Editorial Board’s address: Art Research Centre Šiauliai University P. Višinskio st. 25, LT-76351 Šiauliai, Lithuania Tel.: +370 41 595772 Mobile tel.: +370 685 62325 E-mail: rytisur@hotmail.com, rytisur@gmail.com Web site: http://www.su.lt Refereed semi-annual journal „Kūrybos erdvės“ contains original articles on art research, musicology, art criticism, other fields of art, also art education. ISSN 1822–1076

The first issue of the refereed scientific journal Kūrybos erdvės / The Spaces of Creation was launched by Šiaulai University in 2004. We acknowledge the appreciation showed by the academic community and administration of the University regarding perspectives of the journal. It is our pleasure to present the second issue of the journal in the summer of 2005. The efforts put by the Editorial Board and Šiauliai University Publishing House into the publication of the journal were effective internationally – since March 2005 the journal is included into the international database of the Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) what challenged us to strive for its international recognition and circulation in the near future.

The second issue of the journal Kūrybos erdvės / The Spaces of Creation contains articles by researchers from Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal and Finland. The presented papers on musical education analyze various aspects of music teaching. Prof. Eduardas Balčytis from Šiauliai University being one of the founders of the contemporary system of musical education in comprehensive schools of Lithuania presents a complete study of the concept of comprehensive musical education, developed by the author of the paper. Another author, Assoc. Prof. Rytis Urniežius from Šiauliai University, focuses on musicology and provides the analysis of the development of the performance of wind bands in western countries. Four papers written by researchers Mikko Anttila, Anti Juvonen, Heikki Ruismaki and Tarja Tereska from Joensu and Helsinki Universities, Finland, form the core of this part of the journal. As the authors concentrate on interrelated issues it was expedient to include them into the present issue. Furthermore, the matters discussed in their papers are closely related to the Lithuanian realia and should arouse interest in our educators and researchers.

The spectrum of the works by researchers in the fine arts is fairly wide. Three papers are produced by the researchers from Šiauliai University. In her article Aneta Grabauskaitė deals with a unique phenomenon of Lithuanian crafts heritage – cross making. The subject tackled by Prof. Vytautas Gudonis is of a particular interest and diversity as links of art criticism and art sociology with tiflopedagogy, the author's main research object, are provided. Assoc. Prof. Arūnas Uogintas presents interrelations of specific manifestations of ornamentation with some aspects of archetype worldview. Foreign higher institutions are represented by three researchers from Daugavpils University (Latvia): Aleksandra Šļahova, Maris Čačka and Ilze Volonte and one from Porto tligher School of Arts and Design (Portugal) – Marta Varzim. The authors analyze some issues of creativity in art and artistic education from various aspects.

I would like to convey my gratitude to the Editorial Board for successful cooperation and to all the contributors for their significant input promoting the journal Kūrybos erdvės / The Spaces of Creation.

Editor-in-Chief

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rytis Urniežius