Project www.culture.pl

The web portal www.culture.pl, maintained by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as one of the Institute’s statutory tasks, was designed and launched in 2001 as a multilingual system of information on Polish culture. The portal includes an encyclopaedic part and a cultural guide presenting current cultural events in Poland and abroad.


Information available through the portal includes:

• over 2500 extensive biographical entries on creators of Polish culture
• almost 2600 descriptions of works (books, compositions, recordings, plays, theatre productions, films)
• over 870 descriptions of institutions (museums, galleries, concert halls, theatres, art schools, libraries and other collections)
• about 220 descriptions of major cultural events (music, theatre, film festivals)
• almost 280 articles, essays, and synthetic studies on all areas of culture
• current news
• an archive of almost 7100 descriptions of cultural events in Poland and abroad

At present the portal features almost 14 100 web pages (cumulatively, in all language versions), over 32 200 pages of text, and over 12 500 illustrations.

The portal is available in 5 language versions (at different stages of development): Polish, English, French, German, and Spanish. The pages are updated daily.

Every month the portal is visited by users from more than 120 countries around the world.

Contact:
Anna Kowalska akowalska@iam.pl
Monika Renclawowicz mrenclawowicz@iam.pl

A list of writers and translators published in the portal is available from: www.culture.pl/en/culture/o_nas


Project www.diapozytyw.pl


Diapozytyw was created in late 2003 / early 2004; it is available in English and Polish. It functions under the patronage of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland and the Polish Council of Christians and Jews.

The aim of the web portal www.diapozytyw.pl is to present the history and cultural heritage of Polish Jews, today's reality of the Jewish community in Poland, and new valuable initiatives in education and dialogue.

The website is the original project of Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński (editor-in-chief), and was created in collaboration with many organizations, associations, foundations and institutions dealing with Polish-Jewish topics. It is this collaboration that gives the project the social roots which are essential to strengthen dialogue and mutual understanding.

The web portal's collaborators include: Dr. Anna Marta Szczepan-Wojnarska, Kaja Wieczorek (Jewish Historical Institute), and Dr. Christina Manetti.

The www.diapozytyw.pl web pages feature:

• a calendar of current cultural events,
• a guide to Jewish Poland,
• profiles of major organizations,
• hundreds of biographical notes,
• presentations of books,
• a glossary,
• addresses, contact numbers, information,
• opinions from the discussion forum.

Diapozytyw web pages are visited by approximately 1000 people daily. Other facts confirming the website's renown include:

• Diapozytyw was the only non-Jewish project to receive the distinction of an active logo on the Warsaw Jewish Community website's home page.
• Information about Diapozytyw was published in the annual Almanac of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland (this was the only information about an initiative from outside the close circle of Polish Jews).
• Links to the Diapozytyw site have been placed on education ministry servers in Israel.
• A link to the Diapozytyw site has been placed in the official e-mail periodical of the Israeli Embassy.
• Materials from Diapozytyw were used (and the source quoted) in press releases marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and in materials prepared on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• An active Diapozytyw logo has been placed on the website of the Polish Embassy in Tel-Aviv, among other sites.
• The website was a media patron of the Jewish Motifs 2nd Jewish Film Festival.
• In 2004, Diapozytyw received the "Website of the Week" title awarded by the web portal Panorama Religii.

Author of the project concept:
dr Piotr M. A. Cywinski