Festival of Polish Culture at Clare Museum promises something for everyone

Clare Museum, supported by Creative Ireland, will host a Festival of Polish Culture.

Beginning this Tuesday, May 6 and running until Sunday, May 18, 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.

Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Clare Colleran-Molloy will officially launch the festival along with three art exhibitions.

These include an exhibition of works by Polish artists Anna Podlewska and Anna Kacprzak who are based in Clare, ‘Remember the Gardens, It’s Where we Came From’; arts and crafts works created during workshops at the museum in the run up to the festival, facilitated by Liliana Bozena Lacka and ‘Growing with Art’, an exhibition project curated by Anna Kacprzak.

Events kick off in the Museum on Wednesday, May 7 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, May 14 at 7.30pm, ‘The Life and Legacy of Edmund Strzelecki’; and a lunchtime talk, from 1-2pm, on Tuesday, May 13, ‘Bronislaw Pilsudski, Ethnologist and Patriot’.

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On Wednesday, May 8, at 11am, there will be a film screening of the 2010 film ‘The Way Back’.

This film tells the story of survival, inspired by the memoir of former Polish prisoner of war Slawomir Rawicz, who escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked 4,000 miles 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, May 15 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, May 9, the Temple Gate Hotel is the venue 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 penultimate event of the festival is a Polish Bakery Bonanza on Saturday, May 17 from 2-4pm in the Clare Museum. A show of delicious, sweet treats and healthy traditional Polish bread will be 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.

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

Commenting on the festival, John Rattigan, Curator of Clare Museum, said: “We are 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.”  

All events are free of charge, but booking is required for some - click here for more details and information.

Festival brochures are also available from Clare Museum or De Valera Library in Ennis.