Clare MuseumMúsaem an Chláir

Festival of Polish Culture

John Rattigan, Curator of Clare Museum and Jakub Kacprzak

Festival of Polish Culture at Clare Museum

Clare Museum, supported by Creative Ireland, is delighted to present a Festival of Polish Culture. Running from Tuesday 6th May to Sunday 18th May, the festival will include a wide variety of events. From art exhibitions and talks to a children’s workshop and a bakery bonanza, there is something for everyone.

The festival will be launched by Mayor of Ennis, Cllr. Clare Colleran Molloy at Clare Museum on Tuesday 6th May at 6.30pm. During this event three art exhibitions will also be launched – an exhibition of works by Polish artists based in Co. Clare, Anna Podlewska and Anna Kacprzak;                           Remember the Gardens, It’s Where We Came from by Anna Podlewska and Anna Kacprzak, also including arts and crafts works created during workshops that took place at the museum in the run up to the festival, facilitated by Liliana Bozena Lacka; Growing with Art, an exhibition project curated by Anna Kacprzak, showing stages in children’s art development from first attempts to teenage years. All exhibitions can be viewed at the Clare Museum for the duration of the festival during museum opening hours.

Events kick off in the Museum on Wednesday 7th May at 7.30pm with a talk by Jakub Kacprzak on the life story of a Polish Native American, Stanislaw Suplatowicz, or ‘Sat-Okh’. Jakub will also present two other talks during the festival – one as part of the Museum’s ongoing Lecture Series, on Wednesday 14th May at 7.30pm entitled ‘The Life and Legacy of Edmund Strzelecki’ and a lunchtime talk, from 1-2pm, on Tuesday 13th May entitled ‘Bronislaw Pilsudski, Ethnologist and Patriot’. All three talks are free to attend but places are limited and bookings can be made by emailing claremuseum@clarecoco.ie.

On Wednesday 8th May at 11am, there will be a film screening of the 2010 film The Way Back. Directed by Peter Weir and starring Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Ed Harris, this film tells the story of survival, inspired by The Long Walk (1956), the memoir by former Polish prisoner of war Slawomir Rawicz, who escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to freedom in World

War II. As an introduction to the film, Jakub Kacprzak will give a short talk about his family history, whereby four members of his family were imprisoned and deported to labour camps and gulags in the former Soviet Union – only one came back alive.

A second film screening will take place on Thursday 15th May at 3.30pm in the museum. Lokis (1970) is a poetic horror film written and directed by Janusz Majewski, and based on the 1869 Prosper Mérimée horror novel of the same name.

On Friday 9th May, the Temple Gate Hotel is the venue to be for an evening of music, dance and entertainment featuring DJ Mad Luke and singer Wiktoria Antczak. This event is suitable for adults and teenagers 16+ (accompanied by an adult). The event is free but ticketed and tickets are available from Eventbrite at https://eveningofpolishentertainment.eventbrite.com.

Liliana Lacka will host an arts and crafts workshop for children aged 8-12 in Clare Museum on Saturday 10th May at 11am. This is a free workshop but places are limited and bookings can be made by emailing claremuseum@clarecoco.ie.

The penultimate event of the festival is a Polish Bakery Bonanza, a show of delicious, sweet treats and healthy traditional Polish bread freshly baked and delivered especially for the event by three renowned Polish Bakeries: Healthy Bread by Lukas, Andrew’s Family Bakery Ltd. And Staropolska Bakery. All are welcome to this event in Clare Museum on Saturday 17th May from 2-4pm. Be sure to come early to sample the goods before they’re all gone!

The festival will close with a Polish Mass in the Ennis Cathedral on Sunday 18th May at 6.30pm. Polish music and song will be provided by Cantate Deo Choir led by Anna Banko.

This festival is an initiative of Clare Museum, supported by Creative Ireland and Clare County Council and curated by Jakub and Anna Kacprzak. Jakub previously curated a Polish Festival in Clare Museum in 2013. It is a celebration of Polish culture in County Clare and beyond. Speaking about hosting the festival, Curator of Clare Museum, John Rattigan, said “we’re trying to encourage the settled Polish community to view the museum as a resource for them, and to help with their integration and social inclusion.  We hope to have events for other communities in Clare in the future.  If any Polish people in Clare have any artefacts that tell us something about their lives as Polish people in Clare that they would like to donate to the museum for future generations of Polish-Clare people to enjoy, we would be delighted to receive them.”

This festival also coincides with the annual Bealtaine Festival, a celebration of older people throughout the month of May, and we would like to invite and welcome our older citizens especially to attend our events.