Nida Art Colony
Nida Art Colony (NAC) is a subdivision of Vilnius Academy of Arts located in Nida, Lithuania. It functions as a hybrid entity, distinguished by its porous structure that fosters connections and links between academia, the local and international cultural scene, and the broader public. Operating as a site for art education, production, research, gatherings, leisure, and focused individual and group work, NAC is open to everyone with a particular emphasis on the academic and cultural community.
NAC is situated within the particular and distinct landscape of the Curonian Spit, a 98 km-long sand dune shared by Lithuania and Russia, overgrown with forests, separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where forests planted over the last 200 years have formed an environment dedicated to managing natural eolian processes.
NAC runs an international artist residency programme and curates and commissions art and research projects, events, exhibitions, and study courses, including the annual Nida Doctoral School. Notably, NAC has commissioned three Lithuanian pavilions at the Venice Biennale, including Sun & Sea (Marina), which received the Golden Lion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2019, and The Children’s Forest Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2023. From 2017 to 2021, NAC was a partner in the consortium of the Creative Europe project 4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality Through Creativity and Culture.
NAC was established in its current form in 2011. However, the location was acquired by Vilnius Academy of Arts in the mid-2000s and has been used as a site for intensive summer study courses ever since. The current premises were constructed in two phases, with the initial phase commencing in 2009 and opening in 2011, supported by the EEA and Norway Grants. The second phase was completed in 2015 with the support of European Structural and Investment Funds. The architectural design was developed by Algimanto Kančo Studija in Kaunas following a competition in 2008.
Egija Inzule has been the director of NAC since September 2019.
From 2011 to 2019, NAC was under the direction of Rasa Antanavičiūtė as the initiator, developer, and executive director of NAC, and Vytautas Michelkevičius as the artistic director. (2025)
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