Art Education in Poland – between Jurassic Park and the ‘catering regime’

Art schools in Poland and Eastern Europe after the collapse of Berlin Wall went through various changes, including liberalization of their educational programmes, modernization of buildings and equipment, commercialization of their educational content, and last but not least, the preservation of the old balance of power within the institution. Art schools are also facing a new demand: how to supply ‘workers’ for the new creative industries and art markets. According to the author, many questions from the beginning of the transformation still remain open to answer: What is an Academy of Arts? Does the Academy have to be a fossil devoid of life, a Jurassic Park where frightening and comical figures can be met? Save for odd exceptions, art schools are facing the dilemma of whether adherence to tradition is more important than subjection to current tendencies in art. Writing about the dilemmas facing art education in Poland he refers to the book Teaching Art in a Neoliberal Realm (2011) edited by Paul De Bruyne and Pascal Gielen, with a special focus on Daniel Muzyczuk’s article about neo-liberal changes in the Polish art education.