Dissertationsprojekt: People, church, nationality. Socio-cultural activities of Helena and Wiesława Cichowicz until 1939
The time frame of the work is set by the years 1885 and 1939. In 1885 Helena Robińska married Ludwik Cichowicz, an outstanding lawyer, and moved to Poznań. The Second World War led to dispersal and irrevocable loss of much of the Cichowicz folk art collection. The aim of the study is to describe the social activity of Helena and Wiesława Cichowicz in three areas. First, Helena Cichowicz´s activity in the singing society named ”Lutnia” (patriotic character), thanks to which she gained a strong position among Poznań elites. Second - the most extensive - is the activity of Helena and Wiesława Cichowicz in the Folk Society, which was the organization and utilization of their folk art collections. It involves a vast complex of issues related to the sphere of justification for creating collections (aesthetic, scientific, national, and religious), the way of acquiring collections with special regard of cooperation with priesthood, their exposition and social reception. The third area will concern the function of Cichowicz´s salon as a social and cultural institution of Poznań, which should shed light on this unrecognized subject matter. The work will deepen the knowledge about intelligentsia of Poznań at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the cultural and social life of Poznań elites and the social activity of women in this age.