A legendary children's café Pasaka is back! But not as a dining and entertainment space, rather as a portal of glowing stained-glass windows, leading to contrasting childhood memories – from a city‘s housing areas to a small Lithuanian town, from a crushing system to art that is nurtured by the imagination – the exhibition encompasses the diversity of childhood issues characteristic of the late Soviet era. This narrative fills and transforms all three floors of the Picture Gallery.

The exhibition combines objects of art and design, documentary material, everyday objects, live stories of people and insights of experts in different fields.

A rare opportunity to view a complex historical period from a child's perspective is provided by authentic testimonies of children of the time. Most of them were collected and recorded by a researcher of childhood Goda Damaševičiūtė.

The exhibition opens up various children spaces – houses and courtyards, squares and playgrounds, even the reality of extremely closed institutions during the Soviet era: one of the exhibition‘s spaces is dedicated to a "Maternity Hospital" and "Orphan's Room", the history of which has been curated by Dr. Ieva Balčiūnė. In the room "After-Dinner Sleep“ visitors are presented the scenes of children‘s everyday life in amateur 8 mm films created by a political prisoner Leonas Čerškus – a complete alternative to Soviet newsreels.

A part of the exhibition A march of discipline acquaints with the formation of an ideal Soviet child, while A child as freedom, on the contrary, tells the story of a resistance to propaganda. Inventive artists who were able to create much more interesting and free worlds, which became a refuge not only for children, but also for the creators themselves.

In a space A fairy tale alphabet, Audronė Meškauskaitė outlined a certain leap of children's literature in the late Soviet era – the texts and illustrations from children's books are hidden in mysterious "hollows".

A Giant Hippopotamus – an example of a reconstructed historical toy by designer Rasa Balaišė – is housed in a space of unrealised projects of toy design curated by Dr. Karolína Jakaitė. Just next door, you are invited to an educational classroom full of creative inspirations for every visitor.

"A Toy Doctor's Bag“ interweaves stories about toys, care and affection towards them. A large amount of the exhibits were kindly lent from a personal collection of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tomas Biržietis, head of Pranas Mažylis Maternity Hospital. The rest part was gathered from generous people who responded to the curators' invitation and willingly lent their most precious childhood toys for the exhibition.

The exhibition shows not only the best works by artists from the late Soviet era, that reveal a theme of childhood, but also pieces of the contemporary art – textile installations by Martyna Plioplytė-Zujienė and Dovilė Gudačiauskaitė. A mysterious hall of the “Toy Doctor‘s Bag“ has been sound recorded by Karolis Lasys.

The exhibition also presents gourmet stories that bring back bits of the Pasaka menu: recipes and dessert drawings by the chef Felicija Bagdonienė, who created recipes for the Pasaka café. The café “Kultūra“ in the Picture Gallery will invite to taste a dessert specially created on this occasion.