Warsaw
Observatory
of Culture

At the Warsaw Observatory of Culture we aim to explore the processes of contemporary culture and share our findings with the wider community. We believe that connecting art and artists with scholarship affords us a better understanding of the world and the tools to engage with and contribute to the future.
About Us
Activity
Knowledge
Study on the Situation of Artists and Artist-Parents of Children Aged 0–6 in the Creative Labor Market
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) is launching a research project dedicated to the situation of parents working in creative professions. We are witnessing a paradigm shift for mother/father/parent-artistic individuals—from the historical exclusion of combining a career in the arts with caregiving responsibilities to an increasingly common need to function in both realms and to fulfil the role of practising artist on an equal footing with the role of a parent.
WOK.cast: Being a Director
Today, culture is at a crossroads. On the one hand, old practices are still in use; on the other, new values supporting equality and diversity are being promoted. Cultural institutions are particular in that they are the sites of the struggle to change attitudes and ways of working. In a new series of WOK.casts entitled Being a Director, Olga Wysocka and Igor Stokfiszewski attempt to find out how the directors of Warsaw’s cultural institutions are handling change. What strategies do they use in the face of this challenge? What emotions does this provoke?
Cultural Education
The study of cultural education in Warsaw is a study of the city itself: its radically changing community; its shifts and uncertainties in the face of global challenges; as well as its local conditions and their impact on the lives of Warsaw’s residents. WOK presents the report Cultural Education in Research and Action, which concludes the second phase of our study on cultural education practices in Warsaw.

Announcing the results of the recruitment for the artistic research process and networking meetings of Co-thinking

We received 114 applications. The applicants define the area of artistic research in diverse ways, situating it within a broad spectrum of institutional and non-institutional practices and subjecting them to critical analysis. Having read the applications already granted us with an opportunity to explore this field. The large number and high quality of the submissions demonstrate how necessary reflection on artistic research in Poland is, and how many people wish to pursue this path in their practice.

More about: Announcing the results of the recruitment for the artistic research process and networking meetings of <em>Co-thinking</em>

Pavillion for Dance and Other Performance Arts. Launch of an open call for a year-long curatorial concept

This is the moment that the Polish performing arts community has been waiting for. The competition for the year-long curatorial concept for the Pavilion for Dance and Other Performing Arts has been launched. The competition is organised by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Entries are open and will be accepted via the pawilontanca.pl website.

More about: Pavillion for Dance and Other Performance Arts. Launch of an open call for a year-long curatorial concept