Citizen Cepelia

For four decades of communist Poland, Cepelia decided what “folk” looked like on a shop shelf: a kilim, a plate, a doll, a holiday souvenir. This show at the National Museum’s Main Building, which opened on 9 October 2026, looks at the institution from design through to sales. It has its own ticket and runs until 21 February 2027.

National Museum in Krakow on the exhibition:

The exhibition aligns with the latest research on the material culture of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) and helps explain why Cepelia - an institution of enormous social and cultural influence - continues to provoke mixed emotions even among museum professionals and specialists. It is a story about ideas, ambitions, aesthetics, and tensions that shaped Polish interiors in the second half of the 20th century and left a lasting mark on collective memory.

“Citizen Cepelia” invites reflection on how everyday objects were created in the PRL, the role aesthetics played within the state cultural system, and the ways in which Cepelia’s legacy is returning today in fashion, design practice and collective nostalgia. It is a story of an institution that remains one of the most important symbols of Polish material culture of the 20th century.

What to expect

This is a large show, not a single-room display. Back in January 2026, when the museum presented its plans for the year, Radio Kraków listed it among the four largest exhibitions of the year at the Main Building. The entrance is on the first floor: the curators’ tours and the tour for seniors meet in the hall outside the show.

The scope is broad. The museum shows one-off pieces and short runs by leading designers alongside mass production, including what it calls “Cepelia kitsch”. Next to household goods there are fashion, jewellery, souvenirs, posters and publications. According to the museum, most of the objects have never been shown before: they come from private collections and from the storerooms of various museums.

Among the works the museum features on its exhibition page are the following; Wołkowski’s chairs appear in a museum photograph used in Label Magazine’s preview:

• Cepelia posters by Hubert Hilscher (1965), Waldemar Świerzy (1967) and Joanna Sedlaczek (1986), from the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences - one brand across three decades of graphic design.
• A kilim by Mieczysław Magiera from the Koronka Cooperative in Bobowa (1984), on loan from the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź.
• The “Hutsul” plate by Bronisław Wolanin, painted by Danuta Sternal, from the Artistic Ceramics Cooperative in Bolesławiec (1978), from the Ceramics Museum in Bolesławiec.
• A ceramic doll by Helena and Lech Grześkiewicz from the 1960s, from the private collection of Tomasz Dziewicki - ceramicists the museum names among Cepelia’s most important collaborators.
• Chairs from the “Kwiatowy” (Floral) set by Władysław Wołkowski, from the Sztuka Piotrkowska Cooperative (1957), from the Mazovian Museum in Płock.

Among its images the museum also shows an archive photograph of the interior of Cepelia’s New York shop in the 1960s. Textiles include work by Jolanta Owidzka and Wojciech Sadley.

Context

The name Cepelia comes from the acronym CPLiA, short for Centrala Przemysłu Ludowego i Artystycznego (the Central Office of the Folk and Artistic Industry). It was set up on 21 June 1949 by a resolution of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers, and by the end of 1950 it brought together 208 cooperatives and ran 60 shops. Its first president was the art historian Zofia Szydłowska. The institution was wound up in 1990, although the brand survived in a foundation and a company (Wikipedia).

According to Culture.pl, Cepelia also sold abroad: it had a shop in Brussels and another on Fifth Avenue in New York. The same article stresses that Cepelia’s presence abroad was openly tied to state propaganda.

The curator, Prof. Piotr Korduba, has studied Cepelia for years. He wrote the book “Ludowość na sprzedaż” (Folk for Sale, 2013) and the essay “Totalność Cepelii” (The Totality of Cepelia) in the online design journal FORMY (2024), whose summary opens with the sentence “Cepelia was a total idea and a total enterprise” (our translation).

Tickets and time

The show has its own ticket: 35 PLN regular, 25 PLN reduced, 70 PLN family, at the desk or at bilety.mnk.pl. The branch ticket (45/35 PLN) covers the permanent galleries and, according to those shows’ own pages, also the Van Gogh painting and “The Faces of Czapski”. The price list shows no ticket combining a temporary show with the permanent galleries, so seeing both takes two tickets. Children under 7 go free.

According to the price list, the museum’s free Tuesdays apply only to permanent exhibitions, so you pay for Cepelia on a Tuesday too. That makes Tuesday the cheapest day for a full visit: 35 PLN for the show, and the permanent galleries without a ticket. The branch is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00 (10 AM-6 PM) and closed on Mondays; the museum says the hours apply to temporary shows as well and announces changes on its opening hours page .

Allow an hour and a half for the show alone. Add “The Faces of Czapski” and one permanent gallery and it becomes half a day. A museum guide for the temporary shows costs 190 PLN in Polish and 270 PLN in a foreign language, in both cases plus admission tickets.

The show is above all for people who remember the Cepelia shops, for fans of communist-era Polish design and for collectors of kilims and ceramics. If you are after folk culture itself rather than its shop-window version, the Ethnographic Museum in Kazimierz is the better choice. The museum publishes a full English page for the show under the title “Citizen Cepelia”, the source of the quotation above, but does not say whether the wall labels are bilingual.

Events

• 18 Oct 2026, 11:00 - tour for families with children aged 6-10, with wool, fabrics and ceramics to touch, 15 PLN per participant, adults included, tickets at bilety.mnk.pl, meeting point at the ticket desk - details
• 22 Oct 2026, 11:00-12:30 - tour for visitors aged 60+ with Dr Anna Wiszniewska, 5 PLN, phone booking only (+48 12 43 35 744, extension 2) from 8 October 2026, 9:00 - details
• 15 Nov 2026, 12:00-13:00 - curators’ tour (Prof. Piotr Korduba or Dr Anna Wiszniewska), included in the ticket, booking from 2 November 2026 by email (rezerwacja@mnk.pl ) or on +48 12 43 35 744, extension 2 - details
• 24 Nov 2026, 18:00-19:30 - panel discussion “Obywatelka Cepelia. Splot ludzi, rzeczy i idei” (Citizen Cepelia: A Weave of People, Things and Ideas) with the curators, Ewa Klekot and Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, chaired by Łukasz Gazur; “U Samurajów” room in the Main Building, free, no booking, limited places - details
• 6 Dec 2026, 12:00-13:30 - curators’ tour (Prof. Piotr Korduba or Dr Anna Wiszniewska), included in the ticket, booking from 23 November 2026 by email (rezerwacja@mnk.pl ) or on +48 12 43 35 744, extension 2 - details

What the press says

Radio Kraków (14 Jan 2026, Justyna Nowicka): a report on the museum’s plans for 2026, in which “Citizen Cepelia” appears among the four largest exhibitions of the year at the Main Building - link (Polish-language source).

Polish Radio Two (the programme “Folkowy Poranek Dwójki”, podcast dated 16 Feb 2026): a conversation in which Prof. Piotr Korduba talks about the show; the episode title promises furniture, textiles, ceramics and glass - link (Polish-language source).

Label Magazine (23 Sep 2026, IS): a preview that names the tension between artistic ambition and mass production as one of the show’s most interesting threads - link (Polish-language source).

Forbes (24 Sep 2026, Juliusz Windorbski; republished on 4 Oct 2026 as an opinion piece): an article that ties the show to the revival of communist-era design and rising auction prices, naming Jolanta Owidzka’s kilims among the pieces in demand - link (Polish-language source).

Four pieces, all previews. No review had been found as of 7 October 2026, before the opening.

See also

• Picasso and the Pikasiaks. Modern Ceramics - Polish ceramics of the post-1956 Thaw, from factories and studios of the same era, at the National Museum’s Szołayski House until 7 February 2027.
• Moda Polska (Polish Fashion) in the Collection of the National Museum in Krakow - garments from communist Poland’s state fashion house, from the museum’s collection, the other side of the same era; at Szołayski House until 13 June 2027.
• Polish Design: Object Biographies / Designer Biographies - contemporary Polish design at Bunkier Sztuki until 13 December 2026; a good complement to a show about objects from before 1990.
• Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum - folk culture in the Kazimierz town hall, a good reference point for the patterns Cepelia carried into its shops.

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

Museum profile: National Museum in Krakow - Main Building .