Cultural Village

Step into the heart of Polish heritage at our Cultural Village!

Check out these highlights from 2025:

Polish Folk Arts
The Cultural Village featured folk artists demonstrating traditional Polish crafts, including aluminum casting, bark and wood carving, pajaki paper chandeliers, pisanki (decorated eggs), Polish textiles, spinning yarn, and wianki wreaths. Also included: All-Ages Children’s Art Activity inspired by traditional Polish crafts!

Returned this year: Author’s Corner featuring James Conroyd Martin and the Polish Genealogy Society of America!

Polish History and Cultural Forum
Featured speakers on Jan Karski, the Polish community in Milwaukee and the Kashubians who helped establish settlements in the United States and Canada. There was also Polish Fashion Show from Recultured Designs highlighting the colors and fabrics of Poland!

Speakers:
Dr. Anne Gurnack: Kashubian Heroes and Heroines Who Helped Establish Settlements in the United States and Canada
Tomasz Lenkiewicz: Jan Karski: Poland’s Forgotten Emissary of Truth
Alexandra Lisiecki: Recultured Designs: Tradition Meets the Modern World Fashion Show
James Conroyd Martin: Marie Walewska and the Quest for Poland’s Independence
Susan Mikos: Poles in Milwaukee

Cultural Exhibit
The Polish School of Posters
“All (Polish) posters should be designed by individual artists who should have freedom of interpretation and artistic expression.” — Ministry for Culture and the Arts, The Polish People’s Republic

Posters from the Polish School of Posters were produced in a unique moment in history. After World War II, the Polish People’s Republic was placed under strict Soviet rule and suffered great repression and hardship. During that time posters were one of the only permitted artistic outlets by the ruling Communist state. To avoid an uprising, the Soviet rulers relied on this inexpensive means of propaganda to promote the ‘feel-good’ work of their Ministry of Art & Culture (films in cinemas, theatre productions, music festivals, exhibitions, opera, ballet and the circus). The artists could never show any political views in their work, but they never stopped fighting for the values they believed in. Instead of violence or force, they used hidden meaning to do so with humor and beauty. Join as we explore this unique time period in history through posters celebrating the arts, encouraging travel to Poland and showing the resilience of the people of Poland.