NIFC Open University

NIFC Open University

NEW!

In 2026 the Education Department of the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute invites you to a new lecture series as part of the NIFC Open University — a program aimed at everyone interested in an interdisciplinary perspective on history, culture, literature and music, regardless of age or prior knowledge.

The first semester of 2026 will be devoted to emigration as one of the most important experiences of Polish history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Political and artistic emigration was a space where ideas and currents of thought were formed, and works important to later generations were created. The year 2026, declared among others the Year of Jerzy Giedroyc, is an opportunity to recall the legacy of thinkers and activists associated with emigration. A symbolic point of reference remains Fryderyk Chopin — an artist emigrant.

Lectures take place every first Wednesday of the month at 6:00 PM in the Erazm Majewski Hall in the Staszic Palace (headquarters of the Polish Academy of Sciences).

• 18:00–19:00 – lecture
• 19:00–19:30 – coffee break
• 19:30–20:00 – recital

PROGRAM – I semester (February–June 2026):

📅 4 February 2026
The Great Emigration after the November Uprising
The Great Emigration is considered one of the largest emigration movements of 19th-century Europe. It included several thousand Poles who, abroad, continued the struggle for the national cause and created an independent Polish culture; many works by Fryderyk Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki were created in emigration.
Lecturer: Dr Michał Ceglarek

📅 4 March 2026
The Second Great Emigration: from Jerzy Giedroyc and Witold Gombrowicz to Mieczysław Grydzewski and Marian Hemar
A lecture devoted to postwar Polish emigration as an important cultural and intellectual phenomenon of the 20th century; discussion of the role of émigré communities in Paris, London and other diaspora centers.

📅 1 April 2026
Posthumous peregrinations of outstanding Poles
A lecture on the repatriation of the ashes of outstanding Poles as a historical, symbolic and cultural phenomenon affecting collective memory and national identity.

📅 6 May 2026
Musicians in the circle of the Literary Institute "Kultura"
A meeting devoted to the relationships of musicians with the Parisian "Kultura" and the role of music in the émigré environment and the dialogue between literature, journalism and music.

📅 3 June 2026
The most famous Polish female emigrants – from Klementyna Tańska Hoffmanowa to Barbara Piasecka-Johnson
A lecture presenting the biographies of women who played an important role in culture, education, patronage and intellectual life while emigrant.

The second semester (September–December 2026) will be devoted to French literature, with particular attention to George Sand. The program will refer to the 150th anniversary of George Sand’s death and to the temporary exhibition at the Fryderyk Chopin Birthplace in Żelazowa Wola, creating a coherent educational narrative between Warsaw and Żelazowa Wola.

Tickets: Bilety

• dr Michał Ceglarek – mceglarek@nifc.pl
• Wioletta Krawczyńska – wkrawczynska@nifc.pl

Questions about the series should be directed to the above e-mail addresses.