Katowice
1989 – 1990

In 1988, the topic of the expansion of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice appeared on the plot behind the pre-war officer's casino at Raciborska Street, whose author was Leon Dietz d'Arma. The design of the modernist facility was created in the 1930s, and the casino was opened in May 1939. The project was started with a thorough study of the functions of the future building. Due to its uniqueness, the lack of any available design guidelines for art colleges, a specific School profile with a specific set of studios, the authors of the project developed an individual functional program of the Katowice branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków - its off-line Graphics Department in close cooperation with all the teachers of the Academy. The author's functional program of the future School, signed by professors and heads of all studios, was created as a comprehensive project of modernization of the historical part and its extension in aesthetics compatible with it. In the new part of the Academy, in addition to the painting, graphics and sculpture studio, a permanent exhibition gallery has been located, combined with an internal, multi-functional and open to all floors courtyard, which allows the organization of exhibitions, art reviews, and spatial activities available to a wider group of participants. After the project was finalized, the joy was short-lived. The groundbreaking political changes of 1989, expected and enthusiastically received by everyone, turned out to be deadly for the project. Visiting the university, then, Minister Izabella Cywińska, a great theater and film director, after expressing admiration for the project, stated that the state budget at the time was unfortunately so tight and uncertain that the Ministry of Culture would not be able to participate in the costs of its implementation. And it was over.