Project title: Expansion of Podlaskie Museum of Folk Culture in order to preserve the cultural heritage and raise the tourist attractiveness of the region
Beneficiary: Podlaskie Muzeum Kultury Ludowej (Podlaskie Museum of Folk Culture)
Project value: 2 167 679,15 PLN
EU grant: 1 399 988,29 PLN
The most important part of the project was the transfer and renovation of the school building from the village of Kalinowo-Solki. The school's ground floor consists of four spacious rooms. Two of them have been adapted to exhibition space. Currently, one can see there an exhibition showing the decor of a village school in the times of PRL. Among the exhibits, there are benches with inkwells, wooden abacus and pencil cases and teaching aids. The second part of the exhibition is devoted to the history of the school in Kalinowo Solki, which was built by teachers and parents of pupils. The school operated for almost 50 years, as evidenced by old diaries, notebooks, testimonies and photographs handed down by the residents of the commune. The other two rooms will are used to conduct museum lessons and workshops about Podlaskie traditions and customs.
In addition, as part of the project, four roofs were replaced on historic wooden buildings, and two antique barns were moved to the open-air ethnographic museum. The barn originating from Reduty in the Orla commune is almost 150 years old. It will be used for a permanent exhibition presenting the interior of a farm building from the early 20th century. It will be filled with agricultural tools and machines - some of them can be launched. Next, a hundred-year-old barn, originating from Czarna Białostocka, will show how the forests were used in the Podlaskie region - from the Middle Ages to the middle of the 20th century. The exhibition will present devices and tools for planting, care, cutting, transporting and processing trees. The only exhibition in Poland will be created there, completely showing the industry of dry distillation of wood.
