Past projects

A two-day invitation to the verbally tangled, the relationally curious, and the communally ambitious. Whether you move with your body, your words, or your eyebrows—you’re welcome. Open to all, including those outside the dance world and the young people who may well be the wisest in the room.

This year’s edition of the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR) will take place at the University of Warsaw from 19–23 August. Anna Galas-Kosil, Deputy Director of the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK), will lead a dedicated panel discussion on how cultural policies can support artists with migration experience.

In Poland, artistic research has been developing for years on the margins of art and science institutions. Although these ephemeral practices are an inexhaustible source of new cognitive strategies, they have not yet found their own place in the cultural field. Their creators lack funding and institutional support, and their work has not received much critical or scholarly commentary that could help deepen our understanding of these practices.

The open-source movement and grassroots creators (makers) have revolutionised the way we think about the creation and distribution of knowledge, technology and products. But what does OPENNESS mean for the creative world today? On April 25th at 18:00, the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) will host the first event in the SPLOT Open series. The event is dedicated to the theme of OPENNESS and will explore initiatives that embody an open approach in various fields including science, culture, design, art, production, programming and social engagement.

We invited artists with a migration or refugee experience to walk around Warsaw, to places that are important to them. Their stories, anecdotes and digressions, opinions and emotions are an attempt to answer the question again: how else could it be In Warsaw? Now ahead is a three-day methodological seminar.

The Warsaw Observatory of Culture is researching the local artistic community and its needs by observing the municipal infrastructure of art studios. The aim of the project is to increase the visibility of art studios and empower artists by highlighting the importance of these premises to the functioning of the city’s cultural scene.

List of Shortcomings is an interdisciplinary theatre project developed by a team of community artists from the Association of Theatre Educators and the Warsaw Observatory of Culture. Together we want to discuss culture as a working environment, the prevalence of precariat as a form of (un)employment in culture and the conditions, hierarchies and the discrepancies between stated values and their realisation.

What do migrants in the capital do for a living? How does housing insecurity affect the lives of Varsovians? Do we feel responsible for the quality of the air in our city? These are just some of the questions we tried to answer during the national scientific conference Warsaw in Sociological Studies. The event, organised by the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and the Polish Sociological Association was held in late November.

The Warsaw Observatory of Culture was a partner of an international discussion panel during the 22nd edition of the Ciało/Umysł Festival. Our research interests are close to the topic of the state of the creative sector, taking into account the psychophysical well-being and working conditions of people working in the cultural sector, which, among other things, was the subject of the meeting on 7 October 2023.

From 28 to 30 July, the WOK Lab was handed over to Ukrainian youth, who, under the supervision of Oksana Kolisnyk, a student of Social Arts at the University of Warsaw, who is the author of the exhibition and invites everyone to take part in the upcoming programme.

WOK Lab host the FSH1 platform for Belarusian photographers. On July 12, 2023, a networking meeting was held aimed at people from the Belarusian art community interested in contemporary photography.

The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) is the thematic partner of the 5th edition of the Municipal Scholarship Programme. The aim of the programme, which supports doctoral students from all over Poland, is to deepen our understanding of the processes and challenges facing the changing Warsaw and its inhabitants, and to use this knowledge in the development of municipal policies.

Experience the world of virtual reality and generative digital environments at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) during the Reality Bender graduation project exhibition. The exhibition was feature the latest graduation projects from the 3D and Virtual Events Studio II, part of the Media Arts Department at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.