Anna Skubisz

Art for Peace

Field: Sculpture City: Wałbrzych

Former Mine Science and Art Centre in Wałbrzych, established after the closing of “Julia” mine in 1996, is a multifunctional space that seems to be perfect location for residencies. In June 2016 Polish-Dutch artist Anna Skubisz had a chance to verify the potential of this place during her month-long residency “Art for Peace”. The idea behind Skubisz's project was promoting peaceful attitudes and behaviors, while collaborating with over 50 pupils from junior high schools in Wałbrzych on the concept and realization of her exhibition presenting a group of sculptures – angels, perceived as “emissaries of peace”.

A series of meetings and workshops with the pupils turned out to be challenging for both sides involved. The artist, a designed and graduate of  ArtEZ School in Zwolle often experiments with new forms of exposition of her works, this time she chose specific material – wool, which requires extremely precise treatment. The employees of Former Mine, just as the teens from six junior high schools in Wałbrzych, didn't expect that constructing the exhibition from scratch will be this intense, but also this satisfying. This experience showed them how many factors make up a successful cooperation. Skubisz's residency was finalized by the opening of two-month-long exposition at the Centrum Ceramiki Unikatowej gallery, which was attended by all its creators.

This project initiated the cooperation of Former Mine and junior high school pupils, whose school curriculum doesn't contain any art lessons. Meanwhile, Anna Skubisz had an opportunity to visit her father's homeland for the first time in years, conduct workshops for such a large group of participants, and discover Wałbrzych and Wrocław.