be surprised how interested some of it (and, in turn, the reader) may become in your work.

2. Be inclusive. No matter when did the person or his ancestors immigrated, whatever are his religious beliefs, how well he speaks Lithuanian, if he/she cares about the Lithuanian heritage, he/she should be invited to join and help. Far too often in the past, the Lithuanian organizations were divided along such "philosophical" lines. We can no longer afford such divisions.
3. Offer activities that appeal beyond your usual regulars. That may be both beneficial to expand the reach of Lithuanian culture and to attract more finances, interest and potential help for the heritage site.

4. Think about what temporary volunteers could do to help your site and seek for such volunteers. It may be useful to listen to the advice of volunteers themselves too as they may know more about things such as social media.
5. Establish and keep internet presence: website, social media, Wikipedia article. Unlike publishing your own books or newspapers, internet presence can be nearly free (when done by volunteers) and help attract far wider attention.
6. Check the possibilities of Lithuanian government grants. In the past decade, the Lithuanian government added many programs to support its diaspora's Lithuanian heritage. So far, however, often its just the recent emigrants that apply to them even though the "old" Lithuanian-American heritage sites are often in far greater need of such funding.

7. Check the possibilities of attracting volunteers from Lithuania. There are programs in Lithuania that fund such volunteers (or even paid employees) going to visit diaspora and even staying there for several months. In these months, the volunteers conduct and teach Lithuanian activities and may help mend the link with the Lithuanian culture and draw more local interest to the organization.

8. Check the possibilities of Grants within the United States. While most Lithuanian organizations know and turn to the Lithuanian-American charitable organizations such as the "Lithuanian Foundation" for help, there is no need to stop there. There are many organizations that could offer them to cultural, minority or other institutions.

9. Think about a possible commercial use of your heritage site. Many Lithuanian-American heritage sites have surplus premises that could be rented out, used for lodging, markets, etc. Numerous Lithuanian-American institutions survive because of such activities.

10. Think about the possibilities to save through tax optimization, conservation. Some expenses may seem unavoidable as they have been incurred regularly for decades - however, with changes in laws, technology, membership they may have become possible to reduce.

11. Seek for positive examples. Lithuanian organizations excel in different fields of gaining finances, help, and attention. Hear the experience of others and offer them your own. All that is written above may seem an awful lot of work and research for an organization dwindling in numbers, but it is not so if the research could be shared.
12. Encourage younger people to have alternative Lithuanian uses of premises. Often, the activities that happen in older organizations may not appeal to the younger people but they may themselves organize their own activities. The activities may not seem interesting or worthwhile for the older members - but it is always better than nothing.

What can you do as a member of Lithuanian-American or American non-profits?

1. If your institution works with grants for preserving Lithuanian culture, please evaluate also the possibility of funding the Lithuanian heritage sites, talk to the caretakers of such sites about what is needed.
2. If your institution works with educating children (e.g. Lithuanian Saturday schools), teach the children about the Lithuanian heritage sites in their area and visit such sites.
3. If your institution works with volunteer placement, talk to the caretakers of about volunteers they could possibly need.
4. If your institution is media, provide coverage for the Lithuanian heritage sites and their activities.
5. If your institution needs space for office or event, consider renting such space at the Lithuanian heritage sites.

What can you do if you work for Lithuanian government or diplomatic missions?

It is extremely important for the Lithuanian officials to understand both the importance of Lithuanian heritage sites in the USA and the peril it is in.

So far, there are numerous institutions that should care for the diaspora and its heritage in one way or another but there is often too little cooperation between them and the diaspora organizations.

If you work for Lithuanian government:

1. Research the Lithuanian-American heritage (Global True Lithuania website is a good start).
2. Remind your co-workers and superiors about it as well as raise questions about it at appropriate times.
3. Seek contact with government employees and non-government employees who are interested in the same.
4. Establish contact with those who run the Lithuanian heritage sites that are related to your field of work.
5. Drop the belief that Lithuanian-Americans are so rich and powerful that Lithuania could not possibly provide them beneficial help: this is no longer true.

What can you do, if you are an interested person "from outside"?

1. Read about the Lithuanian heritage in your city online! The information and images are more accessible than ever with an online map dedicated to the Lithuanian heritage.
2. When traveling to other cities, read about the Lithuanian heritage there and visit it, especially the most important sites.
3. Go to Lithuania-related activities that take place in such heritage. Do not be put off by the outdated belief that a person going there must speak Lithuanian natively or have a certain religion, or that there are other such obligations. Today, most Lithuanian heritage organizations are inclusive and there are possibilities for everyone. For example, even if you are younger than every other member, there are many positive experiences you can have and many ways you can contribute in a way that is also interesting to you.

4. Share the information you have discovered about the Lithuanian heritage and its organizations.

Conversion of the heritage to non-Lithuanian use

Despite the effort, there will be times when some Lithuanian heritage site will come under peril too great to be overcome, leading to its sale. This is not necessarily the end: in order to save as much as possible, the "conversion" of the Lithuanian heritage sites to non-Lithuanian use must be as carefully planned as its initial operation.

All over the USA, there are great examples where Lithuanian details of the buildings and memorials have been saved even by new non-Lithuanian owners. There are even examples where Lithuanian activities would take place at Lithuanian heritage long after it is no longer officially Lithuanian-owned. At the same time, there are many "bad examples" where the entire Lithuanian buildings were destroyed or Lithuanian details removed.

Often, the actions of Lithuanians themselves at or around the point of the transfer of the property do contribute heavily to the survival of Lithuanian details. It is therefore very important to prepare for such transfer beforehand and continue its protection afterward. Part of the money earned from property sale may be used for this cause.

In planning this "conversion" to non-Lithuanian use, these groups should participate and help / encourage each other to participate, ensuring no stakeholder is sidelined:
1.The remainder of the people who cared for the institution that is now being closed.
2.The Lithuanian government, diplomatic, and consular institutions.
3.Lithuanians from other Lithuanian institutions in the same city.
4.America-wide Lithuanian institutions (the Lithuanian Community, the Lithuanian Foundation, etc.).
5.Others interested in Lithuanian-American heritage (e.g. scientists and neighbors).

It is beneficial to have a certain informal group of representatives of the aforementioned who are most interested in the Lithuanian-American heritage to regularly keep contact, sharing information about what Lithuanian heritage might get in peril and why.

Once it is deemed that it is impossible to save the Lithuanian heritage site in current use, it is important to evaluate the heritage site's importance and saveability, based on these criteria:
1. How culturally/historically important is the site?
2. How Lithuanian is the building and its details?
3. Is it located in an important and easily-reachable site? (the best if downtown, alongside a highway or a tourist route)
4. How much effort and money is needed to save the site? (the less - the better)

The ways in which the Lithuanian heritage that is deemed saveable could be partly saved even if the site itself would be sold or redeveloped:
1. By choosing the buyer, if possible, also based on his willingness to safeguard the Lithuanian details of the site, "to repair rather than demolish".

2. By educating the new owners or additional stakeholders (e.g. non-Lithuanian parish members) about the Lithuanian heritage and its importance. Sometimes, the Lithuanian heritage is destroyed not because of a "bad faith" or serious economic reasons but rather simply because the new stakeholders do not know its importance.

3. By attracting wider attention to the Lithuanian details of the site: media attention, heritage protection institutions' attention.

4. By creating a memorial plaque recognizing the Lithuanian history of the site.

5.By moving the heritage (e.g. a monument) to a new location. The new location should be chosen by prominence (visibility) and the possibility to use it indefinitely; it is best if the heritage remains in the same city.

If the Lithuanian details are being protected, even if the site is no longer used or owned by Lithuanians, the site will continue to remind every passerby of Lithuanian history. It could still attract tourists, Lithuanian-Americans, researchers of their heritage or of immigrant heritage, etc.

Revival of doomed Lithuanian heritage

What was written above was mainly aimed at individual organizations and people: what could they do themselves in order to save the Lithuanian heritage. This is what is viable to be achieved on the short term.

Looking further ahead, should the attention to Lithuanian heritage abroad grow, some "doomed" Lithuanian-American heritage could also be saved or even revived with a concerted effort of many stakeholders. This is no invention: other nations are already doing the same with the most important of their at-risk heritage in the USA, yielding great results.

According to this plan, Lithuanian heritage buildings evaluated to be the most important (and located in the key cities) could be saved from turning them into non-Lithuanian use entirely by becoming joint centers of Lithuanian culture in the area. For that, different interest groups need to team up. Lithuanian-American institutions, Republic of Lithuania, "old" and "new" Lithuanian Americans.

This type of transformation of American minority heritage sites into cultural centers has already been done many times, albeit by non-Lithuanians. Bohemian National Hall of New York is a prime example.

How does such transformation work? Republic of Lithuania itself, like the Czech Republic in the example, may show an initiative and relocate its consulates to the historic Lithuanian Halls and other buildings. The rent currently paid for offices in some non-descript office block would then go for the upkeep of an important Lithuanian heritage. Furthermore, historic Lithuanian-American locations would help Lithuanian consulates to promote and explain the Lithuanian culture and Lithuanian-American ties.

The same should be done by Lithuanian-American organizations, where possible. Lithuanian-American organizations and the Republic of Lithuania could also cooperate in using the site for the promotion of Lithuanian culture, food, and history, for attracting American investment to Lithuania and tourism to Lithuania, for hosting the Lithuanian events that, in any case, take place in the city. Later, these could be joined by additional offers directed at all the interested groups: not just the "old" and "new" Lithuanian-Americans but also the English-speaking descendants of Lithuanian-Americans researching their heritage, Americans interested in the minority culture and the like. Examples may include venues for Lithuanian tourism and investment promotion events, exposition spaces for Lithuanian art, Lithuanian restaurants, etc.

The surplus premises may be rented out, with Lithuanian consulate and Lithuanian-American institutions providing good neighbors that help to increase rental income.

If a purchase of the building would be needed (e.g. of a Lithuanian monastery or a church undergoing closure), it could be done through a fundraiser or a help from a Lithuanian or Lithuanian-American institution. However, after that, it should always be aimed that a Lithuanian site would be financially as self-sufficient as possible, otherwise, its future is deemed to once again come at stake.

Shouldn't the Lithuanian-American heritage be relocated "back to Lithuania"?

Most of the most important Lithuanian heritage sites (e.g. buildings) cannot physically be relocated.

After the 1990 independence, there have been undertakings to relocate "smaller" Lithuanian heritage sites to Lithuania (e.g. rebury some famous personalities). However, this is usually needless (unless, for example, the deceased made a will for such reburial).

The heritage sites were created in America and are also a part of the American culture. While there are countless Lithuanian heritage sites in Lithuania itself, there are just under 1000 in the entire USA. Many US cities have just a single or several Lithuanian heritage sites.

The Lithuanian sites in the USA should remind of the Lithuanian-American history and ties. They could be focal points for Lithuanian-Americans to visit and bring their kids, they could attract Lithuanian-American and Lithuanian tourists, they could draw the interest of the local non-Lithuanian Americans interested in the minority heritage. The interest in ethnic heritage just grows.

It is, therefore, important to save the Lithuanian-American heritage where it is.

Aren't the Lithuanian activities more important than locations?

Both Lithuanian activities and locations are important and it is the best if they go hand-in-hand: the Lithuanian activities take place in the historic Lithuanian heritage sites.

Lithuanian activities may help the heritage site to survive, while impressive heritage sites may attract more attention to the activities.

Ultimately, however, it will be the heritage sites that we will leave after us. There may be no more Romans, or Aztecs, or Incas, but everybody knows these civilizations because of many impressive heritage sites they have left after them.

The existence of that memory of the Lithuanian-American history will be important to the Lithuanian-Americans of the future, to the Lithuanians and to the Americans alike, in the same fashion as, for example, the existence of Mesa Verde is important to both Native and non-native Americans, and even to thousands of foreign tourists that visit it.

To the future Lithuanian-Americans, heritage sites may also create pride in their ancestry, cause them to research their roots or join Lithuanian activities. This rarely happens with the cultures of which no traces remain.