Dr. Raimonda Kogelytė – Simanaitienė was born in Kaunas on November 4, 1964. In 1982-87 she studied at Vilnius Art Institute (present Vilnius Academy of Arts), in the Department of Art Criticism, and was conferred the specialty of an art historian and theoretician. In 1996-98 she studied at Vytautas Magnus University, Department of Social Sciences, Department of Education (Master’s degree). She prepared the work on applied pedagogy on the topic “Methodological Peculiarities of Teaching Art History”. In 1998 – 2003 she was a doctor student at VMU, Institute of Arts, Department of Art Criticism. In 2003 she defended the Doctor’s thesis on the topic “Development of Artistic View of Lithuanian Glass Plastic in the 20th Century”. In 2004 the art critic was on internship at the National Belarusian University of Culture in Minsk, in 2005 – at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, in 2006 – at the Latvian Academy of Arts in Riga, in 2007 – at Radom Polytechnic University in Poland, in 2008 – in Bornholm, Denmark (state stipend for education), in 2014 - at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, in Minsk.
Pedagogical work
Dr. Raimonda Kogelytė – Simanaitienė worked as a teacher of art history at Vilnius M. K. Čiurlionis Art School in 1987. From 1988 she has been lecturing art history at Kaunas Art Faculty of Vilnius Academy of Arts, she is the supervisor of theory works of masters and post-graduates of various specialties. From 1989 she has been teaching art history at Kaunas A. Martinaitis Art School. She has read courses on aesthetics, culture and art history at Kaunas University of Medicine and at the Academy of Body Training. Since 1990 she has been working at Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Art Criticism, where she reads lectures on applied art history, ancient civilisations, Antique and Middle-age art, art of the 20th century. Since 2004 she has been teaching history of applied art and design at Kaunas College, J. Vienožinskis Faculty of Arts.
Scientific research
Research fields: contemporary Lithuanian applied art, design, art pedagogy. Dr. Raimonda Kogelytė – Simanaitienė has announced scientific articles in the following publications: Menotyra (Art Criticism, Academy of Science), Tiltai (Bridges, KU), Acta Baltica, Meno istorija ir kritika, Kauno istorijos metraštis (Art History and Criticism, Chronicle of Kaunas History, VMU), Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis (VAA); articles – in the following culture magazines and catalogues: Dailė (Art), Santara, Krantai (Banks), Archiforma, and others. She has participated actively in scientific conferences organised in Lithuania and abroad (in Denmark, Russia, Estonia). She is the co-author of the album Kauno menininkai (Kaunas Artists, 1996) (chapter Applied Art and Design, p. 122-184), encyclopaediaLithuania. Family Encyclopaedia (2005) (section Applied Art, p. 314 – 319), Lietuvos lobiai (Lithuanian Treasures, 2007) (chapter Treasures of Applied Art, p. 72 – 149), Tarpukario Lietuva (Inter-war Lithuania, 2007), the scientific editor of the catalogue Kauno dailininkai: pėdsakai laike (Kaunas Painters: Traces in Time, 2003). She is also the organiser of the conference dedicated to the jubilee of KMM in VMA (2007). Raimonda Kogelytė – Simanaitienė She compiled the collection of articles Modernios Lietuvos dailės ištakos: Kauno meno mokykla (The origins of modern Lithuanian art: Kaunas Art School, 2008) and an album Filomena Ušinskaitė (together with A. Gylienė, 2012).
Activity in the field of art criticism
Dr. Raimonda Kogelytė – Simanaitienė has been involved in art criticism from 1985: she has announced more than 250 articles on issues of contemporary fine and applied art in Kauno Diena, Nemunas, Literatūra ir Menas, Dienovidis, and other periodic newspapers, she has prepared 20 catalogues, leaflets of exhibitions and introductory articles for them, she has participated in TV and radio broadcasts. She is the curator of exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad as well as on the Internet. The most important of them are: international exhibition of textile Line (National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, 1999), international exhibitions of glass art Vitrum Balticum I - IV (2000, 2002/1, 2005/6, 2008/9) (National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum). She was the curator of the exhibition Nordic Glass – Glass Without Boundaries, collection of Lithuanian artistic glass (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, 2000-2002. The stipend of the Nordic Council was received for organising the exhibition). She was the curator of the exhibition of ceramics Archaeology of Ornament at the Museum of Ceramics in 2006; the curator of the international symposium of ceramics Reduction in 2007; the curator of the international exhibition of visual arts of 4 higher schools of art in Radom (Poland); the curator of the republic exhibition of ceramicsSpring in 2008; the national commissioner of the international art glass project European Glass Context 2008 in Lithuania. She was the curator of the virtual project of the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum and CAC Kaunas Artists Today, collection of applied art (2002). She is the expert of the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy, State Tourism Department creating tests for foreigners’ guides (2005). She is a member of the Lithuanian Art Teachers’ Association (1995), a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Union (1999), a recipient of the stipend of Kaunas City Municipality, Department of Culture (2007); a recipient of the individual stipend from the Lithuanian State in 2009, 2015 as well as Lithuanian State's educational stipend in 2008, 2014. The national commissioner for Lithuania in the International Ceramics project European Ceramic Context in Bornholm (2010, 2014). The art critic of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty Glass Department students' retrospective exhibition in Vilnius, at the Titanikas exhibition halls (2016).
