Culture Shock Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports creative and professional development of various groups of people. Humans are always at the center of our actions – we look at their individual needs and potentials, their communities, and the space they live in. Our mission is to provide digital education access to everyone regardless of age or social status and to support local communities in Poland and abroad through various cultural and educational activities. We use new technologies and innovative educational tools, often created by ourselves, to break the barrier to the world of digital culture.
Our Areas of Expertise
New Technologies and Design
We develop digital competence in our participants, both youths and seniors. We help them become conscious participants of culture in digital age (projects: “Media Activists” 2015; “Magic In Process” 2015; „MediaLab Junior”, 2012, „MediaLab Senior”, 2012, „MediaLab Junior Warsaw”, 2013). Regarding design, we organized a series of workshops called “The Experts” (2012-2015), for seniors and young parents, to give an opportunity to design an object or landscape solution to an urban problem that reflects their needs. We are members of The Coalition for Open Education and the Wide Coalition for Digital Skills in Poland.
Local Communities
As a way of supporting the development of local communities we focus attention on the Warsaw Embankment (Skarpa Warszawska), a geographical phenomenon in Warsaw, Poland, where our office is located. The Warsaw Embankment is a place where we conducted cultural and artistic events between 2011-2015 (art in public space projects: „Skarpa. Reaktywacja!”, 2011, „Skarpa: Relokacja”, 2013, “Skarpa. Rewelacja”, 2015).
As a part of Warsaw Cultural Trail on the Embankment coalition we coordinated citywide events: “Picnic on the Embankment” (2012, 2013, 2014) and “Warsaw Embankment Festival” (2015). We published a book describing the Embankment and summarizing our activities there (the book is published in Polish).
Since 2014 we have been organizing “Greenpoint. The Transition” project in New York – a series of cultural and social activities targeted at Poles, those with Polish roots, and everyone interested in Polish culture and history. This project arose out of the need to share interesting cultural and educational events with the Polish diaspora living in New York, to promote Polish artists among Americans – especially those living or moving to Greenpoint – and to reveal Greenpoint’s potential as a wonderful space for creative, artistic, and neighborhood activities.
We were a member of the Participatory Budget Committee of the Central District of the City of Warsaw from 2013-2015.
Artistic Activities
Our foundation realized various events to support young artists. Between 2011 and 2014, we organized multiple exhibitions at the Culture Shock Gallery (painting, sculptures, new media etc) and hosted concerts and theatre spectacles.
Culture Shock Foundation presented the results of its projects during different events. Just to name a few: Culture 2.0 Festival at the National Audiovisual Institute; Medialab in Opole 2013; Invisible Design conference in Poznań, “Years go by” conference in Cieszyn. We published articles in different publications: “Cultural Education. New times, new tools”, Gmina Lublin (about “Magic in process” project); 2+3D Magazine (about “The Experts” project).
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[ap_column_wrap] [ap_column span=”2″] [ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Paulina_jedrzejewska.jpg?274b03″ name=”Paulina Jędrzejewska”]
President of the Board. She is engaged in informal education, new technologies and intergenerational projects. She creates installations in public space, which she regards as a place for building social capital and dialogue. Experienced coach, sociologist, cultural anthropologist, urban activist.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Piotr_Grabowski.jpg?274b03″ name=”Piotr Grabowski”]
Founder and Chairman of the Culture Shock Foundation. Law and Culture Marketing graduate, financier. Enthusiast of art in public space. From birth residing at Skarpa Warszawska whose “reactivation” is a personal goal of his foundation activities.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Marta_Pawlaczek.jpg?274b03″ name=”Marta Pawlaczek”]
Vice President of the Board. Journalism, Philosophy and Cultural Studies graduate. At the Culture Shock Foundation she has been coordinating projects and promoting cultural events. Since 2013 lives in New York where she realizes “Greenpoint. The Transition” project.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sylwia_zolkiewska.jpg” name=”Sylwia Żółkiewska”]
Vice President of the Board. Graduate of Cracow Academy of Fine Arts and Postgraduate Management Studies in Warsaw. She designs games and apps, since 2013 she has been promoting the knowledge of mobile apps in culture and education. Curator of FAM – Applications and Mobile Games Forum. Author of a fanpage about mobile apps in culture and education.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Agata-1.jpg?274b03″ name=”Agata Gieryn”]
Member of the Foundation Council. Specializes in building effective teams by working on areas such as building relationships and trust, communication, creative problem solving, mission and goals. Her passion is reconstruction of the medieval culture such as costumes and food.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/kasia1.jpg?274b03″ name=”Katarzyna Łukasiewicz”]
Cultural manager. Kasia lived in Denmark, Indonesia, Istanbul, Israel, India. She reads, takes photos, watches, wanders. She participates in culture. She graduated from Pedagogics, Cultural Studies and Cultural Animation specialization at the University of Warsaw. Kasia is engaged in the creative education of children and adolescents.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/marcela.jpg?274b03″ name=”Marcela Kawka”]
Product designer and visual communication, graduated from Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Marcela leads a design firm Locomotif Design Studio. At the Culture Shock Foundation she works on projects generally related to design-alongside Paulina Jędrzejewska she led the workshops “The Experts” and “MediaLab Senior”.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Malgorzata_Barnat.jpg” name=”Małgorzata Barnat”]
Associated with the Culture Shock Foundation since 2013. She studied Philosophy at the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. For the past years she has been assisting in initiatives promoting art and culture. She was inspired to cooperate with the Foundation by the magical Skarpa Warszawska.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/monika_stec.jpg” name=”Monika Stec”]
Natural born fieldworker (and educated sociologist), multi researcher and critical friend. Associated with the Culture Shock Foundation since 2013 and in 2017 leading research project “Success Stories of Polish mobile applications and games”.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Marzena-Maksym.jpg” name=”Marzena Maksym”]
A sociologist, graduate of the Institute of Sociology at Warsaw University, stipendist of Erasmus program at La Sapienza University in Rome. For the project “Greenpoint. The Transition” Marzena leads photo-reportage workshops for children.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/maciej_woszczyk.jpg?274b03″ name=”Maciej Woszczyk”]
Follower of the Lodz and Warsaw ethos, extremely well educated. Associated with the Foundation since its beginning, Maciek is helpful in everything that has to do with funding and bureaucracy. Interested in socio-political issues.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Blazej_Sendzielski.jpg?274b03″ name=”Błażej Sendzielski”]
A photo camera is his companion for more than 15 years now. It was a mean of perceiving the surrounding world in almost every moment of his life. Working as a photographer for several press agencies and a national newspaper he has had faced many challenges and had gain much experience. Last year he has decided to be a free lancer, and since then he has worked for different corporations and NGOs.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Marta_Szarzynska1.png” name=”Marta Szaryńska”]
Marta studied European Studies at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Art History at the University of Granada and Journalism at the University of Warsaw. Initiator and coordinator of the “Zofia Brzeska-Gaudier – a writer rediscovered” project; she works on the writers history since 2012.
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[ap_team image=”http://www.cultureshock.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/slawek.jpg?274b03″ name=”Sławek Sendzielski”]
Co-founder of the “Graj w zielone” (“Play Green”) project held at his countryside place, Sławek leads the walks in search of wild edible plants. Fascinated by wild plants, vegetale gardens and the history of Warsaw. Sławek promotes a healthy lifestyle and environmental education.
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