English (UK) 
Polski 
The event will open with a presentation of the Wrocław Contemporary Museum's 2027 exhibition programme by its director, Piotr Lisowski. Małgorzata Kaźmierczak will moderate a discussion on the strategies, ambitions, and practices of new museology, featuring individuals who develop programmes and growth strategies for the region’s leading institutions. The question of what museums of the future will, can, and should be guides today’s strategies for building collections, responding to the public’s needs, and designing museum spaces. The clash of different visions for the future of museums will serve as the starting point for a discussion on the role museums will play in the development of art, the preservation of heritage, and the cultivation of identity.
Guests: Jakub Gawkowski, Alicja Knast, Piotr Lisowski, Szymon Żydek
Moderator: Małgorzata Kaźmierczak
A debate in collaboration with Sekcją Polską AICA.
BIOS
Jakub Gawkowski – art historian, curator at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, and postgraduate student at the Department of Comparative History at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna.He heads the Department of Modern Art at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lódź, where he has co-curated, among other projects, the permanent exhibition of the 20th- and 21st-century art collection, Ways of Seeing, as well as temporary exhibitions including How the Museum Works and Erna Rosenstein, Aubrey Williams. The Earth Will Open Its Mouth. He was also one of the curators of the 4th edition of the Matter of Art Biennale in Prague (2026) and the Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale (2025). He serves on the Programme Council of QueerMuzeum Warsaw.
Alicja Barbara Knast, MA, HEA – musicologist and cultural manager who has worked in the museum sector since 1995. She graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and has collaborated with London Metropolitan University since 2003. From 2005 to 2008, she was a research fellow at the University of Plymouth. She is currently a fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has been a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1998. From 2023 to 2026, she was a member of the BIZOT Group. She has held management positions at the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw, during the creation of the permanent exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well as at the Silesian Museum in Katowice and the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom. From 2021 to 2026, she served as Director General of the National Gallery in Prague. Her professional interests focus on managing museum investment projects, planning the activities of cultural institutions, and developing and implementing their growth strategies.
Piotr Lisowski – director of the Wrocław Contemporary Museum, where he previously worked from 2017 to 2022 and served as director from 2020 to 2021. Curator and art historian, creator of exhibitions and texts, editor of publications, and independent researcher of contemporary art. From 2023 to 2026, he held the position of artistic director of 66P Subjective Institution of Culture. He worked as a curator and collection manager at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń (2007–2016) and co-founded the independent Miłość Gallery (2014–2017). He has taught in the Art Mediation programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
Szymon Żydek – kurator wystaw i badacz architektury. Zastępca dyrektorki Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie ds. programowych, gdzie odpowiada za program wystawienniczy i publiczny, edukację, kolekcję, badania, wydawnictwa oraz współpracę międzyinstytucjonalną i międzynarodową. Jako kurator przygotował m.in. wystawę Julie Mehretu „Kairos / Wariacje duchologiczne” (2026), a także „Sztuka w naszym wieku” w Zachęcie i BWA Katowice oraz BWA Zielona Góra (2015–2016). W MSN współtworzył m.in. projekty „Robiąc użytek. Życie w epoce postartystycznej”, „Streng/Włodarski”, „Inny Trans-Atlantyk”, „Czym jest Oświecenie?” oraz „Niepodległe”. Wcześniej współpracował m.in. z galerią Raster, Fudnacją Bęc Zmianą, WWAA, Fundacją Sztuki Polskiej ING oraz Czosnek Studio. Studiował kulturoznawstwo na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim oraz teorię i historię architektury w Royal Institute of Art w Sztokholmie.
Małgorzata Kaźmierczak – Ph.D. in history. Since 2004, she has worked as an independent curator of artistic projects in Poland and the U.S., with a particular focus on performance art. She is a researcher and the author of numerous essays and reviews. From 2011 to 2014, she served as an editor and translator for the livinggallery.info website. From 2006 to 2012, she was president of the Foundation for the Promotion of Performance Art “Kesher” in Kraków; from 2012 to 2014, she worked as editorial secretary of the journal Art and Documentation; and from 2014 to 2016, she was director of the Jan Tarasin Art Gallery in Kalisz. From 2016 to 2017, she served as director of the Media Library of the Academy of Art in Szczecin and as an assistant professor in the Department of Painting and New Media there. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków and Chair of the Art Studies Disciplinary Council. From 2020 to 2024, she served as vice president of AICA Poland; from 2021 to 2023, as vice president of AICA International; and since 2024, she has been president of AICA International.