History of POLIN Museum (2014-2024)
10th birthday is a perfect opportunity to review POLIN Museum’s activities to date. Each year of the past decade was packed with exciting events, big and small successes, and challenges. Thanks to our fantastic audience, the European Museum of the Year 2016 has grown to become one of the most important cultural institutions in the country. Join us on a journey across the first decade in the life of POLIN Museum!
2014: the year of the Grand Opening and the first edition of the Jewish Cultural Heritage project
On 28 October 2014, together with our organizing bodies—the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the City of Warsaw—we opened the POLIN Core Exhibition titled "1000-Year History of Polish Jews." Media all over the entire globe reported on this event. The New York Times deemed us "the most ambitious institution of culture opened in Poland since the fall of communism," Süddeutsche Zeitung described us as "a piece of art which sets new standards," and The Economist predicted that "the new museum will stimulate a discussion on how museums should think about presenting issues of national identity." During the Grand Opening, Mr Marian Turski uttered the famous words: "Mir zenen do. We are here." These words guided us while we were developing the program for POLIN’s 10th birthday.
Already in the first year of operation, we opened not only the Core Exhibition but also three temporary exhibitions: "Biographies of Things," "Warsaw. Varshe," and "How to Make a Museum?." "Museum on Wheels," a mobile educational exhibition which restores the memory of Jewish communities by engaging local activists, set off on its first journey across Poland. Since then, "Museum on Wheels" has visited no less than 112 towns! We continued to develop the network of teachers—POLIN Ambassadors, a project that is particularly important to us. We organized the second edition of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The symbol of a daffodil refers to the gesture of Marek Edelman who used to lay yellow flowers at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes each year on 19 April. Initially, the Daffodils were a local educational attraction. However, the campaign soon gained nationwide and then global reach, winning wide recognition and mobilizing groups brought together by remembering about the Uprising—regardless of their identity, political views, or religion. Looking at the Daffodils Campaign today, it is hard to believe that one (newly opened!) cultural institution that POLIN Museum was back then could have exerted such a strong impact on such a broad audience.
2015: the year of the first POLIN Award
In 2015, the first POLIN Award was granted. The Award promotes the efforts of individuals and organizations that protect and restore the memory of Jewish history within local communities. To date, we presented nine POLIN Awards, 17 honorable mentions, and 8 special awards. This year, the winners of the competition will be announced on the 10th anniversary of the Grand Opening of the Core Exhibition, thus highlighting the fact that—like the Core Exhibition itself—they fulfill the mission of restoring memory. In 2015, we also launched the Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) which promotes international studies of the history and culture of Polish Jews.
2016: the year of the "Oscar of the museum world"
In 2016, after merely two years in operation, we were honored with the highest prize granted to museums in Europe—POLIN Museum was presented with EMYA, the European Museum Academy Award. Visitors flocked in to see our new temporary exhibition titled "Frank Stella and the Synagogues of Old Poland"—they had a rare opportunity to meet in person the painter who is widely regarded as one of the most important American artists of the 20th century.
2017: the year we hit the record of one million visitors
In 2017, we organized two temporary exhibitions: "Jukebox, Jewkbox! A Jewish Century on Shellac and Vinyl" and "Blood: Uniting & Dividing." One millionth visitor to purchase a ticket at POLIN Museum ticket desk was welcomed with great fanfare in the main hall. We received yet another award, one of the most widely recognized in the museum world—the European Union Europa Nostra Award. The competition jury emphasized the high quality and wide reach of our educational projects, highlighting, among others, the "Museum on Wheels" exhibition, the extensive program for schools and people with disabilities, as well as our online platforms. Also, we successfully concluded the first edition of "Jewish Cultural Heritage," one of the most important projects we have undertaken in collaboration with Polish and Norwegian partners.
2018: the year of the "Estranged: March ’68 and Its Aftermath" exhibition
In 2018, we presented two temporary exhibitions, both record-breaking in terms of attendance: "Estranged. March ’68 and Its Aftermath" and "In King Matt’s Poland. 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence." Together, they were viewed by over 180,000 people. We organized the 75th anniversary commemoration of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Additionally, we held the inaugural editions of the TISH Jewish Food Festival and POLIN Music Festival—both soon became one of Warsaw’s top cultural events.
2019: the year of the election a new POLIN Museum director
2019 proved to be more challenging than all previous years. In May, Professor Dariusz Stola, the co-author of our success thus far, won the competition to remain in the post of POLIN Museum Director. However, Professor Stola was not appointed to the position by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. His former deputy, Zygmunt Stępiński, was appointed the Acting Director and continued the mission of running the Museum in line with its founders’ principles and his predecessor’s vision. In 2019, we opened the exhibition titled "Gdynia – Tel Aviv" dedicated to the two cities—one Polish, one Jewish—built almost from scratch in the early decades of the 20th century, embodying their founding fathers’ vision of a "window to the world."
2020: the year POLIN Museum transferred to the virtual world
The year 2020 began with Marian Turski’s famous speech, delivered during the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In his speech, Mr Turski uttered memorable words:
"Thou shalt not be indifferent when any authority violates the existing social contract. Be faithful to the commandment, the Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent. Because if you are, you won’t even notice it when upon your own heads, and upon the heads of your descendants, another Auschwitz falls from the sky."
These words entered the pages of Polish history and have since served as an inspiration for many of our subsequent projects. In March, the world came to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we switched to online work. A painting by Maurycy Gottlieb titled "Self-Portrait in Polish Nobleman’s Attire" was displayed in the Core Exhibition. We also opened a new temporary exhibition titled "Here Is Muranów."
2021: the year of Wilhelm Sasnal
In 2021, the exhibition of paintings by Wilhelm Sasnal, one of the most internationally recognized contemporary Polish artists, titled "Such a Landscape," celebrated great success. One of the paintings was generously donated to POLIN Museum by the artist. It can now be admired in the new Postwar gallery space, a part of the Core Exhibition. We also launched the new Legacy Gallery dedicated to the cultural contribution of Polish Jews who, having left their homeland, made a lasting mark on the history of many countries across the globe.
2022: the year of Europa Nostra Award and the solidarity with Ukraine
The year 2022 brought another temporary exhibition titled "What’s Cooking: Jewish Culinary Culture," as well as the prestigious Europa Nostra Award for the TISH Jewish Food Festival. It was also a time when we united in our efforts to help Ukraine by organized support and programs for our neighbors and refugees. That is when Ukrainian-language offer became a permanent feature in the POLIN Museum program.
2023: the year of the 11th commandment "Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent"
In 2023, we developed a commemorative program for the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The exhibition titled "Around Us a Sea of Fire," which told the story of civilians during the Uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, featured previously unknown and miraculously discovered photographs of the Uprising taken by Zbigniew L. Grzywaczewski and Rudolf Damec. The discovery of the said photos and the exhibition itself were covered by the media worldwide.
On 7 October, the world watched in horror as the news broke of a terrorist attack by the Hamas on Israeli civilians. The conflict between Israel and the Hamas escalated into a bloody war in the Middle East, claiming the lives of more innocent civilians—both Israelis and Palestinians—each day. We follow with hope the international efforts to reach a ceasefire and end the war which has led to a massive humanitarian crisis, particularly in the Gaza Strip. Tragically, in March of the following year, we received the heartbreaking news of the death of Alex Dancyg, a dedicated long-time collaborator of POLIN Museum who had been kidnapped by the Hamas in October. The Museum team is united in sorrow with Alex’s relatives who mourn his untimely death.
2024: the year of two million daffodils
In 2024, we broke several records—the POLIN Museum collection exceeded 17,000 objects and a yellow paper daffodil adorned a lapel of the two millionth individual. Our current temporary exhibition is titled "(post) JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt." The exhibition, illustrated by the paintings depicting Jewish everyday life in a small town in the Świętokrzyskie Province prior to WW2, encourages reflection upon the idea that to fully understand the present void, one must be aware of what has been lost. The Core Exhibition has been enriched with a new section of the Postwar gallery, dedicated to the history of Jewish life in Poland after 1989.
In April, we have completed the 4-year-long second edition of the "Jewish Cultural Heritage" project—almost all of our program activities in the years 2020-2024 were realized within its framework. We ran over 10,000 activities for almost 7 million recipients.
The Rotating Gallery was a space in which we present contemporary Jewish art. Using visual and sound installations, photographs, performances and interdisciplinary projects the artists interpret tradition and refer it to the present-day.
Ten years of work in many fields—from exhibitions, through education and volunteering, to promoting the knowledge of Polish Jews
We have specialized in exhibitions and educational activities. To date, we have organized twenty-five temporary exhibitions (including virtual ones), and we continually enrich the POLIN Core Exhibition titled "1000-Year History of Polish Jews" with new, contemporary contexts. We want it not only to talk about the past but also to focus on the present—what kind of home Poland is for Jews today? It is similar with our temporary exhibitions—while reaching into the past, they encourage viewers to reflect upon universal questions: Who am I? What shapes my identity? What is the history of my town/city? Are there still any questions I should ask my parents?
In our educational activities, we focus on many areas—from sensitizing the youngest to expert initiatives addressed to specialized professional groups, primarily teachers and educators, as well as police officers and other servicemen, local activists, and journalists. Every year, over one million pupils from all over Poland participate in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign or in educational workshops and guided tours. Such wide outreach is possible thanks to the high quality of our offer and educational materials, extensive programs for teachers, and excellent communication.
Multi-generational audience attend subsequent editions of the International Children’s Day and the Family Hanukkah, organized by King Matt’s Family Education Area and inspired by the pedagogy of Janusz Korczak. The POLIN Choir turned out to be an exceptionally original initiative, while the Museum Think-Tank united the museum community. We are stepping out to our neighborhood, Muranów—from the POLIN in the Meadow project to murals. The COVID-19 pandemic did not hinder our educational activities, as we successfully transferred many events online, becoming one of the first institutions to thrive in the online space (among others, we created the POLIN Radio, and the 'Oral History' YouTube channel; we also ran highly popular lessons for schools).
For years, the POLIN Music Scene has been based on special projects—new musical offers inspired by the history and culture of Polish Jews, created on our commission by the most original Polish and international artists. At the POLIN Reading Room, we regularly discuss important, fascinating, and often controversial books, frequently presenting them to the public for the first time and hosting authors from both Poland and abroad. Over the past decade, we have built an intergenerational, cohesive, and engaged group of volunteers. POLIN Museum is a place open to collaboration with people of all ages, with diverse experiences and individual expectations. Everyone can participate in co-creating important projects with a potential to exert a strong social impact and then become their ambassador outside the Museum.
We have also become experts in disseminating knowledge about the history of Polish Jews – the Virtual Shtetl and Polish Righteous portals serve as primary and reliable sources of information about the Jewish past in Poland. On each important anniversary, our Museum transforms into an information hub for the media, both from Poland and global. We assist artists, directors, writers, scholars, and documentarians in acquiring materials that are crucial to their work.
We are leaders in accessibility, both for people with disabilities and for communities with limited access to culture, such as migrants and war refugees. Thanks to the efforts of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute, we acquired a painting by Ewa Juszkiewicz titled "Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly)" from an anonymous donor. The painting broke a record at the Christie’s auction in New York and the proceeds from its sale were allocated to support POLIN Museum’s statutory activities.
POLIN Museum is made of its employees, associates and volunteers. Our success has been possible thanks to the cooperation with numerous partners and the engagement of hundreds of donors.
We all co-create the Museum—we come up with new ideas, we realize these ideas, we plan, we provide service, we oversee, and we process. Everyone at POLIN Museum has their say—we have trade unions and an Employee Council.
We enter our second decade as an institution co-created and recognized by many communities worldwide. Since our opening, we have maintained the status of a modern, independent cultural institution, one that is free from social divisions and instead serves as a platform for discussion and mutual understanding. While our many exhibitions have delved into the past, they have also taught us something about the present, asking vital questions about the world we live in today. We are a favorite destination for visitors—residents of Warsaw, Polish tourists as well as guests from abroad. Our international recognition boosts Poland’s image abroad, especially within the Jewish community. We are regularly visited by presidents, diplomats, representatives of royal families, celebrities, and vast numbers of guests who find here things that of personal interest for them but also simply enjoy in spend quality time at the Museum premises. To cut the long story short—we remain a must-see destination, and we are looking forward to seeing you soon at POLIN Museum. Remember—we are here!
