On January 9, 2018 the traveling exhibition “Diplomacy of Lithuanian Exiles in the Fight for Freedom” by Vytautas Magnus University Lithuanian Emigration Institute and the Valdas Adamkus Presidential Library-Museum was opened in the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.
According to Arūnas Antanaitis, the director of the Valdas Adamkus Presidential Library-Museum, when creating the exhibition, the most difficult task was to decide what to include and what to leave out – so vast is the archival material about Lithuanian political, lobbying and other activities in exile spanning for over a hundred years.
The exhibition is aimed at highlighting the most important activities of émigrés in the fight for freedom in the US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Great Britain, France, and other countries. The creators of the exhibition wanted to show not the official efforts of the émigrés, but the so-called citizen diplomacy, i.e. the contribution of ordinary people to Lithuanian statehood. Alongside material, moral and political support, they helped to establish Lithuania’s name in the world and used all possible means to support Lithuania’s independence abroad.