The Academy of Art celebrated its fifteenth birthday

The Szczecin Academy of Art at the Palace under the Globe recently celebrated its fifteenth birthday. It is the youngest university in the city. And the only higher education institution in the country that combines visual and musical arts.

Mirosława Jarmołowicz, the rector of the Academy of Arts, said that the idea of ​​establishing the Academy of Arts united Szczecin residents from different environments. She recalled that a special petition supporting this initiative was even created, signed by 20,000 people, and submitted to the Sejm.

- After fifteen years, we can say that the university is important for Szczecin, for the region, but also, as some say, for the world - said Mirosława Jarmołowicz. - The university has obtained the highest scientific category in the discipline of fine arts. The authorities of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage have recognized that we are one of the most progressive universities in the world. We are very happy about this. This is a very dynamic, creative university, we are not afraid of any challenges. We are able to work artistically in very broad areas, interdisciplinarily. We are the only university that combines the disciplines of musical and fine arts, and thanks to this, there is no artistic, musical, or fine art topic that we could not implement.

The Rector declared that she attaches great importance to her university being a place of tolerance, acceptance of different attitudes and different personalities, for joint activities of the music and art community. Future plans include the establishment of performance studies and light direction at the university.

The first rector of the Academy, Prof. Ryszard Handke, recalled that the establishment of the new school was preceded by long talks with politicians and artists. Finally, the idea was clarified that the Academy would be created from the merger of the branches of the Faculty of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Poznań, the Department of Artistic Education of the University of Szczecin and the Higher School of Applied Arts in Szczecin. This also required many legal maneuvers, because the regulations did not allow for the merger of public and non-public schools.

- I recall the first days with great emotion. On September 1st, an absolutely extraordinary concert took place here. The city president, the governor, the marshal, the vice-marshal, all the managers of our region created a jazz band under the leadership of Sylwek Ostrowski and performed a piece - said Prof. Handke.

The second rector of AS was prof. Dariusz Dyczewski. He pointed out how important it was to renovate the infrastructure, adapting it to the needs of artists, especially musicians.

The birthday was graced by a performance by drummers - received with great enthusiasm by the students. There was also a special cake, which was cut by the rector of AS.

At the beginning, there were about 400 students studying at AS, now there are about 900.©℗

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