This year, the Art of Education project changed its format from an annual conference to study trips, to which we invited educators from all over the country. Several dozen people took part. We visited our partners in Szczecin, Gdańsk, Elbląg, Koszalin, Słupsk and Ustka. We also had a day of rest at workshops led by artist Elżbieta Jabłońska and educator Amina Olszewska in the legendary open-air studios of Łazy. The trips resulted in wonderful exchanges: in Szczecin, we learned about grassroots social, educational and exhibition initiatives. Our hosts in this city were Małgorzata Różańska and Sylwia Starkowska from the Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery, and a few months later we took part in Dobro-stan, organised by them (together with Agnieszka Kilian). In Elbląg, we had the opportunity to attend the opening of an exhibition crowning the #OtwartaGaleria educational project at the EL Gallery Art Centre. As part of an exchange with the Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk, we felt the ferment of Gdańsk's artistic community, and the local Educational and Social Programmes Team paid us a return visit.

Thanks to this exchange of practices, experiences and reflections, we learned about diverse projects based on openness and community, in many cases going beyond the framework of traditionally understood education.

The Art of Education. We Learn from You 2026
Radom | Orońsko

In April 2026, we invite educators to a series of meetings in Radom and Orońsko. Together, we will visit Łaźnia – the Radom Creative Communities Club and Gallery, where Karol Suwala will introduce us to the concept of engaging local residents in the visual arts. The programme will also include a report from the international culture congress in Magdeburg and from professional and private cultural study trips. The event will be rounded off with a discussion of the currently ongoing project ‘Millions of Possibilities: Dialogue and Development’, co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Piotr Piasta and Karolina Rolka-Zaborska will talk about the project ‘Artists Present – Bringing Art Back to the City of Radom’. This is a project that the ICAD Foundation has been running since 2025 with the support of the National Centre for Culture. It aims to boost the visibility of young visual artists associated with Radom and the region, and is spearheaded by Piotr Piasta and Magda Chrapek; Karol Suwała was the curator of the main part of the project, whilst Karolina Rolka-Zaborska was one of the participating artists.

Further meetings with staff and artists at the Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko will introduce us to the history and working strategies of this unique venue. We will learn about the curators’ visions for the centre, explore the theme of sculpture in the landscape, and discover the possibilities for international artistic dialogue in Orońsko. We will also examine the institution’s collection. 

At the meeting with the education department, we will share our experiences in this field. We will learn about the specific nature of the team’s work at both national and regional levels. Together, we will consider exhibition practices and sculpture education in the context of accessibility.