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Artistic Colleges Plein-Air in Kazimierz

The 10th jubilee edition of the Kazimierska PLENERIADIA OF ARTISTIC UNIVERSITIES, organised by the "STALOWA Gallery Foundation" from Warsaw, ended on 14 November 2021 in Kazimierz Dolny upon the Vistula River. It was attended by students and teaching staff from the University of Rzeszów, the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. For 11 days at the House of Creative Work of the Catholic University of Lublin (Dom Pracy Twórczej KUL) at 94 Pulawska Street in Kazimierz Dolny, students could not only create paintings under the supervision of their professors and assistants, but also visit the surroundings, get to know each other and have a good time together. A fixed point of the program was the evening seminar, during which the teaching staff conducted presentations and activities for all students and invited guests. The participants had the opportunity to get to know the work of the teaching staff in depth, made many valuable contacts, and made plans for joint artistic projects.

The originator of this artistic and didactic project is Krzysztof Fabijański - President of the Management Board of the "STALOWA Gallery Foundation" and owner of the Prague-based "STALOWA" Art Gallery.

Numerous open air painting workshops are held throughout Poland. They are usually intended for artists who have already completed their studies and obtained a relevant university diploma. Plein-air workshops organized by universities are intended for students of a given artistic institution. In fact, there is no place where students from 3 different universities from all over Poland could meet to get to know each other, exchange experiences and compare their work. The project "Plein-Air of Artistic Universities in Kazimierz" is aimed at integration of artistic circles from different regions of Poland. Staying in the cult place for painters, which is Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula River, gives young artists the opportunity for unfettered implementation of their artistic ideas under the guidance of "their" professor and with the help of "their" assistant.

Krzysztof Fabijański says: I used the name "PLENERIADA" to emphasize the duality of my idea: students are at the open air and paint pictures, but there is an element of competition between students from different universities, because at the end of the open air during the vernissage the winners of the "PLENERIADA" are selected.

One afternoon was devoted to a trip to Lublin. Thanks to the courtesy of the management of the National Museum we visited with a guide the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, we saw the exhibition of the "Castle" group and the collection of Polish painting including works of artists creating from the seventeenth century to modern times. During a walk through the Old Town and Krakowskie Przedmieście we saw exhibitions in galleries at ul. Grodzka (Artur Popek's painting exhibition at the Gardzienice gallery), at the Meeting of Cultures Centre (Edward Baran's exhibition "In the Space of Paper"; Agnieszka Sobczyńska's "Made in Jazz" posters; Joanna Polak's "Furniture" - an animated film and behind the scenes of production; Marcin Sudziński's "Clichés of Three Portraitists" - Marcin Sudziński introduces us to Lublin's photographic companies); and Kamil Stanczak's painting exhibition at the "LuCreate" Open Studio. After returning to Kazimierz, the participants spent the evening by the bonfire.

This time the special guest was Piotr Sarzyński, an outstanding Polish journalist and publicist, art critic, and author of books popularizing art, known from the Polityka weekly. It was a presentation entitled "Wave after wave - young Polish painting" followed by a story about the mechanisms of entering the market by people graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, especially after painting. How to make a career? Dilemmas, challenges, barriers.
The gala opening of the open-air exhibition took place for the first time in the prestigious exhibition rooms of the Nadwiślańskie Museum at Rynek 19 in Kazimierz Dolny. Among the many distinguished guests there were professors of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and of the Faculty of Art of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, artists associated with Kazimierz Dolny and the Board of Directors of the Friends of Kazimierz Dolny and the Chairman of the STALOWA Gallery Foundation Board. The jury composed of PLENERIAD participants and invited guests in a secret ballot awarded individual prizes and honorable mentions, and the sum of points won by the students decided the order of places in the university classification. Although the official result itself is not important, and what really counts is taking part in the Plein-Air, emotions were high.

The winner was decided by the votes of all participants, the organizer and the guests invited to the jury. Professors, Organizer and Special Guest have to award 10 points each, assistants and invited guests 6 points each and students 2 points each. The winner receives a cash prize of PLN 700, while the second and third places are awarded PLN 500 and PLN 300 respectively. The college which obtains the total of the highest number of points has the right of priority to come to the next open-air workshop and to choose the remaining 2 colleges which will take part in the PLENERIADA.

I place took Alicja Kalandyk from the University of Rzeszow;
II place was taken by Michał Żądło from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków,
Third place was Jadwiga Napiórkowska from the University of Rzeszow, who also received a special prize of PLN 500 funded by the Society of Friends of Kazimierz.

The jury also awarded 6 distinctions:
Jakub Skomra from the University of Rzeszów,
Lura Gutowska and Agata Palach-Bożek from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow
Michał Kawałko, Marek Cyroń and Michalina Brzozowska from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

The jury also awarded an honorary mention to Justyna Permus-Sałańska from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

The university competition was won by students of the University of Rzeszów, who scored a total of 98 points, ahead of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, whose students scored a total of 64 points, and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń with 48 points.

PLENARIDA was held thanks to considerable financial assistance from the main sponsor, the Warsaw-based company Dom Development S.A., and the sponsor of the year, DANKA Polska Sp. z o.o. We are extremely grateful, all the more so that the Foundation has received funding from the main sponsor for another year in a row!

The participants of the 10th PLENERIADA were presented with gifts by our reliable sponsors. The Mayor of Kazimierz Dolny Artur Pomianowski donated funds for the purchase of paintings for students. The @KowalikArt - Grzegorz Kowalik company gave all participants paintings and separately paintings for the winner of the X PLENERIAD, worth 700 PLN. The @Colart - Jakub Kopek company gave all participants samples of WINSOR&NEWTON, LIQUITEX and LEFRANC BOURGEOIS paints and promarkers, as well as sets of paints for the winners of the PLENERIADY. The PLENERIADA is also sponsored by Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Kazimierza Dolnego, the founder of an individual special prize of PLN 500, and by the STALOWA Art Gallery from Warsaw. Thank you all very much!!!

I would also like to thank the director of the Nadwiślańskie Museum - Dr Piotr Kondraciuk - for making the main exhibition hall available for the vernissage and the post-exhibition, which will be open to the public until December 5th, 2021! Special thanks are due to Dr. Dorota Seweryn-Puchalska for her great support and invaluable help with the arrangement of the post-exhibition.

The staff of DPT KUL, as always, took great care of the participants - nice service, delicious and abundant food and friendly atmosphere allowed the participants of the X PLENERIAD in Kazimierz to have a pleasant and stress-free stay.

Krzysztof Fabijański - President of the Management Board of "STALOWA Gallery Foundation".

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