Within the welcoming walls of the Stara Kopalnia Centre for Science and Art, it was possible to present works from more than thirty open-air workshops. The exhibition features 164 ceramic sculptures that had been stored in the BOK-MCC warehouses. Organising the exhibition was a major logistical undertaking. Sixteen pallets of ceramic works were transported to Wałbrzych by special transport. The entire project was overseen by Mateusz Grobelny, who has been the commissioner of the Bolesławiec Open-Air Workshop for five years and is the curator of the exhibition in Wałbrzych.
At the opening, the arriving guests were welcomed by Wałbrzych Deputy Mayor Zygmunt Nowaczyk. He thanked the Bolesławiec cultural centre (BOK-MCC) for deciding to share its works of art with Wałbrzych and expressed his satisfaction with the new cooperation.
“An exhibition like this does not appear at our venue often,” said Zygmunt Nowaczyk. “This alliance between two ceramic centres is particularly important to us: Bolesławiec stoneware and Wałbrzych porcelain.”
Vice Mayor Kornel Filipowicz, who was present at the opening, emphasised that Wałbrzych had received what Bolesławiec has most valuable. Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska, director of BOK-MCC and organiser of the International Ceramic and Sculpture Open-Air Workshop, thanked the artists for coming to Bolesławiec to create for more than half a century.
“The Bolesławiec Ceramic and Sculpture Open-Air Workshop is one of the most interesting and important artistic events in Poland, organised continuously for 52 years,” said Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska. “Bolesławiec is a city of artists. Two outstanding artists from Bolesławiec associated with the open-air workshop and honoured with the ‘Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture’ came to Wałbrzych for the exhibition opening: Janina Bany-Kozłowska and the long-serving commissioner of the open-air workshops, Krystyna Gay-Kutschenreiter. We are also hosting former director of the Museum of Ceramics Teresa Wolanin, the wife of the late artist Bronisław Wolanin, who was also honoured with the Gloria Artis award and whose works can be admired at the exhibition,” added the BOK-MCC director.
Visitors to the cross-sectional exhibition of the International Ceramic and Sculpture Open-Air Workshop in Bolesławiec will have the opportunity to learn about the considerable legacy of a Polish artistic event that survived many storms and political difficulties taking place in our country over the past half-century. The open-air workshop did not collapse even during the most difficult period for artists—the transformations following 1989.
The open-air workshop is an important part of Bolesławiec’s brand and a distinctive marker of Bolesławiec around the world. It is an event that demonstrates the respect with which the people of Bolesławiec treat their wealth: ceramics. Congratulations and thanks are due here to all party secretaries, officials, councillors, mayors, local-government representatives, all directors of the cultural centre, artists from the Association of Polish Artists, ceramic plants where the open-air workshops could take place, and local artists and enthusiasts, including the peerless Krystyna Gay-Kutchenreiter, who raised the status of the open-air workshop from Polish to international.
The exhibition will be open until 7 June, daily from 10:00 to 18:00, on the premises of the Stara Kopalnia in Wałbrzych.
Stara Kopalnia is housed in the former “Julia” Hard Coal Mine, where extraction ended in 1996 as part of the restructuring of the industry. The preserved complex of post-mining buildings subsequently became the Museum of Industry and Technology. Today, thanks to comprehensive revitalisation, Stara Kopalnia is a modern centre for science and art, creating an attractive space for tourism and active cultural and educational activities. The unique character of Stara Kopalnia, where historic architectural structures and authentic equipment have been presented in a modern, creative way, makes it an unprecedented attraction of the city and region.