The family who founded it gave a house and a studio to Polish painter Joseph Brandt, who set up the Oronsko Independent Academy in 1877. Here 200 artists from around the world annually come to study, create and execute works of art in sculptural form. Artists get housing, a studio, and specialists to help them make sculpture and realize artistic projects whose only limits are space and properties of certain chosen materials. Sixty technicians are at the artists' beck and call to work in plastic, stone, wood, bronze, ceramics or paper. Many of the works are left in the sculpture park as a permanent exhibit.
Some artists have a live-in studio, but have dialogue with their peers at meals and symposia.
There is also a hotel for artists on the premises for those who prefer. There is also a Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, two smaller galleries called The Chapel and The Orangery, broad meadows and ponds, and so much more. The exhibition we saw was one called Models of the World, a demonstration of the links between science and art, by two Polish artists and one from Finland. This was a poetic and beautifully installed exhibition that remains an amazingly resonant visual experience. Topolowa 1, 26-681 Oronsko, Poland.