On Tuesday, June 18, President Bronisław Komorowski installed Małgorzata Omilanowska as Poland’s new Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Omilanowska replaces outgoing Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, who has served in the post since November of 2007 but was recently elected to a seat in the European Parliament.

According to the external service of Polish Radio:

Former deputy minister of culture Malgorzata Omilanowska was formally accepted as a replacement for outgoing minister Bogdan Zdrojewski on Tuesday at the Presidential Palace. Zdrojewski won a seat in the European Parliament last month, compelling Prime Minister Donald Tusk to appoint a new minister. Tusk’s choice was accepted by President Bronislaw Komorowski at a ceremony in the Belvedere Palace on Tuesday morning. Omilanowska is a professor of art history, and she was appointed deputy minister of culture by Prime Minister Tusk in 2012. Zdrojewski had served as minister throughout both terms of Prime Minister Tusk’s coalition government, beginning in 2007. The outgoing minister, a member of Tusk’s centre-right Civic Platform party, reflected that in recent years investment in cultural ventures increased a great deal, thanks not only to national and EU funds, but also due to backing from local authorities. “Culture started to be treated seriously in recent years,” he told Polish Radio. He added that a series of important institutions will be opened to the public in coming months, including Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk. (nh)

[Sources: mkidn.gov.pl, thenews.pl]