About the gallery
The Modern Art Centre – Andrzej Strumillo’s Gallery is a new department of the Regional Museum in Suwalki and a new cultural venue for the town and region. The grand opening of the Gallery took place on December 22, 2008. The department is located in a historic tenement at 45 Kosciuszki street in Suwalki – it occupies the ground floor. The Gallery is the first stage of establishing the Modern Art Centre, and after a renovation the 1st floor of the building will be available for exhibitions of modern artists pursuing various fields of art from the region of Suwalszczyzna, Poland and abroad.
Establishment of the new department of the Regional Museum in Suwalki – the Modern Art Centre – the Andrzej Strumillo’s Gallery, was possible thanks to co-financing by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the program “Development of cultural and artistic education infrastructure” (the project entitled: “Improvement of premises – Modern Art Centre – Adrzej Strumillo’s Gallery”), and subsidy from the Municipality Office in Suwalki. The purpose of foundation of the department is to increase tourist attractiveness of the town and programme offer of the Regional Museum. Apart from exhibition activity the Gallery conducts cultural education of the youth (meetings with the artist Andrzej Strumillo, creative workshops, performances and screenings, quarterly exhibitions of other artists). The department is to become a gathering venue for artists from the region.
The Modern Art Centre – Andrzej Strumillo’s Gallery – comprises 5 exhibition rooms (total of approx. 200 square metres) and presents the author’s Andrzej Strumillo’s works (over 200 items) from the field of painting, sculpture, drawing, gouache, photography and book illustrations – a selection from various periods of the artist’s life. The exhibition consists of: excerpts of large format of painting cycles: Psalmy (Psalms) (1988), EXIT (1983 – 1984), Apokalipsa (Apocalypse) (1993), Okna (windows) (1984), photography cycles: Nowy Jork (New York) (1982 – 1984), Ulica Kościuszki 7 (7 Kosciuszki street)(1980), also a cycle of book illustrations, and selected album releases illustrated or graphically treated by the author, as well as other works from the field of painting, drawing, gouache and stone sculptures. The Asian Room constitutes a separate exhibition, which presents illustrations, wood engravings, prints, ceramics, cult objects, and also everyday articles from Far and Middle East (China, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, India, Japan) brought by the artist from numerous world travels. In total the Gallery presents over 300 works (of which 87 are owned by the Regional Museum in Suwalki, others have been leased to the Gallery by Andrzej Strumillo).
The new department attracts people not only from the region; during summer season all our departments become the haunt for many tourists from Poland and abroad (from the beginning of this year we have had groups and individuals from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, the United States and Norway). As far as the local dimension is concerned, the educational aspect of the Gallery is vital due to the direct contact of the “master-apprentice” kind. Andrzej Strumillo is a greatly appreciated artist, whose ties with the Suwalszczyzna region have had a long history – his name reaches far beyond the local community.
From April till December 2009 we organise a project co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage: “E-Gallery. Digitisation of collections and making them available to the public”, thanks to which a digital collection of Andrzej Strumillo’s works will be created and gradually placed on our internet site under the E-Gallery tab; we will also purchase multimedia equipment in order to increase attractiveness of the visual reception of the exhibitions and meetings with authors.
The Modern Art Centre – Andrzej Strumillo’s Gallery has received an award in the competition “The Podlassia Brand 2008” in the category of Venue.