INSTITUTIONAL
PARTNERSHIPS
The Museum of Modern Art – New York, NY
The Foundation’s partnership with The Museum of Modern Art establishes lasting support for public engagement as a meeting ground between artistic practice and public life. The gift will endow a directorship in public engagement bearing Abakanowicz’s name within the Department of Learning and Engagement, providing continuity of leadership and resources for artist collaborations, workshops, and community partnerships. The endowed role will help extend MoMA’s civic initiatives and seminars on sustaining a creative practice to a wider public. This work carries forward Abakanowicz’s understanding of art as a means of awakening perception and imagination. The endowment gives the Museum a durable basis for developing exchanges between artists and diverse publics as their questions and circumstances change.
European Leagues of Institutes of the Arts – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Launched in 2022 by ELIA with the Foundation’s support, the UAx Platform responds to the disruption of arts education and cultural life caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Its sister-school partnerships connect Ukrainian arts institutions with international peers, enabling students to continue studying in Ukraine within a wider artistic and intellectual community. The UAx Abakanowicz Fellowship and Mentorship program combines financial assistance with sustained relationships between students and international mentors, alongside opportunities for exchange among fellows. Abakanowicz’s experience of war, displacement, and imposed cultural doctrines gives this work particular resonance: maintaining an artistic practice preserves the freedom to think, question, and give form to experience. The platform’s 2026–2028 phase builds on these relationships through institutional cooperation, peer learning, and professional development, treating arts education as essential to cultural continuity and recovery.
Chicago History Museum – Chicago, IL
The Abakanowicz Research Center at the Chicago History Museum recognizes Magdalena Abakanowicz’s commitment to truth and diversity in history and her connection to Chicago’s Polish community. The Foundation’s gift supported the preservation of research collections and free public access for students, educators, scholars, and independent researchers. Books, manuscripts, photographs, and architectural drawings are searchable through ARCHIE, the Center’s online catalog. The Museum also participates in the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois. The partnership supported Back Home: Polish Chicago, an exhibition and oral-history initiative developed with institutions in Chicago and Warsaw. Bringing personal testimony into dialogue with historical records, this work examines migration, identity, and belonging through the experiences of people whose lives connect the two cities.
Musée Cantonal des Beaux‑Arts – Lausanne, Switzerland
Magdalena Abakanowicz’s international career took flight at the first International Tapestry Biennial in 1962 at Lausanne’s Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts. Her subsequent participation helped transform the possibilities of textile art, while relationships with collectors and advocates established an enduring connection to the city. In 2019, the Foundation contributed to creating a research library in the Museum’s new building, commemorating this history through support for research and public access. The Library provides exhibition catalogues, artists’ monographs, periodicals, and archives, and houses the library of the Toms Pauli Foundation, whose collections and research preserve the history of modern textile art. A permanent inscription records Abakanowicz’s role in Lausanne’s artistic life, connecting recognition of her achievement with resources through which students, researchers, and the public can investigate art and its histories.