Aniela Cornet, administrative and academic director of the Fontainebleau Art History Festival (Festival de l’histoire de l’art) , Dr. Sophie Goetzmann, the festival’s program director, and Dr. Elsa Guyot from the French National Institute of Art History, visited the ICC to discuss participation in the festival, which will take place from June 4 to 6, 2027, with Poland as the guest of honor. During their visit, they also learned about the current activities of the International Cultural Centre in Kraków and its plans for the coming year, including the modernization of our headquarters and its grand reopening.
Art History Festival for the academic community and the general public
The Art History Festival, which was one of the topics of the meeting, is organized by the National Institute of Art History and the Palace of Fontainebleau at the initiative of the French Ministry of Culture. It always revolves around a single theme – in 2027, it will be “magic” – and a guest of honor, which is a selected country – in this case, Poland. It features approximately 250 events: conferences, debates, film screenings, exhibitions, book and magazine presentations, workshops, and other types of events, including those for younger audiences. The festival’s goal is to showcase the richness of the visual arts across various periods. The event is aimed at both researchers and the general public. In connection with Poland’s guest-of-honor status, the organizers are inviting cultural and academic institutions from our country to collaborate. The festival typically includes meetings and workshops for young experts. A selected group of doctoral students first meets in the guest-of-honor country or in Paris, and then in Fontainebleau, to establish contacts with a broad network of individuals specializing in art history, museology, and cultural heritage. This program, designed to facilitate the exchange of experiences, is intended to make a significant contribution to the academic and professional development of the project’s participants, while broadening their international perspectives.
Representatives from the National Institute of Art History traveled to Kraków, among other places, to work on the festival’s academic program and to establish contacts with a broad network of people specializing in issues related to art history, museology, and cultural heritage.
The France–Poland Season 2027 and Europe as a Shared Space
Collaboration within the framework of the upcoming edition of the Art History Festival coincides with the France–Poland Season 2027, which will be organized in France by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in collaboration with the Polish Institute in Paris, and in Poland by the French Institute in collaboration with the French Embassy in Poland. The season will begin in the second half of February; the joint program will take place simultaneously in Poland and France, creating a space for dialogue, collaboration, and encounters between artists, cultural sector representatives, and the public. The French National Institute of Art History and the MCK are also collaborating on this event, as part of one of the season’s four thematic areas: “Europe as a Shared Space.” This theme invites young researchers to reflect on Europe in the context of multiple identities, the relationship between the center and the periphery, borders, heritage, and their contemporary transformations.
The National Institute of Art History is coordinating 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 through international dialogue, taking into account the diversity of scholarly traditions. Poland is represented in the project by the MCK and the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which will participate in organizing a seminar on the topic, scheduled for September 2027. This event will take place as part of the France-Poland Season 2027.