The history of the Bolesławiec museum, historically speaking, should be dated to 1909, when valuable local ceramics collections, among other exhibits, were made available to visitors in a building connecting a 15th-century tower with the defensive walls. Until the war, it was a typical municipal museum (Heimatmuseum), with a 19th-century exhibition concept presenting collections of varying artistic and historical value. In addition to stoneware, it displayed glass, porcelain, tinware, coins, old seals, folk costumes, devotional items, goldsmithery and a few paintings. A tourist attraction was a two-metre-high pot made by master J.G. Joppe in 1753. Artur Schiller, the author of a guidebook to the pre-war collections of the Bolesławiec museum, is credited with great merit in organizing and managing the local museum. At that time, the museum library contained 700 items concerning Bolesławiec, part of the municipal archive, and original editions of works by Martin Optiz. During the last war, the building was devastated, and almost all the collections were dispersed; to this day, their post-war fate remains unknown.
On the initiative of the Wrocław Silesian Museum (now the National Museum), which was organizing regional museums in Lower Silesia, the Bolesławiec museum opened on 27 December 1953. Arranging the exhibition presented many difficulties, as both the exhibits and the display equipment had to be obtained in their entirety. These needs were met by the Silesian Museum and, in part, by the Artistic Ceramics Works in Bolesławiec, which supplied some exhibits. Three exhibitions were organized: an archaeological exhibition illustrating the earliest history of Silesia, an ethnographic exhibition presenting the folk art of the Bolesławiec area, and a ceramics exhibition, including production techniques. At that time, the museum was successively managed by Róża Larkowska, Włodzimierz Kaczmarek and, from 1955, the ceramic artist Alicja Krępowa. As early as 31 December 1956, the museum’s collections could be described on the basis of Józef Gębczak’s report published in volume I of "Roczniki sztuki śląskiej". There were 222 exhibits in total (113 relating to art, 88 to archaeology and 21 to ethnography), as well as 30 items in the reference library.
In 1967, responsibility was entrusted to the art historian Krystyna Paluch-Kutschenreiter, who, according to a plan by Dr Maria Starzewska, director of the Wrocław Silesian Museum, reorganized the exhibition of Bolesławiec stoneware. The contemporary stoneware collection was created from donations by Ceramika Artystyczna, which, under the care of a Wrocław art university, was the only producer of artistic and functional ceramics. Historical stoneware was borrowed from Wrocław and gradually returned as the museum purchased its own exhibits.
At that time, the first ceramic and sculptural plein-air workshops were held in Bolesławiec, and exhibitions of plein-air works were organized at the museum. Some works were transferred to the museum, beginning the collection of outdoor sculpture that continues to be assembled today. The museum collections also received the first photographs by Alojzy Skorupa, documenting Bolesławiec’s post-war history. In 1969, the Museum received the statutorily approved name "Museum of Ceramics," and following the specialization of Lower Silesian museums, examples of historical stoneware from museums in Ziębice, Kamienna Góra and Chojnów were transferred to Bolesławiec. From 1971, the museum was managed by the art historian Teresa Wolanin, who remains director of the Museum of Ceramics to this day and expanded the collections with a new section devoted to European stoneware. After being scientifically catalogued by Bożena Kantek, European ceramics were presented in the permanent exhibition until 1966. As the collections grew, the museum space became too small, and efforts were made to obtain additional rooms for storage. After 1990, Soviet troops left, among other buildings, the one that housed the Kutuzov Museum, and the abandoned building was transferred by the Bolesławiec municipal authorities for the Museum of Ceramics. With funding from the municipal authorities, the building was modernized: coal heating was replaced with gas heating, and the stairwell and attics were rebuilt for the museum library.
On 17 June 1995, the branch on Kutuzowa Street began operating with the opening of the exhibition "Tin Figures and History..." from the German museum in Markersdorf, which cooperated with the Bolesławiec Museum, and an exhibition presenting views of old Bolesławiec in graphic art from the National Museum in Wrocław and the Jelenia Góra museum. Ceramic sculpture from almost 30 years of Bolesławiec plein-air workshops was made available on the ground floor. The opening ceremonies for the exhibitions and the building were attended by municipal authorities, the German consul from Wrocław, directors of Lower Silesian museums and directors of partner museums in Germany.
The rooms created by modernizing the attic now serve as the museum library, which contains more than 4,000 volumes on ceramics, artistic crafts, fine arts and history, monuments of Lower Silesia, as well as valuable catalogues of temporary exhibitions organized in museums. Many new items are acquired through exchanges between museum libraries and donations from individuals. The library reading room serves many university students and secondary-school pupils; educational and academic meetings, lectures, author meetings and art-knowledge competitions are also held there, as are meetings during the winter holidays. Those writing a monograph on Bolesławiec also meet there.
In both museum buildings, temporary exhibitions are organized alongside the permanent exhibitions. Between 1967 and 1997, there were as many as 222 of them, bringing visitors works from various fields of art, collections from other museums and ceramic products from other centres. These exhibitions were visited by 285,886 people, predominantly schoolchildren, preschool groups and many foreign visitors. Many visitors left entries in the guest books, and it seems worthwhile to quote some of them:
"...The most valuable asset of the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec is its very existence, its good organization and its interesting activity..." (artist and sculptor Wanda Gosławska from Warsaw).
"The Museum of Ceramics is Bolesławiec’s showcase and advertisement; hence, probably, the very pleasant, cultured and courteous service..." (Dr Natalia Wanda Skonder of the University of Warsaw)
"The museum is also one of the important links in awareness of the culture of the developing city..." (T. Czorba)
"A very interesting museum. It is very good that a Desa museum was not created in Bolesławiec, where there is everything, but that the focus was mainly placed on what is closest to the Bolesławiec region" (M.A. Zbigniew Radowiak from Warsaw).
Among the many entries are comments in German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic, generally expressing satisfaction with the exhibitions they viewed.
Since 1968, the Bolesławiec museum has organized exhibitions of Bolesławiec stoneware in other museums in Poland and abroad. Forty such exhibitions were organized, including international ones in the former GDR (Pirna and Dresden), the USSR—Homel in Belarus—and later Germany (Siegburg and Pirna), as well as in Paris, France. These exhibitions were accompanied by information leaflets and guidebooks prepared by museum employees according to a plan by Teresa Wolanin.
Both the touring exhibitions and those in Bolesławiec were ceremonially opened, sometimes with the participation of the authors and employees of other museums when their collections were presented. From the beginning of its renewed activity, the Bolesławiec museum promoted art by guiding groups through exhibitions, organizing opening events for young people with art critics, lectures by art historians and employees of Wrocław universities, museum lessons, and, at one time, popular meetings featuring films about art produced in cooperation with the Wizów, Relaks and ZG Konrad cultural centres. During last year’s Bolesławiec Spring, Anna Bober expanded the museum lessons to include tours along Bolesławiec’s historic monuments, which attracted considerable interest from teachers. Cooperation with teachers became cyclical, as the museum supports young people taking part in art Olympiads and art-knowledge competitions for secondary-school and primary-school students. Secondary-school students initially prepared by visual artist Jolanta Ajlikow-Czarnecka, and currently by art historians Katarzyna Żak and Anna Bober, achieved very good results in Olympiads and competitions, attracting the attention of the judges in the central rounds and promoting Bolesławiec’s name. Many laureates returned to Bolesławiec after completing art-history studies, taking jobs at the museum, at schools or in local television. Almost every year, students of art history from Wrocław undertake museum internships at the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec.
In addition to exhibition and educational activities, museums undertake research and academic work, and in this respect the Bolesławiec museum can record its successes. A catalogue of the museum’s and the Wrocław National Museum’s artistic stoneware collections was published by Dr Maria Starzewska and Teresa Wolanin. Museum employees contribute to each subsequent edition of the Bolesławiec monograph by writing about the history of stoneware. An article about Professor Tadeusz Szafran, who made a great contribution to Bolesławiec’s ceramics industry, was published in the Jelenia Góra Yearbook. Scientific institutions maintain contacts with the Bolesławiec museum; among them, Professor Konrad Spindler of the University of Innsbruck organized an internship for his students in Bolesławiec. With the assistance of the Bolesławiec museum, they prepared documentation of the defunct Paula factory. We participate in academic sessions devoted to ceramics, and Bożena Kantek has twice delivered papers on Bolesławiec stoneware in Austria and Germany. We cooperate with museum education centres and with the Royal Castle in Warsaw and Kraków, where conferences are organized for museum professionals, including on serving people with disabilities in museums, collection security and exhibit documentation. Professional museum staff participate in academic sessions organized at museums in Lower Silesia, mainly concerning artistic crafts.
We also correspond with many countries, as many people from Poland and abroad contact the museum with questions not only about exhibits but also about architectural structures that existed in old Bolesławiec and what has happened to them. Answering such questions sometimes requires considerable research. A major task facing the employees of the Bolesławiec museum is to organize a permanent exhibition in the museum building at 14 Kutuzowa Street on the history of the city, after examining historical sources, mainly German ones, and collecting exhibits confirming the city’s former appearance.
In summary, the post-war 30-year period of the Bolesławiec museum (1967–97) should be considered successful.
The Bolesławiec museum has established a reputation as a museum that properly fulfils its tasks, while the newly acquired building creates new ones. The most urgent matter appears to be expanding the staff serving both buildings and introducing modern equipment to facilitate work and speed up the transmission of information. Thanks to the enormous effort of the employees, both buildings are open for as much time as possible, so that focusing on visitor service does not come at the expense of substantive work.
On the occasion of the aforementioned anniversary, we should wish that the next ambitious plans can be realized, earning the goodwill and acceptance of both visitors to our museum and the City Authorities, who deserve thanks here for recognizing the museum’s role in our city.
We also extend our thanks to all those who kindly support our activities and cooperate with us, helping together to contribute something new and valuable to Bolesławiec’s cultural landscape.