At the age of eight, Agnieszka Duczmal resolved to take her place behind the conductor's stand, in what heretofore has been the exclusive domain of men. She did this on impulse, galvanised by a symphonic poem by Richard Strauss she had heard at the Poznań Philharmonic. Ever since, her childhood dream has become reality. This year in January, the artist celebrated her 75^th birthday. Having spent years appearing on the world's most prominent musical stages, having recorded magnificent albums and created a one-of-a-kind orchestra, she is celebrated as one of the greats of her field.

In late February, the Archdiocesan Museum will hold the historic art exhibition About the Sacred (Wokół sacrum).

A collection of over a hundred remarkable cars, bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles will be on view in Hall 2 at the Poznań International Fair as Poznań's celebrated Automotive Museum is making its comeback. The Museum is being moved from its previous location under the Kaponiera rounabout where it remained until its renovation a few years ago.

A call for entries for the latest edition of Konkurs 30/30 (Contest 30/30) was announced on 15 February. The aim is to select the best thirty album cover designs made in 2020. The artwork will be on view in the Contest's summer display to be held in the celebrated Courtyard Gallery (Galeria na Dziedzińcu) of Poznań's Old Brewery.

The Poznań Fotoplastykon is one relic of the past whose life has never been easy. Throughout its existence of over a century, it repeatedly changed hands and sites to finally settle down in the Arkadia building. To learn more about its history, it is best to revert to the time when the stereoscopic photograph craze first took off...

Poznań's museums and art galleries have reopened after nearly three months of closure due to Covid-19.

Visit the Castle Cultural Centre (CK Zamek) website (at ckzamek.pl) to virtually explore an astounding nine exhibitions. Featured priminently among them is Poland's cultural sensation of the year 2017: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Polish Connection, seen in person by an audience of over 100,000.

Not unlike other events this year, the Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity had to deal with unusual circumstances. The 29^th Finale will be saved by the Internet, streaming on social media and on the website of the Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity, and by TVN broadcast.

A unique exhibition "Archeology and Art. Scratching Beneath the Surface" is now open to visitors at the Górka Palace venue of the Poznań Archaeological Museum.

"Despite all my scepticism, I too fell for digital photography in around 2000-2005. I can no longer imagine going back to the darkroom and the mix of noxious chemicals that comes with it", admits photographer Piotr Topperzer, whose photo exhibition "Danish Design through the Lens" will remain on view throughout December and January in the Grand Lobby of the Zamek Cultural Centre.

This October, Stary Browar in Poznań, Poland, will become home to Iris van Herpen's avant-garde couture creations. Entitled "Alchemic Couture", the solo exhibition opening at the Courtyard Art Gallery explores the designer's visionary interdisciplinary creative process in which innovation and craftsmanship interlace.

In 2006, Poznań's war-time losses were valued at PLN 10 billion. The city's residents sustained PLN 297 million in property damage. 55 percent of the building stock, including 160 valuable historic buildings, lay in ruin. How did the city ever manage to recover from such devastation after the war ended? How much did it cost to rebuild it? And who decided how to go about the restoration? An attempt to answer these and other questions has been made by Porta Posnania in its exhibition A City (Re)Constructed.

The open-air exhibition of previously unpublished photographs of Ignacy Jan Paderewski will be opened in December by the Museum of Wielkopolska Uprising of 1918-1919, a branch of the Wielkopolska Museum of Independence.

AGATA RODRÍGUEZ, founder of Rodríguez Gallery celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, interviewed by MAREK S. BOCHNIARZ

19 September 2000 was the saddest day in the history of the National Museum of Poznań. That day, the most valuable piece in its possession, the painting Beach in Pourville (La plage à Pourville) by Claude Monet, was found to have been cut out of its frame and replaced with a copy.

"With over three thousand films submitted for this year's festival, records are being broken. What makes the result even more impressive is that the production of many pictures had to be stopped due to the pandemic," says Ale Kino! spokeswoman Karolina Kulig. The festival is due to commence on 29 November.

Jan Kurek has the eye. Not everyone has it, not everyone can look and see things. He can. His eye works in perfect unison with a video camera viewfinder or a still photo camera lens. It captures the frame that the average observer would either miss or dismiss.

With exhibitions and book presentations in Poznań and over fifty galleries, libraries and cultural centres in other parts of the Wielkopolska region, the fifth edition of the Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka Wielkopolska Photography Festival, which this year follows in the footsteps of Wielkopolska's photography masters, promises to be a delight.

The Amadeus Orchestra is back in concert! On 11.10, the orchestra will inaugurate its 53^rd artistic season with its first appearance since the breakout of Covid-19, to be held in the University Auditorium in front of a live audience. Two weeks later, on October 25, the Orchestra's musicians will take to the stage again.

The long wait has paid off. After it was cancelled due to Covid-19 on its usual date in July, Poland's largest animated film event, the Animator Festival, is set to take place in early October.