Minority Artist’s Residency at Polin Museum
To increase the visibility of non-White / non-Catholic contributions to Polish culture and heritage, TTTM’s National Heritage and Traumatic Memory cluster offers an annual minority artist’s residency at Polin Museum in Warsaw, co-sponsored by Partner Organizations FestivALT and Teatr Powszechny.
See below for more information about past artists in residence:
March - April, 2025:
As the fourth TTTM artist in residence, Aleksandra Lemba developed her project "The Image of Non-White Bodies". Together with Dominika Kimaty—an actress, performer, author of independent performances whom Lemba invited to cooperate—the artists explored how experiences of racism and biases related to skin color and origin influence body image and how they manifest in their artistic work.
February - March, 2024:
The third artist in residence was Hana Umeda whose research focuses on the topic of experiencing sexual violence and strategies for coping with trauma. As a certified jiutamai dancer (a classical Japanese dance), Umeda examines sexual violence inscribed in the dance technique.
November 2022 - January 2023:
In 2022, a special additional residency was added for a Ukrainian artist, to recognize the needs of refugees fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine to integrate into the cultural life of their new host community. For this position we hosted Tetiana Bohuslavska, who created interactive, therapeutic artworks in relation to past wartime catastrophes. See here for Bohuslavska’s visual essay about her installation "Caring for the Light: The Time We Have, The Time We Are, The Memory We Hold".
June - July, 2022:
Jewish trans artist Tobaron Waxman (Canada) was welcomed as the first TTTM resident. Their work raises questions about how citizenship makes moral and ethical claims upon our bodies.
team members
Ewa Chomicka
Ewa Chomicka is a cultural anthropologist, Polish philologist, museum professional, and curator of contemporary art. She heads the Museum Practices Lab at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews – a unit dealing with the development of cooperation between the museum and contemporary artists, as well as interdisciplinary initiatives combining contemporary art, research, and activism. Through these activities she tests the possibilities for building relationships among cultural institutions and community members, develops long-term participatory initiatives, and expands the field of social arts. She is also a member of the Museums for Climate initiative, Culture for Climate collective, and Chorus of Women performance group.
Role: Collaborator
Cluster: National Heritage and Traumatic Memory
Magda Rubenfeld Koralewska
Magda Rubenfeld Koralewska is a social entrepreneur, cultural producer, and activist. Magda currently works as Limmud’s European Coordinator and Co-Artistic Director of FestivALT, a Jewish art & activism collective investigating the complexities of contemporary Jewish Poland. She is interested in questions of difficult heritage, Jewish memory, Polish-Jewish dialogue, informal Jewish education, and community engagement. She is also the co-curator of participatory interventions that take a critical look at museum collections.
Role: Collaborator
Cluster: National Heritage and Traumatic Memory
Paweł Sztarbowski
Paweł Sztarbowski is a dramaturg and PhD in Theatre Arts. He has worked as Deputy Director of Powszechny Theater in Warsaw since 2014 and teaches at the Theater Academy in Warsaw. Sztarbowski runs drama classes for “Laboratorium: Designing Culture” at SWPS University in Warsaw. As reviewer and publicist, he has written for Tygodnik Powszechny, Notatnik Teatralny, Teatr, Didaskalia, Opcje, Metro, Newsweek Polska, and numerous foreign theater publications such as Theater der Zeit and Svet e Divadlo. As a dramaturg, he has collaborated with Paweł Łysak, Wojciech Faruga, Michał Zadara, and Marcin Liber. Sztarbowski was awarded the Grand Prix of the “Two Theatres Festival”, celebrating the Polish Radio Theatre and the Polish Television Theatre in Sopot, Poland.
Role: Collaborator
Cluster: National Heritage and Traumatic Memory