‘NATIONAL COLLECTIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART’: PROGRAMME OF THE MINISTER OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL HERITAGE TO FINANCE PURCHASES OF CONTEMPORARY ART WORKS IN 2011–2019 PART 1. HISTORY: FINANCING

The ‘National Collections of Contemporary Art’Programme run by the Ministry of Culture and NationalHeritage (MKiDN) in 2011–2019 constituted the mostimportant since 1989 financing scheme for purchasingworks of contemporary art to create and develop museumcollections. Almost PLN 57 million from the MKiDN budgetwere allocated by means of a competition to purchasingworks for such institutions as the Museum of ModernArt in Warsaw (MSN), Museum of Art in Lodz (MSŁ),Wroclaw Contemporary Museum (MNW), Museum ofContemporary Art in Cracow (MOCAK), or the Centre ofPolish Sculpture in Orońsko (CRP). The programme inquestion and the one called ‘Signs of the Times’ that hadpreceded it were to fulfil the following overall goal: tocreate and develop contemporary art collections meant forthe already existing museums in Poland, but particularlyfor newly-established autonomous museums of the 20thand 21st century. The analysis of respective editions of theprogrammes and financing of museums as part of theirimplementation confirms that the genuine purpose ofthe Ministry’s ‘National Contemporary Art Collections’Programme has been fulfilled.