‘Let’s tell Poland to the world’. Activities of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Strategies of Polish Cultural Diplomacy in the Years 200-2010. Strategies. Facts. Critical Notes

  • Abstract:
    The background of my speech are activities of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a governmental cultural institution whose aim is to promote Polish culture abroad and build the brand of ‘Poland’. Programs and projects conducted by the Institute constitute elements of the governmental promotion strategy and are a new tool for Polish diplomacy. In both of the aforementioned areas of state authority activities, culture has begun to play an increasingly active role. The output Adam Mickiewicz Institute operations leads to questions regarding the objectives and strategies for selecting particular artistic productions, works and artists to promote Poland abroad. I am referring to the new cultural engineering, applying modern resources, and its effect on activities or choices made by particular institutions or culture makers. How does the creation of a certain (its completeness remains in question) image of Polish culture abroad, and thus of Poland as a ‘brand’, influence current artistic works in Poland? What becomes the mainstream and what are the peripheries of culture under the influence of such governmental bodies as the Adam Mickiewicz Institute? Should a state authority actively initiate cultural activity or merely serve as an intermediary between democratic cultural institutions? What should be the relation in a young democracy between culture and governmental institutions promoting culture abroad, mainly with regard to financial means these institutions have at hand.