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“It all starts with just a pencil and paper,” – says Jakub Strzelecki, the Commissioner of the 9th All-Polish Self-Portrait Drawings Biennale of Fine Arts School Students – Radom 2023. On 15 March, the “Wena” Gallery of the Starak Family Foundation at ul. Bobrowiecka 8 in Warsaw opened its 1st temporary exhibition of works created by fine arts school students, awarded, and distinguished at the Self-Portrait Drawings Biennale. The gallery was created to highlight the youngest artists.

Five editions of the Starak Family Foundation’s “Wena” Grant Programme Competitions and their lasting effect, in both the broad and narrow sense, culminated in the December 2023 opening of the “Wena” Gallery, the exhibition space of the Starak Family Foundation at ul. Bobrowiecka 8 in Warsaw.

In the calendar of the "Horyzonty" Scholarship Programme, the end of August sees an integration meeting of male and female scholarship holders qualified to participate in the Programme. So far, this event has taken place in the Tri-City. This year, for the first time, it took place in the capital, where the two Foundations implementing the "Horyzonty" Scholarship Programme: The Roman Czernecki Educational Foundation and the Starak Family Foundation have their headquarters and carry out their activities.

On Saturday, 25 June 2022, the Finale of the 1st edition of the "Imagine" Competition for the best film treatment and the presentation of the Piotr Woźniak-Starak Award granted by the Polish Guild of Producers for the Best Producer 2021 took place. 

A school presentation of a series of dioramas made using spatial models, showing the world outside the window, ended on 23 June with a project awarded in the 3rd edition of the Starak Family Foundation's "Wena" Grant Programme entitled „Świat z mojego okna” or "The world from my window". "The world from my window" - a project of the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Poznań entitled „Poza ramy dioramy" or "Outside the frame of a diorama”.

The first edition of the Imagine Competition has been completed. The organisers received 726 entries. 436 treatments, submitted by 440 authors, qualified for the second stage. The Competition Jury, consisting of: Ewa Puszczyńska (Chairwoman of the Chapter), Tomasz Kot, Edward Miszczak, Allan Starski, Grażyna Torbicka, evaluated the best works and selected 12 finalists.

The premiere of the final multimedia show, prepared by third-year students of the Wojciech Gerson State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, took place on 21 June at the headquarters of our Foundation. The event crowned the Starak Family Foundation's "Wena" Grant Programme, awarded in the third edition of the competition, entitled „Świat z mojego okna” or "The world from my window" - a project entitled „Pokój. Światło. Sieć” or  "Peace. Light. Network”.

Places are made by people. Silesia is dotted with blocks of flats inhabited by thousands of people who rarely know each other. The idea for an educational and artistic project by students of the Józef Pankiewicz State Secondary School of Visual Arts in Katowice entitled „Jeden widok, inne spojrzenia” or "One view, different points of views" was born and awarded in the 3rd edition of the Starak Family Foundation's "Wena" Grant Programme Competition entitled „Świat z mojego okna” or "The world from my window". "The world from my window" was set actually and mentally in the Silesian agglomeration. The young artists tried to bring the audience closer to the stories of Silesians living in one block of flats in a Katowice housing estate.

If you are going to tackle the subject of urban revitalisation, you should go to Kalisz. There, the students together with their teacher in charge - Ewa Ratajczyk - as assessed by the Mayor of the city - Krystian Kinastowski - carried out a model renovation of a Kalisz courtyard.

Being in contact with ambitious cinema is an important factor shaping the personalities and worldviews of both filmmakers and viewers - young people and formed consumers of film art. Film education and its various forms: festivals or workshops disseminate knowledge about film, make the reception of the condition of film art in a given place or time, shape the skills of critical reception of the art of film and learn to discuss the problems it raises and the emotions it evokes in contemporary cinema.