This year, more than 40 guests from foreign universities on March 1, together with spring, greeted each other at one of the most important annual international events in Vilniaus Kolegija /University of Applied Sciences – International Week (IW). This year, due to the pandemic situation in the world, the event was organized remotely for the first time. The main goal of this event is to invite teachers from different higher education institutions of the world and give them the opportunity to meet our students and staff in a variety of academic and cultural environments. This year, International Week greeted everyone with a resounding slogan – IN CHANGE WE (EX)CHANGE.

The Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies actively participated in the events of the International Week. The opening ceremony was accompanied by musical greetings from the Musical Theatre (Gabija Lokytė ir Miglė Pivoriūnaitė) and of Popular Music (Jonas Andriuškevičius). Heads of the Departments of Fashion Design and Culture and Dance Pedagogy – Silvia Grushnienė and Nomeda Sindaravičienė, together with their lecturers and students, met with a special guest of the International Week from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, Professor Asun Lopez-Varela. She agreed to give remotely a two -session lecture to students of these study programmes on the topic: “Semiotics and cross-cultural communication”. According to Erika Gudiene, Fashion Design Lecturer and Erasmus Coordinator, who curated the Guest Lecturer: “It’s incredible how much we can achieve by focusing our joint efforts. Modern technologies allow us to share knowledge, quality content, experience at the touch of a button from the farthest corners of the world. It’s nice that we weren’t scared, everything went great! ”

Sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the organization – the Head of the Department of Musical Theatre Associate Professor Eglė Juozapavičienė, Head of the Department of Popular Music Vita Sasnauskienė, Head of the Department of Fashion Design Silvija Grushnienė, Head of the Department of Culture and Dance Pedagogy Nomeda Sindaravičienė and a teacher of the Department of Fashion Design, coordinator of Erasmus Erika Gudienė. This time the meetings were virtual, but possible! We believe that today’s challenges will inspire us to learn and change for the better.