“We have brought artistic education from the lowest level to the highest into the 21st century. This year, the budget allocated to higher artistic education has been increased by more than a quarter, i.e. by more than PLN 200 million, compared to the previous year”, said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and National Heritage Professor Piotr Gliński during a press conference on the increase in funding for artistic higher education institutions. Thanks to the increase in the budget, outlays for public art schools will exceed one billion PLN. 

Deputy Prime Minister Professor Piotr Gliński said that the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is responsible for 19 art schools across the country. He pointed out that the increase of more than PLN 200 million results in an increase of the budget by roughly one-quarter compared to the previous year. 

“At the moment, we are carrying out eight major investments in our art schools: the construction of a new campus in Bydgoszcz, the construction of new faculties at the Academy of Music in Katowice, two investments each in art schools in Krakow and Poznan, thermal modernisation of the building of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a project to improve fire safety at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw”, said Prof. Piotr Gliński.

The head of the Ministry of Culture recalled that in the last seven years, 11 European projects have been implemented in the area of art academies, including the renovation of the Czapski Palace, belonging to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

In total, investments in artistic education over the seven years amounted to around PLN 2 billion 200 million. Among other things, a large thermal modernisation project was carried out, involving 139 BA and MA art schools, and 22 new concert halls were built at them.

Adrian Andrzejewski