Traditional Music Laboratory established
17 June 2015
The Traditional Music Laboratory of the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw was founded on 17 June 2015 during the conference Transgenerational transmission in traditional culture and the role of the state in this area. The Laboratory's task will be to initiate, implement and coordinate permanent and long-term programmes and tasks that support actions aimed at the preservation, transmission, and continuation of traditional musical culture in Poland. The establishment of the Laboratory is a follow-up to the actions undertaken by the Institute to-date, in particular the projects launched in the Oskar Kolberg Year, when the Institute served as the anniversary celebrations coordinator.
In its operations, the Laboratory will focus in particular on formal and informal education, as well as the transmission of tradition, both among local communities and at the institutional level, and on integrating people and organisations working for the preservation, continuation and popularisation of traditional music and dance.
The programmes and tasks assigned to the Laboratory follow from the National Strategy for Cultural Development passed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Development, the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the strategy of the Institute of Music and Dance's operations for 2014–18, as well as the long-standing experience of the participants of the Forum of Traditional Music and other people and organisations working in the field.
The Traditional Music Laboratory will be responsible for:
1. putting forward proposals for and implementing programmes of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage that support actions aiming at the preservation, transmission, continuation, and popularisation of traditional music culture in Poland;
2. working together with local authorities at all levels to support actions aiming at the preservation, transmission, continuation, and popularisation of traditional music culture in Poland's regions;
3. coordinating events and anniversary celebrations connected with traditional culture and co-organising of the annual Oskar Kolberg Awards;
4. initiating and implementing programmes of the Institute of Music and Dance such as: Kolberg Academy, Little Kolberg, Masters of Tradition School, Master School of Folk Instruments Makers, Blank Pages of Music, and other programmes that will be launched in the future;
5. administering and co-administering relevant websites and co-funding the editorial work concerning websites set up by people and organisations whose operations focus on traditional music, in particular: muzykatradycyjna.pl akademiakolberga.pl, instrumenty.edu.pl, tance.edu.pl, nagrodakolberg.pl, polmic.pl, and oskarkolberg.pl;
6. working within networks of educational institutions including the Ministry of National Education and the Centre for Educational Development, Centre for Artistic Education, Centre for the Development of Art School Teachers, colleges of music, schools and pre-schools of music, general education schools, music clubs, and culture centres;
7. preparing model lesson plans, workshop plans, and designing other educational activities concerning traditional music and dance;
8. working together with culture institutions (including the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, National Culture Centre, Fryderyk Chopin Institute, National Audiovisual Institute, National Heritage Board of Poland, Oskar Kolberg Institute in Poznań, Oskar Kolberg Museum in Przysucha – Open-Air Museum of Rural Architecture in Radom, Oskar Kolberg Cultural Society in Przysucha, Museum of Folk Instruments in Szydłowiec, Musical Instrument Museum – National Museum in Poznań) to guarantee traditional culture a permanent place in programmes and plans of action of these institutions;
9. cooperation at national and international level: working within interdisciplinary and inter-community working groups and together with the Council on Immaterial Cultural Heritage, counterpart institutions and organisations abroad, associations of folk artists in Poland (e.g. Folk Artists Association), organisations working in the filed of ethnology and anthropology (e.g. ethnographic museums, open-air museums, Polish Ethnological Society, academic institutions (e.g. Institute of Art – Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, universities and colleges), artistic institutions (philharmonic halls and theatres), centres of culture, collective rights management organisations, associations and foundations dealing with cultural heritage and traditional culture (especially folk festivals and showcases, including the Festival of Folk Bands and Singers in Kazimierz Dolny);
10. organising and leading own training sessions and workshops intended specific professional groups: animateurs, educators and teachers, artists, journalists, etc., and especially for the Forum of Music Promotion, in association with the academia and artistic circles;
11. working together with the media to shape and propagate a positive image of traditional culture and the universal values it embodies (in particular with the Radio Folk Culture Centre);
12. working together with centres for phonographic and audiovisual documentation, archives and libraries (e.g. Phonograph Collection of the Institute of Art – Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Radio Archives and archives of other radio stations, Muzyka Odnaleziona Foundation);
13. publishing books (reports and analyses, also those presenting conclusions of social consultation on traditional culture), audio and audiovisual recordings containing materials collected as part of the Institute's programmes, and creating iconographic collocations.
The Laboratory operates under the Institute of Music and Dance's statute as its specialist division, established on 17 June 2015 under the Director's decision for an indefinite period of time. The Laboratory will be headed by a Coordinator appointed by the Director. From 17 June to 31 December the function will be performed by Dr Weronika Grozdew-Kołacińska. The staff of the Laboratory will be made up of people involved in the implementation of its programmes as well as different institutions and NGOs. The Laboratory's budget for 2016 will be 600.000 zł.
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