Open House: The Imagined Object

Hipolit House on Mariacki Square, a Museum of Krakow branch whose period-home display has been shut since 2023, has opened its doors for three and a half weeks. From 7 to 30 October 2026, artists, students and graduates of the Intermedia Faculty at Krakow’s Academy of Fine Arts are showing work built around old everyday objects from the house’s collection.

Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the Polish original; the museum publishes no English text for this show):

“The Imagined Object” is the second exhibition to come out of the collaboration between the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Faculty of Intermedia) and the Museum of Krakow (Hipolit House) within the “Open House” series.

The reference point for the 2026 exhibition is material culture - surviving objects of everyday use from the collection kept in Hipolit House. They have become a source of inspiration and creative interpretation for invited artists, students and graduates of the Faculty of Intermedia. The exhibition was preceded by several months of consultations and workshops on the meaning and understanding of the value of an everyday object, all the more so one from 100 years ago. The joint work of the two institutions answers the need to make students and the visiting public aware of, and sensitive to, the everyday object, its practical side and its aesthetic dimension. It also places the object in the context of memory, because objects evoke associations and can convey social content, literally or more symbolically.

What to expect

First, the thing that decides your plans: the branch, temporarily closed since 2023, is open for this show, 7 to 30 October, Wednesday to Sunday. The Hipolit House page on the Museum of Krakow’s Polish website no longer calls it closed and gives the same hours. It also says that the permanent display, “A Bourgeois House”, is closed, so you will see the temporary show only.

The curators are Estera Gałuszka, Dr Mariusz Sołtysik, Dr Mariusz Front and Michał Hankus. The museum publishes no list of artists, no count of works and no room plan.

A clue to what hangs on the walls may be the family workshop on 25 October, at which Estera Gałuszka, an artist from the Academy, leads stop-motion animation using museum objects. Whether that technique appears in the rooms, the museum does not say. The opening night took place on Tuesday 6 October, the day before the show opened to the public.

Context

The first edition of the series, “Hipolit House - Open Space” (“Kamienica - przestrzeń otwarta”), ran from 3 to 30 October 2025. It showed work by 23 people, from students to lecturers, with free admission, and doubled as the opening of the academic year at the Intermedia Faculty. At the time the museum wrote that the house is meant, in future, to become a place for researching Krakow’s historical fashion and cooking as well.

Intermedia is the youngest faculty of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 2011. Its studios include animation, performance art, sound and interactive media. Hipolit House itself has been a museum since 2003, when it opened with “A Bourgeois House” (“Mieszczański dom”), a recreation of the homes of well-off Krakow families from the 17th to the 19th century. That display closed in April 2023 for conservation work and has not come back.

Tickets and time

A standard ticket costs 22 PLN, reduced 18 PLN, family 44 PLN for the whole family. Groups pay 16 PLN per person, groups entitled to a reduction 11 PLN. With Karta Krakowska, the city card for Kraków residents, a ticket costs 17.60 PLN (standard) or 14.40 PLN (reduced), with the Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) 11 PLN; the other discounts are listed on the exhibition page . Curator tours are included in the ticket. Last year’s edition was free; this year’s is ticketed. The museum has announced no free-admission day for this show.

Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00-17:00 (10 AM-5 PM), the same for the whole run; the Museum of Krakow’s combined hours-and-prices page gives the same. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The museum has not stated a last-entry time. Allow 30-45 minutes for the show itself, two hours if you book a workshop.

Best for anyone following student and early-career work from the Krakow Academy, for people into animation and new media, and for those who have been waiting for a chance to get inside Hipolit House again. Skip it if you want furnished period rooms: the permanent display “A Bourgeois House” is closed. For a genuine old Krakow interior, go to the Jan Matejko House , five minutes’ walk away.

Mariacki Square is the small square behind the chancel of St Mary’s Basilica, a minute from the Main Market Square; the house is at number 3. It fits easily into a walk around the Old Town.

English on site: the museum publishes no English page for this show and says nothing about English labels or English-language tours; the workshops are described in Polish only.

Events

For the curator tour, book through the Visitor Service Centre (Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających) at Krzysztofory Palace, tel. +48 12 426 50 60, e-mail info@muzeumkrakowa.pl . Tickets for the family workshop on 25 October are sold online only, in the Museum of Krakow’s ticket system . Event titles below are our translations.

• 21 October 2026, 16:00 - curator tour, led by Katarzyna Kucharska (Museum of Krakow), Mariusz Front, Mariusz Sołtysik and Estera Gałuszka; included in the exhibition ticket, booking through the Visitor Service Centre - details
• 25 October 2026, 12:00 - “Snapshots from the Past: Stories of Old Objects” for families with children aged 8-14: daily life in a burgher household, then stop-motion animation using museum objects, led by Katarzyna Kucharska and Estera Gałuszka; 2 hours, 30 PLN per person, 12 places, bring a smartphone, tickets online only - details

Updates

• 2026-10-07 - The museum published ticket prices on the exhibition page and opened workshop sales. The workshops on 11 and 17 October cost 30 PLN, not 15 PLN; the curator tours on 14 and 21 October start at 16:00, not 17:00. The museum no longer runs the adult “Snapshots from the Past” session on 25 October at 9:00; only the family session at 12:00 takes place that day.
• 2026-10-13 - The curator tour on 14 October and the metaverse workshop on 17 October are no longer in the museum’s calendar, and their pages no longer work. The museum has announced no cancellation; for this show the calendar lists only the tour on 21 October and the family workshop on 25 October.

See also

• Krakow Bobbin Lace - A Living Heritage - the Museum of Krakow at Krzysztofory Palace, across the Main Market Square, until 25 October: an old handcraft shown through the lacemakers who still practise it.
• Polish Design: Object Biographies / Designer Biographies - Bunkier Sztuki, until 13 December: designers presented through the private things they live with, the same question about the worth of objects asked from the side of contemporary design.
• Art and Trade. Krakow of Craftsmen - Krzysztofory Palace, until 25 October: the guilds and workshops of old Krakow, where the things that filled burgher homes were made.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Museum of Krakow website .

Museum profile: Hipolit House .