Name: 12th Emaus Trees Competition
Start: 2026-03-02T00:00:00
End: 2026-03-21T12:00:00
Location: plac Szczepański 1, 31-011 Kraków, Poland

About the event

We long for the arrival of spring and invite you to take part in the 12th Emaus Trees Competition organized by the Museum of Krakow. This is an opportunity to present your version of the traditional Emaus tree.

Competition rules:

Regulations available here.

The Emaus tree refers to traditional trees of life: a nest with figurines of chicks or a bird figurine on a stick decorated with leaves, usually made of wood. Submitted works should refer to this symbolism; they may have any spatial form, size, technique and materials.

The jury will assess conformity with the symbolism of the tree of life, overall aesthetic impression, original approach to the theme, ingenuity, quality of workmanship, independence and composition.

Competition categories:

children’s trees – participant age up to completion of 12 years (1–3 co-authors, all under 12)
youth trees – participant age from 12 to completion of 18 years (1–3 co-authors, all 12–18)
adult trees – participant age over 18 years (1–3 co-authors, all over 18)
family and institutional group children’s trees (details regarding number of authors and institutional representation such as school, kindergarten etc.)
institutional team/group trees (at least 4 authors over 12 years old or representing an institution)
traditional tree of life – no age category; criteria: technique and material, carved in wood, painted, with a bird figurine on a spring

Important: Each participant may submit a maximum of three competition works, and only one work may be submitted in a single category.

📝 Registration:

Registration

📅 Deadlines:

Registration of works via the digital form: from 2 March 2026 until the day of the competition, 21 March 2026, by 12:00.

📍 Competition day – Saturday, 21 March 2026:

Please authors with registered works arrive from 10:00 at Plac Szczepański to confirm participation (paper forms are not required; remember the registration number of the work).
At 12:00 authors with their works will walk in a procession from Plac Szczepański to Kamienica Hipolitów (Plac Mariacki 3). Trees will be arranged in the exhibition rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors and wait for the jury’s evaluation.
If due to size/weight procession carrying is impossible, works should be delivered that day (21 March 2026) between 13:00–14:00 directly to Kamienica Hipolitów (please treat this as exceptions).

Note on dimensions and transport:

Kamienica Hipolitów is a historic tenement with door dimensions: height 217 cm, width 105 cm. The exhibition rooms are on the 1st and 2nd floors, currently without lift access — consider arranging help for transporting the tree.

📅 Announcement of results and exhibition:

🗓️ Announcement of results: Palm Sunday, 29 March 2026, 14:00 in the Copper Hall of Krzysztofory Palace.

Post-competition exhibition opening: from 29 March (after the announcement, from around 15:00) to 31 May 2026, Tuesday to Sunday, in the temporary exhibition rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors of Kamienica Hipolitów.

During the exhibition a public vote for a chosen tree will be held; the poll results and summary will be published on the Emaus trees Facebook profile after the exhibition closes (by 3 June 2026).