History of Polish Art Festival

The Polish Arts Festival (PAF) has been celebrating 14 years in Limerick. We are very proud to have been selected as one of the Made in Limerick Projects by the Limerick City of Culture 2014.

History

In 2007, Justyna Cwojdzinska, member of the Irish-Polish Cultural and Business Association in Limerick, was inspired to arrange an exhibition of the work of local Polish artists. Collaborating with fellow-Poles Magdalena Wronska-Sudol and Natalia Czarnecka-Diling, the ladies undertook the project with great passion and enthusiasm. Synergising their experience in events, art, sculpture, professional translation and cultural animation, the Polish Art Festival was founded.

Operating in the capacity of Artistic Director, Justyna undertook the running of the festival in 2011. Aided by her project team, the festival has evolved over time to include exciting lectures and events as well as exhibitions.

As year go on, the festival attracts visitors from Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Ennis, Galway and all around Ireland.

Sponsors

Sponsorship plays a major role in the success of our festival.

Support

The process of planning the festival takes a full year, and Justyna and the team embrace the help and ideas of the artists and the local community. The Polish Arts Festival’s International Living Statues Night project is kindly funded by The Arts Council. The festival also receives great support from the Hunt Museum and Naomi Nolan, Belltable and Marketa Dowling, Polish Embassy in Dublin.

Justyna is a performer, founder and artistic director of the Polish Arts Festival. She holds M.A. in English language & literature and Diploma in Theatrical Animation. A native of Poland. She made Limerick her home for the past 14 years. Her theatre performance “Nameless” has toured in Ireland and Poland and in 2019 you can see her in the newest production “Julia”.

Justyna works closely with the Polish Embassy in Dublin and is a very active advocate of social inclusion and promotion of indigenous arts. For the work on PAF in 2016, Justyna received An Outstanding Pole in Culture award from the Polish Government, Polish Promotional Emblem Foundation TERAZ POLSKA under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland. Former Chairperson of the Irish Polish Cultural & Business Association, a Board Member of The Hunt Museum, and an ordinary member of Forum Polonia. Justyna’s energy brings people together and makes them believe “Yes, You CAN“.

Aleksandra Rosiak is an arts manager and curator with over 15 years of experience in arts organisations, festivals, community projects, and arts publishing. She has been working as a cinema programmer and Programme Manager in Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge since 2009 and currently she is the acting venue director. As a cinema programmer, Aleksandra formed a strategic plan for cultural cinema development at Riverbank Arts Centre and delivered a high-quality cinema programme increasing audience numbers and box office revenue. Aleksandra is also an experienced arts educator and facilitator and a theatre director and producer.

As part of Riverbank Arts Centre team, she has been involved in developing, coordinating and producing art projects in various areas since and delivering high quality and volume of programmes for young audiences alongside core programme for general audiences.

As a practising artist and facilitator, she has devised and produced her own projects and productions, including a series of performances based on poetry for An Táin Theatre in Dundalk where she led an ensemble of actors, musicians and visual artists.

She is currently the artistic director of Laois Youth Theatre and co-director of Tobar Productions. She studied English Literature, Cultural Studies, and Arts Management in Poland and Community Arts and Conflict Resolution in Ireland.

Tim has worked closely with the Polish Community in Limerick and Ireland since 2004. A keen soccer player and supporter, Tim co-founded Polonia Luimni F.C. (the Polish Limerick Football Club) which continues to play and integrate Polish and Irish communities. Tim’s favourite time in Poland was supporting Ireland at EURO 2012. Former Chairman of the Irish Polish Cultural & Business Association, Director of the Ireland Poland Business Association and first Chief Executive of the Ireland Poland Chamber of Commerce, Tim was awarded an Irish Person of the Year Award by the Polish Community in Ireland in 2011. Tim continues to support PAF in all their marketing and sponsorship initiatives and he works to facilitate and lead on a number of Tourism and Community Development project roles across Ireland.

Hailing from Kraków, Poland, Anna Banko has been living in Ireland for many years. A graduate of the Liceum Muzyczne in Kraków, Anna is an accomplished violinist and trained singer.

Anna has been the choral director for the award-winning Cantate Deo Choir based in Limerick for the last number of years. The choir, whose repertoire covers a wide range of Latin, English and Polish choral music, won first place in the Limerick Choral Festival in 2017 and recently held a successful concert in aid of Enable Ireland.

Anna has been a voice trainer of PAF’s in “In Search of Identity” Project that has received funding of Limerick City and County Council as part of Creative Ireland “Made in Limerick 2019”. Anna performs live piano and violin music during “Julia” theatre show as part of PAF 2019.

Anna is a professional photographer. In 2012, she graduated from LCFE School in Limerick. She specialises in reportage and event photography, documentation of social and cultural events, as well as portrait, business and stylized photos.

She designs posters and graphic design for advertising materials.

Lilianna is a Polish independent filmmaker with passion living and working in Limerick since 2009. Bachelor degree graduate of Creative Broadcast and film Production in Limerick Institute of Technology and screenwriter of one episode of the series for Polish TV.

Currently filming local events and small businesses. She’s been working with PAF since 2018 and is currently working on art film projects.

Marcin joined PAF Team in 2019 and has 20 years of experience in the field of IT, directing projects from inception to execution, strategically allocating resources to achieve on-time, on-budget delivery. He expertly manages technical support operations, diligently troubleshooting issues to identify root causes and prevent recurrence. He has got extensive experience and skills in creating websites, thanks to which the PAF website exists as it is now. Marcin is also process improvement champion, very experienced in multi-platform communication on the Internet supported by new technologies and procedures related with social media, which helped PAF in this year’s event and will be developed in the future. IT is simply his passion and we appreciate having Marcin on our team.