Continuing our celebration of Polish culture, the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life invites visitors to view a selection of Polish folk art on display on Level B of the main exhibition galleries.

Curated by Bardzo Ladnie Foundation, the exhibition is on display as part of a nationwide campaign called Integration Through Culture.

Watch: Folk Art of Poland and Ireland with Clodagh Doyle and Dr Marcin Piotrowski

Folk art is made up of artistic products created predominantly in a rural environment, based on an old and traditional set of patterns and aesthetic criteria. It is kept alive through local traditions.

A foundational characteristic of this form of art is the simplicity of both the materials and form, the recurrence of which results from traditions and patterns that are recognised in the local environment. The artists themselves are not educated in the arts - they create to satisfy emotional and religious needs. That is also the nature of foundational patterns in Polish folk art, which are tied closely to religion and surviving in the world. Therefore, art is also tied to the ritual calendar, feast days, and nature.

Today, the status of a folk artist has changed from that of an outcast - an odd or strange individual in the local community - to the position of an important person, earning money in their own way. A folk artist, once underestimated, has become an important and appreciated person.

The function of folk art has also changed. It has become an artistic and aesthetic element in all environments, and collecting folk art pieces has become fashionable and contributed to the duration and even development of rural artistic production. It is present in Polish homes as an element of decoration, and less commonly as a form of cultural identification.

Integration through Culture is an educational campaign consisting of a series of exhibitions in public spaces, webinars with experts, and education activities on social media. The main goal is to use selected motifs of Polish culture as starting points for conversation and reflection.