Visit Poland: Suprasl, summarum

Last day we visited Suprasl, a monastery and book-printing museum. 

The trip was rich of experiences. What did we learn? That the 19th century industrial men often come from abroad.That the wars made a change everywhere, That Eastern Poland is multicultural with orthodox, catholic and lutheran impacts. That the language of handicraft is international. That museums open up better with enthusiasm and when you can do something yourself. 

Suprasl Monastery (it was forbidden to make photos of monks)

Book-printing museum and the guide, who demonstrated the book-printing very well.

We had an opportunity to try ourselves.

Last meeting with Katarzyna Lotowska and Alina Debowska.

Back to the airport: Farewell Poland! Thank you!

Visit Poland: Bielsk-Podlaski

On the third day, we visited Bielsk-Podlaski, a historical town of ca. 25000 inhabitants, established on the 12th century. Bielsk-Podlaski is south from Białystok, on the region that has Belorussian, Lithuanian and Polish features in its culture. 

The lively Museum of Bielsk-Podlaski is completely focused on traditionally decorated hand towels and preserving hand skills. Exhibitions, publications and workshops all support their aim to make the hand towels and culture related to them better known. What a wonderful souvenir: we had a refreshing workshop where we painted a traditional Polish flower pattern on a cotton bag.

The House Museum ("Little Motherland Museum") in Studziwody was a nostalgic experience. The museum and its keeper Doroteusz Fionik preserves the memory of a Belorusian farmer family and their lifestyle. 

On the way to...

Museum of Bielsk-Podlaski.

Museum manager Alina Debowska and her assistant.

The museum is focused on  beautifully decorated hand towels.

Workshop: painting traditional decoration on the bag.

Traditional wooden house.

Modern architecture.

Little Motherland Museum in Studziwody. 

Doroteusz Fionik

Inside the house museum

Folk dancing.

Visit Poland: Białystok

Białystok is the capital and the biggest city of Podlaskie Voivodeship in Eastern Poland. The city has a remarkable textile history, but it is nowadays vanished, except this one factory building that got its revival as a shopping mall. 

On 21st of May 2015 we had a long guided walk around the city, met local politicians and managers, visited the new opera house and had a meeting with people from local citizens' organizations.

Textile factory > shopping mall.

Cleaning women.

Branicki palace.

Opera House.

Opera House from inside. Typical for Poland: fresh colours.

Voivodeship Game.

Task 1.

Task 2.

The players get tiles of succeeded tasks and build bridges.

Meeting the organizations and representatives.

Akademi +50 resemble community colleges in Finland.

Changing information

Souvenirs.

The last knittery in Apolda made this.

Visit Poland: Łódź

The last part of Re3 Grundtvig learning partnership took place in Poland, in the 20th to 24th of May 2015. Our partner OWOP had arranged us an interesting four-day programme, during which we learned about textile heritage, culture and organizations activating citizens, mainly in Białystok and surroundings.

But the first day we visited the the textile museum in Łódź: famous and perhaps the biggest in Europe. This huge and inspiring museum showed several exhibitions on history, on contemporary textile art or arranged after theme (like jacquard, carpets, fashion..). 

Lobby of Łódź textile museum

Amazingly beautiful application

Daniela Krystyna Jałkiewicz: "Chmurnik"

This was the marketing poster of the factory estate, where the museum was now placed, in the good old days.

History of Geyer Company

How familiar! We have piles of this material in Forssa too.

For winter 1900.

Easter patterns.

The 1970s

Jacquard.

Fashion in the box.

Examples of carpet production.

For the table.

Exhibition of fashion of the 20th century.

Catwalk.

Workers' housing in  Łódź, 19th century.

Photos and text: Kati Kivimäki