The Town Gallery in Mosina (since 1st June 2018 the Art Gallery in Mosina) is situated in an attractive, historic building which is an old Jewish Synagogue built around 1876. Its existence is due to the initiative of two artists living in Mosina, who were also pedagogues from the Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych (PWSSP, The State Higher School of Visual Arts) in Poznań – the former Vice-rector Professor Bogdan Wegner and Professor Jacek Strzelecki. The idea was accepted by the Council and the Director of the Town’s Cultural Centre and was opened on the 7th May 1993 with a painting exhibition of Bogdan Wegner.

Since opening the Gallery has been supported by the patronage of Wojciech Müller, the Rector of PWSSP and the Chairman Professor Andrzej Maciej Łubowski from the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (Poznań branch). The artistic level of the exhibited artworks is monitored by the The Art Council, which consists of professors from the The State Higher School of Visual Arts (or PWSSP): Bogdan Wegner, Jacek Strzelecki, Rajmund T. Hałas, Bogdan Wojtasiak, Grzegorz Keczmerski, the Mayor of the Town (at the time it was Dr Jan Kałuziński), the Director of the Cultural Centre Andrzej Kasprzyk and the Gallery’s Artistic Director Dorota Strzelecka (currently the Art Council consist of professors: Bogdan Wegner, Jacek Strzelecki, Marek Przybył, Grzegorz Keczmerski, Bogdan Wojtasiak, Mayor of the Town Przemysław Mieloch and the Gallery’s Director Dorota Strzelecka).

The main role of the Art Council is to choose artwork for the exhibitions and the artists exhibited in the Gallery are predominately the school’s professors, therefore the Gallery soon acquired the nickname “the School Gallery” or “the Professor’s Gallery”. The first exhibited artists were Bogdan Wegner, Jacek Strzelecki, Andrzej Banachowicz, Dobrochna Jurczak–Świtka, Waldemar Masztalerz, Józef Petruk, Bogdan Wojtasiak, Wojciech Müller, Norbert Skupniewicz, Andrzej Załecki, Jan Świtka, Marek Przybył, Ewa Twarowska–Sioda, Tomasz Śliwiński, Lech Ratajczyk, Zuzanna Pawlicka, Marek Zaborowski, Maciej Łubowski, Jan Gawron, Kazimierz Raba, Andrzej Kurzawski, Krzysztof Molenda, Wiesław Napierała, Hanna Ograbisz–Krawiec, Jacek Rybczyński, Tadeusz Gaworzewski, Koichi Yamamoto, Andrzej Jeziorkowski, and in the following years Jan Berdyszak, Marcin Berdyszak, Jacek Jagielski, Jacek Waltoś, Tadeusz Jackowski and many others. It is safe to say that the most important artists from around Poznań have exhibited in the Town Gallery and over the past 25 years we have organised over 300 exhibitions.

In September we exhibit young debutants who have passed their diploma, but which do not have a large artistic portfolio. Sometimes they are the winners of the Maria Dokowicz competition organised by the PWSSP (now UAP – University of Arts in Poznań). In the gallery we exhibit paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphics, textiles, but also installations, new media and animation. As times change so does art change - artists are searching for new forms of expressions and often use various forms of communication by connecting new media with traditional art such as sculpture, drawing or painting. A good example of such was the exhibition „HOLOSpace” (February 2010), which - according to the words of the former University Rector Marcin Berdyszak - was the first hologram presentation in Polish art. The pictures were created through laser beams and were complemented with sculptures and drawings. The authors were Jarosław Bogucki and Igor Mikoda, who oversee the studio at the Department of Sculpture and Spatial Actions. This is the only studio of its kind in the world apart from the studio at the Royal College of Art in London. The Gallery also exhibits other artists outside of Poznań, from the art departments from universities in Toruń, Wrocław, Kraków, Lublin, Szczecin, Cieszyn and Bratislava, while artists from Mosina presented in the Gallery Kierat in Szczecin and in the Town Hall in Seelze in Germany.

Mosina is an artist’s town. The place is beautifully located neighbouring the Wielkopolski National Park, where there are lakes and the serpentine river Warta as well as the Mosina Channel. People are attracted by the changing town, visible in new houses and estates. Yet it is the Gallery which is the biggest attraction for artists and there are currently around 13 artists living in Mosina and nearby Puszczykowo, all of which are connected to the University of Arts (former PWSSP). The presence of the Gallery also encourages many young people to study there.

In November the Art Council creates the Gallery’s programme for the next year. Throughout the year the Gallery will receive proposals from various artists, but sometimes it is the Gallery which invites artists to present their artworks. We exhibit professional artists with an existing art portfolio to maintain the high artistic reputation of the Gallery. In between exhibitions we present the artwork of local children as well as the artwork of disabled people from the Dom Pomocy Maltańskiej in Puszczykowo, as the cooperation with the disabled people is very important to our activity.

On the upper floor there is The Upstairs Gallery, where we organise exhibitions of local organisations and associations as well as periodic historic exhibitions connected to the Mosina region. The historic part of the Gallery, which consist of documents and souvenirs collected by the last 40 years, is now being processed into thematic catalogues and digitalised, which in the future will allow for a broader access to its digital collection.

For the year 2019 we are planning to run meetings with poetry and music in our Poetry Saloon, which has been run since 2015 by the poet Kalina Izabela Zioła. The meetings, to which she invites poets from the around the country, are held once a month. Additionally, we are planning to introduce meetings with travellers called “Without Coverage”, where they will share with us their stories and adventures. The Gallery will also run Art & English Language workshops for children. Moreover, we are planning to introduce workshops and art lecturers with elements of English language for the seniors.

The Gallery is sponsored by the Town of Mosina and is not commercial, which means the exhibitions are original and present the artwork in a specially arranged space. Entrance to the gallery is free.

We look forward to seeing you at the Art Gallery and The Upstairs Gallery!

The Gallery Director

Dorota Strzelecka