Kierkosz, Anna International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn

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Curator of educational programmes and projects at Warsaw’s Guliwer Puppet Theatre (since 2022), where she has co-authored the concept of interactive #connections (vols 1, 2, 3) and EqualDifferent.doc educational programmes and projects. Before 2022 she was the head of programmes and promotion/education teams at the Mazovia Institute of Culture, Fryderyk Chopin Institute, and the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. She has received scholarships from Warsaw’s “Mobile in Culture” programme (2021) and the artistic scholarship of the Capital City of Warsaw (2024) for programmes promoting contemporary music and art among the youngest children. As education manager at the Ujazdowski Castle (until 2022), she created, inspired, or implemented numerous educational and outreach programmes and projects for different social groups with her team. These included Smykowizje (2016–22), Art Viewpoints (from 2016), Touch the Art (2019, curators: Joanna Rentowska/Anna Szary), Collection Co–selection (2018/21), A Walking Guide (2021), and AUT/ART (1st prize of WPEK Warsaw Cultural Education Programme, 2020, curator: Aleksandra Rajska). Since 2021, Kierkosz has been the curator of the “Little Warsaw Autumn” Festival of Contemporary Music for Children (part of the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music). 

Kierkosz’s original method of creative work is based on non-obvious, interdisciplinary combinations of participation, text, sound, socio-cultural animation, and artistic projects, usually involving the active participation of children, teenagers, and adults. She has applied this method in musical projects addressed to various groups, such as MGM / Youth Music JournalSing to Me, MotherChopin in Polish SongsMemo-operaOne-Minute Classroom Song, and Muse in the Spectrum. Her publications include Fairy Tales from the Vistula, Bug and Narew (2007), Mazurka – song cycle with music by Krzysztof Herdzin and Agnieszka Widlarz (2010), Smykowizje (2017), What Do Sounds Play with music by Agnieszka Widlarz (2019), as well as Amateur Music-Making in Poland (2014, a research publication – concept and coordination). Her texts have been printed in preschool and school music education course books and methodological guides (including WSiP school course books). Musical miniatures to her texts have been performed notably by Mieczysław Szcześniak, Natalia Przybysz, Dorota Miśkiewicz, Agnieszka Wilczyńska, Janusz Szrom, Joanna Trzepiecińska, Jacek Bończyk, and Agata Zakrzewska. She has won awards in nationwide literary competitions “For the Pen of the President of Warsaw” (2005) and “Orzech” Jerzy Kozarzewski Literary Competition (2018).