Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan. Warsaw art studios as micro-institutions

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.

Art studios are unique spaces on the city map that are largely hidden from the public. It is impossible to estimate the exact number of art studios located in Warsaw, but our modest calculations suggest that there are at least 500 and likely many more. Artists, working mostly as freelancers, are on their own when it comes to organising their workspace, creating, and storing their work. While some artists rent dedicated premises from the district Property Management Divisions, others work in premises they rent or sublet from private individuals. Municipal programmes, which in theory aim to facilitate access to premises allocated for creative studios, operate on an auction basis, but in reality, the auctions are usually won by people producing craft products for sale. At the same time, since 2014, there has been a positive change in the city of Warsaw’s policy, related to a greater recognition of the value of art studios as micro-institutions, and a declared intent to preserve the legacy of distinguished artists by granting their studios the status of a Historic Art Studio. Historic and contemporary studios are key places for the production of art, building social ties, establishing collaborations, telling stories and taking care of artworks and archives, ensuring the continuity of the exchange of practical and theoretical knowledge. From there, works of art find their way to private galleries and public institutions, where they help shape the artistic image of the city and the entire country. The “Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan” project is an attempt to take a look at both municipal policies and the needs of Warsaw-based artists to see if and to what extent they resonate with each other. Our aim is to create tools for dialogue between the seemingly distant but, in fact, mutually influential aspects of urban life, namely the administrative and the artistic aspects.

Curators

Vera Zalutskaya

My contribution to WOK is my experience of working in a variety of groups and contexts.

Łucja Staszkiewicz

collaboration in the process of creating a dance institution

At WOK I am involved in mapping art studios and spaces suitable for choreographic practice, as well as supporting the production of events.

lucja.staszkiewicz@wok.art.pl

Research project and exhibition

As part of the “Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan” project, we collaborated with the Department of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Through interviews with artists and the staff of Property Management Divisions of the individual city districts, we gathered information on the actual and statutory functions of art studios. We intestigated the location of the studios in the urban space, their accessibility, and the conditions required to gain access to art studios. The result of the research is an exhibition that will be arranged and presented in the WOK Lab space.

Open studios

The point of reference for this part of the project is Jan Hoet’s 1986 project Chambres d’Amis, which consisted of taking art out of institutions and placing it closer to people and real life, in private homes in Ghent.

REPORT: Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan. Warsaw art studios as micro-institutions

The publication which sums up the project Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan. Warsaw art studios as micro-institutions address the issue of creative work, its regulatory frameworks and constraints through viaf the functioning of art studios. Focusing on city-owned properties, studios rented on the commercial market, the creative space available at the Academy of Fine Arts, and studios run by creative cooperatives, we explore the different ways in which creative work can be organised, which usually depends on the availability of dedicated space.

Symposium

The symposium focused on the city of Warsaw’s policy towards art studios. The discussion was attended by representatives of grassroots self-organised exhibition spaces operating in premises intended for art studios i.e. the Przyszła Niedoszła gallery and Pracownia Wschodnia. The discussion aimed to raise questions about the reasons why the operation of independent exhibition spaces is hindered and to find possible ways of solving the problem.

Activities held in community culture centres

The activities held in the community culture centres in Warsaw were dedicated to the cooperation between artists and the district art education centres – in this case between the Wolski Culture Centre and Martyna Modzelewska, and between the Praga Culture Centre and Weronika Zalewska. The activities of the people who run these workshops stem from the needs of those attending these workshops. When reflecting on these activities, we asked ourselves how can artists contribute to the creation of a community culture centre and organise activities that flow organically from its policies and at the same time meet local needs? The aim of this part of the project was to demonstrate the potential of collaboration between artists and community culture centres, a strategy that some of these centres have been pursuing for quite some time.

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