„Finger in the Inkwell” is an educational campaign dedicated to the works and life of Aleksander Fredro, promoting reading among women and men serving prison sentences. The core of the campaign revolves around the fables and well-known sayings by the writer, which continue to be a part of Polish culture today. Using the pretext of the Sejm (Polish Parliament) declaring 2023 the Year of Aleksander Fredro, we have created a reading education program aimed at people in prisons. Aleksander Fredro, the creator of the original Polish comedy, is also the author of humorous poems, fables, and sayings that are well-known and used in contemporary times. It is this aspect of his work that we want to emphasize in our project. Sayings like „jaki pan, taki kram” (like owner, like shop) or „pleciesz trzy po trzy” (which means “you’re talking nonsense) are known to everyone, even those participating in culture without advanced cultural competencies. However, not everyone is aware of their origin. The Year of Aleksander Fredro is a great opportunity to remind and raise awareness among modern Poles of the immense contribution of the writer to Polish culture, including contemporary culture. As part of the project, we will conduct lectures on the writer’s works and life, as well as workshops on text analysis, loud reading, rewriting selected fables, and illustrating them. From the materials, manuscripts, and illustrations created by incarcerated individuals during the workshops, invited artists will develop artbooks. These artbooks will be available in printed form at literature museums and in digital form online. Thanks to the campaign, participants of the workshops, who are usually excluded from culture due to their isolation, will improve their reading skills, contribute to the popularization of the Writer’s work and his contribution to Polish culture, and participate in commemorating his birthday.
The project involves women serving prison sentences in the Warsaw-Grochów Detention Center and men from the Warsaw-Białołęka Detention Center.
The project’s organizers are Piotr Prasuła, curator of the Literature Museum in Warsaw; artists from the Warsaw artistic community: Joanna Świerczyńska, Józek Gałązka and Małgorzata Brus, collaborating with Fundacja Dom Kultury; and actress Kinga Kosik-Burzyńska from the Comedy Club in Warsaw.
The resulting artbooks will be donated in paper form to the A. Mickiewicz Literature Museum in Warsaw and the Aleksander Fredro Museum in Rudki, Ukraine, and will be available in digital form HERE.
The educational campaign „Finger in the Inkwell” is carried out by Fundacja Dom Kultury in partnership with the Warsaw-Grochów Detention Center and the Warsaw-Białołęka Detention Center.
The task was co-financed from the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, originating from the Culture Promotion Fund.
