Why does education have such a strong focus in the Wrocław Museum’s institutional activities?
Education is, in our mission, equally as important as collecting and heritage preservation. Everything we do for the public is somehow and on different levels educative: raising awareness, initiating discussion, distributing knowledge, predicting trends and ideas, etc. We are quite a big institution that consumes a relatively large amount of public money. The only outcome we can produce in exchange for that money is protection – in terms of buildings and the collection – and education. That’s how we pay off our debt. We do not treat education as a separate strand of our activities. Every event is – or at least should be – educative.
Who do you see yourself educating? Future architects, clients, or users?
Well it depends on which part of our so-called educational activities programme we are in. When we work with children and adolescents we are more focused on boosting their curiosity and sensitivity. Architecture here is more of a background, or playground, than a key player or a heavy piece of knowledge that we are trying to sell them.
When we organise discussions, workshops and lectures dealing with professional knowledge, we try to support the spread of an open-minded attitude towards architecture. The driving force of every single exhibition, outdoor installation, or any other initiative is – or at least should be – to provide a medium for boosting architectural consciousness and then – as a consequence – the sense of responsibility for our common spaces, heritage or environment. In this sense the most important group within our audience is the users.