(No) Connection. the Social Responsibility of Museums in an Era of Growing Social Inequality.

The emergence of new external factors such as Covid19 and escalation of war in Ukraine led to social polarization and deepening social inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe. In result, cultural institutions (museums) - the products of human civilization and symbolic power, have not only begun to deepen the discourse on their social responsibility. At the same time going beyond concepts of participatory or relational museum they expanded the scope of their social practices to new dimension of their impact on language and interactions in public space between dominant environments and minority groups.

My presentation leads to discussing what effect has had this overcoming by museums in Poland of lack of lasting and continuous relations with their own social environment with people with migrant experience? Has the attempt by such institutions to undermine certain stereotypes that make it difficult for them to effectively resonate with the deepening inequalities between Polish public and people speaking other languages actually translated into an increased role of this type of institution in process of including disadvantaged groups in the circulation of interactions generated by symbolic power in museums? And if so, what methods were used to achieve this?

The basis for showing intricacies of such relations taking place in public space between institutions often perceived primarily as tools for strengthening impact of symbolic power on the general public and groups representing marginalized groups will be results of my research from 2023, devoted to migration crises. Based on this material I will first show variety of forms of assistance from various museums in Poland to over two million refugees from Ukraine and then I will present what interactions took place between these institutions and new groups of recipients as a result and how this translated into changes in the area of communication with potential audience