Poster Museum at Wilanów

The Poster Museum at Wilanów is the oldest institution of that kind in the world. In June 1966, on the day of the opening of the 1st International Poster Biennale, a coal stone was placed under the museum. But before the construction works started and before naming of Janina Fijałkowska the first curator of the Poster Museum, the collection of the future museum were housed for many years at the National Museum in Warsaw. A small collection of posters had been stored in the Engravings Department since before the 2nd World War; it took in Polish and foreign posters on equal standing with other graphic objects.   At present the museum collection contains of some 36.000 titles in the Section of Polish Posters and nearly 25.000 titles in the Section of Foreign Posters.   The world’s first poster museum is presently one of the National Museum in Warsaw’s most active divisions. Around ten exhibitions are being held here yearly and similar number of them are being prepared by the museum staff and exported to the other museums. At the moment the museum goes through the process of extensive organizational changes to keep up pace with changing world of graphic design.