600 archival photographs and 70 fragments of recordings from the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music have been made available on the new POLMIC Digital Archive portal as part of the "Warsaw Autumn Available!" project.
In recent years, Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC has been archiving, digitizing and sharing recordings and photographs related to the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music – the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music and one of the most important events of this type in Europe and around the world. Unique photographs and sound recordings documenting the festival in over 60 years of its existence are a true national heritage, reflecting the history of Polish musical culture in the second half of the 20th century, immortalizing its creators and presenting their most important works. The aim of our activities is to protect archival materials from inevitable degradation and to make them available to the general public.
For the purpose of presenting our digitized collections, POLMIC Digital Archive – the first digital archive devoted to Polish contemporary music was created in 2020. As part of last year's project, we shared online almost 700 records: photographs documenting festival concerts and accompanying events as captured by Andrzej Glanda – a photographer cooperating with "Warsaw Autumn" in the 1980s, as well as fragments of audio recordings from festival concerts in 1962 and 1963. Our digital collections will continue to grow as more materials are digitized.
The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
POLMIC Digital Archive is available at: http://www.archiwumcyfrowe.polmic.pl/