RIHA (International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art) has been active since 1998, and its members include research institutes from Europe, Australia and the USA. The association’s aim is to promote education and research in the field of art history and related disciplines. RIHA also undertakes initiatives to strengthen cooperation between art history institutes from various countries around the world. The Director of the ICC, Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, has been a member of the RIHA Board since 2022. In Poland, two institutions belong to the RIHA network: the ICC in Kraków and the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

During the annual RIHA conference in Edinburgh, a meeting was held for participants in the EVA project (“Visual Arts in Europe: An Open History”), which aims to present, in the form of an online platform, an extensive collection of 470 objects and images gathered as part of an international dialogue, taking into account the diversity of scholarly traditions. Poland is represented in the project jointly by the International Cultural Centre and the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Both institutions will take part in organising a seminar on the EVA project, scheduled for September 2027 as part of the France–Poland Season 2027.

Another key item on the agenda was a meeting of the editors of the local editorial teams of the RIHA Journal, an online journal dedicated to art history. It has been published since April 2010 by the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. The International Cultural Centre in Kraków acts as the local editorial office, headed by Dr Magdalena Łanuszka. The aggregate statistics for the years 2020–2026, presented by the editor-in-chief, Dr Andrea Lermer, showed that the Kraków editorial team is one of the most active, ranking third after the editorial teams in Munich and Rome.

Participants at the conference also took part in a round-table discussion featuring presentations on current research projects prepared by 20 institutions affiliated with RIHA, including the International Cultural Centre. Another key item on the agenda was the RIHA General Assembly. During this event, Dr Łanuszka presented the new RIHA website, the development of which (carried out by MyMountain Studio) she had overseen. Special visits were also organised for guests at the RIHA conference, including to Magdalen Chapel and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Photo: Carol Richardson