Krakow’s Glass Workshop and Museum is a gem of Polish Art Nouveau and also the oldest functioning stained glass studio in Poland. The workshop, located at Krasińskiego 23, still inhabits the original building designed especially for this purpose in 1902.
On February 16th our learners from years 5-7 visited the museum to discover how stained glass is designed and made. We even had a chance to apply glass patina ourselves! The museum staff showed us a video of the glass blowing and forming processes. We also tried to sketch Matisse-like paper stained glass designs.
After visiting the museum we went to St Francis’s Church where Stanisław Wyspiański created great stained glass windows and polychromies. On the way back to school we had a look at some magnificent stained glass windows hidden in private buildings’ staircases of Krakow’s town centre.
We enjoyed the trip very much and are going to make our own stained glass window designs out of paper soon. This is in coordination with a unit study on world religions in class.
Photos can be found in the gallery.
