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The Riverside Art Festival is the only event in Lublin that combines contemporary art with the beauty of the surrounding nature. The opening walk of the first edition took place on June 1 along the scenic route at the bank of Bystrzyca River, with the panorama of the Old Town.

The opening featured 8 installations/objects/artistic interventions from the field of contemporary art. The works were created with specific river points, between the Marian Lutosławski bridges, in mind. The artists used surprising materials, such as sea algae or dog hair. The same applies to the themes of the works – some of them refer directly to the place where they are presented, and others have a broader meaning in the social context. The resulting works can be viewed until October.
The Riverview Arts Festival is the latest initiative of the Workshops of Culture. The event is part of the programme bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029.

The second edition of “Alphabet” Children’s Literature and Development Festival, brought to you by the letter “B” for Brzechwa, took place between June 1st and 4th in the green heart of Lublin, the Saxon Garde. For a few days, the Saski Garden became a fairy-tale space where the youngest residents surrounded and played with literature.

The festival began with a colourful parade that passed through the centre of Lublin, inviting children and adults to journey together into the world of children’s literature and adventure. The parade included characters known from Brzechwa’s works – Mr. Kleks, characters from Bajdocja, and the inhabitants of Bergamuty.

The program included many activities related to the author’s work and biography. Brzechwa’s poems, mainly about animals, prose (represented primarily by the character of Mr. Kleks) served as the main inspiration. The second theme was rebellion: books dealing with this subject, and its importance in our lives. The attractions included concerts, literary installations, and an open-air reading room. The festival presented an opportunity to meet authors of children’s books, including Małgorzata Strzałkowska, Elżbieta Wasiuczyńska, Agnieszka Frączek, Marianna Sztyma, Sylwia Chutnik, Krzysztof Łapiński, and Marcin Szczygielski.

– The festival is a celebration for all children. Letters of the alphabet create the programme, which helps to promote reading. The idea is to read the works of specific authors and work on emotions and the attitudes that result from those emotions. The event promotes reading holistically and intimately through meetings, workshops, installations, theatre, movement, music, film, and creative islands, and connects specialists in various fields – says Alina Januszczyk, author and coordinator of the “Alfabet” Festival.

The organizer of the Festival is the “Grodzka Gate – NN Theater” Centre (House of Words) in partnership with the Beetle Audiovisual Culture Foundation and with the support of the City of Lublin. The event is part of the programme bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029.

“Neuron City” was the motto of this year’s Night of Culture. On June 1st, the streets of the Old Town changed beyond recognition. Art took over the city for 7 hours of the night.

This year, the Festival program included both large-scale projects and small artistic forms. The organizers promised several surprises and kept their word: everyone had the opportunity to discover something new and exciting in well-known places. Much attention was paid to a new type of installation – site-specific microstories – i.e. small forms of art. One of them was the work by Marcin Skrzypek, “Font Henge”. Even though it fits in the palm of one’s hand, it has a symbolic meaning and invites reflection on interpersonal communication. Jarosław Koziara presented his installation – “Heroines”, white botanical forms inspired by poppy flowers and seeds, that emerged from one of the tenement houses in the Old Town. Small forms were counterbalanced by large-scale projects. Those included a wicker structure in the shape of a whale on Fara Square or the spectacular mural by Pablo Caviedes. Perła – Browary Lubelskie S.A. space provided many attractions for visitors. Artists from the Sztukmistrze Foundation presented a spectacular pyrotechnic and fire show “Solaris”, and the fire-spitting performance by Marcin Ex Styczyński was breathtaking and gave a new meaning to the expression “breathing fire”. Elsewhere, one of Lublin’s historic trolleybuses turned into a greenhouse full of fragrant plants.

The Night of Culture always provides large quantities of music. The star of the evening was Łona x Konieczny x Krupa project, who presented material from the award-winning album “Taxi”. The Folklore Music Ensemble “Lubelacy” invited the inhabitants of Lublin to dance together to the rhythms of the traditional folk music of the region. Viewers could also choose to listen to a concert of young vocalists accompanied by a jazz trio at Plac Dominikański.

Nearly thirty delegates from twelve European cities took part in the General Assembly of the Association of Towns Awarded the Europe Prize. which took place on June 1 in the Lublin City Hall. The meeting was accompanied by the Youth Forum.

The main point of the event was a debate on European integration, during which participants talked about the current challenges as well as the future of integration of European citizens. Lublin, which is taking part in the competition for the European Capital of Culture 2029, persuaded the representatives of the cities present to sign a joint declaration on cooperation and further integration. The declaration also states support for Ukraine in efforts to become a member of the European Union. The guests also visited the city’s youth spaces and the Baobab integration centre. Additionally, in the evening, the participants of the Assembly took part in the eventful Night of Culture.

The event accompanying the Assembly was the Youth Forum, during which young people from different parts of Europe talked about the values connecting all residents of the European Union during a workshop “Building Trust in Integration based on European Values”.

The Europe Prize is the highest distinction awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to the municipalities most active in promoting European values and ideals. Lublin received the Award in 2017 and has since been a member of the Association of Towns Awarded the Europe Prize. Our city has been appreciated as a centre with solid international cooperation in numerous areas (economic, cultural, and educational), which is reflected in the number of projects implemented with foreign partners. During the General Assembly of the Association in 2023 in Nancy (France), the Mayor of Lublin, Krzysztof Żuk, was elected the new Chairman of the Association, and Lublin became the Presiding City for the 2023-2025 term. Our city already hosted the Association’s General Assembly in 2018.

Project activities included a series of classes and workshops during which young people worked on concepts for developing green areas near their schools. An important aspect of the project was the use of solutions that take climate change into account.

The classes aimed to prepare young people for a competition for a school area development project. Two winning schools had technical designs for the development of selected green areas prepared, taking into account the concept developed by the students. The winners of the competition were representatives of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Secondary School No 5 in Lublin and the K. K. Baczyński Lublin Center for Vocational and Continuing Education. The projects allowed for the implementation of, among others: retention pots, rain gardens, cube joints, flower beds, rainwater containers, and tree plantings.

Adaptation to climate change is our common challenge and an important lesson in shared responsibility. Educating the young generation on this topic is crucial. Such activities should start with smaller tasks, and the areas closest to us. Therefore, these issues could not be missing from the activities undertaken in Lublin – the European Youth Capital 2023 – says Beata Stepaniuk-Kuśmierzak, Deputy Mayor of Lublin for Culture, Sport and Participation, Plenipotentiary of the President for the European Youth Capital.

The city will also implement some of the land development projects prepared by students of the other four schools that participated in the project (Secondary School No 23, Secondary School No 30, Complex of Schools No. 5, Special Educational and Educational Center No. 1 in Lublin).

Project “Good climate at school – the green game!” was created as part of the European Youth Capital Lublin 2023, and was implemented with funds from the City of Lublin.

The 14th edition of the City of Poetry – the Lublin poetry festival – has just finished. After a few years of break, we invited poetry to our city again – to the streets, squares, cafes, institutions, and private apartments. We have created a Space for Poems!

The event lasted 4 days, during which poetry spread throughout Lublin. Meetings, events, workshops, animation, and social activities related to poetry took place in cafes, libraries, schools, streets, and squares. The City of Poetry Post Office referred to the idea of a poem as a gift. Similarly to the past editions, poetry also appeared in private spaces – so-called Poetry Apartments. Residents of Lublin, who wanted to host poetry meetings at their homes, were tasked with the creation of such spaces.

The main guest of this year’s edition was Ryszard Krynicki, associated with the festival for many years. Krynicki took part in the first edition of the City of Poetry in 2008 and received the “Kamień” Poetry Award awarded during the festival. His poems are also on the Festival’s murals, a characteristic sight that can be found in various locations throughout the city. His renewed presence in the City of Poetry marks a new beginning for the festival.

Another opportunity for Lublin artists! The Portuguese city of Aveiro has launched an open call for an artistic residency. It is held within the framework of the CreArt 3.0 project. The City of Lublin is one of the project’s partners.

During the residency, the artists will have a diversified cultural program, which will aim to widen their knowledge about the region and the Prisma Festival in collaboration with professionals. Moreover, the artists will have the opportunity to attend the Tech Week activities and to experience the Prisma Festival organization and artists networking.
The participants will be offered all conditions to get inspired by the Aveiro region and the projects will be developed under the topic of different elements of the territory specificities and the local identity such as the lagoon, the water canals, the Art Nouveau heritage, the salt production, or the Aveiro’ historic neighborhoods. The final works created will be presented to the public in the 2025 Prisma Festival edition, as part of the program.
Detailed information regarding the call, dates, requirements, and conditions of the residency can be found in the CreArt Artistic Residency Program tab.
The residency is organized as part of the CreArt 3.0 #stringing_together project, co-financed by the European Union’s “Creative Europe” program.

Four-person teams of young people from schools in the Lublin Voivodeship played the role of Members of the European Parliament during a simulation of the parliamentary session. During the event, which took place at Lublin’s town hall, they debated about EU funds allocated to culture.

Simulation of the European Parliament sessions is an event organized by EUROPE DIRECT Lublin, operating at the European Meeting Centre – Nowy Staw Foundation, and the City of Lublin. It aims to disseminate knowledge about the structures, and functioning of the European Union, especially the European Parliament, and elections to the European Parliament. The participating secondary school students represented the views of five parliamentary groups: the European People’s Party (EPP), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (PSSD), the Renew Europe Group (CoE), and the Greens/European Free Alliance (IN PE). It was practical training in discussion, rhetoric, and argumentation skills, as well as preparation for participation in social life.

The debate revolved around the thesis: “The European Union should increase European funds for culture”. Students from the Leon Wyczółkowski Vocational School Complex No. 2 in Ryki were the winners, while the students from the School Complex No. 2 in Lubartów were runners up. The third place went to to the 2nd P. Firlej Secondary School in Lubartów, while the pupils from the Adam Mickiewicz Secondary School in Opole Lubelskie came fourth.

On May 17th, a retrospective exhibition of the late Belgian photographer Paul Sochacki opened at the Biała Gallery. A group of guests from Belgium – Paul Sochacki’s friends from Tuinwijk2020, and Stichting Erfgoed Eisden, two associations of which Paul was a board member – participated in the opening.

Paul Sochacki was born in 1956, in Mechelen-aan-de-Maas, Belgium. In 1978-82 he studied photography and graphic design at the Stedelijk Hoger Instituut voor Visuele Communicatie en Vormgeving in Genk. From 1984 to 2018 he taught the analysis and study of image elements at the Luca School of Arts in Genk.

The exhibition presents a wide spectrum of his works, ranging from large-format analogue photographs combined with painting gestures, through photographs on porcelain and photograms, to digital photography. The exhibition includes works created between the 1980s and 2016. The theme of Sochacki’s art is nature in an inseparable bond with man, the cyclical nature of life and death, and the inevitability of transience. It raises the issue of the dualism of man and woman, light and darkness, and the moment when light generates darkness and darkness generates light.
The exhibition was created with the help form Mieke Dus, the heir to the Sochacki’s entire artistic legacy.

The meeting with the Belgian guests was an excellent opportunity to share the idea of Lublin’s application for the title of European Capital of Culture 2029, which involves dialogue between various fields of art, cultures, and generations.

The exhibition will be open until August 2, 2024, from Tuesday to Saturday from 12.00 – 6.00 pm and on the Night of Culture (June 1) from 6.00 to 10.00 pm.

The author of the photos is Ludo Coenen.