Progress is created by unconventional, dynamic, restless, even controversial people. Mrs. Stasia is a model of gentleness, calm, tolerance, and radiates warmth, kindness and goodness. And yet she builds progress, authority and a good reputation for the Youth Cultural Centre in Bolesławiec, at least in the sphere of the flourishing of children's art and broadly understood visual arts here. It could hardly be otherwise, since the master himself, Stanisław Wyspiański, lent the institution his name as its patron.
Let us record, in chronological order, only the more important facts and successes of the visual arts studio. Years 1970–1976: an award in the International Visual Arts Competition of the Youth Palace in Warsaw, and distinctions and diplomas received for works sent to Argentina. More importantly, many participants in the classes and graduates of the studio passed entrance examinations to higher art schools: Czesław MATYJEWICZ (PWSSP Wrocław), EUGENIUSZ MINCIEL (PWSSP Wrocław), ELŻBIETA WOŹŃIEWSKA (ASP Kraków, ASP Berlin), JANUSZ MONIATOWICZ (FAMU Prague), BOGDAN NOWAK (makeup studies in Warsaw, Marcel Marceau International School of Mimodrama in Paris, today an assistant to the great French master).
In the following years, the Wrocław art college accepted further talents who had blossomed under Mrs. Stasia's expert eye: Zbiegniewa ZIELIŃSKIEGO, Wojciecha JADACHA, Mariusza OCHOCKIEGO, Arkadiusza PASZYŃSKIEGO and Grzegorza GRESZCZUKA. Later, Renata BITOWSKA, Eryka PANSTER and Katarzyna KUBIAK would enter the Faculty of Architecture at Wrocław University of Technology, while Agnieszka TWERD would choose art history at KUL in Lublin. At the same time, the youngest generation of students continued to achieve successes and win trophies in the competition “The World of Indians Through a Child's Eyes”: the winners were Ewa KRAŚKÓW (aged 9) and Kamil PYTLIŃSKI (aged 7). The latter author also received a special award in the competition “Bolesławiec – This Is My City Too.”
In the Toruń visual arts competition (organized with the assistance of the Embassy of Colombia in Poland), entitled “The World of García Márquez,” awards went to: L. SOKOŁOWSKA, T. JOP, J. WIECZOREK and K. KOCZOŃ, with distinctions for a further seven people. The artists were aged from 5 to 15, but in terms of talent and technical skill they outclassed thousands of rivals. Then came distinctions from Bydgoszcz and the exhibition there of a dozen or so successful works from the town on the Bóbr.
It is already 1994, and there is a competition in Schwedt, Germany. The award winners are: K. PYTLIŃSKI, T. JOP, M. FARYS, E. KASKÓW and her sister Marta, and L. SOKOŁOWSKA, in addition to three distinctions. “My Favourite Fairy Tale” ends with a provincial success for Olga MARCINKOWSKA and Karolina ZIMNIAK, while the international Toruń competition “The Colours of Friendship” brings a diploma for Magda JOP. The European School Competition ’94 brings accolades for Ala DRYJSKA, Karolina ZIMNIAK and Łukasz PIETRASZKIEWICZ. They and four other young artists received special diplomas from the Minister of National Education. Among the 20 teachers from across the country distinguished on this occasion by the head of the education ministry was STANISŁAWA WOJDA-PYTLIŃSKA.
Next came the competition “Bolivar and Tadeusz Kościuszko: Heroes of Freedom,” with the participation of the Embassy of Colombia. Eight-year-old Kamil PYTLIŃSKI received the Ambassador of Spain's award in Poland, while a distinction was awarded to Martyna FARYS. Five more diplomas for participation in the exhibition should also be added. It was the year of the 40th anniversary of the MDK and a time for a retrospective exhibition of the studio's students: Renata BITOWSKA (a PWSSP student), Mirosław GRZESZCZUK (an assistant at PESSP Wrocław), Krystyna HYPLAK-Dovai (France) – a student of visual artist Jolanta AJLIKOW-CZARNECKA, Wojciech JADACH (PWSSP diploma), Jan KRIGER (amateur painter), Janusz MONIATOWICZ (FAMU-Prague diploma), Bogdan NOWAK (Paris), Mariusz OCHOCKI (PWSSP diploma), Małgorzata KOCHMAN-SIDOROWICZ (teacher of arts education), Agnieszka TWERD (a graduate of art history at KUL), Zbigniew ZIELIŃSKI (PWSSP diploma), and the diploma graduate in Gdańsk, our protagonist Stanisława WOJDA-PYTLIŃSKA.
I will leave a description of this year's successes for another occasion. The town on the Bóbr is fortunate to have unconventional people who spread its name far and wide. Modest, hardworking, talented, yet shunning fame and publicity. Passionate about their work, activity and artistic creativity, sensitive and spiritually rich. Loving children, the world and other people; unpretentious, yet extraordinary, worthy of the highest respect, recognition, acceptance and promotion. People like Mrs. Stasia.
And one very personal impression. When I crossed the threshold of the MDK visual arts studio with a reporter's notebook in hand, the teacher gave me an unusual welcome, addressing her students:
- Look, children, my professor has come to visit us—the man who once taught me drawing and painting...
I was moved by this greeting. Who still remembers that Bolesławiec had the only painting studio in the country with genuine easels, where young art apprentices followed in Matejko's footsteps? For this was the first such school in the former county and in Poland to receive the proud name of the painter of national history—and that carried an obligation. That it was here that the first course in Lower Silesia for visual arts teachers from the entire region took place, ending with a beautiful exhibition of several hundred works celebrating the painterly beauty of the town on the Bóbr?
Mrs. Stasia was still a student at the time. But I have more than a modest share in the flowering of the teacher's artistic and pedagogical talent. Everything she achieved she owes to herself, her hard work, her passion for creation, her rich combination of psychological qualities and exceptional sensitivity to beauty. This is an objective truth that cannot be bent to suit opportunistic associations or opinions.
As the essay's concluding point, let us cite the handwritten dedication that a former student and pupil, Z. Zieliński, wrote in the catalogue of his paintings: “To the very kind Mrs. Stasia, my teacher, as a token of gratitude—with wishes for happiness.” A warm, familiar, heartfelt and beautifully expressed thought. A creed exceptionally apt in its scope.
P.S. In the previous part of the essay, “compilation” was replaced—not through any fault of my own—by “complication,” which completely changed the meaning of the sentence. I apologize.