Plans laid for Museum of Contemporary Art in Gdańsk
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
02.09.2015 15:41
Polish Minister of Culture Małgorzata Omilanowska has signed a letter of intention with local authorities in Gdańsk regarding the city's prospective Museum of Contemporary Art.
From left: Chairman of the Pomerania province, Mieczyław Struk, Minister of Culture Małgorzata Omilanowska and Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz. Photo: PAP/Piotr Wittman
The institution would be built on terrain that once belonged to the Gdańsk Shipyard, birthplace of the Solidarity movement in 1980, and it would be a branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk.
Minister Omilanowska signed the letter together with Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz and Chairman of the Pomerania province, Mieczyław Struk.
“The museum will promote the global art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, strengthening the image of Pomerania as an important region for international contemporary art, while striving to enlarge the collections of contemporary art in the collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk,” the letter declares.
The project is part of a wider initiative to revitalise terrain that once belonged to the shipyard. Recent investments in the area included the European Solidarity Centre.
The shipyard itself, which was owned by the state during the communist era, once employed about 20,000 people. Today, the chief shareholder in what remains of the yard is Ukrainian steel magnate Sergei Taruta, and about 2,000 people are employed there. The state continues to hold a minority share. (nh/rk)