Intercultural dialogue

One of the key events related to the promotion of the cultural diversity in Poland were the celebrations of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. The National Cultural Centre was responsible for organisation and conduct of national celebrations of this event. The objective of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue was first of all to introduce the Polish society to different contexts and ways of understanding the multiculturalism in Europe, including particularly the Polish tradition and historical experiences contributing to the cultural heritage of the continent. One of national priorities was to present the Polish multi-religious tradition and reveal local contexts of the multiculturalism supporting better mutual understanding of people and their future cooperation.

The implementation of celebrations of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Poland was based on the completion of 13 leading projects implemented together with partner institutions. These included: the Modern Art Gallery – Art Bunker (organisation of the scientific conference summarising the “Transkultura” series including the publication of conference materials); the Baltic Cultural Centre in Gdansk (IV Festival of World Culture “The Window on the World”) and the Citizen Education Centre Foundation (the “Common Past – Common Future” project). In addition, within the framework of the celebrations numerous cultural, educational and artistic events (e.g. “Brave Festival”), as well as seminars, debates and conferences dedicated to multiculturalism issues and trainings and workshops (e.g. “Let’s meet – different does not mean an alien”) were implemented. Furthermore, the research on foundations of the cultural diversity, entitled “The diagnosis of attitudes of youth in the Podlaskie Voivodeship towards the cultural diversity” was conducted.