Budget summaries 2024: culture and heritage protection
The regional government’s policy on culture and the protection of national heritage is the modernisation and development of the voivodship’s cultural institutions, financial support for major cultural events and thousands of restored monuments.
– There is no future for a society that downplays culture. It is the foundation of every healthy community, it builds identity, it builds social life, it is a bonding agent and a means of communication,” emphasises Marshal Piotr Całbecki.
-150 million zlotys of subsidies for marshal’s cultural institutions
-1.7 million people took advantage of the offers of our cultural institutions
-1.5 million borrowed items (books, e-books, audiobooks, board games) from voivodeship libraries
-299.5 thousand visitors to voivodeship museums
-94.5 thousand music lovers attending concerts
-115 exhibitions, including 87 museum exhibitions
Work is progressing on the construction of the fourth circle of Opera Nova. The structure of the five storeys of the building has already been completed and all construction work on the adjacent underground car park has been finished.
- an extension wing with a usable area of nearly 6,000 square metres
- an opera chamber hall with an auditorium for 500 people
- an exhibition space
- a cinema hall
- a viewing terrace on the Brda side (with a view of the cathedral and Młyńska Island).
Last year, the contract engineer for the upcoming extension of the Pomeranian Philharmonic was selected. The undertaking is one of the most eagerly awaited cultural investments. The Philharmonic will gain a new small concert hall with an auditorium of 350 seats, space for artists’ dressing rooms and a system of underground car parks, as well as rooms for the administration. The existing main concert hall will be refurbished and equipped with a concert recording and transmission system.
The traditional topping-out ceremony marked the end of construction work on the new wing of the Kopernikańska Bookstore. Glazed walls, lots of natural light, bright colours, couches where you can sit and take advantage of the free access to the book collection, and an exhibition area which will allow you to see the valuable books previously kept in deep storage – this is what the new wing of the main library complex in Słowackiego Street will look like. The extension and modernisation of Toruń’s Ksiaznica Kopernikańska is nearing completion, with the opening scheduled for the second half of this year.
After the Książnica Kopernikańska, the other bookshop in the city, the Voivodeship and City Public Library in Bydgoszcz, will also embark on a major modernisation project. Among the plans are conservation and adaptation repairs to historic buildings, a glass roof over the courtyard, the construction of a warehouse and equipment purchases. The facility will be enriched with a year-round space for cultural events, a picture book workshop for children and a games room.
At Lubostroń Palace in Lubostroń in the Żnin district, conservation and restoration work was carried out on the window and door woodwork. Work has also begun on sorting out the water, sewage and energy management. Plans include the modernisation of the water supply system, sewage and rainwater drainage systems and the park grounds watering system, the heating system, the telecommunications network and the lighting network, as well as the drying of the foundations of the palace and the hunting lodge and a new fire protection system.
The restoration and revitalisation of the palace and park complex in Nawra near Toruń, which will house the future museum of landed gentry and the countryside, has begun. A contract with the general contractor was signed in December.
The house where the actress and participant in the Warsaw Uprising Helena Grossówna lived was demolished and rebuilt from scratch.
Last year, the Marshal’s Kujawsko-Pomorskie Heritage Center in Toruń gained a new branch. It is the Tuchola Forest Museum, taken over by the regional government.
The effects of our long-standing and nationally unique conservation programme can be seen throughout the region. A special place in the programme is occupied by sites located in small towns. Last year alone, more than PLN 15 million was allocated to nearly 200 tasks. The co-financed tasks included conservation and restoration work on churches, palace and manor complexes, townhouses and buildings, and historic buildings of institutions entered in the register of historic buildings.
- 189 tasks throughout the region
- funding amounted to PLN 15,605,000.
Our cyclical cultural events, which consistently attract international performers and audiences, were a great success last year. The Bydgoszcz Music Festival, the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival (which last year hosted the legendary ballet group Les Ballets de Monte Carlo) and the Camerimage Festival in Toruń have an established brand and a loyal audience. The top events were joined by the Kontakt Theatre Festival, which brought to Toruń theatrical formations presenting the most interesting phenomena and trends on European stages, and the Karol Lipiński Violin Competition, featuring young virtuosos already promising to become world violin stars.
The year 2024 was a year of anniversaries in provincial cultural institutions. The Kujawsko-Pomorskie Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz celebrated its 70th anniversary, the Children’s Art Gallery and Art Centre in Toruń celebrated its 60th anniversary, the Lubostroń Palace in Lubostroń its 30th anniversary as a cultural institution, and the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Musical Theatre its 10th anniversary. Also celebrating its 45th anniversary was Toruń’s “Supełek” Handicraft Group, operating at the Provincial Centre for Cultural Animation.
The regional government is the managing authority for the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz, the Gallery and Centre for Children’s Artistic Creation in Toruń, the Wozownia (Coach House) Art Gallery in Toruń, the Archaeological Museum in Biskupin, the Professor Maria Znamierowska-Przemiński Ethnographic Museum in Łódź and the Museum of the History of Polish Art in Łódź. The Museum of the Kujawy and Dobrzyń Region in Włocławek, Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, the Chopin Centre in Szafarnia, the Lubostroń Palace in Lubostroń, the Wilam Horzyca Theatre in Toruń, and the Museum of the History of Polish Art in Toruń. Wilam Horzyca Theatre in Toruń, the Kopernikańska Voivodeship Public Library and Bookstore in Toruń, the Witold Bełza Voivodeship and City Public Library in Bydgoszcz, the Voivodeship Cultural Animation Centre in Toruń, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Music Theatre in Toruń, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Heritage Center in Toruń and the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Education and Innovation Centre in Toruń. She also co-manages Toruń’s “Signs of the Times” Centre for Contemporary Art.
Beata Krzemińska
Spokesperson of the Marshal’s Office
13 May 2025.