Polish artists in Ireland, photography exhibition of Joseph Dixon and delegation of councillors from Puck District in Poland – PolskaÉire Festival 2019 in Gorey.
On Friday 7th June there was an official opening of PolskaÉire Festival 2019 in Gorey which was held in Gorey Library. It was already the fifth edition of the festival of Polish-Irish friendship. The event was led by Ola Riquet who is a member of Gorey.pl and it consisted three different parts. In the first part the local government councillor Joe Sullivan welcomed officially the delegation of Puck District from Kaszuby in Poland. Puck District was represented by the mayor of the district Tadeusz Puszkarczuk and the Chairman of the Education, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee Przemysław Grandicki. This visit is a result of a letter of intent signed last year regarding cultural cooperation between the Education, Culture, Sport and Tourism Centre in Puck and Gorey Municipal District. The head of the Puck District gave a brief talk after the official greetings.
The opening of the exhibition and handing out awards in the contest “Polish Artists in Ireland – from landscapes to abstract” was the second part of the opening of the festival. After the first stage of selection of works, only 30 works were qualified to be part of the exhibition. The works were done in different techniques like paintings, graphics, sketches and photography. All works qualified for the exhibition are presented in a catalogue containing also information about the artists and creators, the festival, Gorey.pl association and Gorey. The catalogue is available in Polish and English. The catalogues with gratitude were given to the artist by the coordinator of the exhibition Karol Dettlaff. In the following step the awarded artists were presented in the specific categories:
Photography: commendation, Grzegorz Czyżewski ”Drops”
Awarded: Magdalena Smolnicka ”Clonmacnoise”
Paintings: commendation, Tomasz Litwin, ”Night landscape”
Awarded: Beata Piekarska-Daly, ”Irish Sea”
The prizes were awarded by Joseph Dixon and Kate Kos – member of the jury.
The first place prize was awarded by councillor Joe Sullivan to Beata Piekarska-Daly for the work ”Irish Sea”. We want to gratefully thank all of the artists.
The opening of the exhibition of well-known photographer Joseph Dixon was the final part of the opening of the festival. The exhibition is titled “My home, your home” and presents photography of beautiful and extraordinary North Wexford landscapes but also photography captured in Puck borough and in the north of Kaszuby in Poland during cultural exchange which took place last year. Joseph gave a talk on his inspiration and circumstances for the 25 photographs presented at the exhibition.
The whole even was accompanied by the musical performance given by Justyna Kosmulska playing Celtic harp, which perfectly fit into the festival.
After the opening there was an official banquet where the food was served by the local shop “A Taste of Poland” (the main sponsor of the event).
Beverages like coffee and wine was served by always reliable Michael from “Loch Garman Arms”.
The guest had a chance to try homemade pastries and we want to thanks here Helena Rakowska, Anna Waszkowska, Renata Świst, Danuta Budzis, Marta Dettlaff and Dariusz Olejnik.
One of the attraction of the evening was a presence of a pair wearing folk Kashubian costumes (grateful acknowledgments to Katarzyna Oczkowska).
We want to thanks all of the people that attended the opening of the festival.
The credits for photography goes to Kasia Kotlarska K.K Photography.
We want to acknowledge all of people and local companies that helped with the preparation of this magnificent PolskaÉire Festival 2019 in Gorey
Helena Rakowska, Anna Waszkowska, Renata Świst, ,- for homemade pastries and help with the banquet
Marta Dettlaff, Danuta Budzis, Dariusz Olejnik for homemade pastries
Justyna Kosmulska – for the music during the opening of the festival
Marek Michta– for the transport of people from and to Dublin
Katarzyna Oczkowska – for the folk costumes
Grzegorz Czyżewski, Robert Kotlarski, Edward Świst – for the technical support
“A Taste of Poland” – for the catering
Michael Gleeson “Loch Garman Arms” – for the service
Kate Kos, Dr Danuta Dettlaff, Jospeh Dixon, James Merrigan – for being the members of the jury of the contest
Kate Kos Studio – for creating and graphic concept of catalogues, assistance with the exhibition.
Rainbow Ads – for printing the catalouges.
Thank you for supporting us to Embassy of Poland in Dublin, Gorey Municipal District and Wexford County Council.
Thank you to our Media Patrons: RTE supporting the Arts, Hello Irlandia and Kaszuby 24
Special thanks to Gorey Library staff.