For the first time, the ArtVilnius Art Fair presents a curated range of private and institutional collections from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, highlighting the individuals and institutions who help shape cultural narratives, preserve memory, and sustain artistic ecosystems. As such, for its 2025 edition, the fair creates a multidimensional and international program, while centring collecting in the Baltic region.
To explore these themes, we spoke with three key leads deeply engaged in this year’s programme. We’ll begin in Estonia, where Maria Arusoo, curator, playwright, and head of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, bridges performance, curation, and institutional leadership. As curator of the Focus Baltic programme, she reflects on spatial thinking, the intimacy of private collections, and the shared yet distinct narratives of the region. Moving to Latvia, where Inga Lāce brings an international perspective shaped by work across Europe and Central Asia. As Chief Curator at the Almaty Museum of Arts in Kazakhstan, she reflects on gender representation, institutional roles, and what private collections reveal to global audiences. Then, we turn to Lithuania, where Sonata Baliuckaitė has guided ArtVilnius since its early years. As Artistic Director, she reflects on why 2025 is a landmark year: collecting takes centre stage as a cultural force shaping the Baltic art ecosystem.
Collectively, they offer perspectives on the role of collectors, regional specificities, and how Baltic voices connect with global art conversations, revealing how ArtVilnius’25, which takes place October 3-5, is more than an art fair. It also serves as a stage for Baltic collecting practices to step into the public eye. Whether intimate family collections, institution-building initiatives, or broad curatorial frameworks, these practices show how collecting shapes cultural legacies and brings new voices into global dialogue.
Maria Arusoo: Weaving Baltic Voices Together
Joanna Pottle: You wear many hats – curator, dramaturge, head of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, and Curator of Baltic Focus programme at ArtVilnius’25. How does your multifaceted background shape the perspective you bring to the Focus Baltic programme at ArtVilnius’25?
Maria Arusoo: I see it all as a single hat with many corners – perhaps something like a jester’s cap. My experience in performance and contemporary theatre greatly informs my approach to visual art, and vice versa. For me, the key lies in spatial thinking: considering how bodies and artworks inhabit and interact with space. I’m less interested in static displays and more drawn to cognitive or experiential engagement.
One particularly exciting aspect of curating this programme was exploring private collections. The foundations of these collections are deeply personal, and I approached them almost as portraits of the collectors themselves, rather than merely selecting standout pieces.
Working with the Takas section and its open call format is also compelling. It offers the chance to encounter a broad range of artists, many of whom I hadn’t come across before. While it’s impossible to create a fully cohesive exhibition from such diverse submissions, we embraced the multiplicity of voices in a shared space. The co-curation process supports this, and of course, the context of a three-day art fair imposes its own constraints, particularly in the challenge of capturing and holding viewers’ attention amid hundreds of artworks.
J.P.: ArtVilnius’25 highlights that for the first time there will be “a curated range of private and institutional collections from the region”, as part of the Focus Baltic programme. From your view in Estonia, what stories do these collections tell that have not been visible before? And how do you select which galleries, as well as private or institutional collections, to include so that those stories come through?
M.A.: Private collecting in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania differs quite significantly. For example, Estonia lacks the kind of institutional collectors that exist in Latvia. In Estonia, collecting remains deeply personal, often shaped by the individual tastes and relationships of collectors – most of whom rarely make their collections public.
In Estonia, as I believe is also the case across the Baltic states, most primary collectors are men over 50 or 60. This is the generation that gained financial stability after the countries regained independence and began investing in art. Their collections are remarkable, full of local gems, but I was also drawn to lesser-known or less defined spaces.
Initially, I explored focusing on female collectors and who researched who was collecting queer art. Ultimately, and somewhat unexpectedly, I found myself drawn to families and couples with a shared passion for contemporary art. Many of their stories begin similarly: receiving a piece as a gift from an artist friend, or a deeply personal encounter with a single artwork, which gradually evolved into more deliberate collecting.
This curatorial process has been an intimate journey into private worlds. From decisions made in living rooms and storage spaces to bringing those artworks into public view, bringing these works into the public eye has felt both meaningful and necessary.
J.P.: The Baltic art context is often spoken about as a unified region, but each country also contains its own distinct history and aesthetic tendencies. From your curatorial vantage point, how do you balance Estonia’s unique voice within this shared Baltic framing, as well as weaving in other contexts from other countries present?
M.A.: I’m a big fan of Baltic collaboration. Our art scenes are indeed quite different, and if we look at history, the narratives of Estonia and Lithuania, for instance, are largely incomparable. Yet what unites us is our recent past, a shared history of post-Soviet transformation, which has created a kind of sisterhood among the Baltic states.
Given today’s geopolitical tensions, questions of national identity are resurfacing, particularly for small independent countries like ours. This has brought the Baltic states even closer together, culturally and politically. At the same time, I’m deeply interested in localities and smaller narratives. I am somewhat weary of the centralised, often Western-dominated art world perspective that has prevailed for too long. It feels timely – and necessary – to shift our gaze toward the Baltic region and recognise the vibrant, complex, and often underrepresented practices emerging here.
Inga Lāce: Hidden Works, New Dialogues
J.P.: You work across multiple geographies, from Latvia to Kazakhstan. How does your international experience inform the way you’ve approached curating the Baltic collections for ArtVilnius’25?
Inga Lāce: Working with modern art across different regions, I notice recurring tendencies that are pervasive everywhere, such as the underrepresentation of women artists and how their voices have been overshadowed by either male colleagues or power structures. I see this in Kazakhstan as well as in the art history of Latvia. This shaped my decision to present an all-female selection from the Zuzāns collection with Zenta Logina & Elīza Atāre, Aija Zariņa, and Daina Dagnija.
Working with private collections worldwide, another commonality to emerge is the continued interest in and dominance of acquiring paintings and sculptures, even though more diverse contemporary collections emerge. This was the reason behind the decision to work with VV Foundation’s collection, to approach it with an interdisciplinary side: from video and installations to works that are in between art and fashion. Their support and trust in very young artists is also remarkable.
J.P.: For the first time, ArtVilnius’25 will present a curated range of Baltic private and institutional collections. From your perspective of working in the Latvian context, what kinds of collecting practices or narratives are emerging that you find especially important to highlight? And how might they resonate (or differ) from those in neighbouring Estonia or Lithuania and across the region?
I.L.: When we decided to work with the Zuzāns collection and VV Foundation, for example, I realised they are not only private collections but have crossed the threshold of becoming public institutions. Zuzāns collection is housed by the Zuzeum, a vibrant museum institution with a cutting-edge local and international program. While VV Foundation supports many young, local, and international artists with one of its most prominent missions of providing an artists’ residency in Pāvilosta. The VV Foundation also organises curatorial trips to Latvia, filling a gap in the artistic scene.
I see this kind of institution-building as a positive tendency in Latvia. These collections aren’t competitors, but serve meaningful parts of the art ecosystem, stepping in to fill the gaps where the non-governmental institutions and the state sector haven’t been able to organise.
J.P.: Working at the intersection of local and international curatorial practices, what conversations or collaborations do you hope the Focus Baltic programme will spark between Baltic and global audiences?
I.L.: Working with private collections as a curator, I am always interested to see artwork that I haven’t seen in the state museums or at the artists’ studios before. I’m always thinking in the context of exhibitions and exploring what possibilities there are to borrow pieces. I think for global audiences of curators and institutions, it’s valuable to discover a cross-section of what is kept in the private collections, in particular for future curatorial and exchange projects.
Private collectors and collections as institutions themselves also perform different functions, including research, supporting artists, and enabling curatorial exchanges. For me, that broader function of private collectors and collections is crucial to keep in mind when those aspects are discussed on a regional or global scale.
Sonata Baliuckaitė: Collecting as Cultural Legacy
J.P.: As the long-time artistic director of ArtVilnius, you’ve witnessed its evolution first-hand. What feels most different about the 2025 edition compared to previous years?
Sonata Baliuckaitė: What makes ArtVilnius’25 so special is that, for the first time, we’re really putting collecting in the spotlight. Over the years, we’ve brought together artists, galleries, and audiences from around the world, but now we’re celebrating the collectors themselves – the people who champion artists, shape the market, and help keep our cultural story alive. It’s exciting to show how collecting is such a meaningful part of the Baltic art scene, and to share that with everyone visiting the fair.
J.P.: From the Project Zone to the Exhibition The Path, collecting is at the heart of this year’s programme. Why do you feel this emphasis is timely and important, both for Lithuania and for the wider Baltic region, as well as external participant countries? How do you approach weaving these different elements into one larger story for visitors, and what do you hope people will take away about the role of collecting in the Baltics today?
S.B.: Collecting is not just about acquiring works – it is about caring for them, supporting artists, and building a cultural legacy. In the Baltic region, this culture of collecting is still taking shape, which makes now the perfect moment to bring it to the forefront. By highlighting collections in the Project Zone and placing them in dialogue with the creative and experimental works in The Path, as well as in the galleries programme, we show that collecting is alive, diverse, and deeply connected to the people and ideas that shape our region.
What makes this focus especially timely is the variety of approaches emerging today. In Latvia, the Zuzāns Collection at Zuzeum reflects three decades of consistent collecting, while the VV Foundation champions experimentation and cross-disciplinary practices. In Lithuania, we see private initiatives such as Boris Symulevich’s collection, rooted in contemporary voices, alongside the Taad Foundation, which bridges modernist heritage with global contemporary art. Estonia contributes with the Kruus Collection, born out of an interest in geometric abstraction, and the distinctly international and intuitive approach of Olga Temnikova and Indrek Kasela. Even the COBALT Collection, presented by a law firm, shows how collecting can extend into unexpected fields.
The galleries programme also demonstrates the importance of collecting: it presents both established and emerging artists, allowing collectors and visitors to engage closely with artistic directions and discover new names. It creates connections between individual artists, galleries, collectors, and the wider public. Together, these perspectives weave one larger story: collecting in the Baltics is diverse, intergenerational, and increasingly outward-looking. It reflects personal passions, institutional visions, and regional histories, while at the same time connecting us to the broader international art scene.
I hope visitors will take away the message that collecting is not only a private pursuit but also a cultural force: it preserves memory, strengthens artistic ecosystems, and ensures that the Baltic voices resonate in the global contemporary art discourse.
J.P.: With over 80 galleries and 320 artists participating, ArtVilnius is both regional and international. How do you see the Focus Baltic programme contributing to the fair’s larger role as a bridge between East and West?
S.B.: Focus Baltic highlights what makes the Baltic region unique while inviting the world to connect with it. By presenting the best galleries, both established and emerging artists, and important collections from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the programme creates a platform for meaningful dialogue and exchange with international audiences. The active participation of art academies adds an extra dimension, bringing student projects and experimental works into the conversation and showcasing the next generation of Baltic talent.
Through Focus Baltic, visitors from abroad can discover new ideas, meet local collectors, and experience the creativity, energy, and diversity of the Baltic art scene. It’s a dynamic way to foster connections, spark curiosity, and show that even a small region can tell a big story. In doing so, Focus Baltic serves as a bridge between East and West, linking artists, galleries, collectors, and audiences across cultural and geographic boundaries.
ArtVilnius’25
October 3–5, 2025
Vilnius, Lithuania
