On behalf of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, I wish to announce that, the Association, the City of Warsaw and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, have reached an agreement regarding the procedure for a competition for the post of POLIN Museum’s director. The competition’s rules and regulations upon which we have agreed respect the premises of POLIN Museum’s founding agreement and statute. They guarantee transparency objectivity, and the equal share of POLIN Museums three co-founders in the process of selecting the new director.
During consultations held with the Ministry of Culture and the City of Warsaw, we decided that a fifteen-member selection committee shall consist of the following: two representatives of each co-founder of POLIN Museum (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, City of Warsaw, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland), representative of POLIN Museum Council, representative of POLIN Museum’s labour union, representatives of academia and nationwide organizations of museum profession, and representatives of the Jewish community. To ensure full transparency, objectivity, and the non-negotiability of the selection committee’s decision on the new director, a candidate running for the post should not hold a directorial position in the said institution during competition period.
Therefore, the Board of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland recommended that Zygmunt Stępiński, the current Deputy Director, should take up the post of Acting Director of POLIN Museum. The co-founders accepted this recommendation.
Zygmunt Stępiński is a graduate of the Department of History at the University of Warsaw. He has been socially active in Jewish organizations both in Poland and abroad for many years. During the 1980s, he was active in the democratic opposition against the communist regime in Poland. He was appointed Deputy Director of POLIN Museum in 2012. It is in this capacity that he has been supervising the following museum departments: education, communication, as well as sales and marketing. He has played an important role in the indisputable success of POLIN Museum, evidenced both in visitor attendance and programs. His appointment to the post of Acting Director of POLIN Museum guarantees that the museum’s current projects and programs will continue without interruption.
Professor Dariusz Stola, POLIN Museum’s current Director, accepted this decision and confirmed his intention to enter the competition.
I do believe that the competition launched today will allow us to select the best candidate for the post of POLIN Museum’s director in the shortest time possible.
Piotr Wiślicki
President, Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland