The project was a joint initiative of the Borderland Foundation and the Lithuanian Ethnographic Museum from Kaunas, Lithuania.
In the first stage of the project teams from Poland and Lithuania consulted old diaries, archival press materials, and accounts of residents of the Polish – Lithuanian borderland. Thus, ten traditional games were selected, with their rules, social functions, and cultural contexts.
The result is a trilingual publication—in Polish, Lithuanian, and English—which will be distributed to museums and educational institutions. It will serve as a tool for promoting the heritage of the Polish–Lithuanian borderland.
The partners also developed four prototypes of historical games—two in each institution. These were adapted to contemporary conditions so that they could enhance both educational and tourism offerings in line with the principles of sustainable development. An integral part of this phase was also the production of VR content, allowing the games and their cultural background to be presented in an engaging, immersive format. The game prototypes were created by Wacław Krakowski and Anna Birgiel from Puńsk.
Training and educational activities
In the second half of the year, two two-day training sessions for educators were organized in Poland and Lithuania, with 10 participants from each country taking part. The program included familiarization with the research results, learning how to conduct workshops using the new prototypes, and methods of working with diverse age groups, including people with special needs.
Subsequently, educational activities were carried out for local communities—reaching a total of 40 participants from Lithuania and 20 from Poland. The workshops, addressed among others to schools, made use of the developed games and audiovisual tools. Their aim was to spark interest in the history of the region and to encourage residents to document their own memories and family stories related to traditional games.
Project finale and its significance
The culmination of the project was a summary event held in Lithuania, during which the research results, game prototypes, and the outcomes of the work of educators and participants were presented. The meeting brought together project partners, representatives of cultural institutions, educators, and residents interested in the renewed traditions of the region.
Timeless Game was part of cooperation within the Interreg 2021–2027 programme and the Promesa for Culture initiative. During the project’s implementation, five main activities were carried out: research, prototype development, training, educational activities, and the final event. The project contributed to the protection and promotion of the cultural heritage of the borderland by creating new educational and tourism tools based on local traditions and by strengthening cooperation between institutions from Poland and Lithuania.