Arsenal Playground
Arsenal Playground is a multifaceted educational programme carried out under this name since 2006. Starting in 2009 most of the meetings and workshops take place in a specially designated part of the gallery, located on the ground floor of the Arsenal Gallery at Mickiewicza Street No 2 (wheelchair accessible). The inspiration for naming the educational programme was taken from the 2005 work by Maciej Kurak titled “Self-sufficient Playground No 1 in Białystok” which was displayed on a children’s playground located near Mickiewicza Street in Białystok.
Our visitors are welcome to take part in a series of open lectures titled “Is art needed and why?” (speakers included: Maria Poprzęcka, Waldemar Baraniewski, Jarosław Suchan, Maria Anna Potocka, Sebastian Cichocki), meetings with authors (including: Katarzyna Kozyra, Mirosław Bałka, Joanna Rajkowska, Zbigniew Libera), book launches, film screenings and one-off events, such as book sale of artistic and art books aimed at young children (taking place during the World Book Day) and thematic workshops concerning various fields of artistic activity.
Arsenal Playground is, above all, a platform for creative and unconventional interaction with works of art. Our workshops, conducted by outstanding artists (such as Anna Konik, Bogna Burska, Marta Deskur, Iza Tarasewicz, Hubert Czerepok, Jacek Malinowski, Kobas Laksa) are attended by a wide range of participants – from pupils and students to Chechen refugees and immigrants living in Białystok; from adults interested in their own developments, teenagers eager to learn the intricacies of multimedia art, to grown ups undergoing psychiatric treatment. Everyone will find something for himself, because it is art that gives and opportunity for conversation and analysis of complicated contemporary issues. During the workshops conducted by Anna Konik, young people from one of the therapeutic day-cares in Bialystok created a work titled “Game of city” (2009, video, 12 episodes). The workshops conducted by Jacek Malinowski over the period of two years resulted in a triptych titled “Białystok Trilogy”.
For the last few years Arsenal Playground was cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Arsenal Playground Awards
Culture Guarantees 2010 (Gwarancje Kultury 2010)
Arsenal Playground was nominated for the 2010 edition of the Culture Guarantee awards organized by TVP KULTURA.
We received this nomination, along with Iza Tarasewicz, for a year-long series of workshops “What divides us unites us” for Chechen, Georgian and Polish children.
„Children stop by here” (“Tutaj wpada dziecinnada”)
Arsenal Gallery was nominated in the 2009 competition for a children- and parents-friendly place, organized by NGOs’ Support Centre in Białystok and “Gazeta w Białymstoku”. We ere nominated for workshops for children and creating a space for children’s play.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Opening times:
Thuesday – Sunday
10:00-18:00
Last admission
to exhibition is at:
17.30