From 27 September to 1 October 2026, students from the Department of Fine Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem took part in an artistic study visit to Poland, organised in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv. The programme included art workshops, encounters with contemporary Polish art, and visits to major cultural institutions in Orońsko, Kraków and Warsaw.

The group, comprising undergraduate and graduate students, was accompanied by lecturers Gil Marco Shani and Lea Avital. The visit began at Cricoteka in Kraków, where the students explored the work of Tadeusz Kantor, his artistic language, and his approach to space, objects, memory and performance.

The main part of the programme was a three-day stay at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, one of Poland’s leading institutions dedicated to sculpture. The students participated in ceramics workshops led by the Centre’s specialists, learned about the institution’s history and explored its extensive collection. The sculpture park played a particularly important role, serving as a space for observation, documentation and artistic exploration. The participants examined the relationship between artworks and the landscape, the significance of scale and space, and the evolution of Polish sculpture over the decades.

On their own initiative, the students also organised a trip to Warsaw, where they visited the Museum of Modern Art and Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. The programme concluded with a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), where the students and lecturers took part in a guided tour in English of the permanent and temporary exhibitions.

The visit offered the young Israeli artists an opportunity to discover a wide range of artistic movements and approaches in Poland – from Tadeusz Kantor’s avant-garde work and the traditions of sculpture to contemporary sculptural practices and the latest developments in contemporary art. The sketches, photographs, notes and research materials gathered during the visit will inform the students’ further artistic work and the development of new projects.

The project will culminate in an exhibition in Israel, presenting works inspired by the students’ experiences and observations during their stay in Poland.