The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission to the United States. One of 22 such institutes around the world, it serves under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
The Institute is dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United States and Poland, both through American exposure to Poland's cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American institutions, professional counterparts, and to currents in American culture.
The Institute initiates, organizes, promotes, and produces a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has produced three works in the U.S. with the distinguished theatre company, TR Warszawa, including the Obie Award-winning Krum at BAM's 2007 Next Wave Festival, Macbeth at St. Ann's Warehouse in 2008, and Kalkwerk at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2009. The Institute has collaborated with such institutions as The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center; La MaMa E.T.C.; The Film Society of Lincoln Center; The Museum of Modern Art; The Jewish Museum; The PEN World Voices Festival; The Poetry Society of America; Yale University; and many more. PCI co-produced the off-Broadway run of Irena's Vow, with Tovah Feldshuh, which ran on Broadway in 2009.
Monika Fabijanska (b. Warsaw, Poland, 1971) has been Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York since October 1, 2005. She was PCI’s Deputy Director from its founding in October 2000. Apart from her duties as Director, Ms. Fabijanska is in charge of visual arts, literature, historical, and Polish-Jewish relations programming at the Institute.
She graduated from History of Art Department of the University of Warsaw in 1998. During her studies she worked for Polish TV and the film industry in Poland, was chief editor at Film-Radio-TV Professional, a magazine devoted to film technology, and also worked as a free-lance journalist. She entered the Department of Cultural and Science Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in 1999. In 2000, she served for a short period of time as acting director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London, U.K.
Agata Grenda – Deputy Director Theatre and Dance Programming
Agata Grenda (b. Kalisz, Poland, 1976) has been Deputy Director of the Polish Cultural Institute since March 2006. Apart from her duties as Deputy Director, Ms. Grenda is in charge of theatre and dance programming at the Institute.
She graduated in Polish philology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, in 2000, and in 2001 completed her postgraduate studies there in Psychology in Marketing and Administration, in the Social Sciences Department. In the year 2005-2006 she taught the course “Organizing Cultural Events” in the postgraduate program on cultural management at The Poznan School of Social Sciences. In the years 2004–2006 she was international relations manager at the Teatr Nowy – the biggest repertoire theater in Poznan. In the years 2003-2004 she was public relations manager at the Foundation Vox-Artis – Promotion of Polish Contemporary Art in Poznan.
Anna Perzanowska (b. Warsaw, Poland, 1979) has been Music Programmer at the Polish Cultural Institute in New York since January 1, 2007.
Anna Perzanowska is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in ethnomusicology at the City University of New York at Hunter College. Music has been her passion since her very early years; she began her music education at the age of five at the Fryderyk Chopin Elementary Music School in Warsaw. After immigrating to New York at the age of 14, she continued her studies at the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts. Upon attending music classes at Hunter College, Anna graduated from Baruch College with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing in 2003. In order to combine her interests, Anna worked with numerous New York institutions and musicians in preparation of concerts and various cultural events.
Natalia Babinski has been Film and Television Programmer at the Polish Cultural Institute since November 2009.
She has degrees in Film Studies, from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, and Film and TV Directing, from the University of Silesia in Katowice, and is currently completing a Screenwriting Certificate at the New School in New York City. Her films include shorts, documentaries, and music videos, many of which have screened internationally at festivals such as Oberhausen, Starz Denver, and the Angelus Film Festival. In 2005, she was a Ministry of Culture in Poland grant recipient for script development, and in 2002/2003 was a member of Film/Video Arts in New York City. Since 2006 she has worked in TV post-production and has edited over 60 episodes of various TV shows, including, most recently, Model City (BET Networks).
David Goldfarb – Literature Programming David A. Goldfarb has been Literature Curator at the Institute since June 2010.
He holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has published articles on Bruno Schulz, Zbigniew Herbert, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Mikhail Lermontov, and East European cinema in East European Politics and Societies, Indiana Slavic Studies, Philosophy and Literature, Prooftexts, The Polish Review, Slavic and East European Performance, and book chapters on Jozef Wittlin, Witold Gombrowicz, and Nikolai Gogol. He has written the introduction and notes for Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and Other Stories and Turgenev's Fathers and Sons for the Barnes and Noble Classics series, and for the Penguin Classics edition of the The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz. He is working on two book projects, one on the Marquis de Sade, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the genre of the pornosophic novel, and one on Bruno Schulz.
Natalia Tulinski (b. Lublin, Poland, 1981) has been Assistant to the Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York since February, 2008.
She moved to the United States in 2003 and spent four years in Chicago, before coming to New York in 2007. She has studied Sociology at Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and Real Estate at Oakton College in Chicago; she worked for three years as an Office Manager in a doctor’s office, and is currently completing a degree in Accounting at Baruch College in New York.
Dominika Ewa Zakrzewska (b. Gdansk, Poland, 1982) has been Marketing, Graphic Design, and Website Manager at the Polish Cultural Institute since September 2009.
Zakrzewska moved to the United States in 1999 and spent three years in Florida, where she graduated from the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts. She received her BA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design, in New York City. Before joining the Polish Cultural Institute’s team she worked for Apple Computers as a sales representative and the graphic designer.
Piotr Rogulski (b. Warsaw, Poland, 1974) has been Chief Administrative Officer of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York since January 20, 2007.
Piotr Rogulski earned a Master of Science degree in Management and Information Systems at Warsaw University of Technology in May of 1999. He finished his MBA studies at ESSEC (France) and SGGW in Warsaw in June of 2000. In 2006, after 6 years of working for Alcatel-Lucent, he decided to leave Warsaw and take on a new role as Chief Administrative Officer at the Polish Cultural Institute in New York City.
