What Do Health and Mental Wellbeing Mean to You?

From 1 to 29 October 2026, under the arcades of Krzysztofory Palace, psychology students and people who have lived through a mental health crisis answer the exhibition’s title question with photographs. No photograph carries a surname, only the author’s first name.

Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (attributed translation, ours; the museum publishes no English text):

We invite you to our latest exhibition Under the Arcades of Krzysztofory Palace.

We invite you to an exceptional photography exhibition, the outcome of a project carried out with the Photovoice technique - a method which, through photographs and comments, “gives a voice” to people who are often deprived of one, raising the discussion of socially important issues, mental health in particular.

A collaboration that blurs boundaries

The project is the result of the creative work of two groups:

Third-year psychology students at SWPS University (full-time and part-time programmes), as part of the elective course “Psychology in Participatory Photography”, taught by Dr hab. Jakub Lickiewicz, Professor at the Jagiellonian University.

Participants of the “Miodowa Photography Group” run at the Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care - people with experience of a mental health crisis, in classes led by the occupational therapist and photographer Gerard Banach.

The photographs present individual understandings of wellbeing and mental health. All works are deliberately signed with the author’s first name only, which allows the focus to fall on what is shared and similar in how mental wellbeing is perceived.

An exhibition made with the Photovoice method.

What to expect

This is neither a single photographer’s show nor a survey of professional photography. The pictures were taken by two groups with very different experience: third-year psychology students at SWPS University and people who have been through a mental health crisis, from the “Miodowa Photography Group”. The captions will not tell you who is who - and that is the point.

The curator is Gerard Banach, an occupational therapist and photographer who leads the group’s classes at the Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care. The museum gives neither the number of photographs nor any individual works. Nor does it say whether the authors’ comments hang beside the pictures, although in Photovoice the comment matters as much as the image.

Context

Photovoice is a participatory research method, meaning one in which the people being studied help produce the findings. According to Wikipedia, it was developed in 1992 by Caroline C. Wang of the University of Michigan and Mary Ann Burris of the Ford Foundation. It was first used with rural women in China’s Yunnan Province.

Participants photograph whatever they consider important to the theme, then write about what the picture means and why they took it. The photographs then serve as a starting point for group discussion and as evidence put to the people who decide on programmes and policies. The method draws on documentary photography and on the teaching of Paulo Freire.

The setting has its own history too. The arcades belong to the palace’s Baroque rebuilding: according to Wikipedia, Wawrzyniec Senes added, for Adam Kazanowski, the cloister and arcaded gallery that survive to this day.

Tickets and time

The museum gives no admission price for this exhibition. The exhibition page does not say whether the space under the arcades can be visited without a ticket, or whether the permanent-exhibition ticket covers it. Krzysztofory Palace’s prices are on the opening hours and ticket prices page . The permanent exhibition costs 34 PLN (reduced 29 PLN); the Palace Ticket for the permanent and temporary exhibitions costs 45 PLN (reduced 35 PLN). According to that price list, free Tuesday admission applies to the permanent exhibition only. Before buying a ticket just for this show, ask the branch: tel. +48 12 619 23 35, krzysztofory@muzeumkrakowa.pl .

The museum gives no opening hours for the space under the arcades. The exhibition page carries only a box labelled “Wystawa stała” (permanent exhibition): Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00, last entry 17:00, for groups 16:45. The palace is closed on Mondays.

A quarter of an hour to half an hour is enough for the exhibition itself - an estimate, since the museum does not give the number of works. It is best combined with another visit to Krzysztofory. Until 25 October the palace also shows “Art and Trade” (separate ticket) and Krakow bobbin lace (included in the permanent-exhibition ticket). To see all three, come no later than 25 October.

Worth coming if you are interested in psychology, mental health, or photography as a tool for working with people. Do not make a special trip if you want to see a photographer’s own body of work - this is a social project, not a solo show.

See also

• Krzysztofory Palace - the branch profile, with the permanent exhibition “Krakow from the Beginning, without End”, which will take you longer than this show.
• Art and Trade. Krakow of Craftsmen - a large temporary exhibition in the same palace on Krakow’s guilds from the 15th to the 20th century, until 25 October.
• Krakow Bobbin Lace - A Living Heritage - another small exhibition at Krzysztofory, with work by contemporary Krakow lacemakers, until 25 October.

Museum profile: Krzysztofory Palace .